Jo-Han Plymouth Fury Police Pursuit Car- Review

Jo-Han (later on spelled as one word) was one of the plastic scale model kit industry pioneers, founded in 1947 by Detroit-based tool and die maker John Hanley. The company's name was a contraction of it's founder's... JOnh HANley. The last all-new JoHan kit was the 1977 Cadillac Coupe Deville kit. After that, things begin to get spotty. Hanley eventually lost control of the company, and Johan was bought out by Romeo, Michigan-based Seville Enterprises in 1991. Seville was a supplier of molded plastic parts to the automotive industry, and they tried to use their resources to turn Johan's fortunes around. They reissued several kits and promos (the latter sold under the X-El Products brand, a moniker JoHan had begun to use for it's promos earlier in the '80's). There were plans for JoHan to produce a 1:25 promo of the new 1992 Cadillac Seville, but that project eventually fell through. Stories of missing (perhaps stolen) tooling die inserts, plummeting quality, and other iffy curcumstances led to sporadic releases as the '90's wore on. Jo-Han was eventually sold to Kentucky resident Okey Spaulding in 2000. Mr. Spaulding created a new business called JoHan Models LLC, though again, only a few kits were reissued. For the last ten years, there have been reports of a few remaining JoHan kits being reissued, most recently by the newly-formed Illinois Model Company, but as of this time, nothing has come of these announcements. Bottom line... if a Jo-Han (or JoHan) kit comes up for sale, and you want it, it's best to pounce.

Anyway... onto this kit in particular. The model kit shown depicts a 1968 Plymouth Fury four-door sedan, with a full complement of period-correct police equipment and markings.

For many years, Jo-Han's decals fell below the norm, as far as printing quality. This kit is no exception, though the graphics on this sheet are a bit more sharply rendered than many other Jo-Han sheets. Markings are included for Detroit, Los Angeles, NYC, Chicago, or a generic "County Sheriff" car. Of course, if you wish, you can leave off the graphics and police equipment and build it as a regular civilian Fury. Or an undercover car. Or a taxi... really, any version your heart desires!

Jo-Han kits typically suffered from a noticably shallow interior tub. That trait is not as bad on this kit, though the interior tub itself is for a two-door body style. Overall parts breakdown and level of engraved detail is about on par with a typical AMT kit of the period. Notice the amount of flash present on many parts- this was typical for later-year Jo-Han offerings. Mold seams are also quite prononuced, though this kit had no warped or short shot parts.

The chrome tree carries the expected front/rear bumper castings and hubcaps, along with the separate taillamp bezels and the majority of the police equipment. The kit also features separate, clear headlight lenses- something you'd normally not find on AMT, MPC, or Revell "annual" type kits.

Here you can see the headlight lenses, along with the front/rear glass unit. Interestingly, the side windows are supplied as separate parts. The blue flasher domes are molded in color, but the red sprues are clear and painted in transparent red- you can see the splotchy quality, and where most of the red has worn off the flasher dome on the sprue at left. Yes- because of the way the red sprues are laid out, you get a spare pair of taillamp lenses.

The tires are solid vinyl units, with no sidewall lettering... for those of you who think that's a new thing! They attach by way of the thick plastic rod-type axles also shown.

So... this kit is pretty much average by the standards of the time. Good, and certainly workable, but nothing particularly great. Jo-Han could really make some great kits (you'll see that when I get around to putting up some pictures of their legendary Chrysler Turbine or Cadillac V16 kit), but overall, they were about the same quality as your typical, more familiar AMT annual from the period. That is- they got most of the basic details right, but they were more than a little crude in areas, especially by today's standards. But Jo-Han was never afraid to try subject matter that the other kit manufacturers wouldn't touch... that's probably one of the reasons long-gone Jo-Han kits change hands for so much money. Well, besides the more obvious fact that it's been 30 years or more since all but a handful of Jo-Han kits were last available!

This kit wasn't one of the ones reissued by Mr. Spaulding between 2003 and 2005, so who knows if the tooling still exists. Even if it does, there's no guarantee it'll ever be reissued... by Mr. Spaulding, IMC, or some yet-unknown party. But if a '68 Fury is your thing, and you see one online or at the next swap meet, snap it up. Opportunities like this don't come by every day.