A fink and his money…
… are soon parted. While sifting through the surf and skate detritus at 4Q Conditioning the other day, I became obsessed with an old model of Rat Fink on a skateboard called Superfink. All of the sudden I needed one right away, despite the fact that I was completely not into monsters and hotrod stuff as a kid and preferred WWII airplane models. The original Superfink model came out in 1964, but was reissued by Revell in 2004. Ed Roth’s official site is out of stock, but I found one soon enough for $13 bucks. The vintage ones don’t appear to be showing up for sale anywhere, so I pulled the trigger and it showed up on my door step a few days later. As usual, I dissected and over-documented almost all the fun out of it. As a result, I’ve taken to adding the word “fink” to words whenever I can. “Fink” is such a cool word. Repeat it over and over in your head. If you don’t like it, then fink you!
Superfink model reissue -The Sidewalk Surfer
Box profile.
Top panel
This detail is probably my favorite part of the whole box.
Short side panel
Side panel (long side)
Side panel 2 (long side)
Instructions
Finkbag. Creepy!
The original Superfink model kit from 1964, taken from 4Q Conditioning.
Chuck Kaparich has pictures of all the original kits assembled and painted like the boxes.
Original 1964 Revell Ed Roth Superfink model finished by Chuck Kaparich
Compare-a-Fink™
Looks like they reworked the artwork slightly, aside from just adding different copy. For instance, the box dimensions are different and the “Superfink” title lettering has been redone. It’s hard to see unless you overlay one of them as a semitransparent layer, but they don’t match up.
That motor needs a supercharger!
Yeah, it looks like one of those old COX airplane motors for those string controlled circle flyers.
You can get 4-stroke glow engines too:
Engines
So what does YOUR finished model look like?
It still looks like the Finkbag right now.
Look at how they spelled it “plainfink” instead of “planefink” on the original box. Odd. Cool model and packaging. Like something from a mid-60’s time capsulefink.
To fink that they made a typo on the first one. They must have funk (past tense of fink) it was a good idea to fix it.
fink is a rad word i liked my last name so much i used it as my t-shirt printing shop finkinkprinting would love to take to you we got alot of FINKNES going on over here in bend secret concret bowls new skate park we are try to do under the overpass shnar skateboards under are roof from the mind of one of are printers and so much more give me a shout at the print shop 541 312 2038 born a fink and born to skate