12-05-2009, 12:02 PM
The first year of the Maxi-Brute was 1978. This was the fall release,and it was the earliest version ever made. There were no scribe lines on it,but it was only cast for the fuselage. The rest of the parts were made from scratch,as this was only intended to be a rocket version of the X-wing fighter,and not an uber-perfect 100% accurate model for display.
This is why so many people dispute the origin of this model,as the greeblies were cast,and added to the fuselage after the original ILM buck cast was taken to the factory to be massproduced. This was in the late summer of 1977 (August,or September). This was announced in RC modeler magazine in a small advert. This was done to appeal to the RC modeling geeks,as this was a huge business at that time. Anything that flew was big money.
It would six months later before the actual summer release date was set. I know,because I was one of the first people on the waiting list to get one of these when they came out in the stores. This took almost a year in the planning stages before being approved by the Estes corporation,but only after clearing all the legal procedures of Lucasfilm. The first official release was at the end of July 1978. This is the date stamp that many of the first boxes,and instruction manuals had on them.
There were later releases,but the fuselages had been altered,and other changes to make the model lighter for flight purposes. There were other alterations,and additions to subsequent models,but these were never as accurate,or as desireable as the first releases with the enclosed canopy. The size of the laser canons,and the nosecone design,and the Phantom engines on the later models were slightly smaller to accomodate even weight distribution.
This is why so many people dispute the origin of this model,as the greeblies were cast,and added to the fuselage after the original ILM buck cast was taken to the factory to be massproduced. This was in the late summer of 1977 (August,or September). This was announced in RC modeler magazine in a small advert. This was done to appeal to the RC modeling geeks,as this was a huge business at that time. Anything that flew was big money.
It would six months later before the actual summer release date was set. I know,because I was one of the first people on the waiting list to get one of these when they came out in the stores. This took almost a year in the planning stages before being approved by the Estes corporation,but only after clearing all the legal procedures of Lucasfilm. The first official release was at the end of July 1978. This is the date stamp that many of the first boxes,and instruction manuals had on them.
There were later releases,but the fuselages had been altered,and other changes to make the model lighter for flight purposes. There were other alterations,and additions to subsequent models,but these were never as accurate,or as desireable as the first releases with the enclosed canopy. The size of the laser canons,and the nosecone design,and the Phantom engines on the later models were slightly smaller to accomodate even weight distribution.