COBI Opel Manta A 1970 - Executive Edition Set 24338

COBI's Opel Manta A Executive Edition is a 1:12 model built from 2,125 blocks, 37 cm long, produced under Opel licence. The steering wheel turns the front wheels, the doors open on hinges, the bonnet tilts to show a brick-built engine, and the interior is modelled down to handles, lights and instruments. A black display stand and a laser-engraved plate are included. All markings are printed; no stickers.

Americans bought it from Buick dealers

The Manta was sold in the United States, which surprises people who know it only as a German car.

General Motors owned Opel, and through the 1970s it imported Opels into America and sold them through Buick showrooms — badged simply as Opel, sitting alongside cars several times their size. The Manta and the Opel 1900 were GM's answer to the small imported coupés that were taking American buyers away, and for a few years Opel was one of the better-selling European brands in the country.

It ended in 1975, when the dollar weakened against the Deutsche Mark and importing a German-built car stopped making financial sense. Buick then applied the Opel name to a rebadged Isuzu, which is a different story.

The car

Launched in 1970 as Opel's answer to the American pony cars, with a clean aerodynamic body, room for five and a 1.9-litre engine producing 90 hp and 170 km/h. Nearly half a million were sold in five years, and in Germany the car generated a whole genre of jokes about its drivers — a cultural afterlife few cars achieve.

In the COBI range

Set 24339 is the same car in the standard edition without the display stand, and 24349 the Manta A GT/E of 1974.

Specifications

Pieces: 2,125 · Scale: 1:12 · Licensed by Opel · Display stand and laser-engraved plate · No stickers
Model dimensions: 37 × 14.5 × 12 cm (14.6 × 5.7 × 4.7 in)