DEVELOPING THE AXIAL SCX10 III EARLY FORD BRONCO

We got the inside scoop about the Early Bronco from Randall Davis, Product Developer at Horizon Hobby. He was involved with all aspects of this Bronco’s development so he knows a thing or two about it. Davis tells us what the first steps were to get the ultra-detailed project off the ground, “If we were going to pull it off, we had to capture many of the key features of the iconic 1:1 original Bronco if we were going to capture the eyes and hearts of the consumer. I studied the body design to find all the little things, the lines in the body, the patterns on the grille, the headlight and tail light placement, the shape of the fenders wells, the location of the windshield wipers, and so on. There is a lot of research and studying that takes place before we begin to design the body so we can capture as much detail as we can. We even went as far as making a replica 5.0 Coyote motor because there was no way we were going to put an LS under the hood.

“Once we have a good idea of the original details, we start looking at ways to take it a step further, we added opening doors, we even decided that the Bronco should have a manual shift transmission and added a clutch pedal along with the brake and ‘barefoot’ gas pedal.

“We made sure to include the windshield wipers and the motor bod behind the windshield. We designed custom front and rear bumpers that match the bodylines at the front and rear of the body, even included removable license plates. The front bumper even has a winch fairlead opening.

“We replaced the portal axles with standard axles, after all, have you ever seen a Bronco on portals before? We also decided that we needed a set of wheels that were era specific so we created an Axial beadlock version of the slotted mag wheel with knock-offs found on the legendary Big Oly.

“The other feature that we wanted to capture was a race version (White) and a stock retro version (Turquoise Blue) of the kit. We actually had plans to make the retro version come with doors and a tailgate but couldn’t pull it off. We were also stoked to have Falken Tire and Icon Vehicle Dynamics jump on-board for this project. We put a lot of thought into making the vehicle versatile for the consumer to add their own specific touch to it by creating a completely removable spare tire and carrier, auxiliary light mounts, and plenty of open space behind the seats.

“The Bronco came out a little heavier on top than I planned but it turns out that it really wheels close to the real deal. Sure, the consumer will fine-tune it to their driving style but that is what we really enjoy seeing. I don’t want to make the “perfect” vehicle, and then there is nothing left for the consumer to personalize. I want to make a strong, reliable, and capable vehicle, and then watch how the consumers build and change it.

“In the end, I really like the way the Bronco turned out and I look forward to raising the bar again on scale details in future projects. I feel we hit a homerun with this truck and I think the consumers do too.”