I couldn’t resist it. While patrolling this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, diligently photographing everything that I thought I might be able to write something about, I noticed a ziggurat of diecasts in the scant shelter of Bill Shepherd Mustang’s merchandise awning. Then the part of me that controls my spending muscles and is always in the lookout for low, low prices clocked a “reduced to clear” Tag.
So I now possess a 1:18th scale Fox-body Mustang SVO. And here it is.

I always liked the Fox body. I used to see them on the streets around here quite often, presumably brought over from the USA by the servicemen of Lakenheath, Mildenhall or Woodbridge, just thirty miles from here. Growing up I always thought that this generation of Mustang was the closest to the kind of Fords that you could buy over here. Stylistically they’re at least in the same ballpark as the Escorts, Sierras and Granadas that were ten a penny everywhere you look.
By comparison, earlier Mustangs seemed totally divorced from anything the UK was familiar with, both in size and shape. In a strange way, I felt like I could relate to the Fox, whereas other Mustangs seemed alien and difficult to place.
Then, in 1989 Vanilla Ice was rolling in his 5.o with his ragtop down so his hair can blow. The Fox Mustang was in the limelight again, re-establishing itself in my mind. Yet it has taken until I am 34 years of age to see it represented in my model collection.

It’s quite an old model, this, and the packaging shows signs of sun-bleaching. Welly is the marque, and this is the first product of that firm to enter my haul. It’s not the most sophisticated model, but it displays well.

The paint is perhaps a little thickly applied and some of the detail isn’t as crisp as it could be. Fit between the window glazing and the pillars isn’t exemplary, either, but at least it has window glazing. The interior is a bit plasticky- no carpet here- as is the trunk which opens correctly. The biplane rear spoiler is well realised, though.

Sticking with positives, the headlamps are nicely modelled and the body features which set the SVO aside from other mustangs are well observed. Better still, the four-cylinder, turbocharged engine is quite well realised.

This seems to be quite a scarce model in the UK, so I was all too keen to take it off Bill’s hands. Only problem is, now I have this and the Mustang II, I may as well collect the set.
Don’t tell anybody.
(All images copyright Chris Haining /Hooniverse 2015)