Working with my hands - Racer X Shooting Star (and a funny story)

Story time with uncle Phlip... Gather round, kiddies.

One Sunday last May, I went to Toys R Us after church and liberated 24.97 moneys plus sales tax for this:



Disappointment ensued, as they did not have the Shooting Star to match it at the time of purchase. I would come home and the ONLY place that had it for purchase at the time was Amazon, but this was right at the time I went into my situation with the dept of revenue, along with the brakes on my car shitting the bed and a couple other things, all at once, so I forgot about the mission.
Some of you may actually read my MySpace blogs, but I half-jokingly expressed interest in the Ertl shooting star on Amazon in one of my random thoughts blogs back in October, a couple weeks after meeting my now-girlfriend that I wanted it.
Christmas comes and she'd bought it for me, see it here:



Fast forward to a point I made last week, where when I was looking for something in my closet, I found...


... of the Ertl "American Muscle Body Shop" series (from 2003 I would later find trying to investigate how fucking long I'd HAD the damn thing). Apparently I had bought it in 2004, found it to be more than I was willing to involve myself in at the time and put away. Then we moved at the end of 06, so it was packed away and I fucking forgot about it.

Now, as I am better with these things than I was when I initially bought it, I decided that I would go right ahead with the assembly of it this time around...
After a couple of pieces were placed together, I realized that it is the EXACT FUCKING SAME as the other one. Literally identical, same markings, features and points of articulation. Hell, even the fact that the paint is a little lighter in color than the seats that it is supposed to match is identical...

Yes, ladies and gentlefolk, I am a dipshit sometimes...

Anyway, I completed the assembly of it, so let us discuss that, no?

The instructions start with the assembly of the engine, and all its accessories installed:



Interior consisted of not much more than assembling seats, cementing the pedals and shifter where they belong:



Holy shit! This thing even has the "grabber" extension:



Rear subframe was simple as snapping the wheels/tires onto the brake asembly and sliding those into the axle:



Front suspension/brakes/wheel assemblies on...:


... and we have a rolling chassis now:



Now let's put that engine in it:



Now the interior goes into the frame, as does that periscope just next to the driver's seat and the steering shit:



Now alls there is to do is to flip it over, stick in 7 screws and we're finito:



On the whole, the assembly of this one was the largest pain in my ass of all of the ones I have assembled to date, what with the number of small parts, or those that had to be made to fit properly in close quarters (think the steering shit). I don't know who or how they're assembled in the factories, but I have a real respect for the people who do if it is by human hands...





Similarities?:





And then the twins together to show what a fucking idiot I am:


I am done beating myself up over having allowed myself the forum to build a model car I already owned, or to have someone purchase one for me that I already had but simply needed assembly. I just thought it was kinda funny, I guess.

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