You are incredibly lucky to have not only an early Firebird,but something as rare as a Thunderbird prototype.I bet the guys at Vintage Guitar Magazine would jump at the chance to do a feature on such a scarce and iconic pair of beauties.Prototypes of just about any guitar are quite rare and always are worth quite a premium over the regular production run guitars-especially such relatively rare birds as the Thunderbird.

I had totally forgotten that Ray Dietrich had designed the Firebirds and Thunderbirds,in fact my dream guitar is the '63 Firebird VII like Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music has played for over 40 years.I have a Custom Shop Epiphone Firebird V that I have replaced the standard Probuckers with Craig Vineham Mini-Humbuckers wound to the exact specifications as the earliest Gibson Firebirds.Although I don't have a Phil Manzanera Firebird clone,at least I have a near clone of a guitar belonging to another guitar hero of mine, Johnny Winter....now if only I could play the guitar with the incendiary passion he released when he played.

Keep on pickin' and grinnin'.

BTW: I have the same color combination in a 1/32 model of a 1955 Packard Caribbean convertible like you have pictured,from Signature Models.The detail is pretty good and it even has steerable wheels.

Thanks very much for the info,I'll certainly check out these sources.It never occurred to me to check e-bay even though it should have been obvious from the start.

Hello Folks,I am new to this forum but have been an enormous fan of the Packard marque for many years. Because I don't have the funds necessary to buy a full size Packard(I have invested many dollars in my other obsession-vintage guitars,much to the chagrin of my missus),I have had to content myself with buying books and die-cast models of classic Packards to gaze at longingly.I have found that there hasn't been a large selection of Packard die-casts from most of the sources I have been ordering from and I was wondering if someone could please let me know where I might find larger selections of Packard models that don't approach the prices of the full size models.Some day I just may break down and sell off most of my collection of vintage guitars,amps and related musical gear and buy a nice old Packard,but until then all my Packards will be parked om my music room walls.Thanks very much.Cheers.