Jonny Quest – often casually referred to as The Adventures of Jonny Quest – is the original American science fiction/adventure animated television series that started the franchise. It was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions for Screen Gems, and created and designed by comic-book artist Doug Wildey. Inspired by radio serials and comics in the action-adventure genre, including Doc Savage and John Carter of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, it featured more realistic art, characters, and stories than Hanna-Barbera’s previous cartoon programs. It was the first of several Hanna-Barbera action-based adventure shows, which would later include Space Ghost, The Herculoids, and Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, and ran on ABC in prime time on early Friday nights for one season from 1964 to 1965.
There are times when I get on my desk a model so richly engineered that my jaw drops like that from Wil E. Coyote even though physics don’t agree with him or me for that matter. Among other things I’ve got on top of my desk last week, I found this model kit of The Dragonfly from the original Jonny Quest show from Hanna-Barbera kindly sent by the folks over at Moebius Models. But it wasn’t a richly detailed model that left me in awe but the subject itself. In fact, the Dragonfly model kit from Moebius is comprised of just 13 parts and a single decal to be used on the provided clear base.
The Quest Labs Supersonic Suborbital Aircraft known as The Dragonfly is cleanly molded in white with a clear sprue for the base and the aircraft windshield. Unlike many cartoons from the era, the Jonny Quest AKA The Adventures of Jonny Quest didn’t run in the Saturday morning cartoons block that we fondly remember so much but on Fridays at 7:00. The Dragonfly absolutely took me by surprise when arrived and its is available for preorder in many hobby shops and online retailers as of this entry.
The MSRP is $34.99 which is fair considering the licensing involved. If you fondly recall your childhood as much as I do The Dragonfly is for you either to be built or simply as a collectible. The Dragonfly is not an airplane like model kit. This is actually a character in its own right from this awesome show.
Now, I wish JoAnn & Frank Winspur and Dave Metzner would surprise us Sci-Fi and cartoon fans with The Planet Express from Futurama 😉
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I have recently purchased the Jonny Quest Dragonfly kit and I have a question on how you removed the main body seams. My concern is if I sand the seam out, I will lose some of the texture of the body. How did you handle the seam?
My first thought since the parts go together well, is to press the body until you can’t see the seam and apply plastic weld to the seam and follow by a trip with a hard edge.
Interested in your thoughts
Thanks
Hello Mike, thanks for visiting and dropping of your question.
I haven’t had the chance to tackle this particular kit yet but I understand what you mean. Why I have plan to do is wet sand that seam with #400 wet/dry sand paper. I cut them in strips and sand and a shoe polishing fashion. I will try a thick coat of primer so I can balance the texture feel on the fuselage. This is what I intend to do with my copy and I believe it will work.
I would love to her from you when you finish it. If is not much to ask, a few pictures of your model will be awesome.
Thanks for the reply. I will probably not start until the end of February as our club’s annual show is this month. I will defiantly take pictures and keep you posted on the progress.
Thanks again,
Mike