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Fancy your own Judge Dredd vehicle? (One careful owner…)

By John Freeman on August 17, 2019

We know that pretty much anything can turn up for sale on eBay, but how about this genuine Judge Dredd 101 Forward Control, one of the City Cabs from the eponymous, much maligned 1995 film?

One of the Judge Dredd Movie City Cabs, designed by Land Rover for the 1995 film

Priced at £34,995, it’s one of only what the seller says were 32 built, described as “V8 Petrol, starts, runs and drives, but not Road Registered or Road Legal” – but has notched up 14,000 miles, presumably on the streets of Mega City One.

Based on a Land Rover 101 FC, the vehicle was bought from Land Rover in 1995, with one owner since, and full details appear here on eBay, and nestles quietly among Land Rover cars and other vehicles on the car dealer’s main web site. UK Delivery available!

Directed by Danny Cannon, with Sylvester Stallone in the lead role, Land Rover designed vehicles for the Judge Dredd film, including this – and for many, the design work on the film is regarded as pretty top notch, even if the producers didn’t go with Gianni Versace‘s costume designs.

The City Cab was designed by David Woodhouse, then Senior Designer at Land Rover, a talented automotive designer would later build a notable career at Ford, including as the Lincoln’s Design Director.

The front end was inspired by baseball, skiing and hockey masks, featuring a very narrow windscreen that made the vehicle look even larger than it is, a sculpted roof, and the signature asymmetrical headlights with three circular elements on the right-hand side.

Based on his design, up to 20 people from Rover worked with him to finalise the project in less than three months under the guidance of Head of Design, Gorden Sked. One prototype and 31 “production” examples were built – by two companies – Futura and Wood & Picket, most converted back to standard Land Rovers once filming was complete.

Just two of the City Cabs were registered so that they could be driven on UK roads and make it to the premiere of the film.

This Judge Dredd item is being sold by Hayfield, High Peak- based Hallam Brothers, who are online at www.hallambros.co.uk – but another City Cab, this one with licence plate was previously sold by the Huddersfield-based Land Rover centre, for just under £30,000.

Judge Dredd opened in the US to poor reviews on 30th June, 1995, against Ron Howard’s box office topping Apollo 13, also competing with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, which made more than Judge Dredd did in their shared opening weekend. Judge Dredd creator John Wagner praised the film’s big budge look, but told the Los Angeles Times in 2012 that “they told the wrong story,” adding “it didn’t have that much to do with Dredd the character as we know him.”

“I don’t think Stallone was a bad Dredd,” he continued. “He was just Dredd in the wrong story.”

• Check out the City Cab details here on eBay

• There is an article by Thanos Pappos on CarAdvice.com here with a huge amoount of background information on the design work that went into this vehicle

• Screen Rant: 15 Things You Didn’t Know About The Disastrous Judge Dredd

With thanks to Scott Brownlee

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.