Why are there so many iconic cars that have never been kitted ?

[Brett Barrow]

yes release it as a 2 n 1

The H&M is totally cool in my book, and I'd be all over a plastic kit like a monkey on a... well, you get the idea... But there's literally nothing left stock on the H&M. Top's chopped, wheelbase is altered, frame is shortened, rearend is a narrowed 4-link, interior is totally gutted, body is slid forward on the frame... Would take 2 separate kits or a dedicated H&M kit to do it properly. And who wants a stodgy ol' Plymouth business coupe, anyway? Give me one of the fastback sedan or the pre-war 5 windows (AMT already did that one) if you want to do a 40's Plymouth.

[Art Anderson]

I've read that.. also--about the '78 Firebird, it seems there may have been two tools of that one also? Or I'm misremembering something. I seem to remember it badged as an AMT at one time in the '90s and having some differences from the MPC annual (t-tops molded in or not) ? I have 3 different '70s vintage MPC '77-78 Firebirds-one annual w/ a red car, one with a blue, the 'Blackbird' (Bandit style) version...and there have been several reissues of that one since then.

AMT Corporation's management people told me, in the late 1970's, that their all time sales leader, to that point, was not a model car kit--rather, it was their original sized "USS Enterprise", from the original series of Star Trek. Originally, they did the tooling in aluminum, figuring the kit to be a one or two year "one hit wonder", but within a year or so of its release, several tools had been cut in hardened steel, and it was produced in the millions by the end of AMT as an independent company in 1978.

Art

[Brett Barrow]

That, I believe, was MPC's hype, quoted.

I would submit that it will be hard for any model car kit mfr. to equal the overall production numbers of the original AMT 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air HT, which was first released about February 1962, and remained in AMT/Lesney AMT/AMT-Ertl continuously through 1996. That is quite likely the longest continous "production run" of any model car kit, bar none.

Art

I'd agree, but it probably had several SKU #'s over that span, each one of them counted separately. The General Lee could possibly be the top selling unique SKU#.

[Luc Janssens]

The H&M is totally cool in my book, and I'd be all over a plastic kit like a monkey on a... well, you get the idea... But there's literally nothing left stock on the H&M. Top's chopped, wheelbase is altered, frame is shortened, rearend is a narrowed 4-link, interior is totally gutted, body is slid forward on the frame... Would take 2 separate kits or a dedicated H&M kit to do it properly. And who wants a stodgy ol' Plymouth business coupe, anyway? Give me one of the fastback sedan or the pre-war 5 windows (AMT already did that one) if you want to do a 40's Plymouth.

Then release it as a snapper, I'm sure those who build Gassers will know where to source the parts for a full detail version, while the weekend modelers will end up with a decent looking shelf piece without much work.

[Art Anderson]

Yes, I would assume so...I wonder what decade had the most car makers...the 1910s or 1920s I assume. By 1940 there weren't many independents left.

I believe the first quarter of the 20th Century, 1900-1925. That was still the era of almost unbridled entrepreneurship in this country, and virtually every town or city of any size had its share of blacksmith shops, even machine shops--a blending of which was all that was necessary (along with some $$ of course) to set up a factory to build automobiles.

Most makes of cars back then (well beyond the already establishing major companies) were in a sense, makers of what became called "assembled" cars--meaning that they outsourced at least certain major components, principally engines and transmissions, and as things progressed, body shells (GM, for example, produced none of their own bodies until the Fisher Brothers (name became Fisher Body Division in the middle 1920's, with Lawrence P. Fisher having been President and later Chairman of GM back then) merged into GM. Chrysler Corporation built none of their own bodies until the buyout of Briggs Body Company in 1954. Ford outsourced most of their closed body styles well into the Model A and early V8 years as well.

But, in a very real way, those early years were still the era of "Build a better mousetrap, and the World will beat a path to your door!" thinking. Couple that with the simple fact that not until the middle 1920's did there exist a true integrated network of Federal highways, even some states in the Midwest and West not even having state highway routes until then. That meant there was virtually no intercity nor interstate truck transportation readily available, and railroad shipment of built cars was somewhat erratic and certainly expensive (Ford could only ship perhaps 4 Model T's in the then standard 36' wooden RR boxcars of the day!).

So, it's little wonder that in so many small cities, even a few rather small towns, that some enterprising person would decide that his future rested on being the next automobile manufacturer.

Of course, the vast majority of US automakers did not survive--many of them lasted no more than 4-5 years, some failing after fewer than a dozen cars. And of course, today, of all those startup automakers, the cars they made simply do not exist, or if they do, it's a rusty chassis here, a few vestiges of a body shell there, or an obscure engine laying around--their marques long forgotten in the dustbin of history. And yet, for some of them, a pristine example still exists, in a museum someplace.

Art

[Brett Barrow]

Then release it as a snapper, I'm sure those who build Gassers will know where to source the parts for a full detail version, while the weekend modelers will end up with a decent looking shelf piece without much work.

If I'm doing a snapper I would have made it one of Polar Lights' Snap Draggins.

[Lagib]

I must be hallucinating. Okay, but there was a Kojak 4-door Buick Century model, right? Looking at the box art of the S&H Torino, I've seen it before somewhere. I'll have to read that post. The '72 Torino was made in a pale blue promo, and, I think, butterscotch.

The Kojak Buick box you likely saw was another Westphal job.

[Greg Myers]

The Kojak Buick box you likely saw was another Westphal job.

sucker and all

[Greg Myers]

Interesting things happening in this thread. Some of these kits coming to light.

[HotRodaSaurus]

This is the real car I would have loved to have seen modelled. Ghia L6.4, I dont know if this vehicle has a further designation or name such as the Duel Ghia, but the only 'model' I know of is the Corgi 1/43 die cast toy car, and that is what is written on the base.

It looks like the real thing is based on a 1960 Plymouth Fury or other Mopar of this era.

As with many here though, would there have been enough interest to model this car?

John.

Edited May 18, 2015 by HotRodaSaurus

[Junkman]

Just consider the rather limited interest in the original 60's Ford GT's--it was 50 years ago last month that the first GT-40's sat on the starting grid at LeMans--now how many modelers today would wear a groove in the pavement getting to their hobby shop (or wherever they buy kits) were a new kit of those cars were to come out

I think those relatively recent Fujimi kits did pretty well.

[Junkman]

This is the real car I would have loved to have seen modelled. Ghia L6.4, I dont know if this vehicle has a further designation or name such as the Duel Ghia, but the only 'model' I know of is the Corgi 1/43 die cast toy car, and that is what is written on the base.

Ironically, it was the third-best selling Corgi model of all times, right after the 007 Aston and the Landrover.

[HotRodaSaurus]

Ironically, it was the third-best selling Corgi model of all times, right after the 007 Aston and the Landrover.

Unlike todays kids who are not really into toy cars, we really loved all those details that worked. Could you imagine the health and safety police with these? We would have kids swallowing ejected passengers or hitting them in the eyes(Bond Aston), swallowing broken parts or even the wheels from some models(Rally Hillman, and Golden Jacks Olds Toronado) Now the main income from 'Toy' cars comes from adults in the collector market.

Ironically, when building kits I prefer to build slammers as I am not that good on the super detailing

[djflyer]

Its been fascinating following this thread - especially Art's insider knowledge. If you look at most of the subjects people have asked for you can see the trend is cars from and older generation - when most of us were kids or maybe the cars some have worked on. An increasing number of kids that might have liked mechanical things in our time have turned to the modern equivalent - computers and robots. Just look at the competitions for those things. The current generation of "hot rodders" is the guys who work on the "tuner" cars. They are the ones that have to be attracted to the hobby so they can build replicas of their favourite cars and keep the funding for what the rest of us want.

As I said in another thread, 3D printing may be how we get the subjects with lower sales potential. The manufacturers could save on tooling costs, hire digital designers (the modern tool and die makers), print and sell on orders as needed.

[Greg Myers]

3D printing may be how we get the subjects with lower sales potential. The manufacturers could save on tooling costs, hire digital designers (the modern tool and die makers), print and sell on orders as needed.

Edited May 25, 2015 by Greg Myers

[HotRodaSaurus]

Its been fascinating following this thread - especially Art's insider knowledge.

The current generation of "hot rodders" is the guys who work on the "tuner" cars. They are the ones that have to be attracted to the hobby so they can build replicas of their favourite cars and keep the funding for what the rest of us want.

There are quite a lot of the so called 'Tuner' cars out there, though I dont know exactly what kits as I dont follow this trend but Tamiya produce Skylines and Subaru's as well as some rather obscure Japanese companies kitting other compacts.

[jbwelda]

Aoshima and Fujimi are not exactly what I would call "rather obscure" companies, and they produce myriad versions of many many makes of "tuner", I would guess way more than Tamiya.

jb

[Wots]

Hi does anyone know where I can get one of the starsky and hutch boxes mentioned above or has one for sale.thanks

[Wots]

Hi does anyone have or know where I can buy one of those starsky and hutch boxes from, thank you