Nick Notarangelo Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 This came up in my news feed and I thought I would share this http://www.motorcities.org/Story/Remembering+the+early+days+of+the+AMT+corporation+1950s70s+br+By+Robert+Tate+Automotive+Historian+Researcher+br+Images++Courtesy+of+Robert+Tates+collection-348.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 Very interesting. Thanks, Paul. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thatz4u Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 I would love to find the Packard Ambulance at a garage sale somewhere... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earl Marischal Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 Interesting Thanks! steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxer Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 (edited) Always good to see a model car story, but this writer had no idea what his "toy car" story was about to the customers. I was 10 in 1958 when I bought my first AMT kit and they were never "toys" to me. Edited April 22, 2015 by Foxer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deano Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 Always good to see a model car story, but this writer had no idea what his "toy car" story was about to the customers. I was 10 in 1958 when I bought my first AMT kit and they were never "toys" to me. When I was 10 the only thing I had that wasn't a toy was my lawnmower, that's what I used to earn the money to buy toys; mostly, um, model cars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike 1017 Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 Thanks for the info. Just added it to my favorites. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Anderson Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 A very sketchy "history" frankly. The real history of any model company would make a decent sized book, truthfully.. Art Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howard Cohen Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 A very nice brief history of AMT. Well presented but not necessarily accurate FYI...there are books about Revell and Monogram and they have been available for many years and both are very good. AMT history has never been done in a comprehensive form but who knows what the future will bring. Some of his facts may not be exactly correct. I have read that Revell produced more car model kits in the1950s than anyone, so I guess each company wants to be #1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 A very nice brief history of AMT. Well presented but not necessarily accurate FYI...there are books about Revell and Monogram and they have been available for many years and both are very good. AMT history has never been done in a comprehensive form but who knows what the future will bring. Some of his facts may not be exactly correct. I have read that Revell produced more car model kits in the1950s than anyone, so I guess each company wants to be #1 Revell probably manufactured more car KITS than AMT in the Fifties, but AMT produced millions of promomotional and flywheel (friction) models vs. zero of either of those for Revell. The Ertl Blueprinter magazine ran a series of articles on the early history of AMT, including information about SMP, intitally a separate company but with considerable startup funding from AMT. We'll probably never see a book about AMT. The original principals are long gone, and the guy who wrote the Revell, Monogram, and Aurora books supposedly didn't do anything with AMT (or Jo-Han) because those two dealt mainly with cars, and he's not a "car guy". If someone were to tackle such a project now, it wouldn't be with first-hand information because most of the people involved early on are no longer around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertw Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 I agree with both Howard and Art. There have been good histories of Aurora, Revell and Monogram done but not complete histories of AMT or MPC. I'd even enjoy reading histories of some of America's smaller model producers of the past like Johan, Lindberg, Hawk, IMC etc. Today it is likely there are people out there who do have the knowledge to write or act as resources to those who could write these histories I wish this would happen before many of these human resources pass away. I realize the market for books like these would be small but in the last few years we've seen new histories of both Matchbox and ESCI kits as well as Scotty Grossons enjoyable book on Show Rod Models and this year Kodera's book on vintage airplane kits. These recent books would suggest that there is a fair number of us who have an interest in the history of our hobby and the companies that have fed our interest over the years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Anderson Posted April 26, 2015 Share Posted April 26, 2015 A very nice brief history of AMT. Well presented but not necessarily accurate FYI...there are books about Revell and Monogram and they have been available for many years and both are very good. AMT history has never been done in a comprehensive form but who knows what the future will bring. Some of his facts may not be exactly correct. I have read that Revell produced more car model kits in the1950s than anyone, so I guess each company wants to be #1 It shouldn't be any surprise that, at least prior to 1958 or so, Revell was the biggest supplier of model car kits--they having begun with Highway Pioneers kits designed by the Gowland Brothers (a pair of British WW-II veterans), and those little 1/32 scale kits were seemingly everywhere in stores, from hobby shops to dime stores to even drug stores and supermarkets back then. Ideal Toy Corporation dabbled with model car kits beginning about 1954, but save for their smaller scale (perhaps 1/18 or so?) kits such as a Rolls Royce Silver Wraith and the almost unknown Spanish Pegaso GT coupe, their kits were large and much too expensive at the time for most boys to afford. Monogram even beat AMT to market with model car kiits, they began with Kit PC-1 in 1955 or so. AMT did introduce model car kits of a sort in 1954--those being merely unassembled flywheel versions of their promo's, in 3 car sets ( I received the 3-car set that included a Studebaker Starliner, Ford Crestline Convertible, and a Pontiac Star Chief HT). Product Miniatures also got into the game in 1954, with an unassembled '53-'54 Corvette promo to be assembled (4 screws, a windshield and the taillight bezels being the only parts I remember having to assemble on the model). But, for the vast majority of us model car builders in the 1950's, AMT became the ultimate "game changer" with their first series of "3in1" kits, and pretty much the others fell into line, or gradually faded away. Art Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hotrod4ever Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 Thanks for posting this article. History is important, no matter what the subject is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slusher Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 Thanks for posting Paul.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Notarangelo Posted April 28, 2015 Author Share Posted April 28, 2015 I know some of the facts are flakey to say the least but it's nice to find A article or two somewhere online. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skip Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 Funny George Barris gets more print that SMP part of the AMT equation. Though SMPprobably never took credit for as many designs or cars as George did! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclescott58 Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 I enjoyed the article. But, like others have noted, it was way too short. Would like to see more on the histories of JoHan, AMT, SMP, MPC, and IMC. I have the three wonderful books put out on the histories of Aurora, Monogram, and Revell by Thomas Graham. I'd like to see him, or someone else, in the same format, do the histories on the five other companies mentioned above. Scott Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted March 3, 2018 Share Posted March 3, 2018 (edited) On 4/25/2015 at 10:55 AM, Mark said: The Ertl Blueprinter magazine ran a series of articles on the early history of AMT, including information about SMP, intitally a separate company but with considerable startup funding from AMT. Does anybody recall which issue this was? On 4/25/2015 at 10:55 AM, Mark said: We'll probably never see a book about AMT. The original principals are long gone, and the guy who wrote the Revell, Monogram, and Aurora books supposedly didn't do anything with AMT (or Jo-Han) because those two dealt mainly with cars, and he's not a "car guy". If someone were to tackle such a project now, it wouldn't be with first-hand information because most of the people involved early on are no longer around. I can think of at least one person who would be a worthy contributor to such a project. Back on topic, was this shot taken at AMT's Birmingham, MI headquarters? Edited March 3, 2018 by Casey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim boyd Posted March 3, 2018 Share Posted March 3, 2018 4 hours ago, Casey said: Does anybody recall which issue this was? I can think of at least one person who would be a worthy contributor to such a project. Back on topic, was this shot taken at AMT's Birmingham, MI headquarters? Yep..this is the old AMT headquarters building on Maple Road just west of I-75 and Stephenson Highway in Troy, just north of Detroit. Building is still there today, although it looks much different now..... As for the Blueprinter, it was a whole series of articles over a number of issues, on the history of all the brands owned by AMT-Ertl from the late 1980's onward. As for an AMT book or history, at least one name most of you would recognize has thought about a project like this from time to time. No firm plans yet (at least that I know of). In the meantime I have a book coming out later this year from CarTech Publishing with the working title "Collecting Muscle Car Model Kits". It will show many AMT kits from the "Golden Years" along with some tidbits about the company itself, but it is not in any way a comprehensive history of AMT alone. TIM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Anderson Posted March 3, 2018 Share Posted March 3, 2018 Santa Claus left me my first AMT model car, jammed into my stocking, on Christmas Day 1948 when I was just 4 1/2 yrs old, a diecast aluminum 1948 Ford Tudor Sedan! I played the heck out of that toy car, literally wore it out back then! Apparently, nobody ever thought that it would lead to an obsession! Art Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renegade Posted March 3, 2018 Share Posted March 3, 2018 Great memories, wish they would reissue some of those early Falcons. Remember getting my first kits at the convenience store almost 55 years ago for around $2.00 each. Wasn't allowed to use paint but I could put together on the floor with newspaper underneath. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Myers Posted March 3, 2018 Share Posted March 3, 2018 These books have been out for some time. I find it interesting their prices haven't dropped off like other books do through time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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