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TONKA #7018 1913 Model T "Four-Alarm Call" 1/24


Mike999

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Background:

In 1974-75, the famous metal toy maker TONKA released a series of "Diorama Kits." The kits were produced in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution.  Each included a plastic kit of a historical subject, along with parts to build a shadow-box for the finished scene.  The Diorama Kits were sold with 2 different kinds of shadow-box:  kits for the general variety-store trade had black plastic boxes and clear plastic viewing panels.  Those for the hobby-shop trade included real wooden boxes and real glass.

The kits were not a success and disappeared after the initial run. As near as I can tell, these were all the TONKA Diorama Kits produced and their kit numbers:

7011 Moment of Flight, the Wright Flyer (1/48 scale)
7013 1913 America, Model T Ford (molded in black, with street scene & figures)
7014 Landing at Paris, The Spirit of St. Louis (1/48 scale)
7015 Railroading in 1853, The Pioneer Locomotive (O scale, 1/48)
7016 First U.S. Auto Crossing: The 1903 Winton (1/24 scale, complete with 2 human figures AND Bud the dog)
7017 Confederate Attack on Chambersburg  (O scale, 1/48)
7018 1913 Model T "Four-Alarm Call" (molded in red, with Fire Dept. scene)

Here's an ad for kit #7013 "1913 America," from the Jan. 1975 issue of Boy's Life magazine:

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#7018 1913 Model T "Four-Alarm Call"

I found this kit recently at a local flea market, for a very good price.  It's the hobby-shop version, with the real wood and glass shadow-box parts:

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Overall picture of the contents:

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Here's one sprue of red parts, for the 1913 Model T, building stair rails and nifty vintage street-lamp.  5 globes for the lamp are on the clear sprue.  The Model T is pretty basic; the engine only has 3 parts, 2 block halves and the head. Still a pretty nice little kit, and rare in being a pre-1920's kit of the Model T:

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The second sprue of red parts, with wheels and the rest of the Model T:

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Here are the tires, molded in the right color - greyish off-white.  And the brass parts sprue (there are no chrome parts in the kit):

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Clear parts. For the Model T, only 2 windshield halves and the headlight lenses are needed.  The globes are for the street-lamp, with extras - probably because the clear parts came directly from the earlier "America" Model T kit #7013, which had more lamps in its street scene:

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  Vintage 1/24 firefighters!  These little guys are not too bad for 1975.  2 sitting, 1 standing, 1 running:

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The instruction sheet is a monster, about the size of a tabloid newspaper.  Along with detailed instructions including part numbers AND names, it includes a history of the Model T; a history of American firefighting; and "How To Drive A Model T," taken from the Ford owner's manual:

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Finally, here's the wooden parts of the shadowbox and some extras, like the nameplate and "Fire Dept." stickers:

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Edited by Mike999
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Those TONKA "Diorama" kits were very well done--particularly for their time, if a bit simplified (the Tonka Model T vis-a-vis AMT's 1925 T kit for example).  Sadly, they were somewhat a "fish out of water" in the marketplace--kits that really didn't fit the model car kit market at the time (1974 was the beginning of the end of model cars as THE "thing" for kids to build, and the large "migration" back to our boyhood hobby of the 50's and 60's had not yet really taken hold), making this series  of historical model kits one which really had no clear market.  Had those kits been introduced a mere 10 to 15 years later, things may well have been markedly different.

Those Tonka diorama model kits languished on hobby wholesaler shelves well into the middle 1980's--I was picking them up at distressed market prices from a couple of hobby wholesalers in Chicago for half their original dealer cost in the middle 80's, for my own hobby shop, the "Model Maker", the 1980's being still before closeout stores the likes of Big Lots/Odd Lots and Ollie's came on the scene.

Still though, even though Mattel has owned the TONKA brand for a couple of decades now, I wonder if the tooling for these kits still exists?

Art

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They're very well done, but the market was very small.  How many people were interested in doing (and had the ability to do) the assembly of the model, the assembly and painting of the figures, and the assembly and finishing of the wood shadow box?  That said, I've got one of them (the Auto Crossing with the Winton).  The original idea was to keep the car and set aside the rest, but the thing is so interesting that I'm leaving it alone until I decide to either build it or sell it to someone else who might build it.  A guy I know got one of the Model T kits in a peculiar way: he first found the car by itself, then years later found another kit that someone had swiped the car from!

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They're very well done, but the market was very small.  How many people were interested in doing (and had the ability to do) the assembly of the model, the assembly and painting of the figures, and the assembly and finishing of the wood shadow box?  That said, I've got one of them (the Auto Crossing with the Winton).  The original idea was to keep the car and set aside the rest, but the thing is so interesting that I'm leaving it alone until I decide to either build it or sell it to someone else who might build it.  A guy I know got one of the Model T kits in a peculiar way: he first found the car by itself, then years later found another kit that someone had swiped the car from!

Good points that I wondered about too.  You can see some of TONKA's marketing thinking in the subjects - 2 trains, 2 aircraft, 3 cars.  Pretty good coverage for most of the modeling world.  On an aircraft modeling site, I found a discussion of the TONKA Wright Flyer kit.  They said it's very well done, and true 1/48 scale. The classic MONOGRAM kit of the Flyer is in an odd "box scale," 1/39 IIRC.

A friend of mine has a whole outbuilding dedicated to his O-scale trains. He would love to have those 2 train dioramas to display on the shelves.  But most people have limited display space, and these things are pretty big.

I have the same problem you do with the Winton (which I would really like to find!).  I want to build this Model T, but really hate to break up the set because it's so unusual and interesting.  

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That's one fire kit I missed, Wasn't interested in it as AMT had the cinder bug out there, I thought that the kits were not 1/24th scale and missed on the fire fighters.

I already had the Hubley metal T and made the AMT 25 T into a chief's car

greg

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I too have never seen or heard of these kits before now. The Winton would be cool. Especially since it includes Bud. I hope they gave Bud his goggles. I also wonder what the background scene with that kit was? Going to have to do a Google search, and see if I can find pictures of it.

 

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The background scene is of a Western town motif and Bud does have his goggles as I got the diorama as someone just wanted the car. A general store, telephone pole, and horse tie log. I have the hobby set with the wood box, The box does not go together well. If you want I will take pictures of what I've done with it.

greg

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Here's a TONKA Winton diorama kit that recently sold on eBay.  Correction to my post - it has THREE human figures.  And Bud The Dog wearing his goggles!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-IN-BOX-TONKA-DIORAMAS-FIRST-AUTO-CROSSING-THE-1903-WINSTON-VNTGE-COLLECTABLE-/232049385967?hash=item360738a1ef:g:PXgAAOSw-YVXk~Q8

Long as I'm here...also around 1975-ish, TAMIYA jumped on the instant-diorama bandwagon with its "Time Capsule" series of 1/35 military kits.  These built a diorama...in a bottle.  In the box you got one set of TAMIYA's awful "Zombie Dwarf" figures; a printed cardboard backdrop; and the goofy plastic bottle.  AFAIK, six "Time Capsule" kits were released: #610 Dunkirk, #620 El Alamein, #630 Berlin Headquarters, #640 Leningrad, #650 Remagen Bridgehead and #660 Last Word.

I think only hard-core TAMIYA collectors would want these things.  eBay sellers often flog them as "rare, still sealed!"  They're not rare, and they're still sealed because nobody bought them when they were new.  Just a few years ago, TAMIYA tried this trick again by packaging some of their slightly newer figure sets with the old ITALERI ruined-building kits from the 1970s.  Those seem to have flopped as well. 

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I found the Four Alarm on eBay at a good price but then 57 and change for shipping from Ohio. I inquired about the bloated shipping charge. We shall see as it is MIB and complete.

Since I have that exact kit, I just measured it and weighed it on a Postal Scale. You can go to the USPS website, enter his location and yours, then enter these specs to see ROUGHLY how much shipping should cost.

Keep in mind that his shipping box will have to be bigger than the kit box, and he will probably add some packing material.  Also, while USPS shipping cost used to go by weight alone, now it's calculated on weight and size.

Dimensions: 15" Wide x 10" Deep x 10" High  Weight: 2.9 pounds

Edited by Mike999
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I just snatched a Four Alarm one off eBay USA.
Got it for £15.14 plus £26.27 postage, so £41.41 all in.
Yes, it isn't cheap, but I have paid more for 40 year old glue bombs in my life.
I really want them all, but now 7016 is top priority.

I wonder what 7012 would have been, had it been released.
 

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  • 1 year later...

Did you see Anthony "Mr. Model T" from Europe has pics of his built 1903 Winton, at the "other" car modeling board? Looks great!

Thanks.  But no, and I just spent a long time searching for it.  Hoping he puts it on his own website soon.  Here's a link to Anthony Hazelaar 's awesome model collection.  If you have any interest in antique Fords, this place is a must-see:

http://oldcarandtruckpictures.com/modeltrucksandcars/

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  • 3 years later...

I was just looking at pics of the Tonka Diorama Kits with the Model T Fords, both the touring and the Fire Truck.

I know somebody posted some photos years ago of the contents of the kits, but I have had no luck Finding them. My Google searches got many hits, but none from here, and almost all pics are repeats of older pics. The same photos seem to cycle over and over in the search engines. I am just wondering, how they compare to the new(ish) ICM Brass Era Model T kits. It would be nice to be able to do some side by side parts comparisons.  I remember reading that the Tonka kits were Okay, but no better than Okay. 

I don't even recall if the Tonka kits were Curbside or had complete engines. One Final Gripe. I wish Kit makers would look at a "modern' Restored Model T Ford, before they tooled things.  Almost all "stock" T's you see being driven use a VW Distributor instead of the Ford Timer and Coil box. Cheaper, Easier, and much more reliable, just about every T in the Club I belonged to used this trick, including cars that had been restored in the 1970's.  I would say that most 'stock' Model T engines today have run a VW Bug (or other style) 4 cyl distributor, longer than they every ran the old factory timing/ignition system.

Another thing. Every stock T engine in every 'stock' T kit, includes the flimsy sheet metal stamping the Ford used on the mouth of the sidedraft carb, curving up to the rear of the exhaust manifold. In the real car world, only a handful of cars still have them, although you do see them some times in engine pics. That small sheet metal piece was thrown away by original T owners by the tens on thousands. Why? It blocks the carb throat when you are busy Priming, Choking, and Fiddling to get your T started. A good T will run well when you learn it, but I always had to mess with the carb a bit on every start. Those Carb Heater pieces were discarded in such numbers that find a good one was hard for many years, if you wanted a "Show Quality" T restoration. So, can we get rid of it on the kits, please? The way it is usually tooled on the AMT "T" Engine, the upper edged is blended into the exhaust manifold in such a way as to make removing it a pain.

Anyway, just thoughts from a former Model T Speedster Owner.

 

 

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One of my club friends brought in an unbuilt example.  IIRC it was the Model T.  We were impressed with the overall presentation of the kit, including the diorama components.

 

We wondered if the kits were designed and manufactured in-house, as Tonka is known for their steel toys, not all-plastic kits.

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On 8/23/2016 at 1:48 PM, Mike999 said:

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I've seen this box before, never knew it was a plastic kit. Being from Tonka, I thought it was metal or die-cast and therefore very simplified.

I always thought the display looked a little inaccurate - judging by where the truck is in the street, how far the station doors open out and where the police man is standing, how on earth would that crew ever be able to make that sharp of a turn to go down the street in a hurry? They would have to hit the pole, take out a door or possibly run right into the building across the street. 

Maybe the cop is trying to direct them out safely? Sure isn't a good situation to be in to quickly get to a fire!

Just sayin'

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