Where have you seen model cars in movies, TV shows ?

[Tony T]

The old TV show "Thunderbirds"...bunch of AMT kits used there...I think someone has a website detailing them (Go ahead and Google search).

Edited December 8, 2011 by Tony T

[glusnifr]

The tv show TITUS, he had models in his house and at his shop ,and was working on one in one episode.

The movie HITMAN with Chuck Norris ( not the Timothy Olephant one) he was a model plane builder.

[Olskoolrodder]

There's an episode of "Yes Dear" where Kim's parents,Vicky Lawerance and Tim Conway (played those parts) were visiting and Tim had retired and they were all looking for a hobby for him (he finally settled on comics and something like dressing the part for kids),and there's a whole scene where they were building model car kits (I can't remember what ones,been a while),and Tim Conway glued the kit's body on his forehead,as did the brother-in-law.

[Moparkid13]

The movie "Super 8," which was just released on DVD ... model-building figures very prominently in it.

"The Andy Griffith Show" episode where Barney gives Otis a driving lesson with what appear to be '63 Ford promos.

Super 8 is what I was gonna say lol... very good movie

[martinfan5]

There's an episode of "Yes Dear" where Kim's parents,Vicky Lawerance and Tim Conway (played those parts) were visiting and Tim had retired and they were all looking for a hobby for him (he finally settled on comics and something like dressing the part for kids),and there's a whole scene where they were building model car kits (I can't remember what ones,been a while),and Tim Conway glued the kit's body on his forehead,as did the brother-in-law.

that episode aired a few weeks ago on TBS

[Olskoolrodder]

LOL,I didn't getta see it (Jonathan). I'll have to watch Super 8 again now,LOL,I didn't catch it!

[LDO]

In John Carpenter's "The Thing", there's a scene with with some old Revell model boxes on a shelf in the background.

[Nate]

In the Clint Eastwood movie In the Line of fire, the badguy (John Malkovich) is shown buying model supplies to build a small resin pistol he intends to use to assassinate the president.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Clint Eastwood in that movie read "Scale Auto Enthusiast" (as it was called back then) to try to get into the villain's way of thinking?

Edited December 8, 2011 by Nate

[diymirage]

there is also an episode of 2.5 men where alan starts building model cars...all the while humming some stupid tune about cars

there is an episode of bobs burgers where bob and his wife have a romantic weekend at the morgue and all bob wants to do is build the bus from speed

and finally, there are about 3 thread on this topic allready...

[ranma]

I think they used model ships for midway ect WWll movies and beleive the b-17 teacup in mephis bell

[glusnifr]

Tom Hanks built a 1/350 scale enterprise aircraft carrier in the movie BIG

[Greg Myers]

there is also an episode of 2.5 men where alan starts building model cars...all the while humming some stupid tune about cars

there is an episode of bobs burgers where bob and his wife have a romantic weekend at the morgue and all bob wants to do is build the bus from speed

and finally, there are about 3 thread on this topic allready...

did you miss the opening post ?

[Swifster]

In the opening credits for the movie Sahara, the camera pans the cabin of the lead character, Dirk Pitt. As the camera pans the cabin you can see models of the CSS Texas ironclad, a model of a dual cowl phaeton Duesenburg, a Shelby Cobra, a Messerschmitt ME 109 and another white car of the 1930's that I couldn't make out...

[Pete J.]

How can you forget Back to the Future. Doc Brown had a lot of models for demonstration purposes. Ok, they were windup cars and trains, but they were models.

[Howard Cohen]

In the movie 'I'll Be Home for Christmas' with Jonathan Taylor Thomas (from Home Improvement), there are a few 1/24th scale models on a shelf in his room at home, but barely visible. I know because I built them for the movie I built 6 cars in less than 3 days, all supplied by Revell-Monogram of Canada at the time. In that case the cars were easy to build...no windows (they reflect on camera), single coloured bodies and contrasting interiors, no motors, no fancy building, just basic box art type builds.

[Modelmartin]

In George Lucas' first movie "THX 1138" which is a sci-fi farce, the bomb which they lower and raise back into the bombbay several times is clearly an AMT 1/25 Fruehauf trailer!!! It has all kinds of weird stuff glued on it and no wheels to make it look more "spacey". The "Alien" in the movie is a beachball with swim flippers and long rubber gloves attached to it. It is a hilarious movie and worth finding. Lucas recycled the name and put a THX 138 license plate on Milner's Coupe in American Graffitti.

There is an episode of Home Improvement where Tim Allen demonstrates for his son how to take care of things and starts cleaning and polishing his 1/14th scale CMA Ferrari Barchetta Lemans winner. I did the patterns and casting for CMA. Marshall Buck, the proprietor of CMA, confirmed that he sold one to Tim Allen. It was fun to see my work on primetime!

[Jordan White]

Few that weren't mentioned.

I believe in the movie "Employee of the Month" when the guys are sitting in their clubhouse, Andy Dick is building (badly) a model airplane.

In an episode of The Sopranos, Furio (who came over from Italy) paid a visit to a guy in a salon (who was doing some stuff on the side and not paying up) and the guy liked to build models. I believe he was working on a Formula 1 car when Furio came in, and I think he made the guy sit on the model car. There were also a few on the shelf behind the desk.

On an episode of The Mythbusters, they used a Revell model of a bulk freighter (showed the box, though the Revell name was taped over). I'm sure they used models several other times for demonstrations, but that's the recent one I remember. "Thanks mom! Now we can simulate international commerce!"

Edited December 9, 2011 by Jordan White

[Scott Colmer]

There was an episode of Law & Order where the killer was a car modelr builder. Vincent suff-on-O took him down by telling he used a #70 drill bit to drill a hole for a valve stem. Great stuff.

Does anyone remember the 1976 or 1977 show - I think it was about teachers - where the lead character discovers that this kid is actually smart because he builds museum quality model cars and even laces up his own wire wheels?

Good luck.

Scott

[Sam Cates]

Bob builds a replica of the bus from Speed (including a Keanu Reeves figure) in the 11th episode of the failed TV series Bob's Burgers.

The Blues Brothers featured a large "stunt" model Monaco for some of the big chase scene.

[Ryan S.]

In Dinner for Schmucks, Steve Carrell's character builds dioramas using dead mice. One of these is Evil Knievel jumping some nicely weathered VW Buses.

[Nick Winter]

"Mr. Destiny" In the movie Jim Belushi builds model cars as a hobby. Then all the models become real once his which comes true.

http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_121494-Mercedes-Benz-300-SL-Coupe-W198-I-1955.html

[Dave]

There was an episode of Law and Order, or CSI or someother detective show where the bad guy built models and then found real versions of the cars and he killed the owners. I think most what were shown were diecasts, but the story line was that the bad guy was a model builder.

[Sam Cates]

There was an episode of Law and Order, or CSI or someother detective show where the bad guy built models and then found real versions of the cars and he killed the owners. I think most what were shown were diecasts, but the story line was that the bad guy was a model builder.

Law & Order Criminal Intent, I remember that episode, good one.

[Aaronw]

In George Lucas' first movie "THX 1138" which is a sci-fi farce, the bomb which they lower and raise back into the bombbay several times is clearly an AMT 1/25 Fruehauf trailer!!! It has all kinds of weird stuff glued on it and no wheels to make it look more "spacey". The "Alien" in the movie is a beachball with swim flippers and long rubber gloves attached to it. It is a hilarious movie and worth finding. Lucas recycled the name and put a THX 138 license plate on Milner's Coupe in American Graffitti.

That is Dark Star by John Carpenter and Dan O'Bannon. The beachball monster scenes inspired Dan O'Bannon to later write Alien.

George Lucas' THX-1138 was more of a Logans Run style dark future sci-fi movie. Lucas has slipped some variation of THX-1138 into several of his later movies and it loans its name to his THX sound system.

Supposedly the ships and the deathstar in the Star Wars movies were made by bashing a bunch of model kits with other interesting bits and pieces.

Edited December 10, 2011 by Aaronw

[carrucha]

In John Singleton's film "Baby Boy", the main character Jody builds lowrider models in his bedroom. He has several built models on his shelf and a stack of kit boxes on the floor.