Jimmy Razor

Thank you for reposting my comments from elsewhere. The history of Palmer is far more interesting than the models themselves. An evolution of Premier, one of the earliest American plastic kit makers, Palmer remained popular for over a decade, relying upon marketing in dime stores and pharmacies. They were an incredibly prolific manufacturer, often creating the same car in different scales each year. As noted, their annuals were very poor with sub-par engineering and fidelity of detail. The 1/32 scale 1930's and 1940's cars were much better, being mostly sourced from Pyro. The 1940 Ford Tudor Sedan was an original mold, though it appears to be a copy of AMT's version of the same car. Towards the end of their run, owner Pyro was sold to Life Like. Palmer attempted to continue as an independent, going through a few rebrandings. Around 1971, they tried to compete with AMT and MPC 1/25 scale annuals with their own "initials" brand, PMC. These were of a higher quality and the molds were used for Lindberg reissues in the 1990's. Around 1973 and '74, the Palmer name was briefly dropped and the brand became Winneco. This iteration not only continued the 1930's and 1940's cars, but also reboxed 1/72 scale tanks from Japan. In their final year, 1974 - '75, the final rebranding ",Palmer Hobbies," was in place. It reissued most of the classic cars and added a line of 1975 annuals. By the Bicentennial year, Palmer was history. Most of their molds ended up with the aforementioned Lindberg, who continue to reissue vintage Palmer to this day.