What if Monogram had done 1/25?

[Southern Fried]

Would they have sold more models than in 1/24?

[Jantrix]

Over the life of the kit yes, I believe so. But not to a great degree. I do know people who avoid 1/24 like the plague. However people will build what interests them regardless.

[Matt Bacon]

Well, most of what I build is 1/24, so I guess I'm glad they didn't ;-P

Mind you, it's easier for me: since most American cars are so darn big, the fact that the Chrysler 300 or Camaro are 1/25 and the Ferrari next to them is 1/24 isn't anything like so obvious!

bestest,

M.

[Tom Geiger]

The thing that turned me off to the Monogram offerings was the simplification of them. Not only were they off scale from the rest of the collection, but had less parts and details, like molded in engine compartment details like batteries etc. In the Dodge Ramcharger, the chassis detail consisted of a frame mounted right onto the interior bucket bottom... with big gaps all around it. Toy like.

[Bob Ellis]

Some of the Monogram 1/24 items were pretty good, for the '60s era;

1940 Ford pickup

1955 BelAir

1940 Continental

1958 TBird

I think if they were 1/25, they would sell better now.

[slusher]

I tend to build what i like, so 1/24 or 1/25 makes no difference to me...

[Matt Bacon]

Interesting about the simplified detailing, when you consider that "vintage Monogram" era 1/48th aircraft kits in the 60s and 70s set a very high bar for accuracy, detail and parts count. They must have consciously decided that the auto kits were appealing to a different builder market...

bestest,

m.

[jbwelda]

their models would have been smaller.

some people, against all logic, just prefer VHS, I guess.

jb

[Greg Myers]

Some of the Monogram 1/24 items were pretty good, for the '60s era;

1940 Ford pickup

1955 BelAir

1940 Continental

1958 TBird

I think if they were 1/25, they would sell better now.

Gotta love those Camaros.

[Greg Myers]

Interesting about the simplified detailing, when you consider that "vintage Monogram" era 1/48th aircraft kits in the 60s and 70s set a very high bar for accuracy, detail and parts count. They must have consciously decided that the auto kits were appealing to a different builder market...

bestest,

m.

But these kits were also "Toy Like" lots of moving parts. But as you said accurate.

[Greg Myers]

WOW ! Just look at'em all. Folding wings, retractable landing gear, droping bombs, ejecting pilots, you name it. The one feature I always looked for was an opening / sliding canopy.

Edited June 2, 2015 by Greg Myers

[Stray]

1/24? 1/25? When you get frustrated they both smash against the wall equally.

A 1/12 however...

[dmk]

Gotta love those Camaros.

I always loved that kit. I actually have the white one in my stash right now.

I don't care about 1/24 vs 1/25 if it's a good kit and right subject.

[Foxer]

I was a 1/25 racist for most of my modeling life. But now, with equal rights and my desire for kits to fit my "needs" and desires, I have Monogram 1/24 kits and also a pile of 1/24 VW's and some others to boot. I feel better for it!

[chunkypeanutbutter]

Didn't you do this same topic a couple months ago?

[Art Anderson]

I submit that the reason Monogram Models went with 1/24 scale was pretty simple: They were started by modelers, in the Chicago area, who were not primarily industrial machinists, nor engineers. So, such fractions of an inch made great sense to them, from their beginnings in 1945-46 clear through to 1992, when Revell-Monogram released the 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz convertible kit, the first 1/25 scale model car kit developed at Morton Grove IL.

But, in answer to the original question in this thread, yes, 1/24 scale was a bit of a downer, where model car builders were concerned, here in the US, where model car building as a hobby really did reach serious heights, simply because AMT (along with MPC and JoHan) were, by the early 1960's, a literal juggernaut.

Most model car builders probably ignore that until the late 1980's, Monogram and Revell-Monogram were not the major players in model car kits in the US, not even that heavily devoted to model cars. Rather, from their earliest days clear through the mid-late 1980's, Monogram was focused as much (if not more) on military aircraft, with a few sashays into armor and ships--they were very much the kings of military plane kits made in the USA by perhaps 1965 or so.

By contrast, the Detroit "Little Three" (in rank order: AMT/SMP, MPC and JoHan) were living in an Engineers' World, where decimals of inches (and later metric measures) ruled, and still do. As such, they all adopted the scale, 1:25, which is a common engineer's and architect's scale--easily divisible by a calculator at 40-thousandths on an inch to the inch--and with loosening the tolerances a bit, 1 millimeter to the inch, to create 1/25 scale models.

Was it the slight scale difference though? Probably not. More, I think, it was the sheer proximity and close relationship developed by the Detroit Little Three model companies to the Detroit Big Three (plus one) automakers that made them collectively own the bulk of the plastic model car kit trade, as regards the US.

After all, perhaps a majority of us who read this forum, go to the various model car contests and NNL's, even populate our country's model car clubs, were kids back in the 1950's and 60's, and we were impressionable.

As we grew up, our tastes in model cars did change, and with the decline of the Detroit Little Three, Monogram caught our attention, bit by bit, fractional inch by fractional inch, model car subject by model car subject, to the point that they are the dominant plastic model car kit company in the US today. And guess what? While Revell-Monogram still honors 1/24 scale where it comes to race cars, exotic sports cars (those enthusiasts are just as scale focused as we who built factory stock and street rods are!), that company has done only 1/25 scale kits of production American cars, along with street rods, even custom cars, since that '59 Eldorado kit.

Art

[Greg Myers]

I remember Monogram being more into cars at the beginning than the other companys,I.E. AMT.

Edited June 2, 2015 by Greg Myers

[unclescott58]

1/24th vs. 1/25th use to bother me a little bit when I was kid. But then, like now, the subject has been the more important factor. I've never turned away from a Tom Daniel kit because of scale. This last fall, I built both AMT's and (Revell/)Monogram's 1936 Fords. I was very surprised how close they looked in size when sitting next to each other. I have not always found this true in simular subjects between the two scales.

I will always prefer 1/25th scale over all others. Mainly because of AMT, MPC, and JoHan offering the cars I liked as a kid in that scale. But again, there is a lot of nice kits in other scales, mainly 1/24th, being offered by Monogram and several European and Japanesse manufacturers. So I'm not going to eliminate that scale from my collection. Then, again if the subject is right, I will build some kits in 1/20th, 1/32nd, and 1/43rd scales. I will rarely, if ever, build models larger than 1/20th scale, because of lack of space.

By the way, I also built AMT's 1/43rd scale '36 Ford to display with the 1/25 and 1/24 versions mentioned above. There is a big difference between that kit size wise and the other two.

1/24th, 1/25th, close enough for me I guess. In my "perfect world" all model kits would be in 1/25th scale.

Scott

[Brett Barrow]

Didn't you do this same topic a couple months ago?

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=101514&hl=%20what%20%20if%20%20monogram

[Greg Myers]

and yet we still post.

[Art Anderson]

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=101514&hl=%20what%20%20if%20%20monogram

I did, but like a bad dinner, it keeps coming back up!

Art

[Tom Geiger]

Here's a photo to illustrate my comment on toy like details. Although this is nicely painted, everything under the hood is molded in, from the master cylinder to the battery, as well as all the gadgets, wiring and hoses on the inner fenders

[sjordan2]

Monogram did a few 1/25 cars from the tools they got from Aurora, like the Maserati 3500 GTi and the Aston.

[Southern Fried]

Didn't you do this same topic a couple months ago?

I sometimes "drinks abit"....

[MsDano85gt]

I tend to build what i like, so 1/24 or 1/25 makes no difference to me...

same here altho i prefer 1/25 mpc never did a chevy citation monogram did even tho its in 1/24 i still have a couple to build