New kits versus modified reissues.

[oldcarfan]

     I know some of you on here have experience in the business side of our hobby. I was thinking of the '57 Chevy 150 kit the other day and it made me think of others. I have seen how in the days of old, model companies would release several versions of the same car, a coupe, a wagon, and convertible for instance. How come when a kit comes out, they only produce one body style? I love the ones that come out and buy them, but I would love to have, say a Chevy Biscayne or a Ford Custom or maybe a wagon version of some car without having to do a kit bash. It would seem like a logical extension and probably most of the research would already have been done. Is it simply that they won't sell enough? Couldn't they have just cut molds for the other body styles at the same time? Many of the other parts would be the same. Do they get a license for just the one body style or is it a blanket release that would allow them to do the other versions? This is probably an oversimplification. Just curious.

[Rob Hall]

Model companies still do that...maybe less frequently than in olden days, but look at Moebius and the multiple Hudson variations, the '65 Satellite ht and Belvedere sedan, Revell with the '57 Ford Custom and Del Rio, etc...

[Art Anderson]

"In the old days", most model car kits, certainly those of then-new cars, were based on promotional models that companies produced for the auto industry.  In that, hardtops and convertibles were common, simply because until hardtops became more fastback looking, they were literally convertible bodies with tops welded onto them.  Models of contemporary station wagons were really pretty scarce though--only a handful of "annual series" station wagons were ever kitted back in the day.

It all has to do with how the model kit in question is planned, from the get-go, as the tooling really needs to be planned in such a way that alternative tooling sections can be made up, then changed into the larger mold base in order to come up with that different version.  To do so afterward isn't necessarily all that easy--in many cases it would be cheaper to simply start an all new tool for that model, as a complete, self-standing unit.

Today, though, "one hit wonder" model kits don't often get made, certainly in the model car world, UNLESS the model in question can truly be projected to sell quite well, due to the fairly high "break-even" point of any newly tooled model kit.  Thus, most every kit you've seen newly released in the past perhaps 20 years has been planned for multiple versions from the outset.

 

Art

[ChrisBcritter]

"In the old days", most model car kits, certainly those of then-new cars, were based on promotional models that companies produced for the auto industry.  In that, hardtops and convertibles were common, simply because until hardtops became more fastback looking, they were literally convertible bodies with tops welded onto them. 

"Literally" goes for the models as well; notice how almost all the hardtop kits by both AMT and Jo-Han had convertible interiors. Some of the early convertibles also had little vestigial stubs of roof C-pillars that would be hidden by the top boot.

Models of contemporary station wagons were really pretty scarce though--only a handful of "annual series" station wagons were ever kitted back in the day.

I've always wondered why AMT kitted the '64 and '65 Chevelles the way they did - full detail El Camino and four-door wagon but Craftsman-only hardtop and no convertible.

[Bill J]

In reference too the Revell Chevy 150, ,they actually made at least one more variant of that kit, or maybe the 150 was a variant of the Bel Air 2 door sedan. There are a few different parts in the Bel Air, the longer fin chrome caps, I think there is no fuel injection for the V8 and the Bel Air has different upholstery patterns on seats and door panels. There is also a back seat, which I always wished was included in the 150/Black Widow kit. While there was the no rear seat option on the "business coupe" 150, it was like a $20 option and most were likely sold with a rear seat as business users were a minority in the big picture. A load of buyers just wanted a new, more reliable car for a lower price and chose the 150 trim package.

Funny how things come around, for me, today, the 150 trim is my first pick for what looks good on a 57 Chevy, with the 210 as a second choice. The Bel Air came with more fluff but the extra trim and gold trim items are just plain ugly to me now. In 57 I would have wanted a Bel Air

[Phirewriter]

Often throughout the 60's when both a hardtop and convertible annual kit was offered the convertibles where usualy run first. After that run the manufacturer went back and cut a roof into the tooling and ran the hardtops, not always but was mostly common practice. This is why many AMT closed cars have the convertible interiors. Back then nobody made much of a fuss about the incorrect rear seats and side panels. This is also why just as annuals were simply updated until the next major body change, convertibles can't be reissued either. The molds simply were changed. Often promos dictated the order or change to a kit since many of the kits were based off the promos. Some promos were only offered as a convertible and changed to a hardtop for the full detail kit run for that year. 

[Art Anderson]

"Literally" goes for the models as well; notice how almost all the hardtop kits by both AMT and Jo-Han had convertible interiors. Some of the early convertibles also had little vestigial stubs of roof C-pillars that would be hidden by the top boot.

I've always wondered why AMT kitted the '64 and '65 Chevelles the way they did - full detail El Camino and four-door wagon but Craftsman-only hardtop and no convertible.

Of course, I have no clear answer as to why, but I can surmise though: In the summer of '64, as I turned 20, I was working in a large local hobby shop (where I continued to work while completing my college degree), I couldn't help but notice that younger modelers seemed not to be much interested in the then-new Chevelle.    Perhaps it was that Chevelle's may have seemed more than just a little "bland" at the time, especially when compared to the new and exciting GTO from Pontiac and the lesser-seen but still exciting Cutlass 442--and then there was that upstart from Ford--Mustang.  Chevelle's Z16 was still approximately a year away, came and went before most teenaged model car builders ever heard of it, even had there been a kit.

I've pointed out that convertible model kits never did seem to sell all that well--AMT and others ran them, as they had the tooling--they did bulk up the numbers--but convertible 3in1 customizing kits tended to be fodder for annual summer "sidewalk sales"--often at fire sale prices.  El Camino and the station wagon, for whatever reason, spoke volumes to AMT's sales people--they could mix those with a trailer and and have the basics of a race team--but by themselves, models of contemporary station wagons seemed to turn off kids---their fathers bought station wagons as family cars, when their sons dreamed of hardtops.

In addition, at least for us at Weber's, slot car racing seemed to have dulled the keen edge of interest in static model car kits--yeah they were still selling, but the real passion among kids with allowance or paper route money in their pockets were slot cars, certainly by 1964 (although but 1967, slot racing, at least around here had settled down to the much less costly Aurora Model Motoring scene as both slot racing centers closed that spring).

In short, I think there were any number of factors which lead to model companies to do what they did, produce and promote what they did, sell what they sold.  Some seem to have been natural forces at the point of sale, others by nameless marketing people.

Art

[Lizard Racing]

Keep in mind too that it costs a LOT of money to produce a kit.  The companies gamble that a certain model will sell.  While a hardtop may sell well, a convertible might not.

I would hope an official from a manufacturer would weigh in on this topic.

[Bob Ellis]

When I was going to old stores back in the early 70s looking for leftover kits, the only kits that I could find from the 1958-1965 era were mostly convertibles.

Having modified kits is better than no kits in some cases. Since the promo business is gone, there is less money to produce new ones.