What kits did you miss ?

[Greg Myers]

No excuse now with the interweb, model magazines, hobby blogs, shows, swap meets, clubs etc.

But back in the day, before all that , if you didn't go to your local hobby shop (if you had one that kept up with new kits) and check out the shelves or talk to the nice person that ran the place, you were pretty much in the dark. 

I remember coming back from the navy in the early seventies, finding quite a gap in my awareness of "New" kits. Years later I discovered I had missed the Aurora Racing Scenes.

 

I did happen upon a few others just by chance, 

Of course a lot of others were just what was on the shelves day to day, at the time.

[Snake45]

Too many from 1966-1969 to mention, mostly due to lack of funds....

Have managed to score a few of them (at dear prices) on eBay, though....

[Greg Myers]

Lack of funds can be a problem, especially as a youngster.

But I'm talking just plain missing some great kits due to no way of knowing they exist.

I really got hooked on the Tamiya 1/12th F1 kits once i discovered they existed ,but it took awhile to find out what all was available.

[Mike 1017]

I miss the 3 in 1 kits

[Ace-Garageguy]

I missed damm near everything between 1969 and 2005, and about half of what went before '69. Just now starting to get a handle on everything that's out there. 

[Art Anderson]

No excuse now with the interweb, model magazines, hobby blogs, shows, swap meets, clubs etc.

But back in the day, before all that , if you didn't go to your local hobby shop (if you had one that kept up with new kits) and check out the shelves or talk to the nice person that ran the place, you were pretty much in the dark. 

I remember coming back from the navy in the early seventies, finding quite a gap in my awareness of "New" kits. Years later I discovered I had missed the Aurora Racing Scenes.

 

I did happen upon a few others just by chance, 

Of course a lot of others were just what was on the shelves day to day, at the time.

Hmm, I have the Aurora Racing Scenes complete set, like 4 of the AMT '28 Ford Sedans, and that double kit.  So what does that make me?  A stingy hoarder?  

[sjordan2]

The best-0f-all 1:8 Imai / Bandai XK-E disappeared from view before I ever heard of it.

[Jon Haigwood]

I miss the $1.49 kits

[Chuck Most]

Pretty much anything and everything by Johan. Wasn't even aware of them until I was about 12 (1994) and even back then it was a little too late. I've made amends by snapping up a few over the years since. 

[1930fordpickup]

Well being that I was not old enough to buy kits until around 76 I missed a ton of cool things. 

[Mooneyzs]

I wish that the Aurora Racing Scenes was still around. I have been lucky enough to pick up a couple kits but I am in dire need of the Donovan 417 kit for a specific project I am wanting to do.

[FordRodnKustom]

This one. I wanted it badly when I was a kid.

[oldcarfan]

My model era was mostly the mid to late 70s, so I missed all the great annual AMT kits of the 60s. By the late 70s, AMTs new kits from the Lesney era seemed pretty poor to me. I did get the MPC annuals though, so that was cool. Revell's kits were pretty advanced for me. I bought Revell's 29 A Pickup, the orange one, from Woolworth's with my birthday money when I was about 10 and resolved the fiddly little suspension parts issue with copious amounts of Testors tube glue.

Edited April 30, 2016 by oldcarfan
Misunderstood the question

[Mark]

Back then, in a lot of places Jo-Han was pretty easy to miss.  Not a lot of stores carried them, so your best chance of seeing them was usually in a hobby shop (or for some odd reason, in drug stores around here).  I do remember seeing the Maverick kit (the one with the stock and funny car versions) back then.  A Ford kit by Jo-Han (that was the first one), that was unusual.

I missed a lot of those late Sixties AMT reissues of annual kits.  A lot of those seemed to be one-shot deals, so if you didn't see them when they hit the store shelves you were out of luck.  Of course you couldn't afford all of them on an allowance anyway.  The AMT-boxed Jo-Han kits were mostly one-shot deals too, so I didn't see some of those until well after the fact.  When I first got online, I did round up a number of things I had back then, wanted back then, wished I'd had back then, would have wanted had I known about them back then...

[ChrisBcritter]

If I had known back then - I'd have stockpiled every '71-'75 Impala I ran across.

I did buy up a batch of Jo-Han reissues around 1980 when I first heard the rumors that the molds were gone, but I missed the '63 Plymouth and '68 Caddy.

[Robberbaron]

Pretty much anything and everything by Johan. Wasn't even aware of them until I was about 12 (1994) and even back then it was a little too late. I've made amends by snapping up a few over the years since. 

I was lucky enough to get a pretty good assortment of Johan kits, but most of what I have is from their later period.  When I was just starting to build basic snap kits, I remember standing in my LHS admiring all the different glue kits that I hoped to build when I was older.  I clearly recall seeing the 1970 Rebel Machine, the Hornet funny car, and 1968 Chrysler 300.  By the time I was able to build glue kits, those were already no longer available.

I also didn't appreciate certain subjects at the time.  I'd love to have the '62 Dodge and Plymouth kits now, but at the time I didn't appreciate their "creative" styling.. I never got the '63 Plymouth kit because I didn't realize it could be built stock, and I thought the custom version shown on the box art was ugly as sin.

One other factor was finances.  I was just a kid, so I couldn't get every single kit I wanted.  Could have gotten the '62 Cutlass, the '63 Starfire, and a bunch of others, but passed them up to get something else.

Edited May 1, 2016 by Robberbaron

[ChrisBcritter]

This one. I wanted it badly when I was a kid.

The ITC Mercury shows up fairly often on eBay; almost always unbuilt. If you're lucky you can get one for around $50. I was fortunate enough to get a gluebomb for free years ago; finally got the missing hood this year.

It's only a so-so representation of the real car; the rear end is fairly good but the body sides taper in at the bottom too much (more like a '40 Ford) instead of being rounded, and the wheelbase is about 3" (about 3mm in scale) too short. The extra length looks like it should be added in the front fenders between the wheels and cowl. The windshield looks a bit chopped, too.

Edited May 1, 2016 by ChrisBcritter

[Edsel-Dan]

Hard to say

Some Jo-Hn

Most of the Desert Race AMT re-issues,(only got 3 from the series)

Had a few chances to get the MPC annual Dodge Pickups, but the Add-on lights in the grill

made be pass them, not knowing they were not cast in place

Now the only way I can do a Squad 51 is the PAPER kit I have!!!

 

I Do have 2 each of the 68 Caddy Convert & 63 Plymouth!!

 

I bought Many Jo-Han at McCrory's!!. 

no less than 4 Police Pursuit

1 pair was $3.25 each, I think the second pair $5.25 each a few years later

 

Also had the chance to get MANY of the AMT Chevy Van-Open Road Mini-Motor Home at AMES!!

[disabled modeler]

I missed many kits over the years due to funds issues but the ones from the 60s and early 70s are the ones I miss the most...

Johans snap and promo like kits and about 1/2 of their glue kits

mid 60s to early 70s MPC kits and some AMT ones.

also miss Hubley kits.

I had the Aurora race shop and cars,etc. once...wish I had them again.

[Mr mopar]

Johan Kit were hard to find in Canada ,I did see a lot of the Richard Petty Superbird, no flat Johan boxes.

[MrObsessive]

I wish I could go back in time to 1978 when I started building models, and the hobby shop I frequented was loaded to the gills with Johan kits! Most of them were the "USA Oldies" ones, but the subject matter didn't appeal to me, and I was just starting in the hobby anyway. I do remember seeing some of the flat box kits there, and I didn't care for those at all simply because of the shape of the box.

Now I could kick myself as most of those kits were selling in the $2.00 range (or less) and I remember seeing them there for quite awhile. 

Ah well.........as they say hindsight is 20/20........

[ChrisBcritter]

Two bucks? I bought a '66 Chrysler convertible kit around '72 from a junk store for 50 cents (could have bought two but the other had a busted windshield frame). Built it, gave the body (only) a decent saddle tan metallic paint job, and thought I'd made out like a bandit when I sold it in around 1979 for $9.00...

Edited May 1, 2016 by ChrisBcritter

[MrObsessive]

Chris, this particular hobby shop seldom if EVER marked anything down! There were kits in there that I swear were there for YEARS and never sold because he would not mark them down........even after the kits were pretty much obsolete with the latest and greatest thing.

Part of it may have been that they were located in a mall, and one of the reasons he eventually quit the biz (sometime in the '90's) was that the owners of the mall were constantly raising their rental rates. He eventually got tired of it, threw in the towel and closed up shop.

[Chuck Most]

One other factor was finances.  I was just a kid, so I couldn't get every single kit I wanted.  Could have gotten the '62 Cutlass, the '63 Starfire, and a bunch of others, but passed them up to get something else.

I was in the same boat back then too. 

Another one I missed was the Ford F-150 Harley Davidson Edition from 2000, the one with the trailer and Dyna Glide. Never saw that kit on the shelves when it was current and didn't know it existed until about seven years later. Did manage to nab one yesterday.  But if I'd known about it back then I'd probably have ten of the things. 

[bismarck]

Missed out on the Testors 1/4 scale visible Hemi engine kit. Now you can't touch a decent one on the bay for less that $150 or so.  I keep hoping they will re-issue it .