Hey, Round 2, Moebius....

[Richard Bartrop]

..maybe if you gave away a swimming pool or two, that would drum up business.

Seriously, it speaks volumes about how much the business has changed.   From the Hemmings Blog

[Bainford]

Wow, that's pretty crazy.

If I recall, in the late 60s Revell held a sweepstakes contest in which the grand prize was a Gemini space capsule.

Edited September 5, 2019 by Bainford

[OldNYJim]

1 hour ago, Bainford said:

If I recall, in the late 60s Revell held a sweepstakes contest in which the grand prize was a Gemini space capsule.

Imagine THAT turning up at your house as a nine year old, and having to explain to your Mom what it's doing there

[iamsuperdan]

Wasn't there another company that gave away a fighter jet?

[Mark]

Revell gave away the space capsule and the fighter jets.  They didn't go to the winners, but rather to a school or park chosen by the winner.

[GMP440]

I the mid 70's Revell had a contest where the grand prize was a Cessna 152.

[Tom Geiger]

They gave away real cars too!

Augie Hiscano once won, I believe it was a Mercury Comet.

There was a fellow named Chuck that I met in modeling circles. I forget his last name.  He won the Ed Roth contest and Ed was supposed to build him his custom model in 1:1.  Ed never came through so Revell gave him a 1:1 Corvette.  He no sooner got the car and Uncle Sam invited him to a little tour of Viet Nam!

 

[Daddyfink]

Sometimes I wonder what happened to these Prizes

[Muncie]

The Mercury capsule was donated to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland, Oregon.  It was one of their displays for a long time.  OMSI moved expanded and changed focus.  I:'m not sure if it's still there...

[tim boyd]

16 hours ago, Tom Geiger said:

They gave away real cars too!

Augie Hiscano once won, I believe it was a Mercury Comet.

There was a fellow named Chuck that I met in modeling circles. I forget his last name.  He won the Ed Roth contest and Ed was supposed to build him his custom model in 1:1.  Ed never came through so Revell gave him a 1:1 Corvette.  He no sooner got the car and Uncle Sam invited him to a little tour of Viet Nam!

 

I met Chuck when he was a Clay Modeler in the Ford Design Studio (since retired).  It's quite a story and not at all good that Roth did not follow through on the commitment - Chuck was hoping (my memory is a big foggy on this) that the 1/1 scale version of his model would have helped him get a Scholarship or Sponsorship to attend the Los Angeles Art Center, which was (and still is) considered one of the two most prestigious automotive design programs in the world.  

Chuck usually has a table each year at the Motor City NNL in November....  TIM 

[ChrisBcritter]

On 9/5/2019 at 11:25 AM, iamsuperdan said:

Wasn't there another company that gave away a fighter jet?

Yep - Revell. I did some research on that one for the Warbird Information Exchange (Snake and Jesse are WIXers and probably remember)

Boy's Life, February 1964:

 

August 1964:

 

October 1965:

Further research determined that it was F-86F serial # 51-13082, and after being displayed at Jack's school, ended up at McClellan AFB and still survives today:

 

[SfanGoch]

If Jack were smart, he would have stated that his yard was his favorite recreation area.