What were the first models you can remember building?

[Mike C.]

27 minutes ago, Oldcarfan27 said:

Bigfoot was always my favorite. 

Mine too. I had a poster of one of the very first ones (I think it was a '74) in my bedroom as a kid. I think I had to order it directly from Midwest 4-wheel drive center in St. Louis. That poster is probably worth some coin now.

[Mike C.]

9 minutes ago, Mike C. said:

Mine too. I had a poster of one of the very first ones (I think it was a '74) in my bedroom as a kid. I think I had to order it directly from Midwest 4-wheel drive center in St. Louis. That poster is probably worth some coin now.

I google picture searched the poster. Couldn't find anything that rang a bell. I was way before they even thought of crushing cars in huge arenas. Way before the whole thing got way out of hand. ???

[NYLIBUD]

Yea when i was younger my friends and i would go to monster truck shows/events,with tons of car crushing.And i remember how dam loud they were cause when we did go,it was indoors.So when the trucks would do donuts with the engines wide open,it’s was just so F’ing LOUD.We all loved it,great fun.

[oldscool]

I remember going to an indoor show that included one with a tank body (fiberglass I'm sure) that was running nitro. Now that was loud!

[OneTrickPony]

My first model kit was a stage coach.

Queue the "old" jokes...

It really was a stage coach. Early to mid 60s. I was big into cowboys.

[Slotto]

I remember my brother building a stage coach back in the seventies. Did your have a canvas top?

[Oldcarfan27]

5 hours ago, OneTrickPony said:

My first model kit was a stage coach.

Queue the "old" jokes...

It really was a stage coach. Early to mid 60s. I was big into cowboys.

Was it a REAL one????

Seriously, was it a wooden kit? Never seen a plastic kit of a Conestoga wagon. Sounds like it would be a fun one to build. 

[1972coronet]

I seem to remember the Monogram 1/32 scale Funny Car kits being my first kits (age 4, 1974, ad seq.). I enjoyed the h__l out of them!
Now that Atlantis is reissuing them, I'll have to get them (but I have a difficult time paying +/- $20.00 for one!)

Lindberg's 1/32 scale kits were another favourite. 

Earliest glue kits were MPC's annuals, 1977 (1978 models): Datsun Pickup, Chevy Pickup (and my dismay at the Dust Devil iteration for its false advertising of a 2WD version on the box!), Pinto Runabout, Pinto Wagon, Dodge Pickup, etc., etc.

The one which eluded me was the Monogram 1/8 scale 1932 Ford Roadster! The department store in town had an original (easily 10 years old by 1974) on the top shelf, and 4 year old me wanted it badly! I honestly believe -thought- that I would be able to drive it after I built it -- it was positively HUGE! Certainly, its retail price (Middle Class/Upper-Middle-Class store) was likely a deterrent - I can imagine it was probably a $15.00 kit back then.

I now have original-issue 'replacements' of the MPC 1978 C10, Pinto Runabout, Pinto Wagon, Datsun Pickup, and now, the "reimagined" D100 pickup (plus an original 1974 Monza annual). ALL are waiting for me to up my game before I start on them (and, hopefully, no pensive earthquakes to ruin/destroy them before I get to them).

 

[OneTrickPony]

1 hour ago, Oldcarfan27 said:

Was it a REAL one????

Seriously, was it a wooden kit? Never seen a plastic kit of a Conestoga wagon. Sounds like it would be a fun one to build. 

Plastic model of a Wells Fargo stage with horses, all molded in brown. I was about 6 or 7 so it didn't last long. 

[1972coronet]

2 hours ago, OneTrickPony said:

Plastic model of a Wells Fargo stage with horses, all molded in brown. I was about 6 or 7 so it didn't last long. 

Unlike their predatory loans from twenty years ago...

[Rbray47]

First for me was a Monogram snap Dodge Daytona. It was still a new car, so about 85 or 86. I was 6 or 7.

What got me interested was my older brother's models. He came home from the Navy with several he had built. He put them on display in my other brother's room. He says he doesn't know what happened to them, but eventually I'd like to recreate them. I did build a replica of the only one that wasn't finished. MPC Dodge Supercharger 74 Charger. He had sprayed it black and that was as far as he'd gotten. I painted mine black too. 

[Scott Colmer]

On 9/20/2022 at 2:57 PM, StevenGuthmiller said:

Does anybody else remember that weird sweet smell that you used to get when you opened a new molded in color Monogram kit back in the late 70s / early 80s?

Yes!!!!  In fact I opened a sealed Rattler back in 2005 or so just for that smell. It wasn't there, but I was able to devalue the kit by a few bucks.

 

The first kit I built was to reassemble a Monogram Black Widow found at the bottom of my Great Grandma's toy box. There were parts of a Long John in there too. I was 4 or 5. 

By 10 or so my room was filled.

 

[Oldcarfan27]

1 hour ago, Scott Colmer said:

The first kit I built was to reassemble a Monogram Black Widow found at the bottom of my Great Grandma's toy box. There were parts of a Long John in there too. I was 4 or 5. 

How did she have models in her toy box? Did somebody else build too?

[deuces wild]

My first kit was the MPC WYNNS Charger f.e.d. The one with the free iron on back in '71.... I think I paid $1.87 for it at Kresgi's or a Federal dept store... I'm glad MPC came out with these kits again some years back that I picked up 2 of them...

[NYRich72]

Can't say for sure, but my dad and I built a bunch of warship and plane models back in the 1950's. Yeah, I'm old. ?

My first model car was an early 60's T-bird somewhere around 1963. How did it turn out? Don't ask!

[TonyK]

16 hours ago, OneTrickPony said:

Plastic model of a Wells Fargo stage with horses, all molded in brown. I was about 6 or 7 so it didn't last long. 

Reminds me of the 20 Mule Team Borax model still in the box that was in my Dad's work room. As a kid I thought that would be a huge project and very different from the basic plane or car models.

[Scott Colmer]

10 hours ago, Oldcarfan27 said:

How did she have models in her toy box? Did somebody else build too?

Yes! One of my father's cousins - like maybe 18-20 yo built car models. Great Grandma had them on a shelf in the TV room. When I built the first release of the S'cool bus I was so proud to add it to the shelf. When she died, my father's family converged on the house. I never had a chance to get those models.

[Big John]

Boy, takes one back..  I think the earliest was helping Dad build a 20 mule team borax wagon set that you could get with box tops.  Helped Mom with a one of the Knight in armor kit.  Don't remember which was my first model I built myself, probably the USS Olympia, in 6th grade.  First car I remember was in 61 when I built an AMT 32 pickup which I chopped the top on using a hacksaw and gluing thread to the distributor for plug wires, inspire I expect by an article in Model Car Science.  And all us boys of an age got Big Ts for Christmas the first year they were available.  Alas all gone except the memories and magazines.

[sjordan2]

[JJ Deuce]

hard to pinpoint the first one.  I know I built several of the 1/32 monogram snap-togethers, and later the snap-tites.  I remember a blue Jo-Han cadillac of mid-70s vintage, too.  Also the MPC snap-together 50 Merc.

[Daryl Romain]

One of these. JoHan 1962 Dodge, in 1962. 

 

Edited September 30, 2022 by Daryl Romain

[W Humble]

Revell Highway Pioneers, bought for my dad and built with him, which was great because he died of a coronary in 1958 when I was twelve.  I did a lot of Aurora Famous Fighters, Revell and Renwal military, and Monogram aircraft -- plus half the warships on the market, too!  I was a real wastrel!

But automobiles: the Revell '56 Ford ragtop kit; I think I had two, and the '56 (?) Buick, followed by the discovery of AMT/SMP and soon after JoHan 1'25 cars in 1958.  That was my real beginning; I gave away all my other type kits -- and sunk my navy with firecrackers -- and concentrated on 'customizing' more or less the 3-in-1 kits, adding Revel MoPar offerings in '62, and some other oddballs like Palmer and Strombecker (their cool Scarab 'slot' car, which I'm rebuilding) before it mostly ended in 1965 when the real world got serious. Studying hard to keep my 2-S draft deferment, fighting fire in the summers, and getting serious about gals!  Drafted in 1968, I packed up my kits, built and unbuilt (still working on some from '60) in a big box that got smushed.  Saved, but lots of radical repairs!  I found some bits from the Highway Pioneer era a while back. Sheesh!  Wick

[Horrorshow]

Donnie Allison Wood Brother Mercury. I was around 10 years old. 

[TIP-TOP]

First model car....wow going way back in time. Many of the early model cars you had to glue the left and right side bodies, the fenders doors were separate from the hood roof trunk. It was a Ford Galaxy 500 if I remember. At only 12 with no experience in 1964, I had clue squeezing out all over the body and glass! What a mess....But what fun and in my young mind what a beautiful car I had!

[Jon Cole]

I probably watched my dad "helped me build" a Jaguar XK140, iirc. Some oddball brand kit.

EDIT: Apparently, it was an XK120 by "RINGO".

Edited October 10, 2022 by Jon Cole