randx0 Posted February 29, 2012 Posted February 29, 2012 I always wonder why if models were so popular and selling in the millions why they seem so rare. Your thoughts?
george 53 Posted February 29, 2012 Posted February 29, 2012 Caz they're OVER 40 years old, and they ARE popular with us older modelers who still want to build the cars we built in our youth. At least it's that way for me.
Art Anderson Posted February 29, 2012 Posted February 29, 2012 I always wonder why if models were so popular and selling in the millions why they seem so rare. Your thoughts? Very simple! Even though those 1960's model car kits were produced in mega-quantities, the 1960's was a time when model car building was a craze, a fad not unlike electronic, video and computer games today. In short, just about every red-blooded American boy, aged about 10-16 built (or at least tried to build!) model cars back then. And, that, my friend, says it all--perhaps several million kits a year from the likes of AMT Corporation, bought up and built (or at least cobbled together) by equally millions of baby-boom boys. End of story! Art
Modlbldr Posted February 29, 2012 Posted February 29, 2012 (edited) Then we blew them up with firecrackers or set them on fire! ...Or our parents threw them out when we left home. THAT'S the End of story! Later- Edited February 29, 2012 by Modlbldr
ranma Posted February 29, 2012 Posted February 29, 2012 Lets not forget Promo's were really easy to get.
Bartster Posted February 29, 2012 Posted February 29, 2012 Then we blew them up with firecrackers or set them on fire! ...Or our parents threw them out when we left home. THAT'S the End of story! Later- .......DING, DING, DING! We have a winner. When we find the survivors, we tend to hoard them!
Foxer Posted February 29, 2012 Posted February 29, 2012 Then we blew them up with firecrackers or set them on fire! ...Or our parents threw them out when we left home. THAT'S the End of story! Later- Exactly what I was going to say!!!
Guest Dr. Odyssey Posted February 29, 2012 Posted February 29, 2012 Just like real cars that old. They wear out and the molds/dies that produce them wear out and they become, wait for it,.... RARE.
Erik Smith Posted February 29, 2012 Posted February 29, 2012 Not all 60s kits are rare. There are a few molds that have surived the test of time and progress and are still around - AMT '62 Buick Electra, '63 Galaxie, '61 Galaxie "styline", etc.... The one's that are rare are a simple case of supply and demand.
MyBradKeselowski Posted February 29, 2012 Posted February 29, 2012 Then we blew them up with firecrackers or set them on fire! ...Or our parents threw them out when we left home. THAT'S the End of story! Later- That's a waste of beautifully looking plastic from the box lol
Darin Bastedo Posted February 29, 2012 Posted February 29, 2012 The way model companies operated in the 60's and 70's is very different from how the operate now. Back then for instance AMT would get the promo contract for the 1968 Chevy Impala. That would pay for tooling and such, and then after the dealers got their promos they would modify the tooling into a model kit. they produced the 68s for a year, and then the next year they would re-tool it into the 69s. That removed any option of re-issuing the 68 kit. If a vintage tool does exist today it is either because it wasn't part of the promo/annual program (like the AMT Mercedes 300sl or the 1955 nomad) or it is the last year of that kit's annual production (like the 1980 Volare or 1979 Monte carlo) That is why kits like the 1977 Volare roadrunner super pack cars are so rare. they were one year only. Today things are very different. when Moebius released it's Hudson hornet, the intention from the beginning was to make a model kit they could sell for years. The Revell 1969 Chargers will most likely be produces for decades to come, thus kits like these will never be as rare as the one year only kits from the 60s and 70s.
Guest Johnny Posted February 29, 2012 Posted February 29, 2012 Fun is going to a show and buying one of those expensive "collector" owned kits then telling the guy you plan on building it! The look on their face is priceless! Seen them try and buy the kits back some times!!!
Dave Van Posted February 29, 2012 Posted February 29, 2012 Supply and demand....simple as that. As a kid growing up in So Cal in the 60's all the guys in our group built models. But so many of them ended up being blown up, set afire and played with outside never to be seen again......didn't leave many for those of us wanting them again 40 years later. I know for a fact we destroyed a bunch of high dollar (today) promos with firecrackers and gasoline!
Guest Johnny Posted February 29, 2012 Posted February 29, 2012 Supply and demand....simple as that. As a kid growing up in So Cal in the 60's all the guys in our group built models. But so many of them ended up being blown up, set afire and played with outside never to be seen again......didn't leave many for those of us wanting them again 40 years later. I know for a fact we destroyed a bunch of high dollar (today) promos with firecrackers and gasoline! A sad fact many of us have to confess to doing. Who ever dreamed that these things would become so expensive or that we would one day rue the day we destroyed the one we had! But the thing that bothers me atre the guys that have cases of some of these stashed away in a closet never to see daylight and not one built model in the place.
ChrisPflug Posted February 29, 2012 Posted February 29, 2012 Even in the 70s I remember using promos for sandbox toys- my neighbors dad worked for Chrysler and I remember he had a bunch of 68-69 Coronets My uncles models from the late 60s ended up as big boxes of parts at my grandparents' house that I "recycled" when visiting but ended up going to the dump somewhere along the way
Ramfins59 Posted February 29, 2012 Posted February 29, 2012 I never blew up or burned my model cars back in the 60's. I DID blow up and burn the tanks, half-tracks & Jeeps that I built. I left all my models at my parents home when I got married... I also left 3 foot high stacks of comic books in my closet there, ((DC)Superman, Action, Batman, (Marvel Comics) Fantastic Four, Spiderman, etc., Archie, etc.. My parents were the Superintedents of the APT. Bldg. we lived in at that time... When I moved out to get married, all those comic books wound up in the Incinerator...!!!! My younger brother probably destroyed all my models like he did all my Lionel Trains...
GMP440 Posted February 29, 2012 Posted February 29, 2012 Thinking about this; just imagine the giant garbage dumps that grew into big multi acre hills after 40 or so years and being able excavate them. I bet you find alot of model cars there that were thrown away , ending up in the landfills.
Bartster Posted February 29, 2012 Posted February 29, 2012 HMMmmmm......How well does styrene hold up after 40-50 yrs in the ground? Anyone up for an archaeological expedition?
imatt88 Posted February 29, 2012 Posted February 29, 2012 Bart, And thats the name of THAT tune!! Thats exactly what happened to me. When I went in the USAF at 18, my mom sold all my HO train stuff, and chucked all my models. I was not happy to say the least
Bartster Posted February 29, 2012 Posted February 29, 2012 I dig it! My mother remarried in '76 & we had to move. She said I could pick out 10 models to take with me. Man what a choice! I crammed as much as I could into the 10 biggest model boxes I had (1 was the Big T . I never counted, but at least 1 & sometimes 2or3 every weekend for 6 1/2 yrs! Do the math, thats alot of plastic somewhere in a landfill! So many would be collectors items now!
Eshaver Posted March 1, 2012 Posted March 1, 2012 Prior to the Hurricane , Agnes in 1973, I could say I had all the annuals of A M T and Jo-Han , a decent collection of miscellaneous Hawk, Aurora , most of the I M C . M P C , and a smattering of some Revell and Monogram offerings .I was in a old storage building on the second floor very, well a block away from the James River . For the most part , we were only given maybe a hour to evacuate the area. I put what I could in the third floor as no one was renting it at the time . For ten days , we weren't allowed into the vicinity. I lost everything , including a Ford Van I had only recently purchased almost new . I saw it floating upside down in the Kanawa canal adjacent to the James River . When I finally was allowed back, everything and i mean everything had floated out to the river as one of the walls of the building had collapsed . Ed Shaver
Erik Smith Posted March 1, 2012 Posted March 1, 2012 Prior to the Hurricane , Agnes in 1973, I could say I had all the annuals of A M T and Jo-Han , a decent collection of miscellaneous Hawk, Aurora , most of the I M C . M P C , and a smattering of some Revell and Monogram offerings .I was in a old storage building on the second floor very, well a block away from the James River . For the most part , we were only given maybe a hour to evacuate the area. I put what I could in the third floor as no one was renting it at the time . For ten days , we weren't allowed into the vicinity. I lost everything , including a Ford Van I had only recently purchased almost new . I saw it floating upside down in the Kanawa canal adjacent to the James River . When I finally was allowed back, everything and i mean everything had floated out to the river as one of the walls of the building had collapsed . Ed Shaver That's no good Ed! Tremendous loss all the way around - not just in models. I wonder if any models are still flotsam somewhere?
scalemodeler Posted March 1, 2012 Posted March 1, 2012 (edited) Caz they're OVER 40 years old, and they ARE popular with us older modelers who still want to build the cars we built in our youth. At least it's that way for me. You Bet YA!.......... and they are COOL too! Edited March 1, 2012 by scalemodeler
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