American SATCO?

[jsc]

Does anyone know what happened to American Satco? Or someone who carries white walls?

[Roncla]

Does anyone know what happened to American Satco? Or someone who carries white walls?

Modelhaus has heaps of whitewalls in a variety of sizes. Some of them are copies of the old Satcos.

[gui_tarzan]

I met Roger (Rodger?) several years ago when we went on a family vacation. Nice guy! We stopped at his shop in Iowa on the way back from the Mall of America. It was in an old school building and he also ran the town's post office in that same building. All thirty or so PO boxes... lol!

I bought several items from him including a few kits. He told me the history of a bunch of his products including the awesome rubber tires he sold. I wish I could have picked up more from him but as always, I was low on money at the time.

[Art Anderson]

Did American SATCO actually produce the tires themselves or were they simply re-packaged Aoshima tires (or whomever supplied the tires to Aoshima)? Or was it a mix of SATCO's own unique tires and some repackaged Aoshima tires?

Roger Sill was a manager at AMT/Ertl in the 1980's, left there in the late 80's, forming his own company, American SatCo. Also, at the time (and it may still be so) virtually every Japanese model company making model car kits had their neoprene rubber tires produced by small independent contractors in Shuzoka City Japan, the city which had more model companies than any other place on earth (Tamiya, Hasegawa, Aoshima, Gunze--and virtually every other Japanese model company was located there).

Sill was able, with his knowledge of the model side of the hobby industry, to tap into that source, and thus began marketing those tires as separate sets in the US. About 1990 or so, he had a Chinese injection molding company tool up a late-50's Firestone 7:00-15 tire in PVC, with a separate white sidewall insert, which in many ways set a standard for the US model car manufacturers, as this was one of the very first accurately tooled 50's or 60's bias ply tires done in 1/25 scale. Roger also imported Aoshima kits for several years, and yes, he did contract with a couple of resin casters to make left hand drive dashboards for them to insert in the kits.

However, it appears that Satco was not as profitable as Sills would have liked, as he pretty much was out of the game by 2002 or thereabouts. I last saw him when I was at Racing Champions/Ertl at Dyersville IA in July 2004, when I was working for RC2 after they bought out Playing Mantis, the original maker of Johnny Lightning diecast miniature cars (where I did product development from 2002-2005) to attend a product line announcement meeting from the various divisions. During a 2 hour break from one day's seminars, I walked across the building to their outlet store to check out what they might have to interest me, and ran into Roger Sills, who was then into 54mm military figures, buying a supply of Britains Ltd miniature soldiers. He didn't say much about what happened to Satco, and I didn't ask either.

Art

[Art Anderson]

Modelhaus has heaps of whitewalls in a variety of sizes. Some of them are copies of the old Satcos.

Satco offered just one whitewall tires, and that was their late 50's Firestone with 3" whitewall inserts.

[dimaxion]

<p>Rodger offered in the first round of American Satco kits ;</p>

<p>&nbsp; &nbsp;Nissan Pathfinder ; Mitsubishi (Sport Ute.) ; and one or two more I don't remember . Well done Curbside kits with deeply engraved Chassis . &nbsp; Thanx ..</p>

<p>&nbsp; *Edit ; Mitsubishi Montero , Toyota 4 Runner , Nissan Pathfinder , Subaru Impressa Wagon . These are the Oshima Kits .</p>

<p>&nbsp; &nbsp;The tires :</p>

<p>&nbsp; All of these&nbsp;Entrepreneurial sources dried up&nbsp;&nbsp;in Japan making these tires . They were the source of these small parts , small quantity for the Model Manufacturing in Japan . Sub-contracted by the Large Corps. the in Home Market of Japan . &nbsp; Thanx ..</p>

Edited April 10, 2013 by dimaxion

[Casey]

[horsepower]

The Street Rod "Big n Little" set that the produced, was the tires that came in the Testors "Aluma Coupe", but without the nasty habit of splitting after they were mounted for awhile, I especially miss their "Pro Street" tire as it was of a small diameter compared to most other tires that are out there, as it is only about a 28" tall tire in scale.

[raildogg]

Man I really miss these, they were great tires. I got one pair of Desesrt Dogs and one pair of sweet slicks saved for future special builds. I wish he would start up again we really need a supplier like that.

[Erik Smith]

I ordered sets of the all the truck tires back in the day - must have been around '95 because I remember the ads Casey posted above.

It's a sign how difficult it is to make $ in the car hobby business. Here was a guy with intimate industry knowlwedge, networking skills and contacts, and a great product, but still couldn't make it profitable enough to continue.

[Jon Cole]

I have a set of Satco Firestone ww's, but am puzzled by how to use them. Just cut out the center cross? If so, why is there an axle hole in the center?

[Mark]

You can cut out the center portion, or leave it in and use the axle boss if the wheels you want to use will fit...

[socal76]

Nobody mentioneded the '66 Impala they were going to produce abut the time Revell was dong their '65 Impala dand AMT was doing their '67 Impalal. Since the '66 was my favorite of the three I was eagerly awaiting this issue, only to never see it make it into production.

[Ron Hamilton]

The American Satco Firestone Deluxe Champion in their different iterations have been my go to tire for many years. I bought up as many sets as I could get. I also bought some of Modelhaus' tires too. I am just sorry that they are out of production. I am quite sure that some of the enterprising suppliers out there can create a set of tires that are just as good, ay the right price for the replica stock and mild custom builder.

[Jon Cole]

Ron, can you help me on Satco Firestone w/w's? Did you cut away the center cross? If so, what did you use for a wheel? Same if you kept the cross, what wheel?
I may go with this tire on a early 50's custom, I like the tire, just not sure what wheel can be pared with it, or what to do about that awkward tire center. Thanks.

[dimaxion]

These Centers Roger left for the builders not having Inner wheels . I find myself in this Predicament these days .  The outer wheels will fit with some or little or no modification . I do not have enough of these also as well withput Red-Line / Blue -Line F70X14 Wide Ovals .. Thanx .. 

[gui_tarzan]

We stopped at Rodger's shop back in the late '90s on our way back home from the Mall of America. He told me on the phone that he was in a tiny town way out in the middle of nowhere and he was right. It took forever to get there because he was way out on two-lane backroads surrounded by nothing but farms. He actually had an old school building that housed the local post office boxes and he was the postmaster at the time. Either the gym or the cafeteria (I forget now) was his warehouse and I wish I had bought more than I did when we were there. He is a seriously nice guy and was fun to meet and to deal with. We also stopped at the Ertl outlet in Dyersville after we left there but there wasn't much to see except farm toys.

[Rob Hall]

Didn't Round 2 AMT do whitewalls similar to that a few years ago in their tire parts packs? 

[Mike Chernecki]

What happened to the tire molds? Any chance of them being reissued by another company? It would be nice if Aoshima or Pegasus would release 50s & 60s wide whites, redlines, etc, instead of the rubber bands they put out now.

[StevenGuthmiller]

Modelhaus did exact replicas of the Satco wide whites, minus the center "cross".

I believe the reason Modelhaus was "allowed" to produce them was because the were given the ok from whomever had the rights to them.

That tells me that American Satco is no longer & will probably not return

I wish someone was still producing them.

They were my absolute favorite tire!

I think I still have at least a couple of sets left from Modelhaus.

I'm saving them for a "special" occasion!

 

Steve

 

[Makeout]

Maybe the wrong place to ask but anyone have the LH drive dash for the Rav4?

[StevenGuthmiller]

On 12/18/2020 at 12:00 AM, Makeout said:

Maybe the wrong place to ask but anyone have the LH drive dash for the Rav4?

You're right.

Wrong place to ask.

 

 

 

 

Steve

[Casey]

Did American SATCO import Aoshima (an other kits from Japanese manufacturers?) kit, open them, insert their own tires, then "seal" them back up with their own sticker, like so?

[Jordan White]

I don't think I've seen that at all, I normally see the plain black and white American Satco boxes with their parts added in.

[sfhess]

1 hour ago, Casey said:

Did American SATCO import Aoshima (an other kits from Japanese manufacturers?) kit, open them, insert their own tires, then "seal" them back up with their own sticker, like so?

Probably.