Model Trivia

[Tom Setzer]

What was the best selling Racing Model In its First Release?

[MAGNUM4342]

Richard Petty 1973 Dodge Charger in 1/16th?

[Tom Setzer]

Good Guess, but I'm sorry to say it's wrong!

[gtx6970]

How about a hint ?

Revell kit ?

[Tom Setzer]

!960's Revell!

[gtx6970]

orange crate ?

[iBorg]

Either Tommy Ivo Showboat or Tony Nancy Double kit.

The Prudhomme Snake funny car can't be far behind.

[oldscool]

SWC Willys?

[Bartster]

SWC Willys?

......Gotta be.!?

[cobraman]

I was thinking the same thing.

[Tom Setzer]

Tommy Ivo's 4 Buick powered Dragster sold 50,000 copies in it's First 5 days, and then Sold out 3 more release in it's first summer!

[62rebel]

so, we're working on mere conjecture, without established facts to rely on? i mean, that's fun and all, but without reliable data, it's meaningless.

ah. someone with data beat me to the keyboard by seconds!

[Tom Setzer]

My Source is Tommy Ivo in an interview he gave Hot Rod!

Now someone else post a questionws, that they can verify!

Edited July 24, 2012 by Tom Setzer

[iBorg]

Wait a minute.......I was right. What's my prize?

[Tom Setzer]

Knowing that you were Right,

[jbwelda]

would tommy ivo necessarily be privy to those statistics? i mean he might know about the reissues from the royalty checks but the part about selling x amount of units in y amount of time sounds a bit specious.

not to deny him his respect though.

i would wonder how many of those kits actually got built. i mean completed! mine certainly didnt!

[iBorg]

Got to give me credit for trying.......

[Agent G]

How about the guy with the correct answer asks the next question? So forth and so on, that will make this one carry on for a while.

G

[martinfan5]

I have no answer, this is just a post to add to my post count

[Art Anderson]

would tommy ivo necessarily be privy to those statistics? i mean he might know about the reissues from the royalty checks but the part about selling x amount of units in y amount of time sounds a bit specious.

not to deny him his respect though.

i would wonder how many of those kits actually got built. i mean completed! mine certainly didnt!

I would think it entirely possible for a licensor to know how many units of a kit for which he is being paid a royalty are sold, and in what time frame. Royalties are based on an expected production run, and for that, payment is made up front as a condition of licensing. Subsequent royalty checks generally give the sales numbers which corroborate the amount of the payment.

It might be a good thing to look back to the early 1960's when the kit in question was first released: Bear in mind, that for all the fervent popularity of model car kits in general back then, the "pickings" were actually very limited compared to today--so any new kit stood the chance of selling in very high numbers right out of the gate. In addition, the "Showboat" was one of the earliest replicas of a known dragster, and that had to heighten the interest in the model kit.

Consider that by 1965, AMT Corporation was selling 10's of millions of model car kits annually, meaning that several of their most popular subjects were selling in the hundreds of thousands within the year of their introduction. As time wore on, however, the increasingly larger selection provided by AMT and all the rest tended to crimp the sales of any one individual kit--proof that there was an upper limit to the marketplace; sales being divided among more and more kits on the market.

But yes, it's entirely possible that what Ivo stated has much more than just a "grain" of truth.

Art

[Modelmartin]

I remember the Dukes Of Hazzard Charger selling over a million kits when it was originally out. I remember seeing huge stacks of them at the big chain toy stores and I even remember an article about it somewhere back then. Of course, I was a "serious" builder and wouldn't touch the kit.