Tom Daniel - Most Famous Kit Designer Ever?

[Casey]

Is Tom Daniel the most famous or maybe the most well-known kit designer ever?

How popular were Tom Daniel designed kits in their heyday? With nearly four pages worth in the Monogram 1973 catalog, I'd say very popular.

Edited September 5, 2018 by Casey

[Tom Geiger]

Tom Daniel was very inspirational to me as a young model builder. I had a whole bunch of his kits, Pie Wagon, T'rantula and Tijuana Taxi as a kid. I was fortunate enough to meet him at the GSL in 2003. I actually got to sit down and have a few drinks with him. Wow!

The other figure that shaped my modeling in my youth was Bob Paeth of Revell and his involvement with my nemesis kit, the Revell 1957 Nomad. I spent a nice evening with Bob at GSL 2001, where he told me stories about the development of that kit;

At the 2003 GSL, I asked and found that although Bob and Tom knew of each other professionally, they had never met! So I had the great honor of introducing them. And as you can see Tom Daniel took that very seriously! In the photo, left to right is me (with hair!), Bob Paeth and Tom Daniel. Call this the moment that all my planets were in perfect alignment! The little kid inside me rejoices! If I only knew what would be when I was a 12 year old modeler!

[Ace-Garageguy]

Great story, Tom.

Mr. Daniel certainly had a fertile imagination. Fun stuff.

Edited November 23, 2013 by Ace-Garageguy

[slusher]

It is good to see many of his kits are still around. l would think most builders has a favorite Tom Daniel kit...

Edited November 23, 2013 by slusher

[disabled modeler]

Id love to have the purple steam roller(Un-Real roller)again....had one when I was very young. I always liked theses models they were fun to build.

[gtx6970]

Anyone know how many of his kits were based on actual cars of the time ? or was the actual car based off of the model kit of the time

Cherry Pie or the Red Baron as examples

In other words which one came 1st

[Ace-Garageguy]

Anyone know how many of his kits were based on actual cars of the time ? or was the actual car based off of the model kit of the time

Cherry Pie or the Red Baron as examples

In other words which one came 1st

In the case of the Red Baron at least, the full-scale car was built after and based on the model. While the model incorporated a significantly underscale representation of an early Mercedes aircraft engine, the real car used a Pontiac OHC 6-cylinder to get the approximate look of the kit version. There's also a V8 version somewhere, and a semi-rat semi-copy with a straight-8.

[Mike Kucaba]

For me, those kits and some of the other cartoon stuff spelled the end of modeling for me. Real cars were on the horizon, and girls/womem were already there.

[Jantrix]

As a kid I built what I saw at car shows. Most of Toms work was too outlandish. I have an appreciation now as an adult, though.

[Tom Geiger]

In the case of the Red Baron at least, the full-scale car was built after and based on the model.

There is also a full size Beer Wagon build to resemble the model.

I think it was the comic book ads for Tom Daniel kits that got me into them as a kid.

[Daddyfink]

I would love to see the rest of his kit re-issued again! To me they where some of the coolest kits out there and you did not have to do any kit bashing to make some really far out cars!!

And yes, Tom, it is very surreal to meet your childhood heroes. And having a drink with them is far out!

[Brett Barrow]

^{Id say he's probably the only kit designer known by name by the general modeling public in the US.}

^{Inside the industry I'd say George Totef, who developed the one-piece slide-molded body for AMT, then went on to found MPC and later led the resurrection of Lindberg in the 90's would be the most famous designer.}

^{There's also John Mueller, who goes back to the 60's with AMT, and was one of the instrumental figures ushering in the "modern era" of Chinese-tooled model kits.}

[Scott Colmer]

I built all the Tom Daniel models as a kid. He was a hero to me. I've told this story before, but...

When I was 12ish I wrote at letter to Tom Daniel at Monogram Models. I included a drawing of a VW trike. In my mind I dreamed of Tom being inspired by my drawing enough to create a model kit. Well, it did not work out that way. I received a letter back from a marketing person thanking me for the nice drawing. And they sent the drawing back. I was crushed. What I learned as an adult, Tom had left Monogram by that time and they were recycling his ideas.

Fast forward to 2012. I participated in an on line contest that Tom Daniel judged. I placed in the unfinished class and received an e-mail from Tom. He talked about my entry and gave me some ideas for the finished product. Childhood dream come true.

I think my building is inspired by all the designs of his I built as a kid. That would be a dream job to design cars and see them as models.

Other than his custom Vette, I do not think he ever modeled an existing car.

Scott

[Vince Nemanic]

Let's see how many other kit designers we can name. I'll start.

Jim Keeler (Revell & Aurora)

Bob Paeth (Revell)

Budd Anderson (Revell, AMT & MPC)

Tom West (MPC, Accurate Miniatures & Galaxie)

Tom "PhantomPhan" Montgomery (AMT)

[Scott Colmer]

John Borgasairain - AMT Showrods. Gypsy Wagon, Hemi Howler Etc.

[John Teresi]

I would say Tom Daniel was my favorite model car designer ……..I was and still am a big fan of his work……..I attended the GSL a couple of years ago and got to meet Tom……..he loved my replica box art of the "Tijuana Taxi"…….. we also sat down and had a drink …….he is a great guy…….that really made my day…….George Barris also was a big influence in the day

Edited November 23, 2013 by John Teresi

[Luc Janssens]

Did he actually design the kits, or did he make a concept drawing, on which engineers then made an exploded view deciding on parts breakdown and then blueprints with actual dimensions, to which the tooling model was build.

Wondering...

[Greg Myers]

Either way I'm sure at one time or another we all have built a Tom Daniel kit and maybe even cherished a few of them.

But I'm of the mind that of all the car kits out there his were probably the one thing that separates car modelers from the serious side of modeling I.E. Military, aircraft, armor and ships.

[Vince Nemanic]

I just thought of a couple more kit designers, both from AMT: Dave Carlock and John Boettger

[Harry P.]

Did he actually design the kits, or did he make a concept drawing, on which engineers then made an exploded view deciding on parts breakdown and then blueprints with actual dimensions, to which the tooling model was build.

Wondering...

He sent in renderings, sometimes also elevation views, but he did not "design" the actual kits. He came up with the idea of the car and illustrations of how it should look, the engineers did the rest.

[ToyLvr]

Starbird is my favorite.

IMHO, Tom Daniel's stuff was too cartoonish.

To each his own, though.......

[blunc]

The kit artistry of Tom Daniel may seem cartoonish for the current time but apparently was very timely for the 70's and 80's when they came out. Those decades needed the "over the top" ideas and media presentation to distract us from the other everyday crisis that was going on and similar to today's media and sports stars, car builders back then were trying to build the next newest, biggest and most outlandish (and of course shiniest) show cars in order to bring the crowds into the car shows and show events.

A lot of those kits and cars were from the "Roadrunner and Coyote" years and were about as practical and functional as anything build by Dick Dastardly.

BUT....they were fun to look at.

(This of course is my own opinion and may be skewed from your own exposure to car related events.)

[John Teresi]

The kit artistry of Tom Daniel may seem cartoonish for the current time but apparently was very timely for the 70's and 80's when they came out. Those decades needed the "over the top" ideas and media presentation to distract us from the other everyday crisis that was going on and similar to today's media and sports stars, car builders back then were trying to build the next newest, biggest and most outlandish (and of course shiniest) show cars in order to bring the crowds into the car shows and show events.

A lot of those kits and cars were from the "Roadrunner and Coyote" years and were about as practical and functional as anything build by Dick Dastardly.

BUT....they were fun to look at.

(This of course is my own opinion and may be skewed from your own exposure to car related events.)

X2

[Casey]

Did he actually design the kits, or did he make a concept drawing, on which engineers then made an exploded view deciding on parts breakdown and then blueprints with actual dimensions, to which the tooling model was build.

Wondering...

That's probably a fair question, Luc, and I'm pretty sure TD falls under the former category, while Tom West would be in the latter, at least based on the part drawings he drew for the 1/16 Aurora Racing Scenes kits.

One might say without the original sketch/idea there is no kit later, but someone's got to take the idea through to production, too.

[Tom Geiger]

The kit artistry of Tom Daniel may seem cartoonish for the current time but apparently was very timely for the 70's and 80's when they came out.

Yes. Remember that most customers were kids back then. This was the era of Zingers, Deals Wheels and those Wild or Mild MPC kits with the huge accessories attached to their annuals.