model king

[mnwildpunk]

I have searched both ways and couldn't find an answer to my question so here goes. I am wondering first what is the history of model king how did it get started, when, where, basically a bio of the company. I know they dust off old molds from other companies and pay that company to do a run for them but that is all I know. Second can anyone provide a rough list or number of kits that model king has dug out of the archives I am sure it may be vast

[Greg Myers]

My question, do the model company's actually allow a non member to roam around their molds looking for something interesting?

[Casey]

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=87207&p=1142817

[mnwildpunk]

Thanks Casey for the link but that thread is kind of what sparked this question lol.

Edited March 31, 2014 by mnwildpunk

[High octane]

Greg, if one knows the "right person," anything's possible.

[Greg Myers]

That , and money

[Daddyfink]

Dave Burkett is the Model King

[mikemodeler]

With Model King doing a partnership of sorts with Moebius on the soon to be released Ford pickups, maybe it is time for a new article for the magazine on the inner workings of Model King?

[Greg Myers]

I'd like to see articles on all sorts of things. Does the Magazine have a roving reporter ? There must be some one here on the board that has an inkling as to how the Model King / Dave Burkett thing works.

[Tom Geiger]

A bit of background on Dave. I've known him some 30 years, back before we were in models. Dave and I both drove in the demo derby at Wall Stadium in the early 1980s.

This is a bad old photo, but that's Dave's number 27. He always ran early 1960s Fords and made a science of making them last in the demo. Dave owned a junkyard back then.

Here's a shot of Dave's junkyard back in the day. He eventually sold the business. When I first got back into models around 1989, I ran into Dave and remembered him from the derby. Model King got started in an interesting way. A group of us from NJ loaded into Joel Naprstek's old Ford van and headed up to the first Masscar show. I believe it was me, Joel, John Slivoski and Dave. Once there, Dave struck up a deal with a dealer at the show who said he wanted out of the business. He bought the guy's entire booth! We had a hard time fitting it all in the van, and we all rode home that night with boxes under our legs!

So Dave started setting up at shows, and buying collections and such. He soon contacted AMT's then owner to ask about becoming a dealer. That was the start of it. He'd bring new kits to our club meetings and set up at a lot of shows. I remember AMT kits were then $6 each! I guess he got on board with Revell / Monogram as a dealer too. I don't remember all the details.

Eventually he was talking with AMT's then current owner about what kits they had and what they should release. Dave's always had a keen sense of the market. They didn't have the resources to do everything, so unlike a lot of guys on the boards who will spout off "they should make a this..." Dave put his money where his mouth was and contracted with them to produce these kits. This was welcome business to AMT since the toy company was sucking wind back then. Dave's business was complete runs that were guaranteed sold!

He never got that kid in a candy shop free run through the tooling, because that's not even possible. Model tooling is usually big metal boxes that are moved around with fork lifts. Most of it was in Indiana in an old dark warehouse on pallet racks. And if you look at tooling, it's not readily apparent what you are looking at in reverse. There have been times model companies had to do some test shots to see what was actually in the molds. He'd inquire about a specific kit and they'd go look for it. There were times they didn't have the kit, and other times they had it but it was in poor condition or incomplete. The pieces that are most likely to be missing from a kit are the tire, chrome and clear tools since those are actually separate pieces form the main tool. So Dave offered to make investments in some of the tools for a exclusive on them for a time period. There were kits like the '59 Imperial that was missing the chrome shot, that he paid to have the Chinese vendor reverse engineer by sending them a good original piece to work from.

I won't get into numbers, but his runs ran from very small to decently large. Some sold well and went into a second pressing. He took his lumps on some others that were slow sells. The drag related stuff went well, some of the replica stock stuff like the '70 Buick, '71 T-Bird and even the '64 Comet sold surprisingly slow.

When AMT couldn't find the box art for a kit, Dave had someone draw up a box. So he had some fun with it. Some of the early art was done by his daughter. The Racers Wedge/Camper box had some of his distributors pictured on it as a thank you. And as time went on to different artists. He immortalized his friends. One of the drag boxes with a guy starting the race is Bill Merz, and his box photo for the Hemi Under Glass was actually shot at NNL East. I built one of the box art vehicles on his 1979 Ford pickup kit, and my dog and I are on the box if you look close. Boxes of that era were photo shopped by Doug Whyte.

There are also inside jokes and names on some of the decal sheets. Some of the race cars were sponsored by model friends businesses. Dave then started to contact some old time race drivers or their families. He found some difficult to deal with or not interested. He made some friendships with guys who accepted a reasonable amount as royalties, some just wanted to see their car on the box, or wanted a few cases! Dave stopped doing AMT/MPC kits when Round Two bought the company because they didn't want to have their kits out under different brands.

Dave has done well. He's always been a savvy businessman. But he loves the hobby! When you talk to him about things he's doing, he uses phrases like "What's good for the hobby.." and "To give the guys something extra.."

Another little bit of trivia, Dave was the first NNL East dealer and hasn't missed a show. Back for NNL East 3, when there weren't any dealers, Dave approached John Slivoski and asked if he could sell some kits at the show. John agreed and the rest is NNL East history! We had no idea where that would all go!

Edited April 1, 2014 by Tom Geiger

[mikemodeler]

Thanks for the history lesson Tom, it's nice to know more about this hobby! Hopefully this run of kits that he is doing with Moebius will pay off for all involved!

[PappyD340]

Wow that was very interesting Tom thanks for sharing that!

[ToyLvr]

That , and money

The "Golden Rule"....He who has the gold, rules.... ;-)

[Greg Myers]

Gotta thank you Tom for the history lesson and MR Burkett for making the history.

[mnwildpunk]

Yes thank you Tom I knew someone would know the history of this great man. Now anybody know about how many kits he has resurrected?

[Dave Van]

Dave Burkett is a great guy that I am privileged to work with. An asset to the hobby.

[Casey]

Yes thank you Tom I knew someone would know the history of this great man. Now anybody know about how many kits he has resurrected?

No idea, but one of (I think) the earliest is the 1/16 Revell Jungle Jim Vega F/C, which was released in 1995:

[GMP440]

I had the good fortune of meeting and speaking with Dave Burkett at the NNL East back in 2001. I met his son too. They both were selling kits

at their booth. He explained to me how he was working the Model King exclusives. He is a very approachable and interesting person

to speak with. He is definetly an authority on model kits.

[Daddyfink]

I think one of his first was the Revell Jungle Jim Monza in 1/25th scale. It has a totally stock factory box art wiht the only change being the Model King Logo.

It was awesome to find on in a hobby shop back then as almost all vintage drag stuff was non-existent.

Thanks Dave!

[1930fordpickup]

I would like to say it is good to have someone like Dave in our hobby. Thanks Dave.

[Silver Foxx]

If it was not for Dave Burkett doing this I would not have been able to build some of my older model nascars and dirt cars , so a big thanks to him

[Tom Geiger]

No idea, but one of (I think) the earliest is the 1/16 Revell Jungle Jim Vega F/C, which was released in 1995:

That kit was one of his lessons! Although a few vocal folks wanted that kit, it was hard to push a run of them on the market. I don't think Dave did another large scale after that one!

I had the good fortune of meeting and speaking with Dave Burkett at the NNL East back in 2001. I met his son too.

Dave has twin sons and the irony is that neither of them are into cars or models! Back when they were teens, if they were grounded Dave would bring them to our club meeting as punishment!

[highway]

A bit of background on Dave. I've known him some 30 years, back before we were in models. Dave and I both drove in the demo derby at Wall Stadium in the early 1980s.

This is a bad old photo, but that's Dave's number 27. He always ran early 1960s Fords and made a science of making them last in the demo. Dave owned a junkyard back then.

So, bad photo or not, why is "Dave's" car the only one that looks like something that would not even pass as a bad box art drawing? Kinda funny it has a windshield and the only car the driver (who looks like a cartoon too) is clearly visible in.

Sorry, but I'm throwing a BS flag on this one!

EDIT: By the way, I'm not trying to knock Dave or Model King, if it wasn't for him and his company, there are a few kits I've wanted and never knew existed until he released them. I just think that pic is not what it says, that car looks fake and Photoshopped in!

Edited April 3, 2014 by highway

[jbwelda]

thats the first thing i thought when i saw that photo: what a photoshopped (poorly) piece of BS. now maybe it was from some fantasy boxart thing but otherwise that aint no legit photo.

but let me guess: something to do with the date that day...

jb

Edited April 3, 2014 by jbwelda

[martinfan5]

A bit of background on Dave. I've known him some 30 years, back before we were in models. Dave and I both drove in the demo derby at Wall Stadium in the early 1980s.

FAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! as FAKE can be

Edited April 3, 2014 by martinfan5