Advent plastic scale models - what's the scoop?

[Tom Geiger]

I wasn't in the hobby when these were new. I've only seen them in secondary markets like eBay and at shows. I assumed these were off shore releases of Revell kits

[Mark]

Around here, the only store that carried Advent kits was Woolworth's. They were already in decline then, and the couple of stores I knew about were sort of out of the way, so I wouldn't have gone there looking for kits. I was more into muscle car promos and kits at the time, so I wouldn't have given the Advent stuff a second glance anyway. I didn't realize how many different kits were sold in Advent packaging until I found the catalog years later. After finding it, I did notice more of the kits, but there are some I still haven't seen. Some may not have been produced.

[1930fordpickup]

This info is from The Directory of Model Car Kits.

They were all produced in 1979.

22 Total kits.

[Daddyfink]

[Art Anderson]

The late 1970's were noticeably hard for model companies, in fact AMT Corporation dodged filing for Bankruptcy in early 1979 by being bought up at the very last minute by Lesney (the Matchbox Toy people)--of course, Lesney went under in April 1982, but that's another story for another thread), and Revell was sold off to Ceji, then a large French toymaker, or they too would have gone into bankruptcy. Both companies were facing declining sales, with a corresponding decline in money available for new tooling, which certainly showed up in both reduced new offerings from AMT; those kits which were new in those years clearly showed some cheapening, with lesser detail, and parts that looked a bit more crudely done. In addition, the plated parts became fewer in number (ever see the 1978 reissues of the American LaFrance fire apparatus kits--fully half to two thirds of the parts originally plated in their 1972 releases were left in white plastic. A number of AMT kits had once-optional parts "gated off" so as to save plastic, even though that seems so inconsequential looking back. Revell's "Advent" kits were cheapened by eliminating some, if not all the plated parts--most likely due to Revell's farming out vacuum plating rather than doing it in-house as had always been AMT's practice. In short though, none of those cost-cuttng measures did much more than damage the image of both companies, from where I sat.

A lot of that was caused, of course, by the seemingly unchecked, "runaway" inflation then omnipresent in the US, which by 1979/80 was in double digits annually; but another thing also hit the model building hobby pretty hard about that time: The last of the Baby Boom generation (those born in 1964) who were never quite as model car crazy as we older boomers and late wartime babies had been, and the noticeable return to the hobby by those whose boyhood model building drove the market to it's highest point in the 1960's had yet to really begin. So, it was a time of serious inflation at a time of decreasing sales volume, particularly critical for independent free-standing model car kit manufacturers such as Revell and AMT (Monogram was cushioned a lot by being part of the Mattel empire, and MPC was, at the time, owned by Fundimensions Division of General Mills, having that conglomerate as their saving grace.

The 1970's were pretty hard on plastic model companies in general--that decade saw the demise of the likes of IMC, Pyro, Hawk, and Aurora (Pyro was bought up by Lifelike Products, the HO train scenery and Plasticville buildings people, IMC and Hawk were picked up pretty cheaply by Testors, and Aurora's tooling was bought up by Monogram).

Art

[Greg Myers]

  On 6/10/2014 at 2:49 PM, 1930fordpickup said:

This info is from The Directory of Model Car Kits.

They were all produced in 1979.

22 Total kits.

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22 automotive kits ? I see many more aircraft and ship models under the Advent name.

[Daddyfink]

Wow, I had forgotten about this thread! Last post being three and a half years ago! 

[peteski]

LOL, I still wonder how people find and dig up those ancient threads. I don't look past the 2nd page of posts unless I'm doing a search for something specific.

Edited January 10, 2018 by peteski

[Greg Myers]

Google is our friend.

[Casey]

  On 1/10/2018 at 6:01 AM, peteski said:

LOL, I still wonder how people find and dig up those ancient threads. I don't look past the 2nd page of posts unless I'm doing a search for something specific.

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I use this multiple times each day, and it's the best (only?) way to search since the forum's search "memory" was reset a few weeks ago:

 

Edited January 10, 2018 by Casey

[Casey]

I wonder who chose the names for these kits? 

[stavanzer]

From reading on the "Show Rod Rallye" site the Double Trouble and Yellow Fever were so named to get around the Ed Roth royalty issue. No Roth Name, No Roth Royalty. That makes sense, but may not be true. I wish Bob Paeth were around to answer that question.

[Erik Smith]

  On 1/10/2018 at 6:01 AM, peteski said:

LOL, I still wonder how people find and dig up those ancient threads. I don't look past the 2nd page of posts unless I'm doing a search for something specific.

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Not only how do they find them, but why? And play it off like the conversation is still going on...

The old Photo Bucket crappola kind of kills a lot of antique threads too.

[Greg Myers]

THIS conversation is still going on.

Many here are new to the board and would never see these old threads.

[Casey]

 

[Casey]

Ed Roth's Mysterion (mostly, some additional parts have been added), repackaged as Double Trouble under the Advent brand:

 

[Mark]

The modified Mysterion was issued by Revell a few years earlier, as Dual Jewel.  Same dark blue plastic.  If the Advent Yellow Fever is based on the Outlaw, it too was issued earlier by Revell, called Canned Heat.  

[Sledsel]

Thread from the dead..... I have the Ranchero and 59 Retractable kits unbuilt. I had the Corvette but it was built badly ans suffered a 4th of July accident. 

Now I must look up what kits came under the Advent name.

 

 

[Casey]

 

[Lunajammer]

  On 6/10/2014 at 2:49 PM, 1930fordpickup said:

This info is from The Directory of Model Car Kits.

They were all produced in 1979.

22 Total kits.

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22 and those were the cheap ones? That's a pretty strong catalog. So if you include the name brand Revell kits, that seems like a lot of releases for '79.

[Daddyfink]

Found this online at Worth Point

 

[Sledsel]

Found these too

[bevnklaus]

  On 5/31/2014 at 6:40 PM, Dave Toups said:

Advent was a lower-priced brand that Revell introduced in the late 70's / early 80's. Most of the kits were reissues of older Revell kits. Some didn't even have chrome plated parts.

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Except the airliner models had no chrome. I have a 747 model and it is quite accurate and very well produced many fetching top dollar today so there is that.

[Mark]

  On 8/29/2024 at 3:41 PM, bevnklaus said:

Except the airliner models had no chrome. I have a 747 model and it is quite accurate and very well produced many fetching top dollar today so there is that.

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Well, this is the Model Cars magazine message board, so most would assume the conversation here to exclude non-automotive subject matter...