Why are there so many iconic cars that have never been kitted ?

[Greg Myers]

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011_02_06_archive.html scroll down.

[ChrisBcritter]

I'm beginning to think the best shot at a Tucker being successful would be for it to be a fully detailed large-scale "prestige" kit (like 1/8 or 1/12) like the old big-scale classic kits Entex made. It lends itself to being a big, dramatic display piece.

[Craig Irwin]

Agreed.

And I agree with Tom... if the model exists as either a diecast or in resin, buy it! Diecast not detailed enough for ya? Take it apart and detail it, for cryin' out loud!

Resin kit too pricey? Stop stockpiling hundreds of plastic kits that you'll never have time to build in your lifetime anyway, save up a few bucks, and buy the resin kit, fer pete's sake!

Best post on this thread yet.

[Greg Myers]

Yep. But wouldn't a kit be nice for those of use that don't . . . http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=67285

[Craig Irwin]

Easily built from a Flinstone $15 dollar body and a gasser kit.

[Watertown]

Interesting topic. However, as mentioned in an earlier post, the basis for nearly everything pictured has already been kitted. "Icons," like beauty, are in the eye of the beholder. In my mind, model companies are there to produce the canvas for us modelers. It's up to each of us as individuals to decide which cars are worthy of "icon' status and use the aforementioned canvas as starting points to create those vehicles we deem to be historically noteworthy.

[Greg Myers]

YEP!

[Art Anderson]

Interesting topic. However, as mentioned in an earlier post, the basis for nearly everything pictured has already been kitted. "Icons," like beauty, are in the eye of the beholder. In my mind, model companies are there to produce the canvas for us modelers. It's up to each of us as individuals to decide which cars are worthy of "icon' status and use the aforementioned canvas as starting points to create those vehicles we deem to be historically noteworthy.

One New Year's Day, more than 10 years ago, I wasn't going out anyplace, just stayed home, and just for giggles, I sat down with calculator, some automotive history books, and tried to calculate the sheer number of US makes, models (primarily body styles) and years of automobiles produced just since 1900. Of course, I didn't capture every make of car produced in the US across that period (there have been more than 1500 makes of cars produced in this country over history), but still the final number came to more than than 10,000 possible model car subjects.

Now, to someone, somewhere, each one of those cars is/was an icon--their most favorite car of all time. But, there are relatively few that have achieved such status across a truly wide number of model car builders/enthusiasts, and most, if not all, have been kitted at some point or another since the beginnings of plastic model car kits in 1950-51. With race cars, of course those are much fewer in numbers, even counting the seemingly vast numbers of factory built cars that have been converted into racecars over the past now 114 years-- and there, the racing cars (of all manner and classes) that have had any sort of wide, let's say universal, appeal is of course much more limited (after all, not all car enthusiast love race cars, and certainly not all model car builders build scale models of them either).

The trouble with race cars is, with the exception of only a small percentage of all that have been built and raced is, once their time in the Winner's Circle has passed, the memories of most of them fade fairly quickly from public consciousness. Even in the heyday, at the literal apex, of any racing series, only a minority of people ever got really enthused, the massive crowds at Indianapolis, Daytona, LeMans, or any National Drags notwithstanding. Certainly today, with our Nation's population gone well past 300 million souls, only a small percentage even bother to read such motor racing news stories that appear on the sports pages, or for that matter, tune to a TV channel showing even the most major of racing events. So, the visibility of race cars among the general public isn't, and probably never has been, as high as some would like to believe. In addition, with just about any major racing series one can imagine, almost no cars remain exactly in the the same configuration, certainly the same paint and graphics, as they appeared at the start of the season--no, they almost always change, literally from one racing weekend to the next, all season long.

It's pretty similar with the majority of TV or Movie cars--over the years (over a century now) hundreds of cars have appeared in nearly starring roles in motion pictures, and on television, and yet just a relative handful ever got remembered by large numbers of viewers. Over the lifetime of this hobby of ours, there have been a number of cars recreated in model kits that were "stars" in Hollywood. Many have been done, for sure, but most rose up and flamed out, not hard to understand, due to the fleeting nature of fame in the entertainment business. Of those TV/Movie cars that have been kitted, most seem to have been modifications of a model kit of an otherwise factory stock automobile, some of course having been tooled from the ground up as scale models of Hollywood props. And, given that such subjects have very much the same limited time in the spotlight for real, it's not surprising that their original time of popularity among model builders tended to be rather short (a few, of course, have been reissued in fairly recent years, but that's another story for another time). At least one that I can think of (it's one of my favorite kits of brass era cars still), the MPC 1914 Stutz Bearcat, was first done as the .30 cal. machine gun toting car from the quickly failed TV series "Bearcats"--but went on to enjoy several reissues as just a stock '14 Stutz Bearcat. Others came and went, faded to almost oblivion--a few never to be produced again.

So, "Iconic" is a very relative term where cars, and particularly model car kits are concerned. The rather trite statement "Everyone (insert here "that I know") wants one, is a comment that really cannot be supported. Consider that, for example, funeral directors will say readily, that the average person knows even closely, perhaps 300 people over the course of their lives, "everyone I know" is a very small number of people in the overall scheme of things. And, the farther back in time/history any car of any sort is, the less likely it is that it would make a truly saleable model kit today.

These, and perhaps more reasons (or barriers, name your poison here) are what makes the selection of that next model car subject, by any manufacturer, truly a risky BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH shoot folks!

Art

[Harry P.]

Just to satisfy my curiosity... does anyone know what the top selling model car kits of all time are? I assume the General Lee must be one of them, but what others are on the all-time best selling kit list? I don't mean "1932 Ford" or "1957 Chevy," but specific kits. Anyone know?

[Rob Hall]

I bet the original MPC Dukes of Hazzard Charger is in the top 10, maybe the MPC '78 Trans Am (Bandit style).

Edited July 14, 2014 by Rob Hall

[charlie8575]

1500 different automobile manufacturers in this country over the years? That's rather amazing. I'm assuming this counts the early-20th Century makes that produced maybe one or two examples, registered manufacturers that never produced anything, etc., or is it then that the number goes higher?

Charlie Larkin

[Rob Hall]

1500 different automobile manufacturers in this country over the years? That's rather amazing. I'm assuming this counts the early-20th Century makes that produced maybe one or two examples, registered manufacturers that never produced anything, etc., or is it then that the number goes higher?

Charlie Larkin

Yes, I would assume so...I wonder what decade had the most car makers...the 1910s or 1920s I assume. By 1940 there weren't many independents left.

[Harry P.]

1500 different automobile manufacturers in this country over the years? That's rather amazing. I'm assuming this counts the early-20th Century makes that produced maybe one or two examples, registered manufacturers that never produced anything, etc., or is it then that the number goes higher?

Charlie Larkin

Back in the old days (pre-war) there were hundreds of US manufacturers, most of which produced relatively few cars and went out of business after just a couple of years. Most people have never heard of most of them, they're just tiny blips in the whole history of US car manufacturing.

[Art Anderson]

1500 different automobile manufacturers in this country over the years? That's rather amazing. I'm assuming this counts the early-20th Century makes that produced maybe one or two examples, registered manufacturers that never produced anything, etc., or is it then that the number goes higher?

Charlie Larkin

Charlie, yes it does include all companies formed to produce automobiles, from the very beginning of the US auto industry by the Duryea Brothers in Springfield MA in 1895.

Of course, I like remembering that some 500 of those automakers existed at one time or another, here in Indiana!

Art

[1930fordpickup]

In one of the magazines back several years said the General Lee Charger was the best selling kit up to that point. This I do believe was in the mid 90'S when I read it.

[Harry P.]

I bet the original MPC Dukes of Hazzard Charger is in the top 10, maybe the MPC '78 Trans Am (Bandit style).

Makes sense that TV/movie cars would be good sellers... millions of people would have seen them. I have to wonder how a 1/25 scale Batmobile would have sold back in the '60s if one had been on the market at the height of the Batman TV series' popularity. We'll never know...

[cobraman]

Just to satisfy my curiosity... does anyone know what the top selling model car kits of all time are? I assume the General Lee must be one of them, but what others are on the all-time best selling kit list? I don't mean "1932 Ford" or "1957 Chevy," but specific kits. Anyone know?

The 1968 release of the Red Baron is said to have sold over 2 million in a couple of years. Don't know if that is the best selling for all time however.

[Art Anderson]

In one of the magazines back several years said the General Lee Charger was the best selling kit up to that point. This I do believe was in the mid 90'S when I read it.

That, I believe, was MPC's hype, quoted.

I would submit that it will be hard for any model car kit mfr. to equal the overall production numbers of the original AMT 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air HT, which was first released about February 1962, and remained in AMT/Lesney AMT/AMT-Ertl continuously through 1996. That is quite likely the longest continous "production run" of any model car kit, bar none.

Art

[Harry P.]

The 1968 release of the Red Baron is said to have sold over 2 million in a couple of years. Don't know if that is the best selling for all time however.

If that number is correct, it would have to be high on the all-time list.

[Brett Barrow]

TV/Movie kits (and show cars, too) are sort of the model equivalent of the clean-up hitter. They swing for the fences, and boy, when they connect... but there's a lot of swing-and-misses mixed in there too...

I've often heard a survey Testors did back in the 90's cited that said that the MPC Dukes of Hazard General Lee was the #1 car kit of all time. I've also seen several references (on the internet, so you know it's true) say that AMT's Red Alert Chevelle was the #1 AMT model kit of all-time, but I find that really hard to believe. But it is one of those "hey I had that as a kid" kits where every one seems to have had one. the Knight Rider KITT is probably up there too. I gotta think the Monogram Big T is in the mix, that's also one of those "I had that!" kits.

If you expand to "automotive" kits then #1 has to be the ex-Renwal 1/4 Visible V-8. You'll go 11 months without selling one, but come Christmas... Those things move!!! Probably been like that every Christmas it came out, has there ever been a time it wasn't available?

[Luc Janssens]

I bet the original MPC Dukes of Hazzard Charger is in the top 10, maybe the MPC '78 Trans Am (Bandit style).

About the T/A, Could be, didn't they have to cut a second tool, to keep up, seem to recall something like that, but don't know for certain..

Think the last run of the Charger showed so much potential that it warranted an all new tool, I'm buying a copy for me and my son, I know it's a kid's show (tried to watch an episode a few years ago and had to turn it off) but the General Lee is part of my childhood memory...thus making it special.

Just like the A-Team Van KITT and the S&H Torino

Edited July 14, 2014 by Luc Janssens

[Rob Hall]

Could be, didn't they have to cut a second tool, to keep up, seem to recall something like that, but don't know for certain..

I've read that.. also--about the '78 Firebird, it seems there may have been two tools of that one also? Or I'm misremembering something. I seem to remember it badged as an AMT at one time in the '90s and having some differences from the MPC annual (t-tops molded in or not) ? I have 3 different '70s vintage MPC '77-78 Firebirds-one annual w/ a red car, one with a blue, the 'Blackbird' (Bandit style) version...and there have been several reissues of that one since then.

Edited July 14, 2014 by Rob Hall

[mnwildpunk]

You want them to kit this ?

yes release it as a 2 n 1

[1930fordpickup]

That, I believe, was MPC's hype, quoted.

I would submit that it will be hard for any model car kit mfr. to equal the overall production numbers of the original AMT 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air HT, which was first released about February 1962, and remained in AMT/Lesney AMT/AMT-Ertl continuously through 1996. That is quite likely the longest continous "production run" of any model car kit, bar none.

Art

Art that is a long time for a run, must be the all time sales king with that long of a production run.

[Art Anderson]

TV/Movie kits (and show cars, too) are sort of the model equivalent of the clean-up hitter. They swing for the fences, and boy, when they connect... but there's a lot of swing-and-misses mixed in there too...

I've often heard a survey Testors did back in the 90's cited that said that the MPC Dukes of Hazard General Lee was the #1 car kit of all time. I've also seen several references (on the internet, so you know it's true) say that AMT's Red Alert Chevelle was the #1 AMT model kit of all-time, but I find that really hard to believe. But it is one of those "hey I had that as a kid" kits where every one seems to have had one. the Knight Rider KITT is probably up there too. I gotta think the Monogram Big T is in the mix, that's also one of those "I had that!" kits.

If you expand to "automotive" kits then #1 has to be the ex-Renwal 1/4 Visible V-8. You'll go 11 months without selling one, but come Christmas... Those things move!!! Probably been like that every Christmas it came out, has there ever been a time it wasn't available?

Monogram's Big T, even given that it was the first of that company's exciting 1/8 scale car kits, really didn't outsell anything 1/25 or 1/24 scale, due to its price--something like $9.00 when first issued (that's 4.5 times the price of a then 1/25 scale AMT kit, in an era when most model car kits, indeed the majority of plastic model kits in general, were bought and paid for by kids themselves!) AND it's sheer size. In addition, Monogram's entire lineup of 1/8 scale model kits in the 1960's came and went pretty quickly--the market seemed to fill up, and that was it.

Art