Aurora reborn? ...Not! (I think)

[Casey]

23 minutes ago, Mark said:

They usually became obsolete if/when someone else brought out a better one.

I think that was the gist of the facebook comments. Monogram had better version of the same kit, and if not, and the kit was obscure/poor/not likely to sell in the near future, it was worth more for its scrap value. Even the molds which Monogram kept, such as the 1/32 '65 Mustang, Barracuda, GTO, and Mako Shark are, well, not the greatest, to put it kindly. I doubt there'd be a huge outcry if those'd been recycled/destroyed.

[Snake45]

33 minutes ago, Mark said:

What kills a lot of Aurora and Lindberg stuff (military/planes) is that their products were often the first of a particular subject to hit the market.  They usually became obsolete if/when someone else brought out a better one.

This is what I've long called the "Mustang/Spitfire Curse." A new model company's first effort is likely to be something of known popularity and proven sales potential, such as a P-51 or Spitfire. This first effort is likely to be pretty poor, and then as they work their way down the list of desirable subjects, they get a little better every time until their 18th effort, a Fiesler Storch or something, isn't half bad at all. Meanwhile, other players in the field look at the market and say, "Well, no use wasting our time with a Mustang/Spitfire, Revell (or Airfix, etc.) has that market covered, what else can we do?"  Thus we didn't get any halfway decent Mustang or Spitfire kits until at least the late '70s, and really good ones were still decades away. 

[ChrisBcritter]

6 hours ago, Casey said:

it was mentioned in the facebook topic the Aurora 1/32 American LaFrance 900 Pumper was one of the kit which were destroyed in the derailment. Whether that's true or not I haven't a clue.

Too bad if it was; anyone think there'd be a market for it if it were reverse engineered like the Black Beauty was? 

OR... if it were scanned and brought up to 1/25, like how Round2 brought back some of Aurora's long-lost shop equipment rescaled from 1/16 to 1/25?

[Mike999]

8 hours ago, Snake45 said:

This is what I've long called the "Mustang/Spitfire Curse..." 

Or in 1/35 armor kits, the "Panther/Tiger Curse."  There are times when I never want to see another scale model of a Panther tank.  I've seen so many I have zero desire to ever build one.  The closest I'll come is the MENG Panther Ausf. A/G Turret Bunker.  That's the Panther turret sitting on a concrete bunker, for static defense. It's a Certified Weird Kit, which always gets my attention. (MENG kit number TS-035s, if anybody else wants one.)

The same thing happens with poor releases.  Armor modelers waited decades for a 1/35 scale kit of the M-50A1 Ontos.  The only plastic kit available was the ancient RENWAL Ontos from the 1950s.  But it was 1/32 scale, toy-like, and an early M-50.  When a new Ontos plastic kit came out, Academy did it.  It was a huge disappointment, with a suspension that still needs much work to look right.

But the King Of Disappointment is Dragon/DML's "Black Label" line of armor kits.  Known to armor modelers as the "Black Hole Label," who suspect the name may also be a reference to what the Dragon employees were drinking when they designed the kits.  The Black Label line is a bunch of kits people have wanted for years:  the M-103 and Conqueror heavy tanks, Saladin armored car, MBT-70 etc.  The kits all had something, or several somethings that were wonky. Mostly not just nitpicky things, but stuff like obviously wrong turret shapes and major dimensional errors.  As you said, vehicles this esoteric are not likely to be kitted by more than one company.  So we're pretty much stuck with them.  

[Deuces ll]

What gets me going is that they sold millions of t-jet HO scale slot cars and race sets.... Where did all that money go?????...... 

Edited May 21, 2020 by Deuces ll

[Daddyfink]

Apparently the John F. Kennedy molds where also scrapped after apparently "Damage" was found on them. But honestly, who would buy one now? Just like quite a few of the missing molds, it would be simply nostalgia driving any sales, and not that many, that would warrant their return. 

As I don't think this was that great a seller when it was re-issued lately 

[Bugatti Fan]

There was a lot of inaccurate stuff about in the old days when many kits were in fit the box scale and aimed more at an adolescent market where a vague resemblance to the prototype was deemed good enough. Things have moved on fortunately, and pressure groups like IPMS have helped bring about change for the better over the years.

Mark mentioned about the only kit of a particular subject may be an old one that would need work done on it, and I accept that may often be the case. Some see old kits as a challenge, others not if better, newer kits are available of the same subject. It is a case of whatever turns you on basically. Different folk get different satisfaction from the hobby depending on their approach. Some like the challenge of something difficult to correct whilst others prefer a kit that falls together. Nothing wrong with either approach!

[Mike999]

7 hours ago, Daddyfink said:

Apparently the John F. Kennedy molds where also scrapped after apparently "Damage" was found on them. But honestly, who would buy one now? Just like quite a few of the missing molds, it would be simply nostalgia driving any sales, and not that many, that would warrant their return. 

At the risk of committing blasphemy, I'll say that many of those famous 1/8 scale Aurora figures didn't look much like their subjects.  Built-up photo of the JFK kit below. I think he looks more like Jimmy Hoffa. 

The Aurora James Bond figure was even worse and looked nothing like Sean Connery.  At a kit swap meet once, I found the Polar Lights re-issue of the Bond kit with a resin head that does look like Connery. And it included a nice "007" resin nameplate.  The seller was asking $10 so I grabbed it. 

[SfanGoch]

Cliff Robertson looked nothing like JFK, either. I don't recall the studio replacing his head with a resin JFK version for PT-109.

[Snake45]

1 hour ago, Mike999 said:

At the risk of committing blasphemy, I'll say that many of those famous 1/8 scale Aurora figures didn't look much like their subjects.  Built-up photo of the JFK kit below. I think he looks more like Jimmy Hoffa. 

The Aurora James Bond figure was even worse and looked nothing like Sean Connery.  At a kit swap meet once, I found the Polar Lights re-issue of the Bond kit with a resin head that does look like Connery. And it included a nice "007" resin nameplate.  The seller was asking $10 so I grabbed it. 

In that pic, I'd say he looks more like Martin Sheen in his younger days. 

I've never seen the Aurora James Bond figure, but I have the two Men from UNCLE and they're not too bad at all. Closer than this, anyway. 

53 minutes ago, SfanGoch said:

Cliff Robertson looked nothing like JFK, either. I don't recall the studio replacing his head with a resin JFK version for PT-109.

For my money, the best cinema JFK was William DeVane in some TV movie.  I saw one last year where Rob Lowe didn't do a horrible job. 

[stavanzer]

Is the Lindberg ALF 900 Pumper any relation to the Aurora Kit? I know that they are both 1/32 scale.

[SfanGoch]

They are totally different. No relation to each other. Incidentally, both kits are closer to 1/38 scale.

[espo]

I'm of an age that I think I would build the Alfred E. Newman figure just for old time sake. I used to read Mad Magazine but I had to hid it from my parents, they thought it was Communist Propaganda. 

[Mike999]

1 hour ago, Snake45 said:

For my money, the best cinema JFK was William DeVane in some TV movie.  I saw one last year where Rob Lowe didn't do a horrible job. 

I remembered that one vaguely but had to go look it up.  It was "The Missiles of October," a 1974 ABC TV movie.  I thought Bruce Greenwood played a good JFK in the movie "Thirteen Days," on the same subject of the Cuban Missile Crisis.  But the less said about Kevin Costner's attempt at a Boston accent in that movie, the better.  

[stavanzer]

Thanks, Joe. I wasn't sure on those Engines.

[iBorg]

On 5/20/2020 at 10:53 AM, Casey said:

It was all hashed out months ago on facebook-- just click the link to read. The image of the mold halves wasn't really pertinent to this discussion, as it was more about what became of the Aurora molds Monogram purchased and the story of he train derailment en route to Chicago.

Keeping in mind this section is for automotive talk, it was mentioned in the facebook topic the Aurora 1/32 American LaFrance 900 Pumper was one of the kit which were destroyed in the derailment. Whether that's true or not I haven't a clue.

Is this, this?

 

[Casey]

32 minutes ago, iBorg said:

Is this, this?

 

No, that's a Mack cab.

[ChrisBcritter]

4 hours ago, SfanGoch said:

Cliff Robertson looked nothing like JFK, either. I don't recall the studio replacing his head with a resin JFK version for PT-109.

JFK himself wanted Warren Beatty to play the role; at least he was closer to the right age. 

[Mike999]

Here's another boxing of that Aurora ALF 900 Pumper, the "California Fire Truck."  It was issued in the square box that Aurora started using in the late 1960's.  I think it was molded in white.