Archive for the ‘Plastic Model Kit History’ Category
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009
Editors Note: every once in a while you run across someone with exceptional knowledge in a certain field. During an email exchange about older kits, I asked Dave if he would mind writing an article about early kits in the US. Dave's knowledge has been an education ...
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Thursday, May 14th, 2009
Editors Note: I came across this article tucked inside an old Revell Electra kit. It tells the history of one of Revell's rare and more desirable model kits as well as shedding light on mold modification. The photos have been added. I do not know the ...
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Thursday, April 9th, 2009
Editors Note: The appearance of the great AMT XB-70, F7F Tigercat and XB-35 Flying Wing kits was always a surprise to me. They seemed to appear from nowhere – from a company that almost exclusively made car models. Many years later I was fortunate enough to receive ...
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Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
By Jan R. Bussie
As much as any nine year old boy could, I loved the seemingly endless days of summer fun while living at Koontz Lake. The sad days of the war years were coming to an end and there was a marked improvement in the post-war economic outlook. ...
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Sunday, January 13th, 2008
by Jan R. Bussie
As a young boy I was fascinated by the WW2 war news coming out of Europe. The bravery of the bombers and fast fighters pilots made them my heroes both then and now. In an effort to emulate these men I would fly my balsa glider in ...
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Sunday, January 13th, 2008
Late 1940s assembled wood/metal HO craftsman kit
In the 1950s, “Consumerism” revolutionized the United States economy and social life. Two main items pushed the consumerist movement: discretionary income and free time. There had always been leisure time, but the activities that filled it varied. In the ...
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Tuesday, September 4th, 2007
In the early 1940s, Lou Glasser, a California entrepreneur, founded an injection molding company. Precision Specialties performed contract work for other manufactures. In the early 1950s Gowland and Gowland designed the famous 1/16 scale "Highway Pioneers" line of 34 cars, which were the first mass-produced plastic automotive kits. ...
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Tuesday, September 4th, 2007
The name Monogram is synonymous with quality in model kits. The founders, Jack Besser and Bob Reder, had a clear vision of what constitutes an excellent model kit and how to transform that into mass production. Not surprisingly, Monogram proved to be a profitable company for many years.
Early ...
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Tuesday, September 4th, 2007
Aurora was one of the most prolific names in American Modeling from 1952 to 1977. The line was very diverse and included aircraft, ships, tanks, missiles, figures (monster and many others), science fiction, automotive, animals, guns, totem poles, HO train items, electronic kits, "Coppersmith" sets, prehistoric scenes and more.
The ...
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