Revell Model Kits

Revell got its start in the early 1940s when Lou Glaser founded Precision Specialties, an early injection molding company in California. By the early 1950s, another California-based plastic toy company, Gowland & Gowland, created the first U.S. plastic car models, the 1/32 scale Highway Pioneers line. The Gowlands successfully convinced Glaser to market the product. The Highway Pioneers literally took the nation by storm and marked the birth of the modern hobby industry. This success led Revell to focus on plastic model kits. Revell's first mold was the 1953 USS Missouri, their best-selling ship model of all time. The first aircraft were the F-94C, F7U-1, and F9F-6, issued in simple one-piece, flip-top boxes with three-color printing directly on the box. The physical and marketing weaknesses were soon evident, and Revell quickly contracted with teams of prominent commercial artists and transitioned to thicker two-piece cardboard boxes with the box top wrapped in a full-color lithograph slick. These famous aircraft and ship models were known as Pre S issues and included the B-52, B-36, B-24, B-29, USS Constitution, Harbor Tug Long Beach, and more. In 1955, the famous S (Glue) logo was introduced, marking the Golden Age of Revell box art and constant releases of all-new kits. In the late 1950s, Revell released a series of rocket and space models. Many are very rare and valuable today, representing some of the Holy Grail of all collectible model kits. In the early 1960s, Revell began making models to standard scales (such as 1/72 and 1/48), and in the late 1960s and early 1970s, they launched the first successful line of 1/32 aircraft. Revell produced a wide range of models, including aircraft, automobiles, tanks, armor, and space kits, and released more now-rare gift sets than any other manufacturer. While other American manufacturers largely neglected ship kits, Revell's design team and mold cutters produced some of the best injection-molded sailing ship models ever made; the 1960 1/96 scale Cutty Sark and 1965 USS Constitution are still the standard by which other ship models are judged. Despite being the largest model producer in the U.S., Revell was only marginally profitable. In 2018, Revell was acquired by Quantum Capital Partners (Blitz) in Germany.