Well there is always the classic Monogram Phantom Mustang, that was see through, had many of the real aircraft's internal parts depicted, and some operating features as well such as the bombs dropped and landing gear raised and lowered. Revell I think it was made a V-8 motor that would run and show the operation mechanics of that type of internal combustion engine. I think that the 60s into the 70s were the heyday of such types of kits. Revell & Monogram both were leaders in the types of kits that had operating features, but companies such as Renwall also had kits of the sort.

I cannot help with your question, but I had totally forgotten about those kits that did neat stuff over the course of xx years. Thanks for the memories. I can't even remember any specific ones, but definitely have memories of cool they were, whatever they might have been.

G.I.DAVE

Hello all! as a kid growing up in the late 70's/ early 80's my dad built models that ended up being a lot of my toys. My son is now 6, and I just built him the old monogram kit, TBF Avenger, with retractable landing gear, dropping torpedo, folding wings..VERY FUN stuff. He is in love now. As a kid, I had the Helldiver from the same monogram line, and it was one of my favorite toys. It dropped bombs! nuff said. I also had the old lindberg Crusader kit that had the engine sound and ejection seat that worked. Recently, at a flea market I seen a massive aircraft carrier model kit, that was motorized, launched planes, and had motorized elevators..I had a few motorized ships as a kid and loved them too. Im on the lookout for a Renwal Ontos kit, I loved that one, but here are some that Ive purchased from ebay and such over the years Monogram Corsair action model Monogram Dauntless Action model Lindburg crusader Phantom Mustang So Im asking the community, what other GOOD action models are there out there, that aren't too hard to find, that I may not know about? I have 2 HOLY GRAIL model kits I want to find. One was a P40 Warhawk that had a motorized propeller, and lights on the guns. I don't know what brand kit that was, but I would LOVE to get another one of those. 2nd is the Q-Boat. My dad was ALWAYS on the look out for the highly elusive "Q-boat" model. We never found one before he died, but I guess it was a disguised freighter that the sides dropped down to reveal guns as a decoy to destroy subs that rose to the surface to use its deck gun instead of valuable torpedoes. What brands and Eras should I be looking at? what are the COOL ones I could build for my boy that he will love, like I did? Thanks all!

The two "Holy Grail" kits of yours are the Aurora Atlantis German Sea Raider. It was not reissued when Monogram took over Aurora's molds. Many molds were scrapped for the metal content without regard to the subject it created.

The second of your kits sounds like the Revell Lights! Action! Sounds! P-40 Flying Tigers kit. I know they made many different kits in this line. I had the police helicopter that was a reissue of the 1/32 scale OH-1 Cayuse Vietnam War era helicopter. It took a pair of AA batteries and when you turned the rotors, it started the motor and lighted a searchlight.

As far as the Renwal Ontos, it was a highly coveted kit of my during my childhood. A friend's older brother had one and I thought it was the deadliest tank I'd ever seen. It was reissued by Revell in 1982-83 and I bought one and built it. It sat on my dresser of my parents house until I retrieved around 2000. Many parts had broken off because of vacuuming and dusting by my mom.

A friend gave me a builder's kit of an original Renwal Ontos in 2001. That kit was a glue bomb and partially built. I've used it to replace some of the missing pieces from my Revell kit. Here are some photos of the in progress rebuild of my kit. The browner looking green parts are the Revell reissue. The greener looking parts are the original Renwal version.

The kit included a solid back side road wheel, but the actual vehicle had spoked road wheels paired together. I used the outer road wheels from the second kit and modified them into inner road wheels in a vain attempt to accurize the kit. Unfortunately, on this site, that makes one a rivet counter and a lesser life form.

As far as kits that have action Revell released a line of Star Wars kits that are pre-painted and have multiple operating features. My 9 year old son built quite a few of them with me during the last few years. They are fairly inexpensive and quite well engineered.

Omigosh...

You nailed it. That is exactly the box for the P40 I remember. Clearly I remember my dad buying that at Kmart now, and I looked at that box lid for a few days as he built it. Now I HAVE to find that kit.

Thank you SO much for that.

Love the ontos pics! Very cool.

And with the star wars model..I just seen the very snap tight X-wing at meijers on clearance today for $8. I bought 2! My son is gunman love putting them together. Thanks alot!

Oh come on... who can resist this "Cadillac of the sky"?

Back in the early-mid 60's there were kits that included motor parts for plane and ship props. You had to actually build the motors using the supplied wiring and armatures. Never did get one to work!

G.I.DAVE

Omigosh...

You nailed it. That is exactly the box for the P40 I remember. Clearly I remember my dad buying that at Kmart now, and I looked at that box lid for a few days as he built it. Now I HAVE to find that kit.

Thank you SO much for that.

Love the ontos pics! Very cool.

And with the star wars model..I just seen the very snap tight X-wing at meijers on clearance today for $8. I bought 2! My son is gunman love putting them together. Thanks alot!

mitsdude

Back in the early-mid 60's there were kits that included motor parts for plane and ship props. You had to actually build the motors using the supplied wiring and armatures. Never did get one to work!

Dave and Rob: Oh heck yeah! I had that P-40 too, the prop would spin and you press a button and the guns would light up! I had a P-51 with the same features too but I liked the P-40 better because of the neat shark mouth. I ended up strapping them with rubber bands to a swing arm I made with my Erector set so that the prop would cause the plane to spin around in circles at the end of the arm.

I still have some of the parts of them in the spares drawer. I keep thinking of wiring up the huge Hasegawa P-47 with a motor and maybe try to light the navigation lights and cockpit.  

Heck, I'm working on an F4U  that drops off its engine and tail wheel.  It's not supposed to,  though.  I made a few blunders building it!

I did manage to get a couple of those little Lindbergh "kit motors" to work- and I screwed up quite a few others.

One of my favorites was the Renwal M-47 Patton tank.  You depressed the gun barrel, the turret hatches opened and two incredibly awful zombie-like figures popped up.

Renwal's military kits were generally characterized by good detail, lots of moving parts, and some of the most wretched figures ever produced. I see Revell has brought some of those kits back. I haven't seen the Patton yet; if I do I'll probably buy one for old times' sake.

I found a review of it, with pictures, online. It reminded me of the decal sheet, which featured a big tiger for the turret. I remember applying that decal to the inside of the hull bottom, thereby enabling me to say I'd put a tiger in my tank.

I think your mixing up the Lindberg 1/32 M46 Patton (which was motorized and the turret went back & forth as it rolled) with the Renwal 1/32 M47 Patton (which had the terrible figures that popped out when you depressed the gun). The Lindberg kit came with the big tiger face decals.

The Renwal kit was reissued by Revell in the 80s and fairly recently too. www.revell.com/.../85-7821.html

We'll, the review I read was on an IPMS website and included a photo of the decal sheet - including tiger. (It's just a little tiger head, to go on the side of the turret.

My recollection is that the motorized Lindberg kit came out several years later. I never built it, but I built the Renwal one several times, along with the Walker Bulldog and the "twin forty." (The Renwal "Atomic Cannon" was, at $5.00, way out of my price range.)

One I'd like to see again is the "Skysweeper," a fancy 1950s antiaircraft gun.

They weren't up to 2014 standards, but they sure we're fun -and educational. Renewal was also responsible for one of the most famous educational kits ever, The Visible Man. That one brings back it's own set of memories.

I built that big Lindberg one years ago and got a reissued one about 5-6 years ago. The old one had that tiger mouth, newer one has a funky camouflaged USMC pattern that almost makes it look Korean.

As a kid, the Renwal kits were the high priced ones. I got Aurora and Lindberg to mess with. To me (back then) the Renwal ones were so high tech.

On another note regarding action models, today in Kmart, I ran across a line of Bandai kits called Sprukits. There were several sci-fi looking robots as well as two different Batman (Arkham City & Dark Knight), Superman, Joker and in a larger scale Arkham city Batman and Dark Knight Rises Batman. Basically action figures you build. I bought the larger Arkham Batman.