How Old Is Your Stash?

My stash currently consists of over 200 kits...some I've started some I haven't. While I can't say for sure how many, a pretty good number of them go back to the '90s.

Two types to consider- old kits that I bought new myself, but have not built yet, and old kits that I bought at a flea market or show, more recently, but have not built.  The later type tends to be the oldest kits. I have a hudson miniatures car kit, and a couple of wood "solid" models, both date back to either pre-plastic or earliest plastic days.  I was into modeling in that era, but have no kits left that are from the era.  Those kits are at least fifty years old, probably going on sixty.

I have some kits from 1965 around yet, but, I bought them in 1972 or so,,,,I didn't keep a stash when I started building in 1965, but, I had a backlog that grew into a stash from 1969 on up until now (I was 12 in 1969)

Christmas of 1969 I got more kits as gifts than I could build in one week, then soon after that I got my first "real" job that paid more than odd jobs and lawn mowing.

I do have some late 1950's kits that I picked up for a song at a show's discount table last year, but, I don't think those really count for what you meant.

Rex

Like most of you, my earliest builds and kits purchased in the 1960s did not survive childhood/adult moves.

During the late 1980s, I did purchase a few AIRFIX airplane kits matching those I built as a child but do not intend to build them. A shame the old AURORA kits are so bloody expensive. I'd like to build their armour kits again.

I'm really considering the years I purchased most of my unbuilt kit stash as the age of my stash, rather than when some my oldest kits were manufactured.

I've got some Monogram and Tamiya stuff from the early 70's.

When I was about 13 (1971) I saw my first Tamiya 1/35 German Armour kits in the local Woolworths and thought I was in hog heaven!!

I think my oldest purchases in the stash (30 models) date from around 2004. There are two, and they are 1/350 Dragon modern ship models. That was when a local hobby shop in Northern Colorado  moved to a new location on the west side of town. They went out of business about a year after that. I mostly bought them for sentimental reasons, as I grew up with that hobby shop.

Like a few others, I've got several very old kits that I have collected in the last 15 years or so. I also have some kits I bought new in the early 1980s that I haven't gotten to yet or haven't completed.

I also have a couple of kits I've built when I was a teenager in the 1970s. Some are competed and some are now in pieces in a box. I have several Star Wars kits I bought and built in 1977-78 as well as the original Star Trek The Motion Picture Enterprise from that same time period. It's been through the wringer, but is complete.

I've only been building my stash for six months. So nothing's been sitting in there for long. But the oldest kit I have is a Monogram F-80 Shooting Star from 1988. Making it as old as me.

I have some kits that I bought in 1981 at Orange Blossom Hobbies on 36 st in Miami and a couple of Monogram kits (from around the same time) from either Lionel Playworld or Toys R Us when they carried plastics. Orange Blossom closed its doors I think around  2001.

Much/most of my stash was purchased between 2001 when I discovered eBay, and 2007 or so. I have several hundred unbuilt kits (including figure sets), and they range from some of the latest releases to some kits that are from the late 60s to early 70s boxings. But the oldest kits of mine that were new purchase date from Christmas 1982, which was the last Christmas that I was still in school and my folks gave me models as gifts. Most of them were never built and went into storage when I enlisted and left for the Army that next summer. I think that I have five or so left from that batch...

Stikpusher......I happened to see the photo you posted in another thread and the thought occurred to me that any old kits you didn't want anymore could be readily disposed of with the help of the duty shotgun in the photo......

I am going to date myself by answering this. I have several factory sealed Strombeck, Comet and Aurora kits which I bought decades ago when they were new on the shelves of the hobby shop we used to have in downtown Laconia, NH. I also have some original Strombeck wooden kits which I never built.

Gordon D. King

I am going to date myself by answering this. I have several factory sealed Strombeck, Comet and Aurora kits which I bought decades ago when they were new on the shelves of the hobby shop we used to have in downtown Laconia, NH. I also have some original Strombeck wooden kits which I never built.

To be more specific (which I should have included in my first post), the oldest kit (one I purchased via internet from someone who had heard I was looking for one) is a kit of a midget race car from a mfg called Ace.  They went oob in the late forties.  I suspect the kit was mfgd in '47 or '48. The kit is balsa wood except for composition wheels and some strips of brass for leaf springs.

I wanted to keep the kit and build it too, so I duplicated all the balsa parts by band sawing them from hobby shop balsa stock.  I made molds of the wheels and cast them in resin.  Car is just about complete but I still have all of the original kit now!

Sprue-ce Goose

Stikpusher......I happened to see the photo you posted in another thread and the thought occurred to me that any old kits you didn't want anymore could be readily disposed of with the help of the duty shotgun in the photo......

Certainly not! Although in the days of long ago, many builds fall victim to my BB gun, firecrackers, and other similar spectacular methods... 

stikpusher

Sprue-ce Goose

Stikpusher......I happened to see the photo you posted in another thread and the thought occurred to me that any old kits you didn't want anymore could be readily disposed of with the help of the duty shotgun in the photo......

Certainly not! Although in the days of long ago, many builds fall victim to my BB gun, firecrackers, and other similar spectacular methods... 

The oldest kit I bought only just recently just before the holidays was a 1/72 scale Supermarine S.B1. The date on the kit is 1973. Found it in a clearance rack at my LHS.

I started modeling in the late 50's with my father, but then took off a few years for high school, college, getting married and starting my career.  I started again right after we bought our first house in 1978 and I had a place for a workbench and a few extra dollars to spend.

I've got some old kits that I've collected over the years, but I think the one that I've actually had the longest is an original issue Monogram 1:48 B-58 Hustler that goes back to about 1984.  Started it when I first got it, but then moved shortly after and for whatever reason never have gotten back to finishing it.

Mark

All my old kits are built.  Too impatient to have a stash in the 50's and 60's.  I have some that I built in the 60's but none from the 50's.  Probably the oldest kits I have are a Wright Military Flyer and a Curtiss Golden Flyer by a Los Angeles company called Hillcrest.  Plastic framing, paper covering, and white metal engines.  Early 50's.

I haven't bought a model for almost 10 years. I went on an ebay binge getting all the old models from  my youth plus some others and I'm still working on them! My stash is very small compared to many folks. Currently only about 20 kits. Some of the ones I bought during the ebay phase I've donated or sold off. (why did I need three copies of that field gun tractor?) I'm having fun building all the old Matchbox armour plus some of the other Matchbox kits that I didn't do as a youngster but I'm getting jealous or envious of the guys building the high quality modern kits so I think I will be adding to the stash a little bit sometime soon. Probably a 1/72 Dragon AFV of some sort.

So to answer the question, I assembled my stash between about 2000 to 2005 and the kits themselves are from the 1970s and maybe even 1960s. I have one modern 1/35 Dragon AFV kit but the rest are oldies.

I have the 1/32 Monogram Panzerspahwagen which I did not build as a youngster but bought because of the Shep Paine Diorama tip sheet that came with it. I've built others of the old monogram armour and they are not very good so this one was a good candidate for selling or giving away. The ebay price is low though so I may just build it. Or give it away after scanning the tip sheet.

Gern

So to answer the question, I assembled my stash between about 2000 to 2005 and the kits themselves are from the 1970s and maybe even 1960s. I have one modern 1/35 Dragon AFV kit but the rest are oldies.

I have the 1/32 Monogram Panzerspahwagen which I did not build as a youngster but bought because of the Shep Paine Diorama tip sheet that came with it. I've built others of the old monogram armour and they are not very good so this one was a good candidate for selling or giving away. The ebay price is low though so I may just build it. Or give it away after scanning the tip sheet.

The above kits and the addition of 1/24 scale 1970s era bagged AIRFIX kits for $5 and $6 each changed my stash "age" to be predominantly 40 years old. 

Not too old,I don't maintain a large stash (only about 30) the oldest are about 8-9 years old

My stash started after I got married in `95, but I have kits from the late-60s and mid-70s.

Hello There !

  Funny you should ask . I had a visitor from out  of town over Christmas and he wanted to see my stash. Well two days and forty large boxes later he got his wish ! The oldest kit s I have date from the old REVELL Victory at Sea Kits and the American Commerce kits of the fifties . I would,ve had older But there's many that didn,t survive military moves .

   Along the same vein , do you remember the REVELL multi-piece body car kits .I still have all the originals and their bad attempt to go to 1/25 with the custom versions .The only one missing there is REVELL's 1957 Ford Country Squire station wagon ! I had gone so far as to put the wheels and tires from a 1957 AMT kit on it .It didn't survive my last move and now when I see it I can't afford it !

That's about it except The few COMET plastic and wood kits from I was about ten or so .As I explained in another post when I got the Victory at Sea kits  the MISSOURI was always replaced with something else and I found out years later the gifters had done that because they wanted to build her and hadn't been able to get to single version .

I still have an  Aurora Russian   Tu-104 Aeroflot Airliner (Tu-16 Badger)  kit in the box....purchased in 1969....not sure how old........kinda sorry i didn't keep more of the AURORA kits if only as examples of how far kit design and production technology has progressed.

Hey !

   That was a neat looking plane too ! I had that and the B.O.A.C. " COMET " airliner from them and the " GRAF SPEE " That model I think was about 1/500 and small enough with the oversized armor belt they molded on it looked like a Submarine before I got the stack and guns on it !

Hello all!!! I had about 75 kits that we more or less from the 90's a few older Mono but that was it. I then met and became friends with a guy here in my area. Without me knowing it , he came to my upholstery shop with the front seat of his truck stacked full of late 60's early 70's Tamiya, mono 1/35 tanks and 1/32 planes...really cool stuff. In all I think he gave me 35 kits it was like Christmas. He told me they belonged to his brother who had got killed by a drunk driver a few years ago and he knows he would have wanted them to go to someone who would enjoy them as much as he would have. So cool that he thought of me. He is a very giving friend.

Hi !

 You know the same scenario of sorts happened to me .I was living in Northern Ca. And built a model for a fellow .It was LINDBERGS , " Chris Craft Sportfisherman " Boat kit . Well about a year after I built it and delivered same ,a fellow showed up at the Marina where I lived and had these boxes in his pickup .he asked for me .I met him (The original fellow's son ) and he said his Mom didn't want to bother with them and He didn't build models ,so did I want them .Seems Dad passed suddenly  at work in San Fransisco !

    Turns out his father had owned a Hobby Shop some years before .and this was the last of the stock .Certainly , I said yes and never looked in a box till my day off . Well to my surprise there was another Boat like the one I built for his father and scads of model cars and armor kits .I think there were only about ten or so planes .

I kept the LINDBERG Kits and took the rest to the V.A. I volunteered at ,  in Recreational Therapy .Talk about glowing faces .WOW .

   Isn't it amazing how something works out sometimes ? I like to think he would've approved .

tankerbuilder

Hey !

    I had .......... the " GRAF SPEE " That model I think was about 1/500 and small enough with the oversized armor belt they molded on it looked like a Submarine before I got the stack and guns on it !

Hmmmm.....now that ya mention it....my AURORA Graff Spee kit  did look like a bit like a 1920s era sub until the superstructure was added............