A very very very long time ago, like around the same time Star Wars Episode IV, was still new, the local zoo sold plastic models of dinosaur skeletons in the gift shop. I can't remember at all what the name of the company was that manufactured them. I do recall though that they were fairly decent both in size and in terms of accuracy. I also remember though that they used a very strange plastic, not regular styrene, that the regular Testors tube glue didn't work on at all. Even Crazy Glue, which was about the only thing available back then in terms of CA adhesive, had problems with it. I think in hindsight they were probably made from the same sort of oddball plastic that requires that hot Plastruct glue to be used on them. Despite the problems of the model falling apart on a regular basis because of the glue issues I do remember that they were a lot of fun, with some good detail of the little pits and depressions that old bones have. And that they had a good selection of dinos available - T-rex, triceratops, brontosaurus, one of the finbacks, and about four or five other ones. I'd definitely put all of them on my time travel acquisition list just for the fun of it.

Having-fun

 

Back in the early 70s, before I got married to the Admiral, she was my fiance at the time, I purchased the Revell US Constitution, My fiance was wondering why I would buy something that to her it was just a toy, my father-in-law to be, wonder why I would waste my time building something like that.

I started the build and went as far as the second deck and the installation of most of the cannons, then marriage got in the way, the first daughter arrived, and a couple of moves. To make the story short the kit got lost somehow before I could finish it, mainly, because I did not have time to work on it (at the time, besides working 6 days a week I also was going for a degree at the local college) the kit disappeared. I suspect that the Admiral sent it to the scrap yard.

I would love to get my hands on the same kit, but, I am trying to get sufficient experience in the building of wood models so I be able to tackle a wood model of the Constitution.

well see.

Joe

 

 

As I have stated in a recent post, I had the opportunity of visiting the USS Constitution, located in Boston, last week. Really enjoyed the experience. See the post about the visit, there is a short movie about it.

Joe

The Revell Star Wars kits are very good for the most part, but some are quite better than others. Many were "easy kits" that were designed to be snapped together and pre-painted. The smaller ones (approx. 1/72 or smaller) are really high quality.

Some of the larger ones have moving parts and more sturdy construction so children can play with the spaceship.

As per your information, Rob, and as per Scalemates as well I will take a shot at the Revell Germany Star Wars kits when the money is available. They all appear to be new tooling within the last decade so odds are very good they'll be worth the effort & expense. 1/4000 Imperial Star Destroyer, you will be mine! 

Just to show that I'm not entirely hateful towards AMT, when I built their 1/1400 USS Enterprise E recently it was a mostly uneventful build - it's been gathering dust in the basement unpainted for a few months, but the urge to finish it off is gathering steam lately. For the record the transparent parts for this model are absolutely outstanding for clear styrene, some of the best I've ever seen in a sci-fi kit. The only difficulty of any significance I had with this build was having to putty-up the fairly large seam where the saucer halves meet. This particular mold was first issued in 1997, for the ST-TNG First Contact movie, so it is recent enough IMO to not possess any of the flaws that the really, really old AMT kits have - credit where credit is due because the 1990's (my favorite decade BTW!) must have been an upwards turning point for the entire kit manufacturing industry because I've rarely encountered a 90's kit from any company that was problematic to build.

I've also heard from others basically the same thing as well about the AMT 1/1400 USS Enterprise C (new tooling in 1999) as well - a decent build with no major headaches to mention.

So, the AMT subsidiary can bring the goods when they want to. It would be very nice to see them do the same with more new products, unless it's their corporate directive to have all new issues defaulted to Polar Lights only and the AMT line is designated strictly for vintage re-releases.

ThanosForever

Rob Gronovius

 

You have to give MPC a break though. Instead of working with actual vehicles or aircraft, they had to work with studio models that themselves were created with bits and pieces of various model kits. And many of them, no one "knew" what size the studio model would really be once it hit the big screen.

I will admit that the quality of the MPC kits for the first three movies (ANH, TESB, ROTJ) were poor. AMT/Ertl did a better job with Episodes I, II & III, but compared to the Revell of Germany kits of the same subjects released in Europe, the AMT kits are not as good.

Revell of Germany's line of Star Wars kits from the cartoon The Clone Wars was top notch although the scale is still all over the place.

You're correct in that I might be taking some of this too seriously. It's just that I see AMT/Ertl/MPC the first thing I think of is that the build will be far more difficult than it should be simply because of the manufacturers apparent total unwillingness to improve their product. When they're using molds that have been burnt out and in dire need of replacement for decades to re-issue kits over and over and over again that haven't been fixed or improved in the slightest? To me that's cheating the customer. For Star Wars at least there's Bandai's current products and lots of FineMolds ones still around, and as you mentioned, Revell of Germany as well. For Star Trek though we genuinely need another major injection-molding manufacturer to make a licensing agreement with Paramount just to give AMT some long overdue competition. There's no real justification IMO for a manufacturer like AMT, who have been around for a very long time, to not be offering a product that's at least on par with what Mobius or Pegasus provided with their BSG and Terminator sci-fi kits. 

Just my grouchy old man's opinion & all. No big deal beyond that. Cheers!

There's a reason why MPC (Star Wars) and AMT/Ertl (Star Trek) went out of business and had to merge; their mainstream kits just weren't very good. Likewise Aurora (Irwin Allen sci-fi TV models) went under too.

Remember now, Monogram gained the license to Star Trek: Voyager around 1995-96. They created brand new tooled USS Voyager, Kazon ship, Maquis ship, Kazon Torpedo as well as a 3-ship set of smaller versions of the Voyager/Maquis/Kazon.

They also did a limited edition Voyager with expanded decals and clear parts and shuttle bay. They were on par with the Battlestar Galactica kits they did in the 70s and not 20 years better.

Then in the early 2003-04, Polar Lights produced TOS Enterprise, Klingon Battle Cruiser and Romulan Bird of Prey and some kits from the movie Star Trek Nemesis. They also did the Enterprise TV series NX-01 kits.

So, the Trek franchise did try out other manufacturers. The latest reboot of Star Trek (Chris Pine as Kirk) was produced by Revell of Germany.

MR TOM SCHRY

ThanosForever, I'm with you regarding AMT!  I just watched a YT video last night and a guy was demonstrating how the front windshield and rear window on their 1955 Chevy Cameo pickup wouldn't fit in the openings in the cab.  Their instructions for most of their big rig trucks are also terrible.  For the price of kits nowadays the consumer deserves better from these manufacturers. 

That's unfortunate. I thought that AMT's issues would have been confined to their sci-fi franchise products. I haven't paid attention to car/truck modelling for a very long time and I didn't think that AMT, as the main manufacturer for these types of models, would be putting out problematic kits with the same issues as their Star Trek line.

Too bad Tamiya only does Japanese and European car kits. I'd genuinely like to see what they could do if they'd put out some classic American muscle cars or dragster kits. I believe that Aoshima does some good car kits. I had one of their Mad Max Interceptor cars that I never got around to building and sold to a friend. From what I remember of the sprues all the parts looked very clean with good details and practically no excessive flashing at all except for the usual seam lines. 

ThanosForever, I'm with you regarding AMT!  I just watched a YT video last night and a guy was demonstrating how the front windshield and rear window on their 1955 Chevy Cameo pickup wouldn't fit in the openings in the cab.  Their instructions for most of their big rig trucks are also terrible.  For the price of kits nowadays the consumer deserves better from these manufacturers.

Rob Gronovius

 

You have to give MPC a break though. Instead of working with actual vehicles or aircraft, they had to work with studio models that themselves were created with bits and pieces of various model kits. And many of them, no one "knew" what size the studio model would really be once it hit the big screen.

I will admit that the quality of the MPC kits for the first three movies (ANH, TESB, ROTJ) were poor. AMT/Ertl did a better job with Episodes I, II & III, but compared to the Revell of Germany kits of the same subjects released in Europe, the AMT kits are not as good.

Revell of Germany's line of Star Wars kits from the cartoon The Clone Wars was top notch although the scale is still all over the place.

You're correct in that I might be taking some of this too seriously. It's just that I see AMT/Ertl/MPC the first thing I think of is that the build will be far more difficult than it should be simply because of the manufacturers apparent total unwillingness to improve their product. When they're using molds that have been burnt out and in dire need of replacement for decades to re-issue kits over and over and over again that haven't been fixed or improved in the slightest? To me that's cheating the customer. For Star Wars at least there's Bandai's current products and lots of FineMolds ones still around, and as you mentioned, Revell of Germany as well. For Star Trek though we genuinely need another major injection-molding manufacturer to make a licensing agreement with Paramount just to give AMT some long overdue competition. There's no real justification IMO for a manufacturer like AMT, who have been around for a very long time, to not be offering a product that's at least on par with what Mobius or Pegasus provided with their BSG and Terminator sci-fi kits. 

Just my grouchy old man's opinion & all. No big deal beyond that. Cheers!

Although I don't really, really, really regret not grabbing a kit when I had the chance, there were a couple that would have been nice to have.  When I was at a Kotobukiya shop in Tokyo back in the early 1990s, there were a bunch of small-scale resin Gundam kits that were really cool, but I only had so much money.  A couple of examples:

The little kits were going for around $40-$50, but I had my eyes and wallet fixated on a honking huge kit that cost north of $200:

It was so expensive that I had to go back to the hotel to get more money!  But I had enough cash on hand to get one of the small kits:

There was also a 1/12 resin kit of the Hammerhead, a prototype powered suit from "Madox-01: Metalskin Panic" at Yamashiro-Ya in Ueno, but it was around $120, so I had to pass on it, already suffering low wallet pressure from the previous purchases.  Moderoid released a 1/20 injection kit of the Madox-01 recently, so perhaps they will also do the Hammerhead.

But these days, I really don't feel bad about missing those kits from the wonderful decade of Japanese garage kits.  It was fun just being there.    Plus as you can see, I already have a ton of them in the stash!  

About forty years ago, my local Kmart had received a shipment of Pocher car kits from a failed HS, and was selling them for 16 bucks each, a real bargain even for that long ago.  They had two different kits, the 1904 Fiat and a thirties Maserati 8C.  I picked up the 8C, intending to pick up the Fiat later.  Whoops, they sold out way to fast.

I have wanted a racing Fiat from that era, but have not seen one in any scale.  I do have some spoked wheels in 1:16, so maybe I will scratch one.

Aggieman

 

 

Gamera

Okay, OKAY I've got one!!! 

The kit of the 'Cygnus' from the 1980 Disney movie 'The Black Hole'. 

I've heard the kit is pretty rare and really expensive now. But also I've heard is it sucked so I haven't looked though Ebay or anything like that for one. 

But if a time machine is available I'd hop back to 1980 to see if I could pick up a copy. 

 

It's one of the most beautiful ships in SF movies. I find it odd no one ever did a garage kit of the ship. Although to get the full effect you'd have to do most of the hull with a PE frame, clear parts, and lights inside...

 

 

 

 

 

  I built this thing sometime in early 1980.  I had installed lights in a Buck Rogers Marauder, as well as that original MPC Milliennium Falcon that came with lights (I think they were essentially grain of wheat bulbs), so I had some basic understanding of wiring and switches.  

 

With the way that thing was molded, there was no easy way to light that thing as it is in the movie.  I ended up painting the lighted areas with a fluorescent yellow.  Made for a good effect for 12-year-old me, but would not be very convincing now.

I've seen a couple of these recently on eBay going for far more than I would deem the kit to be worth.  But if I could hop into a DeLorean and go back to 1980 to get one of these, I'd likely cut out all the molded in window framing and panes (all silver plastic), and replace with clear styrene with custom-installed framing, and light that bad boy the way it should be.

 

Sounds awesome! 

I see what you mean though, for a 12 year old it sounds great but today I'd want to cut out the windows too. 

Gamera

Okay, OKAY I've got one!!! 

The kit of the 'Cygnus' from the 1980 Disney movie 'The Black Hole'. 

I've heard the kit is pretty rare and really expensive now. But also I've heard is it sucked so I haven't looked though Ebay or anything like that for one. 

But if a time machine is available I'd hop back to 1980 to see if I could pick up a copy. 

 

It's one of the most beautiful ships in SF movies. I find it odd no one ever did a garage kit of the ship. Although to get the full effect you'd have to do most of the hull with a PE frame, clear parts, and lights inside...

 

 

With the way that thing was molded, there was no easy way to light that thing as it is in the movie.  I ended up painting the lighted areas with a fluorescent yellow.  Made for a good effect for 12-year-old me, but would not be very convincing now.

I've seen a couple of these recently on eBay going for far more than I would deem the kit to be worth.  But if I could hop into a DeLorean and go back to 1980 to get one of these, I'd likely cut out all the molded in window framing and panes (all silver plastic), and replace with clear styrene with custom-installed framing, and light that bad boy the way it should be.

ThanosForever

The way MPC went about the entire Star Wars line was fascinating. There's not a hint of any sort of attempt to have a consistent scale among the vehicles. Examples (as per Scalemates):

- Vader's TIE was in 1/36, but Luke's X-Wing was in 1/43 and 1/63 for the ROTJ version; the standard Imperial TIE was in 1/51; TIE Interceptor in 1/51 then in 1/48

- Rebel Y-Wing was in 1/95; A-Wing in 1/48; B-Wing in 1/98; Snowspeeder in 1/22

- Imperial Shuttle Tydirium in 1/89; AT-AT in 1/100; AT-ST in 1/54; Speeder Bike in 1/11

- Boba Fett's Slave-1 in 1/85

- Threepio & Artoo in 1/8; Darth Vader in unknown scale

I'll put this down as a classic case of old-school model manufacturers basically making up scales out of thin air just so the parts trees will fit inside a pre-determined box size, in a way that was sort of typical in the store retail market of the first thirty or forty years of the kit industry (see also Revell's warships, ranging in scales from 1/429, 1/500, 1/700, 1/720, etc etc etc as another example of this sort of boxing) . Either that or AMT were under some sort of pressure from 20th Century Fox/Lucasfilm to have the finished kit be able to easily fit into a kids hand so they can chase each other around playing starfighter duel. They were probably correct in assuming things like "they're just kids playing with toys, they won't care in the slightest about accuracy in either scale or detail". 

 

You have to give MPC a break though. Instead of working with actual vehicles or aircraft, they had to work with studio models that themselves were created with bits and pieces of various model kits. And many of them, no one "knew" what size the studio model would really be once it hit the big screen.

I will admit that the quality of the MPC kits for the first three movies (ANH, TESB, ROTJ) were poor. AMT/Ertl did a better job with Episodes I, II & III, but compared to the Revell of Germany kits of the same subjects released in Europe, the AMT kits are not as good.

Revell of Germany's line of Star Wars kits from the cartoon The Clone Wars was top notch although the scale is still all over the place.

ikar01

I never heard of the Trek Wars line.

 

That was just a ficticious line I made up to show what Revell did with Robotech model kits.

Revell took various model kit lines from several unrelated Japanese cartoons and combined them into one line they called Robotech.

It would be like if they took various Star Trek, Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica kits and created their own line with their own backstory to those kits.

Regardless, I loved the kit and they were my first introduction into many of these high quiality Japanese sci-fi model kits.

Monogram tried to replicate but was not successful. They did release a few kits that they labeled as GoBots from the cartoon, but were really from other Japanese cartoons.

 I'd want this glorious bit of automotive madness. The John Bogosian-designed Koo Koo Kar from AMT. 

 http://www.showrods.com/showrod_pages/koo_koo.html

Rob Gronovius

If you had the ability to open a time portal, stick your hand in to it and pull out some kit from the past, or even current, what kit would you pick? Money is no object either. 

All monogram original issue 1/48 kits, especially the 4 engine bombers, but if I could only choose one bomber it would be the B-24J, and the Testors 1/48 electro plated P-51D 'moonbeam mcswine' ... and the revell huey gunship (1/32?) 

I never heard of the Trek Wars line.

Thanks for the info on the Viper markings, I'll see about them as soon as my disability card recharges.

I had the Cygnus when it came out.  I even considered lighting it up, but since the hull was solid grey plastic, I figured it wouldn't be worth the effort.  If I had it now things might be different.

ikar01

I'd settle for finding a few decal sheets for the Monogram original Colonial Viper kit.  Since I'm not about to find the kit of the Chrysler Turbine car, I might as well settle for a second choice.

JT Graphics does a set of (now) Revell Colonial Viper decals for the old Monogram kit.

There are also masks available for painting the markings for the classic kit: https://starshipmodeler.biz/catalogsearch/result/?q=viper

I remember doing some research on the old Revell Robotech model kits. What they did was akin to taking all Star Wars, Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica kits and combining them into their own science fiction line called Galatic Trek Wars.

I loved those kits. They were awesome and I built most of them and still have quite a few.

I'd settle for finding a few decal sheets for the Monogram original Colonial Viper kit.  Since I'm not about to find the kit of the Chrysler Turbine car, I might as well settle for a second choice.

That four legged walker originally came from the Dougram TV series.  Many of the Robotech kits came from several Japanese cartoon shows.  Most of them were re-branded without the permission of the creaters and eventually had to be withdrawn.  However they did manage to make it to the board game version called Battletech, for a short time.  I have several of the lead figures.

A Revell 4662 F-4 in 1/32.  I tried to build two back in the day, but where the body meets the wing always got a gaping hole in it from to much sanding (this was back in the day before water based putty).  

Back when I was a kid in the 60's, I remember seeing this big beautiful red hot rod setting on the top shelf of the five and dime. The box was huge, well at least to a boy of 10, and I would make an excuse for Mom to have to send me to the store just so I could take another look at it. It didn't come to be though but if I could find one today I definitely give it a shot.

ThanosForever

<snip>Speeder Bike in 1/11</snip>

OMG I seriously until the moment I saw this completely forgot that I had one of those kits!  I didn't finish it and have no idea where it went, but...dang, thanks for that memory!

ThanosForever

 

I'll put this down as a classic case of old-school model manufacturers basically making up scales out of thin air just so the parts trees will fit inside a pre-determined box size

BOX SCALE!  Yeah, I always thought it was odd that I couldn't put the SW stuff next to each other for size comparison.  I (fairly) recently acquired the MPC original issue X-Wing, Darth Vader's TIE fighter, and AT-AT.  Now I've got to see if I can find a speeder bike.  :)

Keeping with the theme of the OP, I have to say that I'd probably try to get the model that my father had on top of the wardrobe in the garage.  It was some sort of old model car, something like a Packard or Rolls - I remember it as metallic maroon with a rumble seat, and that's about it.  I'd love to get my hands on one and do it, possibly even as a gift for him, since I know he never finished it...

daniel

The way MPC went about the entire Star Wars line was fascinating. There's not a hint of any sort of attempt to have a consistent scale among the vehicles. Examples (as per Scalemates):

- Vader's TIE was in 1/36, but Luke's X-Wing was in 1/43 and 1/63 for the ROTJ version; the standard Imperial TIE was in 1/51; TIE Interceptor in 1/51 then in 1/48

- Rebel Y-Wing was in 1/95; A-Wing in 1/48; B-Wing in 1/98; Snowspeeder in 1/22

- Imperial Shuttle Tydirium in 1/89; AT-AT in 1/100; AT-ST in 1/54; Speeder Bike in 1/11

- Boba Fett's Slave-1 in 1/85

- Threepio & Artoo in 1/8; Darth Vader in unknown scale

I'll put this down as a classic case of old-school model manufacturers basically making up scales out of thin air just so the parts trees will fit inside a pre-determined box size, in a way that was sort of typical in the store retail market of the first thirty or forty years of the kit industry (see also Revell's warships, ranging in scales from 1/429, 1/500, 1/700, 1/720, etc etc etc as another example of this sort of boxing) . Either that or AMT were under some sort of pressure from 20th Century Fox/Lucasfilm to have the finished kit be able to easily fit into a kids hand so they can chase each other around playing starfighter duel. They were probably correct in assuming things like "they're just kids playing with toys, they won't care in the slightest about accuracy in either scale or detail". 

As a kid, that MPC TIE was one of my favorite kits, and one of the first of my Star Wars models. I think R2-D2 was my first followed by Luke's X-Wing, the TIE and C3PO out of the clearance aisle. It sat there for forever before I finally grabbed it.

The Empire Strikes Back gave us the Star Destroyer, Slave 1, Snowspeeder (my favorite), and the AT-AT. I think there was the Hoth base diorama, but I didn't get that one until many years later.

They dumbed down the line for the Return of the Jedi with the majority of the new kits being snap together kits like the Y-Wing, TIE Interceptor, B-Wing, A-Wing and AT-ST. But that Speeder Bike was the bomb! They also reissued the Falcon without lights.

Rob: Yeah, I think you'd posted the photo before. Really cool collection of vintage kits. I had a simular walker like yours on the left from Robotech. I think I still have a few parts of it but the main kit is gone. 

G: Ah ok. I just call everything an ABC store since I can't spell liquor. Maybe I should just say 'booze' store...  

I'd head back to the Christmas of '78 and grab the Monogram B-24 Liberator kit my aunt and uncle had got me. I was 4 at the time so it was way over my head, but my older cousins were given models as gifts and they didn't want me to feel left out. I remember trying to open it on the living room floor and start building it on Christmas Eve. I was ultimately talked into trading it in for an Adventure People set, but that kit has always held a special place in my memory. 

Well!

       There would be two. Hopefully stacked side by side on the shelf. The Aurora "Wheeler Cruiser" and also their release of "Sealab". Nothing else really tips my bucket

Gamera,

No, the seedy liquor stores I mentioned were not the nice, tourist-friendly ABC stores!  They were the ones with faded merchandise in the window (ie model kits), beer neon signs, sports betting sheets sold at the counter (for entertainment purposes only!), and porno mags on spinner racks right on the sales floor.

Gamera

Cool Rob, I thought you'd mentioned the kit before. Funny I was around back then and picked up a few of 'The Black Hole' action figures but never any of the kits. The only SF kit I had was the starfighter from the NBC 'Buck Rogers' TV show. Most of the kits I had as a kid were all aircraft. 

G, thanks! So I need to hunt though all the seedy ABC stores in Hawaii!!! 

 

MPC did three Black Hole model kits. I got the Maximillian kit, still have it, as a kid. Then I got the Cygnus while in college and probably 20 some odd years ago, I got the Vincent robot kit.

I never got the Buck Rodgers fighter, but had the Draconian raider. I remember putting an F-16 seat and pilot inside the fighter. You can see it in this old photo of jjunk that came from my childhood bedroom.