Aurora "Air Force Pilot/Steve Canyon" figure kit availability

I don't know about the Aurora kit but you can find several of the GI Joe "Jet Pilots" on eBay.

Hi Drew,

I have wanted one of these kits ever since it was issued in 1958 and thought I would never find one. However thanks to E.Bay I have recently acquired one, albeit 50 years later and bid  $85 for it, which I didn't think was too bad, considering some sellers expect to sell it at four times that amount!  Now for such a rare kit came the dilemma to build or not to build? I am not into buying kits as an investment and the pleasure for me is to build kits and display them for all to enjoy!  I have nearly finished him and it is a great kit, worth every penny. I do hope you can find one as I don't believe this mould exists any more. Glencoe certainly don't have the mould and it has never been reissued since 1958.

Thanks Adrian -- that's what I figured.  I'm glad you got ahold of one of the kits.  I'd love to see pictures of the finished kit, if you're into photographing/posting on the Forum.  

Maybe the Millton Caniff Estate, which has recently officially released  all the episodes of the old "Steve Canyon" TV show onto DVD, has a definite answer on the existence of the old Aurora mold(s) of the kit.

-- Drew Cook 

I contacted both the Milton Caniff Estate and Moebuis Models, proposing they reissue the Aurora "Steve Canyon United States Air Force Jet Pilot" figure kit.

The representative of the Caniff Estate was very friendly, and replied he would pass on the information I gave him regarding the  old Aurora "Steve Canyon" figure kit to their person in charge of product development.  He also stated the estate is currently heavily involved in releasing the remastered DVD sets of the 1958 "Steve Canyon" TV show, and were presidently "operating at a loss." 

I haven't yet received a reply from Moebuis Models, who are about to release another old Aurora kit, the rare "Confederate Raider."  Moebuis does, however, state on its website that they will be moving away from reissuing old Aurora kits to concentrate on new, original kits of subjects they're interested in -- which appear to be monsters and sci-fi subjects.  

Another possibility is to contact Atlantis Models, it looks like they are going to rerelease several old Aurora kits - Some Wildlife, the Viking, the Pirates, lots of good stuff. Revell is also a possibility, they are going to rerelease some of the old Aurora Knights soon.

...................If the tooling still existed they could re-release it as a "Fifties USAF Pilot" and escape the whole character copyright problem.  Aurora did have a generic U.S. Navy and Marine figures around that time so why not a generic pilot figure...................That is if the tooling still exist.  As I noted in my previous post supposedly most of the Aurora tools were destroyed in a train wreck after Monogram bought out the company.  It has been suggested some of tooling was scraped for its metal content.  It is strange RM has had no problem locating the old Frankenstein Monster, Dracula and other popular Aurora tools for frequent reissues..................Glencoe dis release some modified Aurora World War One aircraft kits, but the their large scale figure kits were ITC (International Toy Company) reissues.

Here is my built Aurora kit . Hope you like him and I built him as a 1950s Sabre pilot from the Italian " Frecce Tricolori" aerobatic team to commemorate their 50th Anniversary this year. I may later change his patches/ helmet to represent another unit.

very nice!

Alas I'm pretty sure this mould is one that was destroyed and no longer exists. Nick at Glencoe tried to source it and drew a blank!  I think those figures reissued by Polar Lights are not from the original moulds, but from copies. It can't be rocket science to get an original kit and press the parts into wax to produce male and female copies of the toolings. I am sure any enterprising manufacturer could do this if they could see the potential. It's just a case of persuading them tro do it! 

It certainly seems to be the general consensus that the Aurora molds for the "Steve Canyon United States Air Force Jet Pilot/United States Air Force Jet Pilot" figure kit were either lost, or more likely, destroyed. 

I contacted the official website of the "Steve Canyon" TV show on DVD, and John Ellis, the man mainly responsible for getting the 1958 show onto commercial DVD, stated to me in an email that he himself had contacted members of the family that owned the original Aurora Plastics Company regarding this kit.  The Aurora people told him the same thing we've all heard for years -- that the molds had been lost or destroyed.

Mr. Ellis ruminated on the possibilities of a contemporary model company "reverse engineering" the old kit, by casting new parts molds using the parts from a vintage, unbuilt kit, many of which still exist.  Mr. Ellis also said that the Milton Caniff estate would be delighted to authorize an official reissue of this Aurora "Steve Canyon United States Air Force Jet Pilot" figure kit!

I myself finally obtained a mint, unbuilt "Steve Canyon" version of the kit (at quite an exorbitant price).  The single problem I could see with a reverse-engineering recasting of the parts would be possible difficulties with some of the figure's loose, relatively long (and convex/concave) parachute harness straps.

Now, all we need is for a contemporary model company to show an interest in reissuing the "Steve Canyon" kit (and someone to donate their valuable, vintage kit to the cause).  Maybe someone's got a spare...