The pricetag badge sounds like fun to me.
So, what stores (drug and department) as a kid do you remember going to
and ogling over their selection of cheap models? And it seemed
they all carried models.
For me, it was.....
Skaggs Drug
Bonanza 88 cents store
Woolworths
The Bon
ValueMart
Osco Drug
K-Mart
Gills Drug
Ben Franklin
Scheels True Value
The Downtowner Dept Store
Public Drug
Woolworths, Bonanza, The Downtowner, Public Drug, and the Bon were all
on the same block downtown. My mom worked at an ad agency in the
same building and after school I would go and hang out in these stores
while waiting for her to get off work. Usually she would have to
come and get me and we would end up going home with some $0.88 model.
We also had a big hobbyshop downtown where I would spend hours making
our my Christmas list since they carried the premium stuff that
was out of my allowance budget.
Mom was a comparison grocery shopper, and the days before superstores,
all the neighborhood grocery stores had a drugstore next to them.
While she went in to get the groceries, I would go over to the drug
store and end up with some sort of wingy or floating thingy.
While she compared the price of Tuna between two stores, I was
comparing the price of a Airfix Avenger or trying to decide if I wanted
the MPC 1/72 Dauntless at Skaggs or the 1/48 Spowith Camel by Monogram
which was hiding behind a stack of BF-109s and Spitfires over at
Bonanza..
Those were also the days when a 10 yr old could roam freely without the
worry of ending up having his picture on the side of a milk carton.
Man, now I'm feeling dated. All these stores are gone now,
including K-mart. All replaced by the 200,000,000 sq ft Wallymart
that carries at the most three Revell F-106s and a Wright Flyer.
And these are over $11. Or for $39.99, I could get a pre-built,
pre-painted 1/48 P-47. YUK!
Scott