There was a time in our nation's history when practically every young boy had a model of something on his shelf: an object he had assembled
themselves, made of plastic from a kit and held together by a curiously citrusy-smelling glue. It may have been a car, a ship, an
airplane, or even something more exotic like a Frankenstein's Monster lumbering through a graveyard; but chances are that boy had
built several models over his young life, painted or unpainted, with or without help from Dad.
The 1950's were a decade of do-it-yourself for kids, a national craze wherein youngsters built birdhouses, made signs with woodburning
kits, or even constructed their own gravity-powered racing cars for local contests. The first big boom in model kit building came
when this hobby mania coincided with the cheap availabity of plastic as well as a booming economy: companies found that kids were
clamoring for plastic kits devoted to subjects that interested them. The usual family-safe subjects dominated.
Model building took a leap forward into the unknown in 1962 when Aurora Plastics Corp. put out a kit that rocketed to popularity:
Frenkenstein - or at least, the monster that forever bears that name. This gruesome kit sold so well that Aurora was obliged to have a
second mold created, just so that they could have two machines cranking them out 24 hours a day. This was the time when the classic
monster movies were being reintroduced to the nation's youth via TV reruns, so that all things monstrous were now in heavy demand.
A whole host of toothsome creatures followed Franky's lead, and soon bedroom shelves all over the nation were stocked with a variety
of harmless horrors.
After this, the model companies grew more daring, and put out kits devoted to more far-out subjects. Certainly, automobiles still
won out with most boys, but more imaginative kids could now find kits devoted to spaceships, superheroes, prehistoric subjects, and
even car-monster hybrids (such as Hawk's Weird-Ohs or the Lindberg Loonys), inspired by Ed 'Big Daddy' Roth.
For the modern collector of vintage model kits, there is a great wealth of material to choose from, much of it at prices that are
thankfully not as out-of-this-world as the variety of subjects available.
Don't see what you're looking for? Bookmark us and check back soon!
Aircraft
World War I
Between the Wars
World War II
Post War Military
Helicopters
Civilain Aviation
Airliners
Prestige Series
K&B Collectors Series
Cars & Trucks
1/64 Trucks
1/30 Ex-Best Cars
1/32 Ex-Advance Cars
1/32 Custom Cars
1/32 Sports Cars
1/32 Original Issue Hot Rods
1/32 Scene Machine Hot Rods
1/32 Final Issue Hot Rods
1/25 Cars
1/16 Old Timers & American Classics
1/16 Racing Scenes
Figure Kits
Knights
Other Fighting Men
Guys and Gals of All Nations
Wildlife
Monsters
Comic Book Super Heroes
Comic Scenes
Whoozis
Prehistoric Scenes
Other 1960's Figures
Military Vehicles
1st Series
2nd Series
3rd Series
Diorama Kits
Aurora/ESCI Armor
Rockets & Missiles
SciFi-TV-Movie
Ships
Historic Sailing Ships
Modern Ships
Aurora/Heller Ships
Hawk
Weird-Ohs Car-icky-tures Weird-ohs
Daddy
Davey
Digger
Drag Hag
Endsville Eddie
Freddy Flameout
Huey's Hut Rod
Sling Rave Curvette
Wade A. Minut
Francis the Foul
Killer McBash
Leaky Boat Louie
Silly Surfers
Beach Bunny
Hodad Makin' the Scene
Hot Dogger Hangin' Ten
Riding Tandem
Woodie on a Surfari
Frantics
Frantic Banana
Frantic Cats
Steel Pluckers
Totally Fab