Collecting Muscle Car Model Kits. Tim Boyd
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Название: Collecting Muscle Car Model Kits
Автор: Tim Boyd
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Автомобили и ПДД
isbn: 9781613254851
isbn:
Following AMT’s lead, Revell debuted its Speed and Show kits starting in late 1962, expanding the level of detail even further to include operating doors and trunks and complex chassis/suspension designs. Revell also quickly grew its kit lineup, with models of Tri-Five Chevys and Ed Roth’s latest creations being among its best sellers. With its more popular kit topics and much greater detail, Revell’s Speed and Show kits enjoyed far better success than its ill-fated 1962 annual kit lineup. Monogram’s newest car kits were also full-featured in the same manner as those of AMT and Revell.
AMT’s new Trophy Series kits were more detailed than its typical annual kits. Shown are three of its most successful early Trophy Series offerings: a 1932 Ford Roadster, a 1940 Ford coupe, and a double kit of a 1929 Model A Roadster and the famous Barris Ala-Kart. Revell’s speed and show kits were also very popular; pictured here are its 1956 Ford Pickup, Mickey Thompson’s Challenger 1, and Ed Roth’s Tweedy Pie. The overwhelming success of these kits prompted a higher level of detail to be added into the annual kit lineups from America’s kitmakers.
Given the marketplace response to these new AMT and Revell kit categories, their greater level of detail and complexity soon migrated to the yearly kits replicating Detroit’s latest showroom offerings. The result? By the mid-1960s, certain annual kits like AMT’s 1965 Ford Galaxie 500 XL and 1967–1968 Mustang GT included intricate detailing that matched the best of AMT’s Trophy Series lineup.
Box Art That Emphasized Fun and Provoked the Imagination
At first, AMT and JoHan’s 1/25th-scale kits were merchandized in generic boxes with no more personalization than the subject of the kit contents ink-stamped in a small white rectangle at the lower end of the end panels. However, with the growth of the hobby kit business and the competition created by multiple kitmakers, box art soon grew more specific to each kit’s contents. By the mid-1960s, the annual kit lineups from AMT and MPC were sold in boxes that featured the very best in contemporary commercial art.
Drag racing a C2 Stingray, or being the first to own a miniature of the all-new 1968 Corvette; towing your A/FX-style 1965 Fairlane match racer to the strip or admiring your just-completed SOHC 427 Mustang racer. What hobby shop customer wouldn’t be enticed by the high-quality commercial art seen on these mid- to late 1960s annual kit boxes?
Not only were these illustrations finely rendered commercial art in the best tradition of the full-sized carmakers’ advertising agencies, these illustrations spoke clearly to the target audience. The illustrations sparked the imagination of modelers and were key to the continued success and growth of the model car hobby kit industry. (This is in part why I will place such an emphasis on showing these box tops throughout this book.)
Why Should Muscle Car Owners, Collectors, and Fans Care about Model Car Kits?
Great question!
Beyond the obvious appeal of revisiting something that brought you much fun and joy at an earlier part of your life, the reasons for having an interest in model car kits are many.
First and right up front, next to the real cars themselves, model car kits comprise a very complete historical record of any given muscle car. They’re highly detailed, three-dimensional representations of the real thing. Sure, looking at pictures in an old brochure, and reading about your favorites in a book, magazine, or website is interesting, but this offers nowhere near the level of information provided by a well-designed model car kit.
Running your hands over the flanks of a miniature 1969 Z-28 body provides far more tactile and visual information than the two-dimensional printed image. Model kits reveal detailed information such as the shape of the engine fuel pump, the engraved pattern of the rear-seat quarter-panels, and the configuration of the differential and suspension. These are things you might miss in other information sources. Assembling a Boss 302 engine in 1/25th scale really is next best to building the real thing in your garage (and let’s be honest, in many cases these days many folks are instead paying a professional to assemble that real engine!).
Today, historical accuracy is a goal of most car collectors. As Day 2–type muscle cars continue to grow in popularity, the annual model car kits of the 1960s and early 1970s become a great source of historical information about the exact type and name brand of Day 2 and Day 3 parts and modifications that were used back then. These 3-in-1 kits included the latest in customizing and performance accessories in each box. They were like a scaled-down SEMA show, decades before SEMA grew to the size and popularity it enjoys today.
Granted, many muscle car owners collect die-cast replicas. But while today’s die-cast replicas are continually improving in accuracy and detail, the limitations of a metal replica manufactured in such a small scale are many, and a close inspection often reveals a distinct lack of accuracy in body proportions and lifelike appearances. The technologies and materials used in 1/25th-scale styrene model kits avoid the die-cast accuracy issues.
Moreover, if you build up your model car kits, you can often spec them out exactly as you would have back in the day, right down to the exact same factory paint color and powertrain configuration of your choice. That’s a whole lot easier than spending months or years finding a real muscle car that meets your own preconceived factory order specs!
Then there’s the whole thing about maintaining a real muscle car collection. The ongoing expenses associated with storage, insurance, maintenance, plus the risks of having to search out and replace rare components because of an accident, can be headaches for the real muscle car collector. Most of these expenses are nonexistent, and the cost is at most a mere fraction of what it would be, if you collect 1/25th-scale kits. Indeed, it’s a great way to stay involved in the muscle car hobby for those who have decided to downsize their real car collections for one reason or another.
Of course, nothing replaces the thrill of starting up and taking off down the street or strip in a real original muscle car. Model car kits are a fine way to experience some of the same joy, albeit on a much smaller scale!
Revell’s 1969 Z-28 kit produces a spectacular 1/25th-scale replica of the real car that every Chevy muscle car enthusiast would love to have in his or her collection. The kit even includes the Chevy parts counter Z-28 dual-quad carb cross-ram intake manifold and the factory dual chambered exhausts. (The model shown here also shows Day 2–style wheels and tires, sourced from a well-stocked model parts box.)
Nobody Knew Back Then …
Veterans of Detroit’s 1960s and early 1970s muscle car wars often comment that few back then realized the significance and future collectability of these cars. They were our transportation, our entertainment, a key enabler of our lifestyle, a source of our dreams, and, for a fortunate few, a means of livelihood. They were modified, raced, and eventually sold or run into the ground (or for those of us in the northern states, they rusted away!). That is in part why they are so hard to find in original form these days and so expensive when located.
Likewise, no one realized the potential future collectability of model car kits back then. They were built (often in one sitting), showed around, run across the floor, and often eventually blown up in the backyard. It follows that the few remaining unbuilt model kits of the muscle car era are also valued possessions and collectibles today. Throughout the rest of this book, I’ll celebrate both СКАЧАТЬ