If you were a young boy growing up in the 1960s, AMT model kits may have been a big part of your life. I know they were for me. A month (or less) wouldn’t go by when I would use my allowance or extra money I earned to go to the local drug store and lay down $2.00 or less for the model car kit that had been released (I had the same love affair with comics, too). The seller has a collection of model kits that seems to number 21 that have been opened for photos but are unbuilt. Available only as a complete set here on Facebook Marketplace, you can relive a part of your youth for $2,000, shipped from Syracuse, New York. Thanks for the cool tip, “Gary”.
AMT stood for Aluminum Model Toys (though most of their kits were plastic). It was a brand of scale (typically 1:25) model vehicles that often featured some of the hit new cars of the day. Manufacturing began in 1948 in Troy, Michigan. While many of their kits were fashioned after stock cars, you could also build many as customs or hot rods (known as the 3-in-1’s). Ownership changed hands in 1978 when it was purchased by Lesney Co., then ERTL in 1983, and finally Round 2 in 2012.
We’re told these models cover the full range of the decade that was the 1960s. Some of the kits featured cars like the 1965 Buick Riviera, 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado, 1963 Ford Thunderbird, 1966 Buick Skylark, 1962 Ford Galaxie, and the 1962 Ford Ranchero. Since the 1960s were the birth of the youth movement, some “Flower Power” models included the Magnolia Mauler, Buttercup Bomb, Peony Pony, and Mexicali Mudlark.
At about $100 a piece, these kits should probably be treasured in their current unaltered form rather than being built out. If you have your eyes on one or two of these classics, you’ll have to take them all, as the seller has no plans to separate. Add to the asking price the cost of shipping (better ensure these things for their resale value), and paying electronically through a service like Venmo might cost you a service fee. Is this a collection you’d like to own?
Oh boy, Russ, here comes the waterworks. I can say with most certainly, motor heads are born with that affliction, and we all pushed car ownership by building models that we surely will have as grownups. Ah, the innocence of youth. The reality of that, was, we knew we’d never have most of them, but imagination was king and and yes, I did have an AC Cobra once,,,( cough).
I don’t recognize many of the kits, especially the themed ones, I went for the more conventional “3-in-1” kits of plausible vehicles. I seem to remember, the kits were usually under $2bucks, Treasure Island a bit less, Hobby Horse a bit more, but much better selection. I was lucky to have a Hobby Horse in my area. The glue, .59( remember that non-toluene glue they sold for a spell, parts fell off? They brought back the “good stuff”, and hasn’t affected me one bit,,( cough again) Paint was another, 6 bits( .75) for the little bottles, still available, but will cost you $3.95 now, took a lot of those to paint a bike, spray, maybe $1.25, and that fake “wood filler” that who knows what that was, equally as toxic, but our “creations” would make “George Barris” proud,,,kind of.
I never knew the AMT meaning, never thought aluminum, but research shows, they began with aluminum cast toys after the war, and morphed into plastic in the 50s. Once in my trucking escapades, I hauled a ( heavy) load of plastic pellets to a company in S. Beloit, Ill. and I find the place( no GPS in the 80s) back in, the forklift guy says “be right there”. So I’m looking around, I see all these “AMT” kits on pallets, even though the company did not say “AMT”. I said, “do you make model kits here?” Yep, he said, they did a lot of different kits, but AMT was one of the customers. I said, well, I helped put your kids through college,,,I built a lot of models. He said, when he was finished unloading, ” here, take this and build it with your kids”, gives me some hot rod kit. That was really cool. Being a truck driver had some perks, that was one. I saw where “America works”, and it slowly declined from there. Great find, hope I didn’t bore you, the comments should be book worthy. Amen to that era,,,,we’ll never see again.
You never bore us Howard. I was hoping you’d share something here. I’m sure most of us who’s on Barnfinds has a history building models as kids. I was like you, my models were my “wish list” of what I wanted when I grew up.
-Dave
Thanks, and in my best Sally Field voice, “you really do like me”,,and just a spoke in the wheel,,,that made a few rotations. :)
Always a truck guy, I built W900 KWs, Astros, L model Fords and some ALF fire trucks.
My grandmother came to visit from out of state when I was 5 (1965) and took me to the local five & dime store (TG&Y) OKC and told me I could pick out any toy I wanted and I guess I went for model car of a gull wing Mercedes, my family tried so hard to talk me out of it but to no avail, I was dead set on the model! So she bought the model and a tube of that great smelling glue that we all loved so much and headed back to the house, I’m told that I set down opened the instructions and proceeded to build the car, no paint mind you just build it. They said it took me about an hour and a half and the car was done, that car started a life long love of cars that has never stopped, I probably went on to build somewhere around 300 models when I stopped and started driving real hot rods! Thanks for the trip down memory lane sir!
I was the same way. Grandma bought me the Model T Paddy Wagon. I took it to kindergarten and during show and tell I explained the slicks, headers and the blower. My teacher called my grandma laughing saying she didn’t know what i was talking about but I sure did. My dad and all his friends drag raced, one had a aluminum frt end 64 Hemi Polara and a lightweight 65 Hemi Coronet, another had a aluminum frt end Hemi Belvedere, dad had a 57 Chevy and a Willys Areo coupe gasser. I was five and could tell you every car at the strip. Grampa had me driving the tractor that same year and dad would sit me on his lap and let me steer the 57. God, I had a most excellent childhood
My name is Phillip Hamby, I took, I’m big modeler. Every scale. I’m not only have The ZRR, I became The Technical Advisor, of Dox Art Factory, Monza, Italy, with Paolo his best friend. We’ve working restoring The ZZR in 02/20-8/26, until, it’s, back to Motion Pictures Quality, at European and USA Car Shows. Dix owns, Barris Kustoms The ZRR, yet, nether, knew, had it originally looked. That’s where, I came into the picture. I know everything about The ZZR. I did research on everything, and we started, original, United Americana Radar Mags, ad the four matching, Reader offset spinners were found, then the rear, Radar, nags, and the Hilborn four injector, four-baffle, scoops, the Moon Equipment gas tank, was found and replaced. The found two linkages, to work, those scoops. The engines were done earlier, the frame was sandblasted, and Bondo, was applied to the framed to airbrushed, the body, had the holes plugged up. They stripped the Naugahyde of the car. The doors were held together with plywood. I recommended, being fiberglass, just make a buck the two long doors, and then make new ones out of steel. Well, I guess, Dox, is going to keep fiberglass doors, and put on new Naugahyde on the car. Yet, paint professionally. Since, Dox is natural born, canvas painting artist, while being a customer car artist second. Some parts have to be 3D printed, like, the right, chrome ring, thats like George Barris, DoDia, custom car logo in chrome. The tar machine, in the rear, needs the tar removed, which been over 69 years. I did find, a replacement 17″ Gold steering wheel for The ZRR. I believe in 2024, I found Gringer, had the missing long, stainless steel triple plate chrome in about 25″ trumpet horns and 24 1/2″ trumpet horns, to have the five hours recalibrated, to make “The Out of Sight” 1966 Universal, first five notes, of the song. With the help of Al, Microsoft’s search engine, I found three, places, in Italy, to make the custom, beveled brass, threaded, cap, for the long deafening mufflers, to quiet, those headers down. I even found, a female seamstress, to recreate, The gold, velvet tassels, that are about two inches of the front windshield in the middle, of the steel jump chute, that blows off at the end the movie. It’s also has those same gold velvet tassels, two inches off both left and right. All in Italy, to save, Dox money, in building this dream machine. My favorite car ever. Made, from a fiberglass body, of The Munster Koach. “Cars of the Cars” by George Barris and Spaghetti, copyrighted 1974 has all the details. Yes, Dox, owns both the copyrights to Barris Kustoms The ZZR, and AMT The ZRR Drafting Blueprints under glass. This is why, Round 2, can not produce, The ZRR AMT Model kit. Dox, owns the European Copy Rights. We have about 31/2 years to finish The ZZR restoration. Sincerely, Phillip Hamby
Sorry, some words, were hit wrong my phone. This a 10 year project. The car be seen on Facebook Page: George Barris ZZR. I have been busy with The Monkees and Monkee Mobile blog. It is the only, correct blog, with two Monkee Mobiles, Pontiac, promise, if Dean Jeffries, made a mild custom, like my 1/32 picture, that Pontiac, would have a Funny Car, version, for competition. However, that didn’t happen, but Mpc was happy, when they use the second Monkee Mobile, to produce the model in 1967. I had the original, kit, and sold my brother, in Georgia. Well, the real truth, about The Monkee Mobile #1 is here. https://themonkeesandmonkeemobile.blogspot.com/
Sorry, some words, were hit wrong my phone. This a 10 year project. The car be seen on Facebook Page: George Barris ZZR. I have been busy with The Monkees and Monkee Mobile blog. It is the only, correct blog, with two Monkee Mobiles, Pontiac, promise, if Dean Jeffries, made a mild custom, like my 1/32 picture, that Pontiac, would have a Funny Car, version, for competition. However, that didn’t happen, but Mpc was happy, when they use the second Monkee Mobile, to produce the model in 1967. I had the original, kit, and sold my brother, in Georgia. Well, the real truth, about The Monkee Mobile #1 is here. https://themonkeesandmonkeemobile.blogspot.com/
Revell Type “S” Cement and bottles of Testors paint were all I used on my AMT model kits ($1.25 each) in the very early 1960s
I built a lot of these too Howard. I
recognize most all the kits our seller is offering for sale here. Back then, you could go to almost any retailer around town and find these kits waiting for you
and your friends to buy, collect, or trade. And if you REALLY wanted
old school stuff, there was a company called Brown Home & Auto, an off beat department store in our town that sold kits made in the 1950s and sold ’em
dirt cheap compared to the newer
model kits that Kresge and Woolworth’s were selling them. The models themselves were great builds but the box art was
fantastic! Hand drawn and painted by real artists! Remember the 4-in-1 ’40 Ford sedan kit? The one with parts included to build a stock ’39 Ford
if you wanted to? I built that kit
several times and I was able to
build any “39 or ’40 Ford using the left over stuff they put in the
box to make that happen. And before assembling the headlights, I’d paint the inside of the light bezel with glow in the dark paint or would put a small piece of Kenner”s Glo Globs glow
in the dark modeling clay into each bezel before flying the lenses in place. And when my bedroom was dark, all the lights in my collection would light up and make the shelves look like a
mini freeway! I also saved left over tinsel to make the chrome side trim that was on the real cars back then. Used to charge the neighbor kids a quarter a car
to trim them out for that real car
look. And if I had no more tinsel,
Aluminum foil worked just as well
but was harder to work with. And
yeah, I could go on and on about my model car days but I’ll back on out so that someone else can
tell their stories.
Ken, you reminded me Kresge, I forgot all about that store, we had one when I was a little kid. I miss those old 5 and dime style stores. They all had that same smell to them too ( not a bad one). Great memories!!!
-Dave
Yes the smell of popcorn and dusty shelves.
I hoped for (and expected) perspective from Howard. Being a car-crazy kid in the 60s and 70s, I built hundreds of models. Some of my buddies were also into models and there was a bit of healthy competition on who could build the best one. If you built one really well, you might have the honour (and bragging rights) of having it displayed in the front window of the large, local hobby store.
I only got one of mine selected to be in The Window…. It was the “Visible V8”.
My buddy Jamie frequently got his in The Window, and even got paid to build some by collectors. After high school, Jamie became a GM dealer mechanic, and was later recruited to design/build luxury yachts in Europe. His model building really paid off.
Back in the day, models were a big deal, and many stores had a “model section”. Our local hardware store had a relatively decent selection of models, and a complete selection of paints, brushes, glues, and other supplies. There were also separate model specialty stores offering kits for: boats, planes, military, trucks, and the usual cars & hot-rods. Many also did trains and remote control models.
Almost all of those stores are gone. While I graduated from building models to building full size cars & trucks by my late teens (still doing that) I still miss them. If I do find an old-school model store one in my travels, I almost always stop in for a trip down memory lane. I haven’t bought a model in a few decades, but I still buy the paints, brushes and other supplies to use restoring gauges and other small parts.
Thanks Cam, I have learn to skip over certain posts, because of the sheer craziness of today ( Rat Rod beer tanker and 5 figure rust buckets),,but this is so universal, it can involve almost everyone. I’m not sure people today can understand the magnitude of interest with models, all kinds, there just isn’t much today that compares.
You mentioned the “Visible V8” and “other”, visible models, the visible man, visible dog, and of course, the visible woman, that we never saw in the Midwest,,for obvious reasons.
As a kid, I built the original Visible V8, with the father smoking a pipe and the son, horribly incorrect, I’m sure gals made them also, but it was the 60s, two, actually. The 1st (mid 60s) was very poor quality. The trouble spots were the starter motor, and distributor was funky. I got another in the 70s, that wasn’t much better. Then a couple years ago, I got a new Haynes OHC V8, and was a really fun kit. No glue, just a thousand little screws( magnetize the provided screwdriver, to prevent mind loss), and the spark plugs and distributor are all electronic, and much improved. The only weak part, was again, the drive motor has a poor connection to the flywheel, but I strongly recommend building one.The amount of detail is incredible. I’m not sure how they made any money on those. They also make an OHC 4 cylinder of equal integrity.
Thank you Howard for bringing back so many memories from when i was a Kid. My close friend built the “Visible V8”. We would ride our bikes to Woolworth’s at least once a week trying to decide which model we would bye next. Woolworth would every summer have a model contest with prizes for the best built models for different age groups. We never did win any prizes but we sure did dream about what we would do if we won. Kind of sad most kids today have zero interest in models of any kind.
Previous comment didn’t take,,,staff, I guess it ISN’T fixed.
The filter must have caught a word in there and it just went to moderation. It’s live now.
There must have just been a cache delay. Looks like the comment was published right away.
Bringing back the memories. I built a 63 split window coupe that my btother used for his slot care. Another favoritewas an Avanti, then a Dodge Deora ? the custom car show El Camino type truck. Old Willies and Sedan Deliveries were always my favorites.
I always wanted a Dodge Deora….. a real one.
This is really great. I still remember the smell of Testors model paint and glue. My older brother was way better than I was, he’d air brush the bodies and had a great attention to detail that I just didn’t have. But even though I wasnt great at it, I still enjoyed building them. I remember AMT along with Monogram and Revell. A lot of these don’t look familiar. Thanks for writing this up Russ. And for all the great comments.
And MPC…
Agree with everyone here these definitely were a large part of our childhood and helped us learn to modify. You could add flames, use a different color than the one on the box and even leave the hoods off to better display all that chrome. Then grab a pack of bubble gum on the way home from school, snatch one of mom’s wooden clothespins and clip the baseball card to the fork to give some extra sound to your ride. Anyone here besides me ever saw the forks off a junk bike and hammer them onto yours to create a chopper, make a slingshot, build a treehouse, build and fly a rubber band powered balsa wood airplane, setup cans and throw rocks for target practice? The creativity options seemed endless back then, didn’t cost very much, but the memories are priceless.
Wayne:
That seems like a century ago!
Before we landed on the moon, drink out of the hose, stay out untill the street lights came on. ride your bike to Dairy Queen, catch frogs in the swamp.
Last few generations have totally different experiences. Less on hands, less adapting and problem solving. fewer practical adaptations of one skill to another.
we extended our bicycle forks using metal conduit. one kids extended his about 6 feet! dangerous to ride at any speed
We used galvanized pipe, don’t do any wheelies or you might get forked.
Don’t forget the firecracker taped to the airplane!
I’d totally forgotten about the balsa wood planes with the rubber brand prop drive, I used to have one and I made paper airplanes. I put playing cards on my bike too but I never made a chopper bike but I did have an actual ’48 Harley pandhead chopper with a springer front end and a peanut tank in my early 20s though.
We called tossing “chunking” back in the day for some reason, and that I did a lot of. I got hit in the back of a head with an oyster shell by a buddy (this was in south Texas where they were used on driveways instead of gravel) when we were trying to knock down a wasp nest on his parent’s garage. It resulted in a trip to the doctors for a few stitches and I learned not to pick up a rock or shell in front of somebody that was in the process of throwing one.
Should have learned how to Duck.
I picked up that little hint after taking a bat to the face.
But I feel Much better Now !
Ahhh…..Testors Glue:
– Too little, and parts would not stick.
– Almost enough, and parts would fall off later.
– A little too much, and the glue would sag & drip.
– A little more too much, and the parts might melt and deform.
– Way too much, parts would stick to your fingers and get ruined.
On most model builds I experienced one or more (sometimes all) of these “glue failures”.
As a kid, I quickly learned to use carefully applied super glue instead.
There was no such thing as super glue when I was trying to build models. Once done with one, I was never happy with the result. So most got rubber banded to a block of wood and sent down the creek with a load of fire crackers inside. I grew up out in the boonies. So riding your bike to a “5 and 10 cents” store wasn’t happening. When I did get to a “hobby store” I either didn’t have the money or I couldn’t decide what to buy. But, I got to play with real cars instead. I member walking out in the woods and finding a couple of abandon cars. So I would run home, grab some tools and run back to “relieve” the cars of their carburetors, generators, and any device accessible under the hood. I would bring this stiff back to take apart to see what was inside. In many cases I didn’t know what I was looking at. So I had to wait until my father came home to explain it all to me. My Mom refused to go into my closet. As it smelled like old dried up gasoline.
The old Testors building is still standing in Rockford, Il. It’s really dilapidated.
In my grade school years I used to walk by it on my way home from school. It was very active back then. I once saw a Chrysler turbine car parked in its lot. Anyway, there are a number of videos on it including the story of Nils F. Testor, the founder of the company in 1929. The pictures are rather sad.
I’m 67 and still building, hundreds on display
I hear ya Barry , I am 61 and still building them . Have at least 100 to finish before I cross the rainbow bridge.
I thought AMT was Authentic Model Turnpike?
I still have a scar on my right index finger from a little control line airplane propeller that bit me when I was starting the engine. Loved building models too. Don’t get me started on model trains either, I am starting to play with O Gauge trains again, after 50 years.
Super glue came a generation too late for me.
We all cut slices from Exacto knives in the day.
Man, this is one of the most extraordinary collections I have ever seen! Well worth the asking price.
Hmmm, might be time to pull out my (medium large) collection of AMT (and other brands) models.
When are you planning on selling them?
If anyone out there is interested a great source for these model kits and promotional model cars is Collectible Automobile magazine. 6 issues per year and each one has a section near the back that covers the model cars/promotionals/die cast cars related to the 1:1 cars in that issue. Another great source if you are interested in the history of these are the 1985, 1986 and 1987 Cars & Parts Annuals (if you can find them). Dennis Doty wrote those articles and he does the Collectible Automobile model sections as well. I have been building since the dawn of the 70’s and started collecting in the late 80’s. It’s a fun hobby that does not take up too much space. The price of the real muscle cars is through the roof, but I have many of my dream cars right in my den to look at.
We used to do some crazy stuff with our model cars after they were built. Admittedly they weren’t master pieces or even close. We had a ramp in my friend’s back yard and we would put a good amount of lighter fluid in the model, light it, and send it down the ramp. Sometimes we used fire crackers or M80s. Back then you could get the real ones. As our skills got better and we could afford spray paint (and our parents found out) this came to an end, but it was a lot of fun.
I started building model cars again in the 80s. I no longer destroy them and in fact put a lot of time and effort into them. I have an air brush and built a spray booth and have more kits than I could ever build. I also graduated to real cars in my teens and that’s mainly why I collected so many kits I never built. I still work on real cars but a lot less now that getting up and down is a lot less fun then it used to be. Maybe those kits will get built.
That’s what my twin brother and I did. One of the best ones was a B-52 Hustler that we sent down our alley on an old roller skate with an M-80 on it. I wish I had a camera then.
We would paint racing striped with Mom’s fingernail polish. Lit a smokey snake in the back that put in the gas tank depression of the chassis mold. Fuse hung out the back, but light it and we would push the cars (outside – sidewalk only) and the smoke would be our “jet”. Anyway, found out the nail polish burnt real good, fire and melt the plastic where we painted the stripes. Later on we just lit the nailpolish stripes then push the cars (usually snap togethers cause we didn’t have the build time invested) towards each other in our 1/25th Demolition Derby. GREAT MEMORIES. Oh, I grew up to be a firefighter, and my modeling buddy an arson.
I’ll be 61 in October and I’ve been building and collecting models since I was 5. Mostly automotive but as I’ve gotten old(er) and belong to a couple model clubs, including an IPMS chapter I also have many other genres in my stash like aircraft, armor, sci-fi, figures, dioramas and more.Fun, fun, fun!
This was a great memory of my youth. In fact, my Dad enjoyed it as much or more than I did! If I was frustrated with assembling a certain model around bedtime, I would wake up the next morning to discover “a large Elf” had finished it for me!! He even built me a custom 6′ x 3′ display case that locked so that my little brother couldn’t get at them!! I still have that case, filled partially with the models and promos we collected, but now containing part of my collection of 1/24 Danbury and Franklin die cast cars. While I didn’t build these, I still enjoy collecting all the cars I ever wanted to really own! As an adult, my father also collected Danbury and Franklin cars and I inherited most of them when he passed. A collection my wife looks and shakes her head saying,”What will I ever do with all these if you die first!!”
I think I married your wife’s sister !
In 1961, I received a ’61 Mercury Marauder AMT model for my tenth birthday and I was immediately hooked! I continually spent my days building a large collection until Uncle Sam called in ’69… my mother sold them all in a garage sale… I guess she thought I wouldn’t need my toys anymore… ugh!
Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for sharing memories. If I close my eyes and drift back I believe I can conjure up doing just about everything that commenters have mentioned. You probably will never see kids again having more fun than we did with these models and all of the other things we cobbled together and played with. I almost miss picking dried Testors off of my fingers.
I remember several of those kits when they were originally released, although a few go back to before I built my first model (1962 Plymouth Valiant fron Revell) in 1964. Here on the west coast, particularly in Seattle (where I grew up) we had different stores for our model kits. The main ones were Kress (I believe a derivative of the Kresge stores), Woolworth’s (most everyone had one of these!), the Bon Marche, Fredrick and Nelson (part of the Marshall Field network), J.J. Newberrys, and McDougall’s. Then you had the little local or regional stores such as the Bonanza 88 cent store, Wigwam, Chubby and Tubby, and a few others. Even the neighborhood grocery stores and drug stores stocked them. As a child, it was mesmerizing to walk into one of them and look. I remember when they were $1.50, then $1.70. then $2.00 – they could suck up your allowance very quickly back then! Some of those kits on this sale are ones I wish I could get again without having to dip into my life savings to have. This lot of kits for $2.000 is a bit steep, but for someone who REALLY desires to have them will be happy as a kid in a candy store (or in this case, a model car store!).
i still have all the 1s i built in the early 70s. brings back a lot of memories.
These must be newer kits than what I built in the 1960s. I don’t remember the fancy graphics on any of the kits I saw as a kid. I always got the 3 in 1 kits and always saved leftover parts. I also remember you could buy packets of chrome parts.
As I remember, the AMT kits were 1/24th scale. I believe the Revelle kits were 1/25th scale. I always preferred the AMT.
Lots of good memories.
Those kits are early re issues of the 3in1 kits. Most of them were produced in 1968 and 1969.
Except the revell kits had working doors! That was always cool.
Dave, I remember the smell in the
Kresge stores you spoke of. Actually, that smell was a combination of many things. Being legally blind, I noticed 😔 t more than a normal person might. If you take the smell and break it down, you’ll get a whiff of
fresh clothing, a faint scent of vinyl from where the play balls and pool toys were. Rubber from
the bike section where the new bikes sat along with the tires and
tubes. And if the store sold helium balloons, that would round out the above-mentioned
rubber smell that seemed to be
everywhere. And all those glorious smells were overpowered by the smells of the
lunch counter– the scent of which was carried throughout the
store by induction fans. And if you had some money left after you bought your “Must have” model kit, you had lunch there. For 60¢, you could get a grilled cheese sandwich 🥪, chips, and a
small drink to tide you over til Mom had dinner waiting. That’s
where my friends and I would hang out on a Saturday afternoon. Before too long, the staff at the lunch counter knew your name and your parents too!
And going to a place like Kresge’s
to buy the latest model kit and have lunch without your parents
became a rite of passage for young fella back then. And yeah,
we looked at the girls too. But all that came to an end when I started touring in 1970. I was on the road from June til September
when school started again. Sure, I still stopped by Kresge’s to say
hi to the folks I knew there, but it
wasn’t the same. I traded my model cars for real ones and a
career in the music business. And after I had a Patty Melt with
fries or a Reuben, I’d go downstairs and look at the model kits, watching the kids as they picked out the kits they wanted.
And there was always a kid who
wanted a kit and couldn’t afford one. So I’d walk him up to the counter and tell my friend Geneva
Coit to give him what he wanted
and I paid for it. I was 16 then and I kept doing that til they closed the store in 1974. Came home from a tour and found out they closed it. It might be all gone now, but the memories will
last me a lifetime.
I too spent most of my spending money on models while growing up. I was lucky to have a Mom that didn’t throw or give them away, I retrieved my collection when I was able to buy a home of my own. I still dabble in the hobby on cold winter nights.
I have been storing a 37 Chevy coupe for a friend who lost his storage. I’ve tried buying it now for several years, but it was always one of those “this is what I’m going to do with it” cars. I made him a model of it and gave it to him for his birthday and told him not to worry about the real one, “I’ll take care of it – you can look at the model any time you want” but he was stubborn. He passed away this spring so I told his family not to worry about storage, we’ll talk purchase when the time is right.
I’ll post a photo of the real car next.
Here’s the real car, resting safety on my barn.
AMT was my model of choice. When I was 10 years old, I still remember seeing the Chrysler Turbine Car kit in the window of Wayne’s bike shop in Roseland wishing I had the money to buy it. When I was in high school and had a little more disposable income, I set up a production line in the basement where I’d work on several models at a time. I’d work on one model and move to the next one while the paint/glue was drying on the previous ones, rinse and repeat. I’d pick up unfinished kits at the flea market for 25-50 cents each. Apparently, some kids who had no interest in models got these kits as gifts.
If that is Roseland as in Chicago.
Kenrose Automotive ( a Western Auto store on 111th) sold models for a little while also.
Correct. That is Roseland in Chicago. My dream hobby shop there was Stu De Jong which is where I bought my AMT Man from UNCLE car kit and I still have it.
We. Moved out of Roseland in 1958. (,I was 5) We lived at 111th & Wentworth. About a block west of Roseland Community Hospital where both my sisters were born. We .moved to the south suburbs (first Chicago It’s. And then Crete) so I never cruised the hobby stores on the Southside. We lived out in the boonies where there were no stores.
That was the toughest part of building for me. The patience to wait for glue and/paint to dry so you didn’t mess it all up and frustrate yourself!
This post has generated a slew of memories. Very interesting to hear all the stories of old men remembering their youth building model cars and planes and ships.
Russ, one of your comments was that a young boy would purchase these and build them. Not all were young boys. I too, had a collection.
Ended up with maybe around 150/200. I preferred the 3 in 1 kits but usually made the model stock.
When I was around twelve we took a road trip from New Jersey to Arizona and to keep me occupied my mother bought me two kits. A 1966 Riviera and a 1966 Lincoln Continental. I pre spray painted them before the trip. The Riv was metallic blue and the Connie was black. Unfortunately, after they were built the Arizona heat got to them sitting in the hot car. The hood and roof warped on the Lincoln. The Riv wasn’t as bad but still parts got warped.
One of my favorites was a 1963 Pontiac Bonneville convertible. I spray painted that beige. That was one of my earlier models were my painting ing techniques were limited. As I grew older after spray painting I would take a small brush and paint silver where there was suppose to be chrome but not chrome parts available. Like the wide chrome strip on the Bonneville that went halfway down the side.
By 1969 I was good enough that my brothers friend paid me to make a replica of his new 1969 Pontiac Firebird. Painted engine, and interior. Everything to match his car.
These modeled riviled the dolls. Actually I think I had more model cars than dolls. Just a tomboy at heart.
Years later those were replaced with 1/18 scale die cast. That’s where all my money went. I literally had over 600 models. Hauling them around every time I moved got to be too much not to mention all the display cases.
I met a guy in Vegas who’s collection got destroyed in a fire so I ended up selling a lot of my collation to him and a few others. I retained all of my Cadillacs, Lincolns, Imperials and a few discontinued and off brands like Packard and Studebaker, Tucker. Some Mercurys and Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles.
Even that hobby got too expensive. Some of my early acquisitions were $10. This probably the early 90s. Now, some of these models are $400 or more. So, I’m out.
Again, my collection is in storage in Vegas and can’t wait to get them back and displayed in my house.
The last of my acquisitions were mostly direct order from China, and the details were amazing.
Hey Angel, who said anyone here is old? I may be 64 but I feel 34 most of the time. When not, I feel more like 14! 🤪🕺
Hi young Wayne,
May I speak with older Wayne? LOL
I was referring to the chronological age. I’ve got 9 years on you but I never left 19.
When I was 63 I was climbing trees with my 4 year old godson. Granted I was afraid I’d break a hip but I survived and he has great memories.
One of my friends who lived across the street from me built models he also restored muscle cars and built hot rods. He would build models he would finish the seats in fabric he would also make pieces add spark plug wires and paint the bodies with an air gun sometimes he would add flames or spray two tones. You could spend half an hour being amazed at the details he would add that were not part of the model kit and the hot rods he built in a two car garage in back of his house. I always asked him how could he sell the amazing cars that he built as soon as he finished them and he always said the fun was just building them.
I started building models in 2nd grade. My first one was a 1962 Corvette. Painted it red. Got some drops on the windshield so ended up painted the windshield red too. But what I really liked were the big model kits, 1/12th scale if I remember right. I built so many Mercedes Gullwing models and Porsche 904s that I thought I could build the actual car if ever a real one showed up needing reassembly.
When I was 10-12 years old my oldest brother worked for a hobby distributor in northern NJ. He would always be bringing home kits the were; #1. Missing parts (one or more) and #2. That were defective somehow. I had dozens of Boeing 747 kits that were huge. The problem was one half of the fuselage with vertical stabilizer was cracked and/or broken off. I built SO many of these 747’s to send down a “guide wire” to either blow up, shoot down or set on fire. I was like that kid Sid on the original Toy Story with blowing up stuff. Luckily, somehow I still have all my fingers…
Love everyone’s stories of building these models. I am also a veteran of building these !! VERY COOL!!
Crazy how strong the memories of this time period (60’s and 70’s) are for people that were kids then. I built model kits too and definitely remember the 5 & dimes people are describing – not the specific stores by name but the concept. Probably every reasonably large town and cities had them – all absorbed by big box stores and the internet now.
I was born in 56 and started building models in about 66. My favorites were AMT and Monogram. In 72 my little brother got an AMT 72 GMC Sierre Gande pickup. He broke panels on the bed and gave it to me. I took the bed apart and mounted the flat bed back onto the frame. I then made a winch the scraps of framing left after you remove your parts. I used a thread spool for the cable. I always had my scrap box of parts left from prior models. I found a red revolving light to put on top. I them made a trailer completely out of scraps. I had built a 64 Ford Galaxie super stock racecar and put it on the trailer. When I moved out as a teenager all of my models got attcked by little brothers so they only live on in my memories.
I’ve got a lot of (mostly unbuilt) kits in my closet.My hand doesn’t
work like it used to,so I probably won’t get around to building them.
I bought almost all of these new.
You have a great collection Angliagt. Those metal models come out great, good quality and nice details. Like the trucks too. I’m sorry about your hand not working the way you’d like it to. That has to be frustrating.
Some more.
I’d love to have that Rebel Machine kit for my collection if you decided to sell.
I’ve thought of selling some of it off.
Make me an offer.
A few more.
Wow! I’m so glad I found this listing on FB as it has generated so much conversation about what it was like as a kid growing up in the 60’s-70’s. The hobby shops have thinned out considerably, and the 1¢ candy is gone, but not the memories. It’s the memories that are so precious in keeping this generation of car “guys” (and ladies) actively sharing in how it was growing up in those days, and although everyone’s childhood was their own, we all shared in that common thought of one day owning “that special” car. Thanks Russ for featuring this discussion starter.
Hi Angel 😇! I didn’t know you liked model cars too! That’s one more thing we have in common.
Used to go down to Brown Home & Auto to get cheapie kits when
Kresge’s, Woolworth’s or Osco Drugs didn’t have anything that tickled my fancy. Brown’s usually
had outdated stuff from the 1950s that no one was buying except for me and a few other kids that knew what they had there. What I saw there were mostly kits made by AMT or Monogram if you were lucky. You
could pick them up for $1.25 or less And OMG!! the box art was to die for! If I could draw ’em like
that now, I’d have no trouble selling them now. Built a lot of neat stuff too. Like the AMT ’36
Ford roadster with a working rumble seat, American mags, and a ’59 Pontiac 389 V-8 with tri power. Then, I built the same kit
as a 3-window coupe with mag wheels and a ’59 394 Oldsmobile
Rocket V-8 under the hood. But as I said earlier, I stopped building model cars when I started touring in 1970. Once I found music, that was it for the model building. Between school
and music, I didn’t even have the time to play poker at my Aunt’s house on Friday nights! Wound up giving my collection to my cousin as he was too learning disabled to be able to build any kits himself. I just didn’t have any
time for it. Guess that’s what happens when you grow up.
Hi Ken, according to my wife, I still haven’t grown up. Older yes, but my brain keeps telling me I somewhere between 19 and 30. But my body is saying 70-100 somewhere in there. I play with full size cars now. Although Indo have some die-cast cars. (SVO, ’55 Chev, Mini and a very rare left and right hand cargo door GMC VAN that I received from GM for my van selling abilities. ) I also have a couple of Studebakes that are at a friend’s house. A good friend of mine took a picture that I had of my ’55 Chev convertible that I had in high-school. And built a model just like it. Even down to the correct license plate.
My stash usually came from JJ Newberry that carried a surprisingly good selection of car kits, military planes and even ships. What stands out looking back was my AMT 3 in 1 split window coupe. One way to build it included a completely different front end requiring that tiny tube of pre-Bondo that came with it. Never hung on to any of mine. They usually ended up smashed for some reason.
There was a Newberry’s where I grew up in Glasgow, Ky. The town was built on a hillside and had a square, so every building with the rear facing the slope had a big downstairs same size as up. Upstairs was a big, long bar and they sold root beer, ice cream sodas, hamburgers, Mexican hamburgers, hotdogs and fries. I still remember the smell of the place and the large ceiling fans over the bar slowly circulating air. Downstairs were toys, an old arcade with shooting gallery and all kinds of unique gadgets. What a time we grew up in!
The nicest one I ever had was a 58 Thunderbird molded in color, black with red interior and the front wheels turned. It was a Monogram.
What a great model collection! I still build today, and have about 300 built and about 45 left unbuilt. All are catagorized; 30s thru 90s,world rally,movie/tv, etc. It is a fun hobby for us car guys.😊
Wow I grew up near the AMT plant. Watched it over the years change to the home of the 2005-06 Ford GT assembly. I could see them thru the windows at night after work. The building also produced the Harley Davidson F150’s. Then it became Stanley works. Now it’s the home of Penske Vehicle Services 1225 E. Maple road Troy Michigan. BTW another place I drive by is the old MPC building on Groesbeck in Mt. Clemens Michigan.
I believe that this BF article may have set a record for most comments. I got to thinking more about the model building phase of my youth and wanted to give a little plug to Hubley. As I remember they produced models made from metal. I think they made several versions of Ford’s Model A. I built a coupe/rumble seat version. I spray painted the body a gold color which was definitely not an original color that Henry offered. But to me it was sharp. Not knowing much about paint though I didn’t realize that without primer the beautiful gold paint that I had so diligently applied was prone to chipping off when I played with the car. Funny what you remember. Hope to see more comments.
Is it possible to obtain a copy of your kit list?
Not sure of who this was directed to?
Built them from the late 50s as a 13 yr. old. The detail and accuracy of the AMT kits was remarkable. If you looked at the dash of any model you could read the numbers on the speedometer! Think about that. In 1/25 scale! Bill.
There is a guy in Australia named Peter Wilding who builds some of the most fantastic looking models, that look as though they were real cars. You can find examples of his work: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/?s=peter%20wilding
This Charger is an example of his work. He also builds models not commonly seen in the U.S. This has easily been one of the BEST Barnfinds posts!! :-)
Thats astonishing. I wish I had that ability.
Great memories of kits like these. In the 1960s and 1970s my Dad was a plastic mold finisher here in the Detroit area. He worked at MPC (Model Products Corporation) in Mt. Clemens for a time and I had more models and slot cars than I knew what to do with. When he was working the afternoon shift I would often wake up to find the dining room table covered with models and slot cars. He told me that the kits were so cheap to make, less that 3 cents of styrene plastic, the packaging was more costly and when a box got damaged in the plant they threw it out rather that repackage it. I was very generous with the stuff and as a result had many friends in junior high school. Those were the days.
RichC is right, all of those kits are later re-issues and not the original 60’s releases. The asking price seems pretty optimistic to me.
I started building model cars as a 6 year old in 1960. The first kit I built was an SMP 60 El Camino. This probably had a lot to do with my first “real” car being an El Camino. Since then I’ve built hundreds if not a thousands of kits, though with my eyesight at 72 I can’t detail them like I once did, which deters me somewhat from building now.
I have somewhere between 400 and 500 unbuilt kits from the 60’s and 70’s in my collection. SMP, AMT, MPC, Revell, JoHan, Monogram, Lindberg and others. About half are Corvettes, starting with original annual releases from 61 through the early 80’s, plus various 70’s and 80’s re-releases. The rest are mostly 60’s and 70’s releases of prewar cars, annual releases, etc.
AMT started around 1948-1950 making aluminum promotional models for Ford, but quickly switched to making them from plastic. SMP (Scale Model Products) came along in the late 50’s and were the first to offer annual releases of new cars in kit form. SMP was who originally came up with the 3 in 1 kit concept. AMT bought SMP around 1961, changing the “SMP” to an “AMT” logo and continued the annual 3 in 1 releases, as well as starting a line of Trophy Series models featuring mostly pre-war Ford kits. Jo-Han started doing plastic promo models for the automakers around 1955 and got into the kit market around 1960. Jo-Han mainly focused on Rambler (later AMC), Cadillac, Oldsmobile and Chrysler kits, while AMT offered Chevrolet, Buick and Pontiac kits and kits of all the Ford lines. MPC came along around 64 or 65 with a Corvette kit, followed by various Dodges. SMP, AMT, Jo-Han, MPC and Revell made most of their kits in 1/25th scale, and Monogram kits were usually 1/24th scale, though they also made some very popular 1/8th scale kits too. Revell and Monogram generally never did any annual releases, except for a couple exceptions.
Reminds me of the time I bought a ’61 Ford ragtop at a Ben Franklin store in Decatur, Illinois while helping my Mom with all the stuff she and my Grandma bought there. I’d never seen that
kit in Bloomington before so I scarfed it up before anyone else
could buy it. Painted it a gold metallic with a black top and interior. The car already came with a 390 V-8, so I built the 401 HP version with tri power setup that came with the kit. Then, I capped it off with a set of Astro
mags wrapped in red striped tires. And yeah, I used tinsel and aluminum foil for the chrome trim
and a small piece of Seran Wrap
for the rear window on the convertible top too. I took the Ford and several other cars to a
model car contest at the state fair in Springfield in ’69. I didn’t win, but at least I could say I was
there. My Grandma ran a small
bakery out of her house and she
entered some of her cakes in the
baking competition there. She won a blue ribbon for a cake she made that looked like an open Bible. My cousin Mike and I went
along with her to help her set up
her display that year. And there was at least one of us there to help her carry cakes and pastries
into the markets she sold them to. BTW, does anyone else remember the MPC ’60 Corvette kit with the front suspension that
had real coil springs under it? I know I built one in ’67 or ’68. Anybody else recall that one?
Great stories of model cars from days gone by. I too ‘revel’ed in model building as a kid in the 60’s. It taught me a lot to go from a glue/paint mess to an appreciable finished product! And, though I couldn’t see a future where I survived as an auto builder/rebuilder I have learn the construction/woodworker trade over the ensuing year, always working with my hands.
Coolest thing for me is my mom saved all my old models and a few years back a sister hauled them all downstate to the city for me! Nicely stored they are waiting for retirement, or something like that, where I can have the time to mess with them again.
In the meantime still building; cabinetry, guitars, old motor bikes …
I can find most of these for $30 a piece and I’ll do the math they are not worth $2,000…..
A lot of great memories here! Ken Carney – You mentioned the state fair model contest. Our local county fair always had a large model tent, with cars, trucks, aircraft and boats, along with anything else considered to be a model. I always read the model car magazines of the day, and saw where west coast modelers were starting to use various types of displays for their models. I had just finished a 1/32nd scale hot rod pickup, and decided to build a display for it. Started with a tall glass flower vase, mounted an electric clock movement in the top. Cut a round piece of balsa, covered it with black glitter, and mounted that to the second hand of the clock movement. Put the hot rod pickup on that along with a club member jacket (took the male figure from the Revell ’56 Ford convertible kit, cut off his head, hands, and cut him off at the waist!) Painted it white, and hand lettered “Pickups” on the back. Convinced the people in charge that I needed an electric hookup for my display to work. Blew everybody’s minds with the working display, and won the overall first prize! Unfortunately, the model tent disappeared several years later when the local hobby shop closed. 70 years latter am still active buying and selling model cars on eBay! Many good times over the years.
i like the older kits easy to build.
Angel, without a doubt, you had to be the coolest godmother on the planet! 63 years old and still
able to climb a tree 🌴?!!! WTF!!!
I guess that makes you my kinda
gal! Sounds to me that you’re not
afraid to try new things and that’s
because of the Joisey goyle in you. My Mom tried to coddle me
when I was a kid and I get it, that’s what people did when they
had a disabled child but I wasn’t
having any of it! She almost blew
a gasket when she found out that
I helped Dad and Don Grimm rebuild a ’37 Lincoln V-12 for a friend of theirs who didn’t know the first thing about rebuilding such an engine. And yeah, I had a few mishaps along the way. Like the time I crossed a couple of plug wires on the church bus
after tuning the engine. I had one
of the deacons crank it up and it
backfired through the carb and blew the 💩 out of the muffler! That thing shot a 2 foot tongue of
fire from the carb and the loud BOOM sounded like a Howitzer going off! I wasn’t hurt but I did
take a fall off the small step ladder I was standing on to work
on the engine and landed on my ass. And my Mom threw a four
alarm conniption fit! The pastor
came running over to see if I was
okay. “Just got a couple of wires
crossed” I told him “But the muffler’s toast”. So, that next Saturday, I showed up with a new
muffler, hardware, and a hacksaw
and before I knew it, the bus was
running quiet again. Guess all I wanted was to be a normal kid but my Mom was too afraid of me getting seriously hurt. Me, I
thought if I could wire a model car engine, I could do the same thing on the real thing. But sorry
folks, I digress. BTW, Angel 😇,
did your godson ever get the job he was trying for a year ago? I hope he did. I did build Tom Daniel’s S’cool Bus kit and renamed it the Church Bus just for laughs. And that model sat in
the display case until the church
closed in 1982.
Hey Ken,
No he didn’t get that job but he got a different one. It was just for summer.
As for being a cool godmother, him being a city kid I always took him out into the country to farms so he could see and pet the cows and horses and sheep. Watch ducks and chickens. He learned to love and respect animals. I also took him to NYC to the Javitz center for the International car shows. Much to the disapproval of his parents.
As we lived out of Eureka,CA,& didn’t go to town too often,
I discovered an Auto World catalog & would spend hours looking
through it.
I’d also go to the two local hobby shops after we moved into
Eureka,& would check out all of the new releases.
Honestly Angel 😇, I can’t see why his parents would disapprove of you taking him to a car show, really? If I were his father, I’d appreciate you for taking him to see something like that. It’s not every day that a kid
gets to see a vast collection of
dream cars and gets an education at the same time. Walking down the aisles, looking at the exhibits, actually being able to physically go to a place like that and take it all in. And for the life of me honey 🍯, I just don’t understand why his parents
were beefin’ about it. You gave that young man an education that
no college could ever provide for
him and it didn’t cost them a dime. It’s kinda like the time I went to the first ever Street Rod
Nationals in Peoria Illinois in June of 1970 just before I started my first tour. Over 2,000 cars showed up from all around the country that year. Your godson would’ve loved it! So much to see
and do there like taking a ride in a
full size version of Avon’s Solid Gold Cadillac or listening to Ron
Weeks blown ’34 Ford 2-door sedan as it rumbled down the street in front of the Fox Theater.
It’s been 56 years and I still recall
the sights, sounds, and smells to
this very day. And I hope your godson keeps the memories of everything you provided for him.
And the nats? Didn’t get to see the whole event though. Had to
get ready to play a package show
in Muscatine, Iowa that Saturday
night. And when I wasn’t touring,
studying, or playing poker at my
Aunt’s house during the school
year, I built some pretty far out model cars like a ’32 Ford 5 window coupe with a 426 hemi V-8 equipped with not one, but two
6.71 GMC blowers on it. Or a Revell ’56 Chevy 150 with a 454
rat motor in it. I was just building
what I saw at the Street Rod Nationals that year. And if I were
your godson, you’d have to steer
me away from all the pretty girls
there LOL.