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.
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.
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.