Remember when AMT Model Car Kit was $1.50

Did she sell it to ya anyway??? Some ol' gals were nice about it back then...

 

Yeah, back in 1965 at the Hobby Lobby they'd do that-especially for a sad eyed cute little kid. Walmart's not so much interested in those kids today. I bought an awful lot of $1.49 models back when my "allowance" was 25 cents a week. Now my keyboard doesn't even have a cents sign.

 

I didn't know Hobby Lobby was that old.... I got my kits from Kresge's, Federal's and Kaufman's back in the day...

 

"My" Hobby Lobby" was a little hole-in-the-wall store across from the movie theater in Mount Holly, NJ and run by a little "old" guy named frank and his wife. Really cool place, but definitely mom and pop, not a chain.They were nice to kids.

 

All the stores that I mentioned above are all gone... Kresge's turned into Kmart.. They still sell kits but not much.. Last time I went to the one near me, they only had not even a dozen kits on the shelf.. None that I was interested in... Gag!

 

your lucky the one here didnt have crap,I hear wallymart quit carrying them (wont shop there Im a Teamster) I hit this HUGE ace hardware across town or ebay..........Im doin a 56 like mine right now (still need a straight axle) kinda funny cause one of the kits I remember form the 60s was a 56 (Revell ? ) green chevy custom that the doors opened,never did get them right.....

 

I just picked up a 55 chevy and paint, $40 dollors later. You can find some deals at swap meets.

 

I still like model car roundup.com

 

The first model car I built was a 1956 crown vic. That was in 1958. I built a lot of em' in the late 50's up to the mid 60's. I also built the visible V8...I thought that was the coolest thing. You had to put vaseline on the crank and rods...too cool man...I wish I still had it. Another thing I did that I didn't see mentioned was I would use pipe cleaners on the interior. They worked real good for red and white tuck and roll. Also used hat pins with the pearl on the end for tall shifters. You could bend em' in any shape you wanted. Thanks to whoever started this thread. Man it brought back some good memories. Wouldn't it be nice if times could be that simple now.

_____________________________
LIFE'S A GAMBLE.....LET EM' ROLL

 

I would like to find a REVELL bumper sticker, or smaller. I have always wanted one, well sinse 82, when I got a 1:1 car.

 

Maybe we should start a model "tips n' tricks" thread...

 

Thats how most of us got our engineering degrees. Here's a story for the old guys, in the early 60s I lived in Daytona and washed cars at the Best Garage in town. Mr. Yumick would pay me a dollar extra to build models. He then would weigh them down and put them in a aquareum and pump water over them,that was his wind tunnel. He was not only good with engines.

 

Seems like everyday theres a post started that makes me feel old. Yes I have bought 1.50 AMT kits and .19 bottles of paint.

 

Tubes of Testors glue were only .15 cents... Last time I looked, they were $1.79

 

Same here except they were $2.25 in my day. It took 5 weeks of saving my 25 cent allowance. I bought every 40 ford anybody made.

 

Car models in Michaels craft stores are 25 bucks around here.

When I was a kid, the model store I used was across town, and owned by an 'old guy'. Probably in his 40s.
Years later he retired and an employee bought it. He almost went broke until he changed it to a computer games store.

Yeah, models were a few bucks, but gas was 50 cents a gallon.

 

Ummmm...... What's a computer game???

 

The only place around here to buy kits are the local hobby shops (2 that I can think of) and the Hobby Lobby,the department stores quit selling them years ago. Meijers brings them out around christmas along with paint sets and glus but go back into hiding shortlly after.

 

Ahhh, the good ol' days! Around here, I would frequent Mason's Dept. store, G.C. Murphy's and Kraus Hobby Shop for my models. Yep! $1.50 for the kit, .15 for glue and .25 for paint. A can of spray paint was expensive... .49 or .69 as I remember. I did 'em all AMT, Revell, Monogram. Lots of fond memories... eventually the glue would dry out but I'd save the parts to canabalize them onto other creations. Thanks for the thread!

 

That seems to be the most expensive place to buy them. On the other side of things, I've bought models including the metal, prepainted Testors kits for <$10 at discount stores. The snap-tite kits my son and I do were $5 each locally. Selection is hit or miss so grab them when you can. For newly released kits it is best to find a good local hobby shop or go mail order.

When discussing cost of kits, remember that $1.50 in 1967 is $9.79 today. From what I remember building kits as a kid in the '70s today's kits have much better detail, fit, and finish.

The best tip I have is to laser print your own decals. Once I found I could use the Word-Art settings in Microsoft Word to make color fade letters in '60s fonts for drag car lettering it opened up all kinds of things.

 

You could save 10 bucks off a kit at Michael's by using the 40% off coupon in the Sunday paper.. With that 10 bucks, you could buy a can of spray paint and a couple little 1/4oz. bottles of the brush on stuff.... Maybe have some left over for a tube of Testors glue..

 

It's like a forum, but with moving pictures.

 

After "Astroids" and "Donkey Kong" came out, I quit playin'em...

 

I grew up about 5 miles from the AMT plant in Troy, MI. We used to ride our bikes over there looking for hand-outs (none were forth-coming), then a buddy of mine's dad contracted to mold many of the AMT models in his plastics plant a couple miles closer to home. He used to take us to the plant on Sundays and we could help ourselves to the flawed pieces that were to be melted down again. They were sorted by color in these 6'x6'x4' boxes that held hundreds and hundreds of bodies, frames, etc.

Some of the flaws were like, a stock wheel didn't cast right...like that, so the whole kit got rejected, even though the rest of the car and parts were perfect. I had so many, that I quit going with them Sundays! Dunno what ever happened to all that stuff. It was a blast, though, to be sure!

 

I'd start on a kit on a Saturday, by Sunday evening I was done with it... This went on for a couple of years.. Till I started chasing the ladies around..

 

I plugged a fortune in quarters into them at the arcade, but never at home. Except for free stuff like freecell.

I was at a womans and after dinner her teenage son and her played video games until I left. All of them 'shooter' types.
Not into it at all. To me it's just time doing nothing useful. Very unlikely I'll need to shoot aliens or zombies.

Times have changed. Models cost more because fewer buy them. People just yank their stick these days.

 

Ain't that the truth!!

 

Was MPC located here in Michigan also????

 

Guys- lets see some pics of your work today building some. Do you do it with your kids or just your own hobby?

 

I have a few projects going at the moment.... Sorry! No pics yet! One of those is the '66 L-79 Nova SS from AMT and another, the '66 427 Fairlane also from AMT.. Both of those are some of the best AMT ever put out..