Remember when AMT Model Car Kit was $1.50

Yeah, but still cheaper than 1:1 real thing. Most guys getting back in don't stop at the kits, there's an airbrush, paint booth, and lot's of aftermarket stuff: photoetch details, resin conversions, decals, if you go to a NNL or IPMS show, you can shop and buy $$$ of stuff. The real fun is in trading and cheapo pick ups: garage sales, internet trading, etc. If you need website sources, let me know.

 

its kinda like the T-shirt thing.........any body can afford a 20-25 dollar shirt or model car of their favorite ,not every body can afford 25-50 thousand to get the real thing or even a project..JMO

 

Kids will drop $20 today like we did $1.50 back then. Inflation. All things are about equal, just more zeros.

As best I recall, my first model car was a gift - a 1962 Rambler American. Wish I had kept some of them.

 

All things are not equal. $1.50 in 1965 is about $10.00 in todays money. My parents bought a house in Whittier,CA back in 1968 for $18,000.00. In todays money, that number would be around $100,000.00 but that same house today is valued at $300,000.00. The cost of living is high compared to 40 years ago.

 

Another geat kit offered by AMT was a release of a rear engined Corvair flopper. The company took the Pirahna kit and included a Corvair body for a one off release. AMT also offered the 69 Mustang of Gas Rhonda included was a little 33 record of Gas being interviewed and then an in cockpit recording of him making a run! I bought my kit directly from Russ Davis Ford in the summer of 69. They had them for sale as they laid stacked next to the actual car.

 

I have both the Revell '68 Dodge Dart and Charger kits... Hope to get started on those soon.

 

AMT also has a model of the M/P '70&1/2 454 Camaro.... Like the one in your avatar....

 

I still have my gas rhonda record ..i played that thing a million times when i was a kid ...

 

I wish I had the model of it...

 

Anyone ever built the show rod kits??? http://www.showrods.com/home_page_links/alpha_list.html

 

My Dad was big on show rods. He built lots of them like the Red Baron, Boot Hill Express, Lil Coffin and the Beer Wagon. Can you even imagine marketing a model called the Beer Wagon in today's politically correct world? Even at 10 years old I scanned the local shelves for drag racers. My very first 1/25 model was the MPC-produced, Young American FED. Not to sound like an old fart, but the local store in my small hometown was about 2 miles away, yet if I needed paint or glue, I never thought twice about riding my bike or walking the distance to get it. My son is now 9 and not only is he lukewarm about cars, but I couldn't imagine letting him go even to our corner store by himself. More than the price of model cars has changed...

 

they don't even carry model cars at any of the stores here any more, Wally world canned all of them, and the roses store also did, If I wanted to pay 20 bucks for a kit, I would have to spend 10 bucks in gas and drive an 80 mile round trip to get one. Thank God for for a certain online auction site and the net, I guess kids today can't get away from the video games and texting long enough to build one anyway, if it doesn't plug in, or take batteries, or go online, it's boring to them I guess. I just tried to explain the concept of vinyl records to a kid yesterday, and they want to know why, when they have mp3 players, they just don't understand the fun of model building anymore

 

Not all kids are like that. My son isn't exactly the car geek I was (still am?) but he loves building stuff. He's only 9 but loves Lego's and can actually build some pretty complex sets by hisself. A few months ago I happened to be cleaning the upstairs in my garage and he found a whole bunch of my unbuilt models in a box. There happened to be a couple "Snap and Glue" kits of a Chevy truck I bought new many years ago, and intended to build to look like mine. He asked if he could build one, so I let him. It was a simple enough kit and after it was all done, he had something he built with his own two hands and he was thrilled about it. There may be hope for him yet...

 

it's good to know there are still kids out there who like to work with their hands. keep encouraging him, I wish they still made metal erector sets, I would buy one for myself to share with my grandkids, all those tiny metal screws and bolts help build dexterity as far as mechanical things

 

I just bought a bunch of cool classic kits from this gentleman.. Check him out at http://www.jimnohio.com/modelers.html

 

Yep. It was 1958 and I bought a 1958 Chevy Impala by AMT, seems like it was less than $1.50 but I could be mistaken.

 

There was a car show and swap meet in Dearborn not long ago.. I had a chance to pic up some good deals on some old kits, but my hands were full with a camera and a bottle of water...

 

btt

 

Ok. How about this one?? Any of you older gentleman remember this model kit?? This one here is 50 years old... It got Monogram started in the BIG 8th scale model kits.. This came out in 1960.. 2 years before the first BIG T model kit..

 

Yes I remember building many of those AMT 3 IN 1 KITS. I tried to get my grandson interested, so we built a couple of cars, but he lost interest, because he couldn't see it finished fast enough. I would spend hours as a kid painting parts and using thread for spark plug wires. Everything has to be instant now. Just finished my T-Bucket project after 5 years of building (not a model).
Tex-T

 

Monogram, Revell and AMT are as responsible for keeping the Hobby of Hot Rodding and Customizing Alive as the Hobby itself.I can personally contibute alot of my interest in cars through Scale modeling as a young teen.

 

I love the old classic kits..

 

AMT just released the Munster Koach and the Drag-u-la kit in a collector tin... Price is $33. and some change.... YIKES!

 

I'm getting kinda the same universal shared experience thing as when I first saw "American Graffiti." @ Holeshot...why the hostility? There are literally 100's of threads on here, let us fossils have a little fun. I built warbird models first, till I first saw a real hot rod. We were visiting one of my Mom's friends, and this cute blonde older girl drove up in the next driveway in a bright red T bucket roadster w/flathead and white interior, I went over and started eyeballing them both, and she said that her Dad had built it for her to drive to High School. I was hooked! All of my lawnmowing money from then until I could drive went for car mags(I lived for 'Rod & Custom Models') and models. I think the first was a Monogram slingshot dragster with the 2 piece plastic wheels that glued together. I second what Church Key said. F.W. Woolworth's, Newberry's, the Toy Store then the Hobby Shop. The Hobby Shop started a summer model contest. I started throwing in more and more detail and won some trophies. Pretty soon it was more like work, because every one had to be better than the last. Perfect paint, wiring, carb linkage,brake lines, the works. Then I got a part time job at a Regal gas station, and there were girls, and I got a real car. FFWD to the 80's and I'm trying to build one with my son. We are sitting at the kitchen table with the radio on. The smell of styrene,the real model glue, Pactra and Testor's, and then an old song, "Rumble" by Link Wray came on. All of these memories came flooding back. It was one of those milestone memory things that you don't forget. It didn't stick with my son (he still likes Rumble though!) Most kids nowadays like video games and little rice bombs, and we have these memories. They must have made 100's of thousands of those kits all told, and look how it ties us all together.

 

Those were the days....I would go to the hobby center and woolworths almost everyday to see if there were any new models or Ho slots. Our local woolworths would put some on sale for 99 cents once in a while...I was all over those deals...I mowed alot of lawns to support my habit...I mean hobby. Come to think of it not much has changed, I still hit hobby lobby whenever the Mrs. drags me out shopping....really killed the trips to Walmart when they dropped em it gave me something to look forward to when I'd get dragged in there....if only Kohls would carry them, man can she waste some time in there.

 

When oil was $140-150 barrel several years back was a large factor.

 

I think it had to do with the little hobby shops hardly selling any kits... Everyone was going too walmart and those other discount stores to buy'em for dirt cheap. Seems like the prices jumped up 50% on kits compared from 6 er 7 years ago..

 

All things considered, the Car models are still the biggest bargain on the hobby store shelves. Personally, I build armor models. I build for myself, as well as on a commission basis for collectors and people who want something that Dad or Grampa drove during 'the Big one'. I have built 1/35 scale armor models, that with all the aftermarket parts added, have cost me upwards of $300.

My early modeling experience was when my family was in England in the late 70s. Mostly warbirds, with the occasional car thrown in there. My father and I would sit down at the kitchen table and build together. I think my first car kit was 'Cop Out', or maybe it just stick in my mind because I absolutely butchered it! I still have that kit in a box somewhere. I used to keep it on a shelf above my model workbench to remind me of how badly one can build a model.

The way I see it, there are a couple of reason that the prices have jumped. One, the plastic in the kits are petroleum based. Just look at how much the cost of oil and gas have jumped up in the last 5-10 years. and Two, the quality of the kits themselves has grown at an astonishing rate. New molds, better details, photoetched metal parts, resin aftermarket components, not to mention the selection.

After spending $50.00 on a kit recently for myself, my wife seemed a little upset. I simply explained to her that Fifty bucks isn't too much to spend for something that would give me two weeks of quiet enjoyment that keeps me at home and available. She and I both have friends that spend that much every night at the bar. She seemed quite happy with my purchase, once I put it in perspective.

Ok, this became a lot more than I intended. End ramble.

An example of a current, ongoing project. M4 High Speed Tractor:

 

i TRIED A NEW MODEL KIT AND FOUND THE PLASTIC WAS VERY PLYABLE AND NOT AS HARD OR THICK LIKE THE 60'S VINTAGE KITS. i THOUGHT IT WAS VERY HARD TO WORK WITH AND GAVE UP.
What have they done.?

 

Amen Brother! I believe that Wally World dropped them for the typical reason...they just didn't sell anymore, and they moved the shelf space to something that does, Econ 101. Michaels Hobby & Crafts has some, but not much of what I would buy. Hobbytown seems to be hanging on by a thread, RC stuff keep'in the doors open. I'm messing with scratchbuilding in brass, copper & cast white metal now anyway and they have that stuff. Thank heaven (or?) that there is the internet. Anybody here like the larger scales? Check out Scalemotorcars.com I think