Remember when AMT Model Car Kit was $1.50

I remember buying model kits for $.69 ! The 3-n-1 kits sold for $1.29 ...I used to get a kick out of the display models that our local Woolworth's had, I recall they were all Monogram kits with some sort of cardboard base/backdrop. They were some really clean builds, I still can't come close to their quality !

 

I don't know how my "better half" puts up with it???... She knows this hobby keeps me out of trouble.

 

Remember, there were some kits even cheaper, as low as 29 cents!
Remember, Lindberg, Palmer, Pactra, Premier, MPC, Revell, Renwall, Ideal, JoHan, Aurora, Strombecker, Pyro, and even Hawk!

Some were really nice, some barely resembled the car.
But so many had really great box art!

 

This one is from the sixties. Unfortunatly all I have is the box. Bill

 

Most of those companies are still in business making model kits. Revell and Monogram are now one. AMT and MPC the same. Lindberg and Hawk joined forces also.

 

AMT kits were $2.99 here in New Zealand when i first started buying them in the early 70,s. At a swapmeet on the weekend they are now $50.00 - 60.00 a kit which is pretty much standard shop price. The big deuce kit was $150.00. I still have some of my original kits.

 

I was building models from about 1977-82ish, and I kind of seem to remember them being more in the $4.99 range when I started and about 7.99 by the time I stopped. My 12-year old kinda dabbles in models now and again, but doesn't really have the bug and the only glue together models he's done are WWII planes. It's just a theory, but I think kids nowadays expect to be able to build their first model to look like all the hyper-detailed, high-end, pre-built, die cast models they see in the glass cases hobby shop and are discouraged when their first model turns out looking like a 12 year old built his first model. I've tried to explain the pride of making it yourself and just doing the best you can do, knowing that with effort, each model you build gets a bit better. So far that hasn't really sunk in. It's that instant satisfaction deal that seems to be so prevelant nowadays, even though my kid isn't what you would call spoiled with stuff.

 

I did 1:35 scale tank models, was just looking at some finished ones last night that I just got from my mother.

 

grew up on AMT, MPC, JoHan, and Revell kits... back when the local grocery store carried MPC Grand National kits... (then again, that was in Virginia in the mid '70's..)
endured the lamentable period when there were no vinyl tires or metal axles... endured the austerity period of economy cars replacing muscle cars.... enjoyed the times when the big car mags had model car articles in them... enjoyed the Auto World catalog... built a bunch of vans when they were the "next big thing"...

i remember accumulating a box of nothing but leftover sprue and mailing it off to AMT to see if they'd send me a new kit.... nope.... but it only cost 50 cents to mail it.

i seldom built Monogram kits then, as most of them were not in my sphere of interest. Mom would buy those big Classics for Christmas gifts to me, and i'd build them OOB straight up to please her..

 

Wayne's 5&10 store..all models where $2.00...glue was .35 cents.... but that was back in the early 60's....when life was fun and I didn't owe everybody money.

 

Roy's .5 and .10 sold them for under a buck in the 50's when I was a car crazy kid! I saved for a month and spent it on a model as fast as I could save! Had to save a bit more to get glue and paint! Testors was 10 cents back then!
I had dozens of them stored in a spare room when I started raising a family. Went upstairs one day to see why my two kids were so quiet and found them all broken and strewn across the room. My 39 yr. old son still hangs his head when that story gets related again!

 

I remember as a kid when they were around $2.00 (and my mom's new '64 Galaxie 500 was around $3200). Well, here we are in 2010 and models are $20 and nice cars are $32,000. Gasoline was .30 / gallon and now it's $3.00 / gallon, so it's all relative if factored for inflation.

Jim

 

I built a lot of AMT kits back in the late 50's - early 60's. Recently I got interested in them again and bought a modern AMT 32 coupe kit. It was similar to the old ones, but it seemed to me the plastic was different. Sort of rubbery and didn't sand as good. I chopped the top but didn't get the joint as good as it should have been. Have they changed the type of plastic or am I just remembering wrong? I know the old ones were molded in black and this one was white.
I sure wish I would have bought and saved some 32 and 40 Ford kits and a few Ala-Karts!

 

The models belonged to my dad and his dad. They were both heavily into car models, slot cars and model railroading back in the day.
We found these up in the attic at his parents house.

I told my dad I HAD to have them!! So now I do.

-Jeremy

 

I remember well those $1.50 days...and I'm reminded of them as I drive past the old AMT building on Maple in Troy, MI every morning on my way to work. The building is currently empty and for sale. Lots of history in that building!

Bill Stinson

 

How about snapping a picture of the building next time you go by there and post it on here?? Thanks in advance!!

 

Yeah, I remember getting a model, glue, and paint for $2

 

I used to pay about $2.99 back in the 70s. I still have all my models (about 50) I built back then. I even have a Revell kit of a '56 Chevy 2 dr sedan, still in it's box from back in the day. That kit was pretty well detailed. You even had the choice of making the car into a one-fifty,two-ten or Bel-air,because it had all the chrome trim of those models to choose from.
Part of me wants to build it, the other half wants to just keep it in it's box as is.
No doubt, building models as a kid had a major influence on me for being a car-nut!

 

btt

 

Auto World is still selling T-jets and A/FX HO slot cars... They're also selling HO race track sets.

 

It really isn't any different. I looked at a couple of stores that sell model car kits, new ones, not rare out of production stuff. They sell for anywhere from $5.00 to $15.00. Now if you use a standard inflation calculator for $1.50 from 1966 you get $10.21 in 2010 dollars. Looks to be right on target.
If you use the $2.99 from the early 70's that some on here have reported, that equals $15.82.
Unlike gasoline, looks like model car kits have been pretty steady.

 

he had a little model car museum in Elmhurst,Il.His collection was incredible! Cool thread.

 

I still have a couple of AMT 3-in-1 boxes out in the garage and a few models from that era. $1.49. The more paint you put on them, the better they looked! If I recall, they had 4 screws that held the bottom chassis to the upper body, straight axles that you could mount in either the upper or the lower hole, giving the car an "attitude". I even "restored" an AMT Model T Coupe back to more or less stock height. Hours of fun and now good memories.

 

Here ya go! www.modelroundup.com/amt20001.html

 

I just picked up 4 Jo-Han kits that were a few bucks new. I paid 100.00 for all of them. I think kids these days have everything with instant gratification and will never feel that sense of accomplishment when you finally finish a model. For those of you that want to join, here is a link to our model group on the HAMB:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/group.php?groupid=105

 

I was messing around with that inflation Calculator and my parents bought my brother a 56 Corvette in 1967 which in todays money is about $3,000. What really tripped me is the housing prices.
My parents paid $14 thou for a 2 story house in La Mirada,Ca back in 1963 and in 1968, they bought a 3 bed house in Whittier,CA for $18 thou. Calculated to today would be about $100 thou. Now these same homes are on the market for around $400 Thou. Crazy

 

I remember going to the Ben Franklin store, which was a five and ten, or five and dime as mom called it, and checking out the hundreds of models with my friends. Used to get them for birthday presents. Had to go to the cashier for glue.

 

Yeah, we had a "Duckwalls" dimestore that did a contest like that, to enter you HAD to but the model there to get an entry form. I had to be around 11 or 12, built a Chevy Blazer, cut it up and made it look like Hickeys Baja racer. Made it looked "used" fake mud all over it. Won first place, think is was my proudest moment as a kid. Won a small trophy and a free kit.
When I moved a couple years ago I got a box out of my attic, in it was all my models from a kid including that Blazer, Mom had wrapped them all up and boxed them when I left home. 20 years in a hot attic was not kind to them. I closed my eyes and tossed them into the dumpster. Still hurts.
I did keep a box full of old unbuilt kits and I do still have that trophy from Duckwall's!