Remember when AMT Model Car Kit was $1.50

I got 50 cents allowance,... and 10 cents to polish Dads shoes,.. ( Grandpa gave me 25 cents to polish his shoes,... but he had those black & white wing tips,... and I had to clean the white stitching with Q-tips and some sort of stinky solution )

 

I started buying them 26 years ago. I allways figured maybe my kid would like to build them. Well here iam 45 no kids and 75 model kits never built.

 

Comm'on don't be sad,..... Hey !, I got a Idea !,.... Want me to bring my BB Gun and some firecrackers over ?

 

I would trade with the next door neighbor after we had the kits assembled. got an assembled Paddy Wagon for half built Peterbilt 379.

always had a box or two of spare "go fast" goodies to dress 'em up too.

damn, I remember ripping a transistor radio apart to get plug wires....... then I get my ass kicked by my pops for screwing up yet another electronic device. BUT I NEEDED PLUG WIRES!!

memories.

 

I can still remember walking home from Finlayson's 5 & 10 store, in Bentleyville, PA, with my first AMT 3 in 1, 1959 Buick. I was eleven years old and thought that car was the coolest! It was $1.50 and I wondered how they squeezed three cars into that box. When I opened the box I got the idea. Now I collect die cast cars of all scales. I have about 400 of the little things.

Let me show you something I finally got after getting beaten on Epay for three years. It's an Ideal Ferrari 166mm Barchetta... it was the first model car I ever owned. My dad bought one exactly like it for me when I was about ten years old. I guess that circle is now complete.

 

oh yeah, the visible V8. had that one, but it had a premature rod knock, so a well placed m80 took care of that....

 

i remember building the amt kits and the monogram kits they had the best fit parts and chrome plating . i always had a hard time w/ the revell kits . i remember testors paint at .19 a bottle . i loved the smell of the testors glue . i built the mad maverick funny car with electric hang ten foot pedal that was the switch to lift the body....i think it was 1/18 scale .i was so proud and took a lot of time building that model . i spray painted the chassis metalflake blue . when i was done . i showed it to my 6 yr old neice . raised the body all proud . she giggled and smashed the body down with her hand , the model broke in like.....a thousand pieces..........wow .....was i bummed !

firecrackers !......when i lived in irvine around 1969 , i was about 14 at the time . our street ended in a cul de sac and we lived about 5 houses down from the cul de sac . the houses in the cul de sac all had living room and garage windows that faced the street . one day i lit about 7 m80 firecrackers in the cul de sac . i blew out all the front window glass in the 4 houses in the cul de sac.............whoops !.......i was grounded for the rest of the summer .

 

Seems like I built boat load of those 3in1 kits back in the 60's.There were a few of mine that were involved in horrible accidents(firecrackers),then a few years later, my little brother came along and it was demolition derby!

 

I got my first one in the 3rd grade. Was the cherry bomb kit and was hooked. I have about 80 unbuilt and close to the same built. Tons of spare stuff from the extras in the kits.. Heres a few of mine..

 

Yeah, we all sound like our Dad's now don't we? Guess I never grew up, I've been collecting new kits forever thinking, when I retire... I will put them together! NOT, still playing with the real stuff, most likely will sell when I learn to use epay...

 

Wow. I don't think I've built a model car since I was in my first or second year of high school in 1987 or so. I think the last car I built was a 70 Chevelle that cost around $8. About all remember building was a 53 Vette, Anglia Gasser and a Model A Sedan. I remember the prices all being around $8. So this thread inspired me to go hobby store shopping yesterday with my somewhat new-to-town neighbor who had asked about hobby shops a couple weeks ago. And what a journey that was.

We found about five places in about five hours spread out between south Bakersfield all the way up to Lerdo Highway (almost to Famoso dragstrip). I nearly bought a beginner's RC airplane, but $200 is a little expensive just to crash into the ground. Most stores had a very small quantity of model cars, so I was a little disappointed. However, I did find an AMT 25 T kit for just under $16, but add in two tubes of Testors glue (together in one pack) and two sodas (because of all the driving) and the project ended up costing $25. I'm not complaining, but I sure wasn't going to spend $20 for a box of plastic.

In the long run, the T will actually cost much more. Looking at the box, I've decided I'm going to build the T to resemble, as much as possible, Ed Iskendarian's car. I can't wait to for the parts hunting to begin...

 

Here are a couple of boxes I picked up from a friend thirty years ago. I am not familiar with that Bill & Andy store, but the guy who gave these was from Wakefield, MA.

 

Here is another box from that Revell series... Most people on this board should remember W.T. Grant's Dept. Store. Seventy seven cents on clearence.

 

I can't say that I remember $1.50 for AMT kits but seeing Churchkey's post with the $1.58 price reminded me of when "Valu-Mart" opened their store in town and the $.200 kits could be had for $1.57 I made many bike trips there in the early seventies!

 

bttt.........

 

The standard re-issue of this kit is $62 bucks here!!

 

I still remember back in 1974 when Grant's Department store in Binghamton had a huge pile of MPC's previous years' car models ('71-'73) for 79 cents a pop, Spent a LOT of money on those bad boys! Had most of them until a few years back when they got destroyed in a flood.

 

Any of you guys remember Jo-Han model cars ?

 

Here's what that very same intersection looks like today.. A sign on the old S.S. Kresge Building sez "for rent". ... Plus you don't see the crowds like there once were... What a shame........

 

I loved this kit. I built 24 models for Del Quinn of his race car when I was 15. (in 1965)


Thirty-three years later Del was kind to give me one of each of his models in 1998. Of course, they're not in the best shape but they are treasures to me.


(1965)





(1966) I hand lettered the race car and the model.

 

Cool!!

 

I just thought of this thread the other day when My Wife and I were out to the store,....

 

I liked and built a few Jo-Han kits. I always felt they went together nicer than any Revell kit I ever built. Similar in quality to AMT 3in1 kits. I think Jo-Han may have been responsible for making some dealer promos, notably AMC cars. I didn't build too many of them because their line-up seemed a little limited. Good kits nonetheless. I wouldn't mind finding a few unbuilt Jo-Hans. The last one I built was a '64 Cadillac from their USA OLDIES series. Jo-Han Models Inc. was located at 17255 Moran, Detroit, Mich. 48212......Don.

 

Yes!
Jo-Han often did subjects the others (AMT, MPC Revell) didn't. Most of there kits were very well detailed. They usually built up very well.

 

When AMT/SMP kits came out in 1958, they were $1.35 at Ferguson's Hardware in Sandusky, MI. They were always well stocked and kept up with the new releases.

 

I remember the Jo Han kits as being mostly Mopars. I was conditioned to not like Mopars in the earl 60s...and then the Super Stockers began to change my opinion.

 

Some of my builds ! The Ford 32 is built from an old AMT box !

 

Nice!

 

1964, 6th grade, had a paper route making $40 a month and a brand new Hiawatha bike that cost $39.95. My dad had a Conoco station where a lot of gearheads worked or hung out. AMT models were a buck, maybe a buck fifty for the 3 in 1. Car Craft and Hot Rod were less than a buck. Life was great.

 

Funny, grew up on military bases where you paid the price on the box. Dad retired in 62, moved to wichita, saved up my $1.50 for a new model, went to the store got a model, so go to pay for it ,lady says "that will be $1.62" WHAT??????????The friggin box has $1.50 on it, my first lesson on a long life of TAXES!