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INTRODUCTION
Combine fads, toys, and the 1960s and several things immediately come to mind. Frisbees. “Sting Ray” Schwinn bicycles. Hula-hoops. Batman. Silly monsters. Silly Putty. Secret agents and spies. Slinkys. And model car kits.
If you were a boy or a young man (or perhaps a young woman) in the 1960s, chances are that you bought and built model car kits. You loved trips to your local five-and-dime store. You studied myriad kit boxes to decide which kit deserved your allowance or hard-earned odd-job money. You rushed home, broke the seal, opened the box, and then explored the instruction sheet and parts. You had to decide which of the three kit versions to build before piecing the model together; then, with or without paint? You admired the finished result and maybe even entered it in the local hobby store’s model car contest. Or, maybe you blew it up in the backyard with your favorite form of fireworks.
Several societal and manufacturing developments coincided to make this happen. First, by the 1960s, the children of the post–World War II baby boom had grown old enough to have hobbies. Second, the United States was in the midst of an automotive craziness that (sadly) has not been repeated. Finally, improved toy production techniques, specifically moldable styrene plastic and three-piece sliding molds, made one-piece model car kit bodies possible (and affordable). All of these together made model car building one of the most popular fads of the early to mid-1960s.
Yes, model car kits were a big deal then. A portion of each subsequent generation has gone through similar experiences with these kits, although not to the all-consuming levels of the 1960s.
While most 1960s fads faded away to the history books and cable channels, model car kits and model car building have endured. Certainly, it is not nearly as popular now as it was in the formative years, but more than a few of those young model kit builders have continued to buy and build kits through the years, or more likely, have returned to the hobby as their adult lives progressed. Others have discovered and joined the hobby in more recent years.
With this book, I hope to document the model car hobby, specifically the portion of it that addressed (and continues to address) the world of muscle car model kits. I want to reacquaint those now-aging baby boomers with the kits they built as kids, and document all the other kits that were made but that they never saw or built. For those who are younger or until now unaware of the subject, I want to expose you to what is one of the most enduring hobbies extant and perhaps one that you might want to consider participating in yourself. And for the many readers of this book who love the real muscle cars of this world, I hope to open a view to a part of the muscle car hobby you may not have known about: collecting kits of your favorites from the muscle car era.
What Is a Model Car Kit and Which Ones Are Covered?
Since the advent of the modern model car kit in 1958, tens of thousands of kits were introduced throughout the following six decades. These range from 1/87th scale all the way up to 1/8th scale and have been produced by companies from all over the world. Obviously, some way to draw realistic boundaries around all of this is essential. As we say in the auto industry, we’re going to scope the project.
Here are some guidelines for the coverage. First, the most popular scales for model kits are by far 1/24th and 1/25th the size of the real cars. Second, with just a few exceptions, the best kits of American cars come from American model kit manufacturers. I’ve focused on the kits from AMT, Revell, JoHan, Monogram, MPC, IMC, Lindberg, and their successor companies. Also included are a couple of newer companies, Polar Lights and Moebius. Third, the emphasis is on unassembled model car kits. Within the last 20 years, pre-assembled die-casts have become very popular, but they are an entirely different category and merit coverage elsewhere.
Many model kits have seen 5, 10, or even more subsequent “reissues” with new box art and minor changes. The primary focus here is on the first version of each kit that was brought to market. Reissues are occasionally shown, but the priority is the “original issue” of each kit.
What Is a Muscle Car?
That’s a subject for debate among most automotive enthusiasts. For a book on a subject as broad as muscle car model kits, I had to settle on a definition of muscle car early on. That was no problem, as I personally developed my own definition for the term many decades ago.
The first part is the easy part. Back in the 1960s, cars like the GTO were called supercars, not muscle cars. Supercars were intermediate-sized cars with big V-8s, exciting styling, and (ideally) the imagery to go with it. They were offered from 1964 to 1971, with a few select products continuing through the 1974 model year with their credentials relatively intact. What constitutes a supercar’s “big engine” is a little less clear. The traditional definition was a displacement of 400 ci or larger, but many would include the 389-powered GTOs and 383-powered Road Runners, and possibly even the 390-powered Fairlane and Comet GT/GTA big-engined supercars. I personally added the small-block intermediates that performed equal to or better than their big-block equivalents, for instance, the 340 and E58 360 powered B-Body Mopars and the W-31 Cutlasses, to my supercars definition.
But what about the Boss 429, Z-28, Duster 340, Impala SS427, and the two-seat domestic sports cars? They aren’t supercars by the above definition, but these days most enthusiasts would agree that they should be included in any discussion of performance cars from the mid-20th century.
Accordingly, I’ve adopted a broad muscle car definition of any 1960s to 1974 American manufactured V-8 car, with 4-barrel carbs, dual exhausts, tuned primarily for performance attributes, and presenting design and image attributes to match the performance. And a published quarter-mile elapsed time (in pure factory-stock form) of mid-15 seconds or quicker. Extra credit is ensured if the car had a successful record in sanctioned competition.
Therefore, that’s what I’ve used to guide the coverage and organization of this book. Finally, while not muscle cars in the traditional sense, there are several 1950s to early 1960s cars that set the precedent for the muscle car era, and I’ve included these as well to set the stage for what happened next.
Interestingly, while perusing my automotive library during the development of this book, I ran across an article in the magazine 2009 MuscleCar Milestones. In it, well-respected muscle car authority Greg Rager addresses the subject in the sidebar “Muscle Car: Defined?” He makes some of the same points I do about how broad the muscle car market really was, back in the day. In the end, he suggests “each car should be judged on its own merit compared to whatever else was available at that particular point in time.” He then mentions the Twin-H Hudsons of the early 1950s as an example of a car that was a great success at NASCAR and on the street, and concludes that it was a muscle car. Needless to say, I fully agree with Greg’s muscle car rationale. By the way, I’ve included that Twin-H Hudson in this book, too.
How This Book Is Organized
Using the above as a guideline, I begin by discussing the advent of the modern model car kit and laying out some basic model car terminology and a way of rating the desirability of old model car kits.
I’ll continue with the model car kits of the post–World War II cars that set the stage for the muscle car era. Then I’ll cover the true supercars model kits in individual chapters devoted to each major corporation. The GM contingent
