article

A model car is a toy which represents an automobile, generally reproducing the shapes of actually produced vehicles, as a small scale model.

Model cars from kits

Model car most frequently refers to scale miniatures of real production vehicles, designed as kits for the enthusiast to construct. They can be created in plastic, die-cast metal, resin, even wood. The best kits have incredible levels of detail, even in parts unseen when the finished model is on display. Major manufacturers are AMT, Revell, and Monogram, but many smaller companies abound.

History

The model kit car hobby began in the post WW II era with Ace and Berkeley wooden model cars. Revell pioneered the plastic model car with their famous Maxwell kit derived from a toy. Derk Brand, from England pioneered the first real plastic kit, a 1932 Ford Roadster for Revell. He was also famous for developing a line of 1/32 scale model car kits in England for the Gowland brothers. These kits were later introduced by Revell in the US.

AMT began producing assembled 1/25 "Promo" models in the early fifties.These were an outgrowth of promotional models manufactured for automobile dealers. Youngsters would be given the scale models to play with while the parents and the salesman haggled. Collecting and trading these "promos" soon became a popular hobby.

During the 1950s and 1960s, interest in the hobby peaked, as many companies started to profit from the interest in the promo cars. AMT, Revell and Monogram started producing model car kits during this time, and it was considered a "golden age" for model kit cars.

Interest in model cars began to wane in the mid-1970s as a result of builders growing older and moving on to other pursuits. By the early 1980s, model building had been largely replaced by video gaming as a favorite pastime of American youth. A resurgence was experience in the late 1980s, due to many who been involved in the hobby in past years rediscovering it. Monogram helped spark the revival with a series of replicas of NASCAR race cars, as did AMT with a kit of the 1966 Chevrolet Nova, which modelers had been requesting for years.

Japanese model kit manufacturers - Tamiya, Fujimi and Hasegawa, among them - also stepped up their presences in the U.S. market during the 1980s and 1990s. While many of their car kits have limited appeal to American modelers raised on "Detroit iron," the quality of their products is perhaps the finest in the industry.

Toy and collectible cars

Some toys which mimic production vehicles qualify as model cars. These are generally sold complete, needing no construction by the consumer.

Types of Toy Cars:

  • Die-Cast - Either large scale collectors type or smaller consumer "Matchbox" type
  • Pedal cars
  • Plastic kit
  • Radio control
  • Hand built limited edition model cars (usually produced in white metal or resin)

Brands of model cars:

Radio control model cars

Radio controlled cars which can be built from kits make for a popular hobby. These cars are remote controlled by a radio signal, and can be powered by electric motors or internal combustion engines, the fuel used is normally a mixture of nitromethane and methanol.

See also

External links

  • ScaleModel.NET Searchable web directory contains thousands model car related web sites around the world.

Scale modeling | Toys | Toy cars and trucks

Legetøjsbil | Modellautomobil | Modélisme automobile | Modelauto

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Model car".

Home Page • arts • business • computers • games • health • hospitals • home • kids & teens • news • physicians • recreation• reference • regional • science • shopping • society • sports • world