# Where Did You Buy Your First Model Kit? If You Can Remember?



## RHINO#1 (May 19, 1999)

HOWDY GANG!:wave: MY FIRST KIT WAS THE GREEN BERET MY AUNT SHARON BOUGHT IT FOR ME FOR 99 CENTS IN A HARDWARE STORE IN HAZELWOOD NEAR PITTSBURGH BACK IN THE LATE 60'S :dude: WOW!! HOW LONG AGO!!! NEVER HAD THE SAME KIT AGAIN NOW WHAT ABOUT YA"ALL?......LATER......RHINO!!


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## Jimmy B (Apr 19, 2000)

I think it was 1970. In Clinton NJ there was this little hardware store that sold models:
"Western Auto" (Everywhere sold models back then - Dept Store, Pharmacies, 5 & 10's,
ect). It was the original long-box Aurora Wolfman.


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## mrmurph (Nov 21, 2007)

Waibel's Department Store in beautiful downtown East Peoria, IL. It was The Phantom of the Opera, and my parents could afford neither model glue nor paint. I clearly remember sitting at the kitchen table while my mom put it together with an old bottle of Elmer's glue. The model didn't last long, but the memory sure has.


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## otto (Jan 1, 1970)

I think it was either the Gold Knight on Horse From Scotties Supermarket, or the Wolfman from Woolworths 5 & 10.


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## Jimmy B (Apr 19, 2000)

I remember going in with my mother and older brother who was into car models... Red Baron, Lil' Coffin, Boothill Express, blah, blah, blah. I was about 8 and didn't even know they made monster kits. I think my brother was after the Beerwagon. There were none on the shelfs but the woman had a big box of kits about to go up. She kept reaching inside and pulling out models looking for the Beerwagon. When I saw that Wolfman kit come out of the Box I almost Sh-, er, uh... Did a Backflip!! 
Life was forever changed


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## karvin (Jan 4, 2008)

I dont recall going into a store and buying kits since I actually started when i was about 3 or 4. But in 1974 I had my tonsils out and my family knew I was nuts about monsters and loved the kits (having a large family) everyone thought it woud be nice to visit me in the hospital and bring me somthing to pass the time... EVERYONE brought models. I ended up with over a dozen models surrounding me in Brooklyns maimomedies hospital, several doubles as well, ALL MONSTERS, all square box glow kits. That seems to explain my need for multiple copies of kits today... and my urge to get laid up in bed, hoping someone would bring me some plastic.


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## Jimmy B (Apr 19, 2000)

I remember getting a Zorro kit as a reward for being "A Trooper" about getting an abcessed baby tooth removed. Me and my Mom stopped at a confectionary store in Califon (that of course sold kits) and the idea was to get something cold for the tooth -
Like say a milkshake....Would up getting something a lot sweeter. 
Sighhhhh......


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## MonsterModelMan (Dec 20, 2000)

Well, I probably didn't buy my first kit as I was young...about 7 or 8 yrs old. However, I have vivid memories of where it was bought. It was the Aurora Glow in the Dark Frankenstein kit and it was bought at Woolworths! I can still picture the square boxes on the shelf. I think the boxart is what really sold me on these kits....then the A U R O M A of the opened box! I still have the cutout top of the boxart from when I was a kid...I used to save the flat tops of the boxes and the instruction sheets. I still have alot of theml!

MMM


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## ChrisW (Jan 1, 1970)

My first monster kit was bought for me, by my mother at the Kresge's 5 & 10 in downtown Wilkes-Barre. The first models I distinctly remember buying were the JFK kit, and first Monster Customizing kit, at Gimbel's Variety Store, also in Wilkes-Barre.
Fun reminiscing!


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## Arronax (Apr 6, 1999)

Airfix Spitfire Mk. 1 - packaged in plastic bag from a Woolworths in England - 2 shillings (about 20 cents) - purchased about 1956 (I was 11). Used tube glue but the model was never painted.

Jim


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## KUROK (Feb 2, 2004)

I'm not sure what the first one was but it was probably bought at a dime store type place called Winn's in Georgetown, Texas. It was next to our old church and we used to hang out there before and after Bible school. I clearly remember the Star Trek kits all lined up there on one shelf and how badly I wanted them!


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## BronzeGiant (Jun 8, 2007)

My first kit was the Aurora F4-D Skyray jet fighter. I think the retail was 29 cents I have since replaced that with a factory sealed example that I'll never open. It was purchased at the Haag Drug Store at 56th & Illinios St. in Indianapolis, IN. Now it's an Osco (I think). At any rate when I was a kid this store, this DRUG store, had a model wall that would rival any Hobby store today even HobbbytownUSA. It also had a HUGE 1/32nd scale slot car track that held weekly races and was busy all the time. 

If I could go back.......

Steve


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## kit-junkie (Apr 8, 2005)

My first model kit came from my father. It was a early 60's Corvette. I don't know where it was bought. 

The first kit I bought myself, as I remember it, was MPC's Creepy T. I bought it from Lane Drug at the corner of Dorr St. and Upton in Toledo, Ohio. I was 7 years old. It would have been 1972. Lane Drug was just down the street from my Grandparent's home, then. I bought several kits from "Lane's" during my childhood. One of them was Hoist The Jolly Roger. Lane Drug never had any Aurora kits, that I remember. 

I miss the days when the hobby was so popular you could find kits everywhere.


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## mcdougall (Oct 28, 2007)

When I was a kid, most of the Monster Models I had.., I traded stuff for...a buck was hard to come by in 1963/64... so I'd trade something of my brothers' for whatever built up kit I could... I won a public speaking contest at school and the grand prize was Two dollars! Two Whole Dollars...man I ran to the Smoke Shop in Gatineau Quebec, where I lived at the time and bought Wonder Woman...I loved the Octopus, but Wonder Woman wasn't hard to look at either... hey I was 13 So proudly I showed my folks what my marvelous' gift of the gab' had reaped ... My mother thought that I was going to be damned to hell for buying what she considered to be 'The Whore of Babylon' and couldn't believe that a child could actually buy such filth...just as she was calling the Police my Dad intervened and explained that she(Wonder Woman) was a comic book character...well that made everything alright didn't it... yeah... that bought us both a trip in the Studebaker back to the Smoke Shop where I had to trade the 'Whore' in for another model...I picked the Guillotine, got 50 cents back on the deal and my mother was thrilled to death that I had 'come to my senses'....my Dad said that someday he would explain ...that never happened... and I'm just as glad it didn't. Moral of the story...in the sixties, building models of 'Whores' was BAD...chopping off heads...right as rain 
Mcdee


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## seaQuest (Jan 12, 2003)

It was the Aurora Superman kit bought at Schickler's Tobacco & Hobby Shop in Elgin, Illinois.


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## Zombie_61 (Apr 21, 2004)

My first kit was the "Fright'ning Lightning" version of Aurora's _Forgotten Prisoner of Castel-Maré_, purchased at Vicki's Toy Town (the local toy store) in Whittier, California in 1969.


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## ChrisW (Jan 1, 1970)

McDee - that's a head-shaking incident, and probably explains volumes about many of the problems we have these days.
BTW, hope you got a copy of the WW kit later on...


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## mcdougall (Oct 28, 2007)

ChrisW said:


> McDee - that's a head-shaking incident, and probably explains volumes about many of the problems we have these days.
> BTW, hope you got a copy of the WW kit later on...


Yes Chris ...indeed it was...I don't think there has ever been a larger Generation Gap in the history of mankind ...we Baby Boomers were so far removed from our parents during the turbulent sixties that it wasn't even funny (at times). Now don't get me wrong, I love my parents dearly and they are both deceased now, it's just that their set of values was from a different era, a totally different time but yeah... the Guillotine model was a way more acceptable toy for a kid than the Wonder Woman model... at least around my little town...go figure....I finally did get the Wonder Woman model , after I left home and moved to Alberta at 18 years old, and had to laugh at how I almost burned in hell for this cool little model. I've got a couple of Vampirella Resin kits now that I would have been thrown in jail for in the sixties...
Mcdee


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## Steven Coffey (Jan 5, 2005)

A Klingon Battle cruiser from Thrift Drugs Store in Ashland Ky. I was 7 so that was 1975. I could have bought the Enterprise but I liked the badguy's ship better.


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## darkwanderer (Mar 11, 2008)

It was back in 1960. It was an AMT '60 Square-bird convertible 3 n 1 kit, bought at the local 7-11 on rt 236 (Little River Turnpike) a few miles east of Fairfax City, VA. I want to say it was $0.49, but I'm not sure.


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## BatToys (Feb 4, 2002)

What year was the Aurora King Kong made?

I remember my Dad buying it for me at an Aurora Hobby Store when I was around 5. I tried to build it with Elmer's Glue. I thought it was a solid model kit that had to be built in layers-like you build the skeleton, then the muscles, then cover it with the plastic leg.


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## Auroranut (Jan 12, 2008)

BatToys said:


> What year was the Aurora King Kong made?
> 
> I remember my Dad buying it for me at an Aurora Hobby Store when I was around 5. I tried to build it with Elmer's Glue. I thought it was a solid model kit that had to be built in layers-like you build the skeleton, then the muscles, then cover it with the plastic leg.


There actually was a kit like that! It was called Skeletura but I can't remember the maker. I think they did a few different kits. Maybe someone here has more info.

Chris.


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## Auroranut (Jan 12, 2008)

The first kit I actually paid for myself was the Monogram Li'l Coffin. I think I bought it for the skeleton. It was on the 1st September 1970. I remember because it was my 9th birthday and I bought it with my birthday money. It was at Playwell toys in Penrith,Australia and it cost $4.25. It's one of my strongest memories and I can still remember it in detail! I can still remember bawling my eyes out because one of the front wheels wouldn't stay on. I ended up melting the stub axle with glue!! 

Chris.


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

I couldn't possibley remember, but the options were much more varied in the early 60s. Almost every store had a few plastic models. I got kits at the local luncheonette/general store (Harding's), the local five-and-dime store, the supermarket, the pharmacy, Two Guys' department store, and of course HiWay Hobby, which was always a special trip with Dad 'cause it was fairly far away.


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## BrianM (Dec 3, 1998)

Thanks for these posts, I really enjoy reading these "Model Memories". 
How funny, we remember more about our model kits than about our first job, car, girl friend, etc...! My folks bought most of my kits for me, but I distinctly remember buying my own square box Franky and Wolfy at Grants dept. store. I also bought kits at Woolworths, Ben Franklin, K-Mart, Kiddie City...


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

I started building models pretty young with my dad. So in about 1974-74 I remember going to Chan's a hobby shop in South Tampa and getting a Lindberg Dornier bomber. My dad got that for me. I remember getting an MPC Pirates of the Caribbean kit down at Woolworths, and also all the model kits at Woolco. Woolco had a ton. Probably one of the first kits I saved up for, asked for a ride to the store, and bought on my own was the Aurora Creature from the Black Lagoon, from Wilson's Dept. Store. The Wilson's chain later became Service Merchandise. Way back in the 70s they sold Aurora and I got some monsters, tanks, World War I planes and the Prehistoric Scenes there. My mom bought me a Monster Scenes Dr. Deadly over at Westshore Mall's JC Penny. That was about 1975 I guess. I remember I wanted the Pendulum but you couldn't really tell what was in the boxes!


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## Duck Fink (May 2, 2005)

I can't say that I recal my first kit but I do remember that my early model purchases were around 1975 (5 years old). Juvenile Toys here in Hagerstown is where I got a majority of my kits. It was right up the street from my grandparents house. I remember cars were my favorite thing to put together. As soon as I got one finished I would take it in the hallway of our house,and play demolition derby with it. I would take one model car and zip it down the hall, just fast enough so it would make it to the other end without hitting the wall. Then all of the other cars were zipped down the hall were at full force, trying to hit the first one and make parts fly off. I did the exact same thing with matchbox cars except I was a little disappointed that parts never flew off of those.


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## gruffydd (Feb 22, 1999)

I love it, what a beautiful thread. (More later - ulp! - gotta go!)


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## RHINO#1 (May 19, 1999)

*I Love It!!!! Too!*

WHAT A GREAT THREAD I STARTED, I WISH I COULD BRING BACK THE GOOD OLD DAYS AND I WISH I KNEW YOU GUYS WHEN I WAS RHINO BRAT THANKS YA'ALL:thumbsup: KEEP IT ROLLING:woohoo:LATER......RHINO^ :devil:


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## SJF (Dec 3, 1999)

I don't know where my father bought it, but the first model kit I ever built was a British Centurion tank, which we built together. My father had wanted to paint it, but I argued there was no need, since it was already molded in a dark green color anyway! :freak: Ah, to be a kid again. 

That started me on building my own kits. I fondly recall building these dinosaur models where the dinos were sort of goofy looking and roundish in shape. They probably didn't look anything like the real dinos, but I didn't care at the time. I also fondly recall building the Star Trek models as a kid, which I bought in the toy section of the local 5 & 10. 

Sean


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## mcdougall (Oct 28, 2007)

RHINO#1 said:


> WHAT A GREAT THREAD I STARTED, I WISH I COULD BRING BACK THE GOOD OLD DAYS AND I WISH I KNEW YOU GUYS WHEN I WAS RHINO BRAT THANKS YA'ALL:thumbsup: KEEP IT ROLLING:woohoo:LATER......RHINO^ :devil:


Rhino...you have brought a flood of memories back to me not unlike the adults in Steven Kings novel 'It' (only no child killing monster)...Since reading your thread...I started remembering building all the Aurora Monster Models with my buddies after school...all of us working on one model at the same time...Kevin Kennedy, Mark Cayer and myself, quickly gluing the Wolfman together then 3 paint brushes splashing paint all over poor wolfie at the same time with liberal use of the color RED...voila...a masterpiece every time! Man I haven't thought of those guys in 40 years...thanks Rhino...what a rush...I love this place...maybe we didn't know each other back then...but the kids inside of us know each other now...and these are the good old days... again:thumbsup:
Mcdee
PS...and YES...this is a Great Thread !


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## Rebel Rocker (Jan 26, 2000)

As with many of you, my first kit just magically appeared at some point, from dear ol' Dad!! It was in '63 when I was five years old. Frankenstein. I remember sitting at the kitchen table with Dad, in Lake Zurich, Illinois. 

We moved to Cary, Il. in '65, and I remember buying kits at Ben Franklin and True Value in Cary, as well as Bryk Drugs. There was also a hobby shop/ barber shop in Crystal Lake that I remember buying a LOT of kits from. 
Ah, those were the days!!

Wayne


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## pugknows (May 28, 2002)

Mom bought me the glow square box Dracula at a local hardware store. I started going into town every month or so and picked up most the the glow square box monsters one at a time, luckily we were a small town and the owner saved kits for me. I remember mowing their yard to get Godzilla Thinking back on it it seams like so long ago with no DVDs, cable, internet, the ability to buy or research almost anything you may want at the click of a button......I grew up riding my horse in town, and hanging onto one of the bunny hears on the TV to get a second channel. When I build kits I can get back in that zone, try it with a cheap AM radio playing 70's tunes in the background. 
Rob


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## Ronster (May 10, 2008)

A Hawk P-40 bought at a TG&Y dime store. I had a bottle of Pactra silver paint and got it all over the place!


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## Zathros (Dec 21, 2000)

GREAT Topic...My very first model was the Gold Knight on the horse..I saw it in the window of a drug store in brooklyn..I vaguely remember how BAD I wanted it..but I must have been about 6 years old..and My father built it for me, as my parents knew it was a bit too advanced for me at that age..since my old man worked nights, he came home after work, and built it while I was asleep, and in the morning ..it was on my dresser all built but of course not painted..the REAL very first model I built myself was the Aurora incredible Hulk ..I bought in a candy & Drug store in brooklyn across the street from the catholic school I was going to..


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## wolfman66 (Feb 18, 2006)

I got my first Aurora kit back in the mid 70's at a Dept called Two guys and the rest of the Auroras came from places like Mcorys,Woolworths,Newberrys ect.


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## Dr. Pretorius (Nov 17, 2000)

Great thread.

I remember going to JJ Newberry's in Springfield NJ around '66(I was 4) my older brother bought a Wierd-Ohs kit(can't remember which one) and dad got me a "Leaky Boat Louie". Dad had to put most of it together for me.

I can't remember the first kit I bought with my own money(allowance or birthday cash). But like everyone else on the thread I remember getting kits in almost every type of store. In the '70s I bought kits from chain stores like Two Guys, local stores like McRory's and Woolworth's, hobby shops, five and dimes, leased depmartments in stores like R+S Strauss Auto Stores, and the classic "corner store".

Yep, it was a pretty cool time.


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## RHINO#1 (May 19, 1999)

*Sweet!!!!!*

THANK YOU MCDEE:thumbsup: YOU DA MAN:dude: ENJOY AND MODEL ON FOREVER BUDDY!!.............LATER.........RHINO :devil:


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## dreamer 2.0 (May 11, 2007)

K-Mart. Aurora's Wolfman. Early Seventies. No great story, just memories of great joy. Lovingly glued that puppy together, and knowing nothing of models or plastic tried to paint it with watercolors!


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## solex227 (Apr 23, 2008)

Mine was a Linburge Arizona purchased with lunch money when I was 9 in 1975 from Cards and things on long island many many moons ago!:dude:


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## spawndude (Nov 28, 2007)

I dont remember the very first except that it was a car.

The earliest model I remember was the 1928 "Gangbusters" Lincoln. It was molded in black plastic. I tried to brush paint it with Testors yellow enamel. YUCH!!!

This was definitely not a beginners kit. Over 200 parts with working parts. Two figures and some really cool little guns and bottles. Never did finish it.

It was probably a birthday gift purchased at Woolworths, Kress, or TG&Y (1963ish) as these were the only discount stores around.

I was recently able to purchase the exact same model off that popular auction place.


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## Scheisseler (Jul 11, 2007)

My first model kit was a Christmas present, so I didn't buy it at all. I got the Glow Godzilla and my brother got the Glow Kong, and it was all downhill from there.  We completed the Aurora classic monster series between the two of us, and he moved on to the Prehistoric Scenes kits while I moved on to...everything else. We kept all those kits stored away for a long time, and it was back during the PL boom that I dug them out and started restoring them (a process I'm still trying to refine), but I never did find the Godzilla kit; I kind of suspect it might have gone up in flames during a battle with plastic army men and a cherry bomb one day when I wasn't looking.

At any rate, when we did start buying them on our own, it would have been at two small stores located in a strip mall in Fox Chapel, PA, up the Allegheny River from downtown Pittsburgh: Hobby & Track (which is where my dad went shopping for parts for his train display and probably where he got the bright idea to buy us model kits for Christmas) and Toyco, which despite sounding like part of a chain, wasn't. The big chain store that we were occasionally lucky to get to (and which Rhino will probably remember) was Children's Palace. CP had cheaper prices and a much larger selection, it being the place where I finally found my personal grail kit of that era, Frankenstein. See, even back then the chain stores were putting the small shops out of business!


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## Magesblood (May 12, 2008)

At a place called Child World that's no longer open. It was the original AMT Star Trek 3 piece set


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## The-Nightsky (May 10, 2005)

The first kit I actualy bought was an Aurora Creature from the black lagoon, I remember watching the movie for the first time in '72 on "shock Theatre" late one friday night. I was amazed!! The next day my Dad took me to the base hobby shop(He was a career navy SeaBee) on Glynco Naval Air station(Phantoms phantoms Phantoms,God How I love that Bird!) Any way, As I was perusing the kits,There it was and I just had to have it!Dad was happy to help me out...Cost me that weeks allowance and some extra chores.


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## MartinHatfield (Apr 11, 2004)

My first model was of a satellite that my Dad bought for me from the local office supply store called Munn's. I was six, and my parents had adopted me a little less than a year before.
My next model was an Aurora square-box Dracula that I got at the local Otasco store. 
My Mother then helped me get a membership to the model club that sent me a new model every other month. The first one of those was of the lunar module with a moon surface base, it also included the orbiter. The second kit was a Viking ship with all these shields along the sides that included decals for each one.
I also nabbed a couple of models from my brother who had lost interest, but still had models stashed around the house. One was the Robert E. Lee paddleboat, and the other was a beautiful long nosed car from the 40's. I think it was a Mercedes, and it had a LOT of parts.


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## normlbd (Nov 2, 2001)

Rebel Rocker said:


> As with many of you, my first kit just magically appeared at some point, from dear ol' Dad!! It was in '63 when I was five years old. Frankenstein.


That is exactly my story too, except it was in '65 or '66. THE Frankenstein. I still have him too. I had just about all the monsters. Some WWII ships and planes too. Pretty much all of them were gifts. The first model I remember plunking down my hard earned allowance money for was a glow Jeykel as Mr. Hyde. I distinctly remember it too. It was at Hornsby's in Streator, IL. I was torn between it and the MPC Barnabas Collins. I went with the Dr because it was an Aurora. I sure hope somebody does a Barnabas in styrene some day.


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## RHINO#1 (May 19, 1999)

Scheisseler said:


> The big chain store that we were occasionally lucky to get to (and which Rhino will probably remember) was Children's Palace.
> 
> WOW! I DO REMEMBER CP :thumbsup: I MET STEELER GREAT FRANCO HARRIS THERE ONE TIME AND GOT MY FIRST TOY BIZ SUPERHERO MODEL KITS FROM CHILDRENS PALACE, THANKS SCHEISSELER:thumbsup:.....LATER.....RHINO :devil:


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## kit-junkie (Apr 8, 2005)

This is such a great thread! Anyone reading can surely see how fond the memories are of not only the first kit, but of the ones that followed. 

It's such a wonderful hobby. There's something for just about everyone!


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## StarCruiser (Sep 28, 1999)

My first kit?!? I was like - 3 or so and in California visiting family. Don't have any clue what the store's name was (little shop near Ontario California - kinda a department thing). The kit was a snap together red Ford T-Bird, probably about a '63 or so.

Strange thing, I've always had a love of red cars ever since...wonder if it's related...hmmmm...


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## mcdougall (Oct 28, 2007)

You know KJ...that's one of the amazing things about kit building...it triggers the memory of what you were doing when you built that kit...I go to my model room and look at the different Monster Models I built from the time I was just a child to the one I built last week and the memories just flood in...Last summer I built the Wolfmans wagon again... as I was building it I swear I felt that I was back in the sixties, that's when I built it originally. For me building a model is a Time Machine to my youth...and I love it :thumbsup:
Mcdee


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## Mark McGovern (Apr 25, 1999)

I've told this one before, how in 1963 dear ol' Dad tried to get my brother and I started on aircraft, which was Dad's area of interest. I got the Aurora 1/48 scale B-26 Martin Marauder bomber and my brother, the XB-70. We both felt like, "Uhnnn...this is okay, but -".

That Christmas a neighbor gave me The Mummy and my brother, Frankenstein. That model fired me up with an enthusiasm that still burns today. The weird part is, I have no idea _why. _I had a passing interest in monsters as Halloween characters, but I don't recall having had much exposure to them prior to receiving the Mummy kit. And yet I thought that model was the greatest thing since sliced bread!

Later on, we could get our monster model fixes at a place called Riss Sales on Grant Street in Gary, Indiana. They had the best prices - 75 cents for most Aurora kits, compared to the 98-cent MSRP. Although I cheerfully plunked down $1.98 for the Bride of Frankenstein,
$4.98 was just too rich for my blood if I was going to get Gigantic Frankenstein. Riss didn't carry him - Playland, at the nearby Village Shopping Mall did.

 A carefully-orchestrated "my-tenth-birthday-is-coming-up" campaign, worthy of Ralphie's quest for the Red Ryder rifle in _A Christmas Story_, brought home the goods. Courtesy of whom? Dear ol' Dad, of course.

Mark McGee, how I miss the Old Man.


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## BatToys (Feb 4, 2002)

mcdougall said:


> Last summer I built the Wolfmans wagon again... as I was building it I swear I felt that I was back in the sixties, that's when I built it originally. For me building a model is a Time Machine to my youth...and I love it :thumbsup:
> Mcdee


Moebius and Monarch should use that in ads to get parents to buy models for their kids. To give them good memories when they are older.


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## kit-junkie (Apr 8, 2005)

mcdougall said:


> Last summer I built the Wolfmans wagon again... as I was building it I swear I felt that I was back in the sixties. For me building a model is a Time Machine to my youth...and I love it.


Isn't it amazing how that happens? When I built the Leopold kit (in my photo album) as soon as I opened the box, the memories started rolling. I have a re-pop of the Creepy T I'm sure will do the same thing. I love it!


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## The-Nightsky (May 10, 2005)

My son and I are currently enjoying a repop of the creepy T, we work on it when ever he visits, He loves i> iasked him last week if he wanted to take it home and he said no, Thats for you and me Dad.


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## mcdougall (Oct 28, 2007)

And in forty years from now he might be on a forum like this remembering the great time he had with his Dad. Man... cherish these times and moments :thumbsup:
Mcdee


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## chevy263 (Oct 6, 2003)

Great thread !! and some great memories !! I'd have to guess and its a longshot the first kit i ever built ?  I'll be 46 in august hehe well if i have to guess it was a metal model of a cadillaic ? or the lil coffin. I still have 3 or 4 somewhere here. And speaking of memories... My brother and I used a fence post hole in the side if the yard we called it the H[email protected] hole If you only knew what went in there after the gas/lighter fluid firecrackers etc etc. I told this story on a diecast site that im a member of and got the nicname "The Torch"
that fence post hole well its contents if not Torched would be worth alot of $$. Has anone seen my munsters kit ? ok how bout my dragula ?.............

:wave:


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## Aurorafan (Jun 16, 2001)

I think the first kit I opened was Frankenstein, but I had a very unique experience as a kid, because my folks owned a candy store (in Brooklyn) that sold a variety of things; stationery, greeting cards, cigarettes, toys and MODELS. which is why I love them to this day. I remember distinctly every 3 or 4 weeks a delivery of stock would arrive, and I'd rummage through the boxes to see what new models were in. I built all the monsters, of course, and the glow versions and the the square box versions, telling my mother that surely something about the model must be different besides the box. Aside from plastic color, nothing was, obviously. Wether my mother knew or not didn't matter, she always gave me what I wanted (sometimes with a struggle but always if I did chores) It was a wonderful childhood. Of course I did the seaview, LOTG, LIS kits as well, and the prehistoric scenes too. 
The challenge came, however, when my mother didn't order all of the monster scenes kits. Either she thought they were inappropriate, or they were already pulled off shelves, but remember having to actually purchase kits like the pain parlor and gruesome goodies in a competitor's store. This was probably tuff for my Mother, because she never made much money in the store, and for her son to pay (retail) at the competition? She did sacrifice more than I'll ever know, but I'll always love her for it.


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## Roland (Feb 4, 1999)

My parents got me a Brontosaurus skeleton model kit at the Field Museum in Chicago. I had a hard time building it, so, my great grandfather and father helped me glue it together.


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## ChrisW (Jan 1, 1970)

This thread got me to thinking about where or when I acquired the different models that I cherished. Suprisingly for this addled brain o'mine, I was able to remember quite a few of the details - from birthday presents (Creature) to Christmas presents (King Kong), from surpises from my parents (Wolf Man) to buying them off the shelf (Dr. Jekyll). Its actually a fun trip down memory lane (pardon the cliche). For example, I bought Godzilla while on a trip with my mom at Hess' department store in Allentown, PA. While only an hour or so away from my home town, it felt like we travelled across the country!


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## scotpens (Sep 6, 2003)

The first model I ever built, at the age of 7 or 8, was an Aurora Cunningham sports car, followed by their MG-TC. Then I discovered the Revell line of aircraft kits, and for the next year or so it was nothing but airplanes and helicopters. Loved the cool poseable stand with the coil spring ball-and-socket thing. Used to buy them at various places — the local five-and-dime, the neighborhood toy store, and a Pic-N-Save unclaimed freight outlet which was right where the mammoth Sherman Oaks Galleria is today. Yep, the very same mall mentioned by Moon "Valley Girl" Zappa.


mcdougall said:


> You know KJ...that's one of the amazing things about kit building...it triggers the memory of what you were doing when you built that kit...I go to my model room and look at the different Monster Models I built from the time I was just a child to the one I built last week and the memories just flood in...


With me, it kind of works in reverse. I hear a song on an oldies radio station and it reminds me of the model kit I was building when I first heard it. This leads to some rather strange mental associations — like, for example, Frankie Avalon singing "Venus" always makes me think of the Creature from the Black Lagoon!


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## deadmanincfan (Mar 11, 2008)

If my poor ol' memory serves me right, my first model was Aurora's LOST IN SPACE family diorama...the non-chariot version. It was a birthday gift purchased for me at a somewhat-local store called Monte Mart...boy, does THAT bring back childhood memories...most of my Aurora monsters and superheroes were bought there. I also remember being stung by a bee on the way home that day. Happy Birthday to me... :hat:


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## the Dabbler (Feb 17, 2005)

After nearly wearing my rememberer to a frazzle I think I know which was my first model. I must have been 19 or 20, (1959-60 ?) had been working in a drug store ( over 10 years all told ) the boss did the shopping at the wholesaler and I unpacked & priced the orders. Having always been a nature/science nerd I saw the Palmer Brontosaurus Skeleton kit and grabbed it immediately ( at wholesale, $0.60 ) and stayed up late at nights building it ( Some things don't change ! ) After that I got the Palmer Mastadon.

At that time my step father had taken off and I was helping my mother raise my half brother & half sister ( 8 & 10 years younger ). I was single and rather free to follow my own schedule. (In my primered '52 Chevy ragtop )

I built the occasional model after that, just whatever "grabbed me". A 1/72 Snoopy, Red Baron, Wright Bros., etc. The Baron had a real hair mustache donated by me. ( I've had one since I was 20) Snoopy had a birdseed nose. 
Then in the 90's I saw the Luminators in the background of a TV Halloween news feature, called the store and ordered them. After that I got a PC and discovered ebait, then this forum. *I was doomed from then on!!!*
God help me ! 
Oh, the nostalgia comes in because I found two of those same Palmer Brontos and one Mastadon on ebait and are in my stash.


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## phantom11 (Jul 12, 2007)

Aurora King Kong, from Mr. B's Hobby Shop in Tampa, FL. That shop was a freakin' Ali Baba's treasure cave for me. Tons of Aurora kits and buildups, a HUGE slot car track that my Dad used to race cars on....

... they just don't make 'em like that anymore.


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## NTRPRZ (Feb 23, 1999)

It was a 1949 Mercury, made by AMT. My mom bought it for me in 1963. I have a reissue, in an original box.


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## Gillmen (Oct 16, 2004)

My first Aurora model was the phantom of the opera from back in 64. Got it for my seventh birthday and was blown away from the box art. Soon after the others followed and the rest as they say is history!


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## Mitchellmania (Feb 14, 2002)

My first Model kit was the Aurora Frankenstein kit. I was 5 years old when I built it. I glued the hands on the wrong arms ,so the thumbs were pointing down! I also painted his skin copper! I can't remember where my mom got it though. I know I got most of my Aurora kits at the very first KB Hobby store in the US- in Pittsfield, Mass!! That was in the Late 1960's.


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## Jaruemalak (Jun 12, 2008)

The first kit I ever bought and built was that very first USS Enterprise from Star Trek, bought at a local five and dime in Amery, Wisconsin... and lemme tell you that sucker was a PAIN! Probably the worst method of mounting the nacelles to the body; sliding a plastic pin into a plastic D-ring at the bottom of the nacelle! I never could get the nacelles to sit properly... they always hung lopsided. I was very happy to see years later that they had modified the kit to just slip the nacelle into a slot - a nice, tight, perfect fit... even if the kit was so very wrong in so many other ways! I didn't know or care at the time, I was like eleven or so!


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## AZbuilder (Jul 16, 1999)

*My First Model Kit*

I seem to remember the first ever model kit I bought myself in 1966 was a Revell 1/72 scale Heinkel He-111, which a bought at a local convience store called Budget Mart in South Gate CA. Which turned out to be the biggest glue bomb in my modeling history. Maybe one day I will get annother one and do a better job this time 

AZbuilder
John

*Let Your Imagination Soar*


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## Y3a (Jan 18, 2001)

1st kit. 6 inch long YMS Yamato. 

1st sci-fi kit... LIS Cyclops and Chariot.

1st Vacuform kit - Eagle Talon GT21D

1st Resin kit. B9, Robby, Gort kits from Lunar Models.


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