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This is interesting. It's one guy's opinion, but... *LINK*
...it's still fascinating information.
Terry
Tamiya: Why American Kids Abandoned U.S. Model Kits for Japanese Perfection ?
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This is interesting. It's one guy's opinion, but... *LINK*
One on MPC, too... *NM* *LINK*
Just watched the whole thing........after building models since the early 60's & owning a hobby shop I feel rather sad.....theres more than a modicum of truth unfortunately. *NM*
They talk about Aurora like it was something really special. I only remember Aurora making less detailed and rougher kits *NM*
Yep00he kits you got from your aunties because they liked the box art. But you knew that what was in the box... *NM*
The only Aurora kit I've built in over 60yrs was the reissued Undertaker, Molotow chrome pens & Bare Metal Foil helped immensely......but I'd jump for joy if the Aurora 1/16th drag racing kits ever resurfaced(lots of luck, he says to himself). *NM*
Aurora also made some very nice kits though... Their XKE Jaguars and Ferrari Berlinetta come to mind... Not to mention the 1/16 scale funny cars and diorama kits. *NM*
Those 1/16 funny cars were similar to Tamiya quality of the era. *NM*
Aurora dropped the ball by not offering a complete car right away, and not having "name" cars like Revell did. Revell had a "good enough" product at the right price...
Agree - you hit the bullseye
Story I heard was that the tooling was extremely complicated (multiple slides that had to be operated in the right order) and, even at Aurora, they didn't get the sequence right which wrecked everything...
I talked to Tom at a contest years ago. He had some of the blueprints of those kits with him.....
With plane and ship kits, Aurora and Lindberg were all about getting the latest thing onto store shelves first. Revell and Monogram took longer but, overall, got them "more right" *NM*
Save for the Demolition Derby car, never had an Aurora kit that failed to disappoint
Aurora was the 'default' kit supplier to ''The Yound Model Builders Club'. After Aurora bit the dust, Monogram supplied the kits.
Revell was in on that too, before Aurora. Aurora issued the stock '34 Ford coupe kit under that banner *NM*
