Tenth Birthday Guest Article: A Paramount Hobbies Exclusive! Part 1 by Rob C

Paramount Hobbies was one of the most obscure, and eclectic, lines of plastic model assembly kits to come about in the 1960s, the "golden age" of model-making, one of the most memorable, and oddest, of a certain genre of "national brand." 

Paramount Hobbies perhaps made very little impact overall in the industry, but had an enormous impact on certain individuals (the author certainly). 

Paramount Hobbies appears to have been a wholly-owned subsidiary of Paramount Greeting Cards, the history of which is in itself intriguing. In 1906, brothers Sam and Charles Markoff began their first commercial enterprise, the Wooden Toy Novelty Company, which imported hand-crafted toys from Japan. The Markoffs soon expanded the business, creating the Paramount Company, publishing a small line of art calendars.

The business grew rapidly, becoming Paramount Greetings Cards, which would eventually become one of the leading card manufacturers in the world. The company was located at a former mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The company became well-known for its superior graphics and other innovations including the first greeting card box assortments, and the use of satin buffs and sachet bags on their cards.

The company soon expanded into Canada, remaining family-owned until 1983. Paramount finally closed its doors in 2006, under the burden of unservicable debt. 

Historical information on Paramount Hobbies itself is very sketchy. The U.S. division, with its sales office at 999 Main Street in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, shared office space with the Hasbro Toy Company. The earliest reference to Paramount Hobbies is in 1968, and the last known sighting of new kits was in 1972, so it might be imagined that the hobby venture had a very short window of marketing experimentation.

The only known catalog which paramount Hobbies printed was their 1969 edition, which featured most, but not all, of their current line. There was at roughly the same time a Paramount Hobbies division at 2175 Theodore Street, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, which was likely headquartered at the Paramount Greeting Cards printing plant located at the same location.

The Canadian incarnation of Paramount Hobbies offered some extremely rare models from the Gerry Anderson "Supermarionation" universe, including several vehicles from Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, as well as a huge, 18" long Zero-X model kit by Imai Kagaku, marketed under the generic title, "Mars Explorer." 

In some ways a legendary success, in others a total failure, the Paramount Hobbies line was almost certainly a financial disaster for its parent company, unless the goal was to mount a losing venture in order to smooth over certain financial overruns and inconsistencies in the lucrative greeting card division. Even the name of the hobby division seemed somehow quaint, antiquely modern, retro-futuristic. 

With very few exceptions (*), all of the kits released by Paramount Hobbies were imported from Japan.

This makes Paramount possibly the third importer of Japan model kits into the United States, following UPC (Universal Powermaster Corporation of Lehigh Valley, PA, who started importing Japanese airplane kits circa 1960), and AHM (Associated Hobby Manufacturers of Philadelphia, PA, who released the Imai Kagaku Thunderbirds spaceship models in the U.S. circa 1966), and possibly coinciding with Eldon, who in 1967 released a number of 1/100 airplane kits from Japan, many of which overlapped with UPC's "HO Pocket Series" of airplane kits.

Tamiya and Minicraft entered the model import field in the early 1970s. Paramount Hobbies was in some ways ahead of its time. 

*(Occasionally a true Paramount Hobbies anomaly will turn up on ebay, such as a Rolls Royce kit, which says "Made in England" on the box, and a motorized Tokyo Monorail Ho-Scale trains system, presumably from Japan.) 

Yet, to the baby boomer Sci-Fi buff and model-builder, the Paramount Hobbies line was a revelation. As might be expected from a company primarily involved in the creation of eye-catching designs for greeting cards, the graphics and packaging on the Paramount Hobbies model boxes were clean and snappy, very professional, combining bold graphics with the beautiful original Japanese box art. The Paramount Hobbies 1969-1970 catalog captures a moment in time perfectly - the invasion of the cheap import into the U.S. (a moment of pure joy to some of us!) 

The Paramount Hobbies line emphasized high-end car model kits, which benefited greatly from the always extraordinary original Japanese box art, aesthetic power and impeccable craft; it is likely that these automotive kits were the most popular sellers overall. The Paramount Hobbies line consisted of six main categories as follows, with their original manufacturers noted where known: automobiles (Imai, Bandai, Fujimi, Eidai); ships (Nichimo, Fujimi); tanks (unknown origin), airplanes (unknown origin); space vehicles/science fiction (Imai, LS, Midori, Otaki, Japan Hobby); musical instruments (Nichimo) 

..... Part 2 continues the story tomorrow on the Birthday's final day

Rob C
USA