Hi Woodsy.
A trip to the attic led to an interesting find recently,a box of model kits I assembled over 20 years ago.
This one is in particularly good shape.It is The Gigantics Rampaging Scorpion kit by AMT.I remember being excited about these '90s re issues because I tried to build one in the 70s and failed miserably.
I noticed in the box that I left some of the little people unpainted.I will try to finish them soon and have a 100 percent finished diorama.-
BrianF
NJ USA
Oh thats cool! I had the Airfix reissue of the Colossal Mantis, made a complete hash of it.
ReplyDeleteI've got those giant bug kits on my gaming shelf, mounted for 28mm battles. Except for the wasp, never found that one.
ReplyDeleteNo, I've never seen the Wasp KnobG.
DeleteThe Wasp kit is the one that I botched in the 70's.I don't think it was ever re issued.
DeleteWhat a great find. According to the information I have, there were four similar monster scene kits released in 1973 by Fundimensions in the USA. These were a Wasp, Tarantula, Praying Mantis, and the Scorpion. The Praying Mantis and Scorpion were re-issued by Airfix in Britain in 1976. Later three of the kits re-appeared in AMT/Ertl boxes in the 1990s, but seemingly not the Wasp ? I did not have any of these kits, as I was more interested in aircraft and military vehicles than science fiction kits. You could probably reproduce similar scenes today using giant (or life-size) toy bugs, and model railway buildings, figures, and vehicles. In fact I did do a scene along those lines some years ago, and I will dig out a photo, and send it to Woodsy.
ReplyDeletePics received Paul, thanks. Will post later. Oddly enough i thought these kits were originally Aurora. So, Fundimensions eh.
DeleteI remember the cool pictures of these in the Airfix catalogue (still got it somewhere) but the kits never appeared in my local toy or model shops so I never actually had one myself. A great blast from the past.
ReplyDeleteLike those black and white B-movies in plastic Yorkie aren't they!
DeleteThese kits are exactly the sort of thing Aurora did in the 1960s and 1970s. Their figure kits often included bases, with various accessories. They did do a few Japanese monster kits along the same lines: Godzilla with crushed buildings, Rodan with more buildings, and Ghidrah with debris. All of these were basically monster kits with a small base, rather than a full scene. There was also a Giant Insect, which was a weird mix of scorpion, dragonfly, and spider, but this did not have a base.
ReplyDeleteAll these kits were clearly inspired by the giant bug movies of the 1950s, even if there was no direct, official tie-in. A pity they never did a giant ant to go with the movie Them. We will just have to make our own. This is one case where it will pay to use models in different scales to give the impression that the bugs are enormous.
There can't be anything as iconically 1960's as Aurora Monster kits. Even though it was my older brother who had these models in our house if i could book-end my childhood I would have King King at one end and Godzilla at the other. The Kings.
DeleteKing Kong! Doh!
ReplyDelete