While looking for some information on Palmer kits, I discovered that at least three of their educational kits were also released by another company. These being the Dissecting Frog, along with the Mastodon and Brontosaurus skeletons.
The company was Natural Science Industries Limited, of Far Rockaway, New York, 11691. So this adds another name to the list of companies making anatomical kits.
I have never heard of this company before, and they are not listed on Scalemates as far as I can see. There is no mention of any re-issues for any of these three Palmer kits by NSI, or anyone else.
I found a Natural Science Industries still listed, in New York City, which looks as though it may be the same company. This is a maker of mainly educational and science sets for children, and various craft sets.
Anatomy kits would have been a natural extension of their educational range. I do not know if NSI actually made these kits, or if Palmer Plastics just made a batch of the kits for them.
There do not appear to be any dates on the boxes or instruction sheets that I can see. My guess would be 1960s or 1970s.
The NSI issue of the Dissecting Frog has been re-numbered from 800-198 to No.78. The Mastodon and Brontosaurus, numbers 110 and 111, kept their original Palmer numbers.
The Palmer issues had the retail price as a suffix to the numbers, which was common with US kit makers in the 1950s and 1960s, but the NSI kits did not have any suffixes. No scale is given on any of the kits, as usual for Palmer, but the length is mentioned.
Some of the kits appear cleanly moulded, while on others flash looks to have been a major problem. The plastic used for the prehistorics ranged from white to a creamy bone-white; while the frog was white with a clear plastic outer shell (the Palmer version had a transparent green shell).
The NSI boxes are not as common as the Palmer boxes, and they are hard to tell apart as NSI just used the existing Palmer box art. There is just a small NSI logo in one corner.
There appear to be three versions of the box. Palmer name and logo; Palmer logo and NSI name (at least on the Mastodon); and finally NSI name and logo.
The Palmer Dissecting Frog have already been covered.
Four photographs from Worthpoint
Paul Adams from New Zealand
NSI is about as obscure a model company as you can imagine! If I ever saw one, I don’t remember. I bet they sold mostly at museum gift shops and the like. Still, great to see another article about the early days of the greatest hobby in the world. SFZ
ReplyDeleteI agree with SF, a great post Paul. Keep diggin' up these fab companies!
DeleteThank you. There are lots of companies that only issued a handful of kits, often as a side-line to their main fields of interest. Someone has to document these forgotten companies, and it looks like it is going to be me.
ReplyDeleteAnd long may it continue Paul!
DeleteHere! Here! These articles should be compiled as a book, “Lost Plastic Models.” This is great research, and I bet you could expand your audience if you cared to. I for one love these articles. SFZ
DeleteThank you. It is nice to know that someone is reading, and enjoying, these articles. They are certainly fun to write.
ReplyDelete