Hi Paul,
The Lincoln Futura was a Show Car, or Dream Car, built to show what the cars of the future might look like, and gain publicity for the car maker. The Futura made its debut in 1955, and starred in the film It Started With A Kiss (1959), before being turned in to the TV Batmobile.
Revell released a 1/27th scale plastic kit in 1956, which has been re-issued a few times, under both the Revell and Monogram names. However, this was not the only kit of the Futura - Premier Products, of Brooklyn 21, New York City, also produced a kit.
Premier was one of several US companies that specialised largely in car models. Although they did not have a high reputation, their kits were a lot cheaper than most of their better known rivals.
The box top gave plenty of information. Premier's Lincoln Futura - Ready To Assemble Model Car - Complete With Krome Trim, Wire Axles, Rubber Wheels, Metal Hub Caps and Instructions.
The kit certainly included clear and multi-coloured plastic parts, and metal axles, along with dark (possibly rubber or soft plastic) tyres - just not sure what the hub caps were. There were also krome parts - which is the spelling Premier used on the box top and instruction sheet.
Overall, the kit had a very low parts count. It looks as though the kit was moulded in two or three colours, one for the body, a second for the fins and the chassis, and possibly another for the interior ?
Different colour combinations were used, I have seen at least two - salmon pink and cream, or white and blue. There could be others that I have not seen.
Detail was basic, and the parts do not appear to be numbered. The Futura was Premier kit number 667 - Scalemates say it originally sold for 89 cents.
According to Scalemates the kit dates back to 1955 (the year the real Futura appeared), and is in 1/25th scale, but I can not confirm this.
Scalemates even have the instruction sheet, which you can download. This recommends the use of either model cement, or Carbon Tetrachloride - a chemical compound with a variety of uses, such as cleaning, and cementing plastic kits together (one brand name was Carbona, which we have encountered before).
The box top showed the car painted orange, but on the sides and end it was red (as it appeared in It Started With A Kiss). The artwork was pretty basic.
Today, this seems to be a rare kit (as are all Premier models), and there are very few sales listings for it. The Revell kit is much easier to find, especially the 1990s re-issue.
Paul Adams from New Zealand
Lovely looking kit!
ReplyDelete(There's probably a post just about multi coloured plastic moulded kits waiting to be written. -I could help you with Bandai's Dragonar robot models!)
1/27th scale is odd, I wonder if they shrunk the car down to fit it in the box!
Wow, the origin of the Batmobile we know and love. So it started with a kiss did it? No doubt a cheeky peck with Catwoman, hee hee. Great to see Paul, thanks.
ReplyDeleteA great article on a super-rare kit, one of those dream car models that kids probably snapped up as soon as they saw it. Premier was one of those cool early model manufacturers that did not survive the competition. And 1/27 scale? I guess the notion of "constant scale" has not arrived yet! SFZ
ReplyDeleteThank you. I have never actually seen a Premier kit. According to Scalemates the Premier kit was 1/25th. It was the much better known Revell kit that was to 1/27th. The real Futura was a big car, and the model probably ended up about the same size as a 1/25th scale model of a normal car.
ReplyDeleteIt Started With A Kiss, was a 1959 film, and the car was painted red. Apart from the Futura, the human co-stars of the film were Glenn Ford and Debbie Reynolds. I saw that film on TV many years ago, but had no idea that the car was actually the Batmobile. I only discovered that years later.