The Aurora Sabre Tooth Tiger Kit by Paul A.

Back in April I found some original, 1970s vintage Aurora kits at a fair. Four models from the Prehistoric Scenes series, that were only available between 1972 and 1976.

Aurora was one of the Big Three American kit companies, along with Revell and Monogram, but they went out of business in 1977. Aurora were best known for their figure models.

The Prehistoric Scenes were a range of 1/13th scale cavemen and dinosaurs, all of which came with a scenic base. They were simple, snap-together kits, but were very well detailed.

Over the years the dinosaurs have been re-issued, but the prehistoric humans and most of the mammals have not. Just this year, Atlantis finally re-issued the Saber Tooth Tiger and Cave Bear kits from this series, the first time they have been available since the 1970s.

The kits I found had been assembled (but not glued together), and partially painted. Whoever built them originally did a good and careful job.

After sorting through the parts, I found there were all the main parts for four models, with only a few minor accessories missing. I had the Saber Tooth Tiger, Cro-Magnon Man, Cro-Magnon Woman, and the Neanderthal Man.

Since he is the only one I could replace (with the Atlantis re-issue) if things went horribly wrong, I decided to start off by restoring the Saber Tooth Tiger, or Smilodon. This is kit No.733, and originally contained 24 parts (including the nameplate, which I do not have).

The kits may be simple, snap-together models, but they have two full sets of limbs giving a choice of pose. The limbs also move, or can be swapped around as desired.

First, a couple of photos showing how I got the model. I carefully took the model apart, without breaking anything, and removed as much of the original paint as I could using regular brown Dettol disinfectant, which is an effective paint stripper that will not dissolve the plastic.

The only part missing from my Tiger kit was the nameplate for the base. Everything else was there.

The base is one piece (this was later changed to a larger, two-piece base), with a two-piece tree, and the two-piece leg of some small animal. Painted in various shades of green, grey, and brown.

To help with the leg assembly, not only are the limb parts numbered, but they are also marked L or R, for Left or Right half. This certainly helps to keep everything organised, and shows the thought that Aurora put in to these kits.

There is an odd hole in the centre of the chest - I wonder if the spear of the Cro-Magnon Man would fit ? Since the spear is one of the parts missing from my Cro-Magnon Man kit, I can not check this.

The inside of the mouth needs to be painted before assembly. I used a dark pink, with a lighter pink for the tongue.

Off-white for the teeth and claws, and dark grey for the paw pads. Tiny black dots for the whisker holes - fanatics can drill these out and add actual whiskers.

The model is mainly a sandy yellow, with cream for the lower body and chin. I did think about adding some tiger stripes over the hindquarters, like a Tasmanian Tiger, but decided to keep things simple, and went with a plain coat.

I borrowed a book on Big Cats from the library to help with painting the face. The eyes, nose, and mouth are out-lined in matt black.

The eyes are gold, with a black dot for the pupil. Using metallic paint for the eyes gives them a slight lift that really makes them stand out, but the area is so small it is not obvious that the paint is metallic.

Sanding down the joins in the body and legs risked losing the moulded fur texture, so I just scraped these down lightly with a knife blade, and accepted that the joins were going to be visible to a certain extent.

The copyright date 1971 is visible inside one body half, and under the base. Overall length of the Tiger is just over 6 inches, or 15 cm.

This is a wonderful kit, and it is again available from Atlantis for anyone who missed it in the 1970s, along with the Cave Bear. I am now a big fan of the Prehistoric Scenes series, and plan on getting the re-issues to go with my Aurora originals.

Hope you like it.

Here is my earlier look at the Aurora boxes.

https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2024/04/pauls-aurora-prehistoric-scenes.html#comment-form

Paul Adams from New Zealand