Take a look at the new Wicked Witch from Polar Lights – we expect her and her winged monkey to fly in late spring or early summer 2014. I will post more details when I get them.

Occasionally I receive posts from customers and individuals who like to model; the following post was submitted in response to an older post that asked about “first kits”. We love to hear about your memories and your models. Please feel free to jump in and share your own.

Every time I think of my first AMT model car kits and how I found them, I’m reminded of a prophetic cartoon in one of my old model car magazines. A grandfather shows a model car kit to a child and says “In my day we could build a model kit 3 ways.”  Now, at age 66, I’m old enough to be repeating those very words except there are no grandchildren or  children either. I suppose my model car collection and my restored Model A coupe are my children.

The first of my “children “came along in the first year of AMT kits. 1958. I was on holidays with parents and brother and sister. We traveled from the Vancouver, B.C. Canada area down to Spokane, Washington that year to see the Grand Coulee Dam Our old ’49 Dodge proved very dependable for the trip. In every town we stopped, I always went into the local  drug store or souvenir shop to buy a pennant of the town. In Spokane, I found myself in the basement of  a rather large store and there in the corner was a stack of AMT model car kits. The attraction was immediate. The black and white pictures of the real cars on the side of the box were all I needed to become interested. I picked out a ’58 Ford and ’58 Pontiac convertibles and likely talked my mother into paying for them. I recall fitting the parts together one night at a campsite, since we were camping in those days, and couldn’t wait to get home to build them.

I later regretted my customizing attempts which involved the usual body putty, detail sanding and brush painting. Still I saved them and have the Pontiac almost rebuilt as a custom. The boxes on the other hand, were cut up for their pictures. Many model kits have come way, both cars and airplanes since (and even before) 1958. But sometime in the 1980’s, I made contact with a model car enthusiast in Louisville, Kentucky. We exchanged a few letters and he mentioned that he had some AMT models to sell. Among them  were a ’58 Ford and ’58 Pontiac, both built stock and unpainted. He didn’t mention that he had the boxes and instruction  sheets as well. Those were just a nice little surprise when I received the package in the mail. I’ve since built the ’58 Ford and my picture shows it and the now disassembled Pontiac.

My collection now includes lots of other automotive related stuff, Matchbox Toys, Dinky & Corgi Toys, books, magazines, license plates, name plates, etc, and still those pennants. But that’s how it all began for my AMT collection.

Jamie is a lifelong resident of North central Indiana he attended the Columbus College of Art & Design where he studied illustration and design. A lifelong comic book fan, his areas of interest spread throughout science fiction and fantasy.

He began his career in the RV industry before moving on to Round 2, LLC, where he has worked on the Forever Fun line of collectible holiday products and the Polar Lights, AMT & MPC brands, where he has a genuine interest in guiding the company’s line up of science fiction model kits.

According to Jamie, his favorite kit is the one he hasn’t started yet, but he enjoyed working on the Wolverine figure.

His greatest moment of modeling success was the praise he received for the 1701 ship produced in 2012, especially that from Paul Newitt.

We are so pleased to recieve so many great reviews from the modeling community. Here is another one from the IPMS. The 1967 Shelby GT-350 Mustang was not your average Mustang. It was powered by the Ford High Performance 289 engine and many special improvements. However, since this version was intended to be a production car and to be purchased by the general public, it included the Deluxe Mustang Interior, power brakes, power steering, optional air-conditioning, and optional automatic transmission.

Even so, its performance was superior for its time:

0 to 60 in 7.1 seconds

Ran the ¼-mile at 91 mph in 15.3 seconds

Top Speed of 129 mph

The kit comes with a basic engine that has optional valve covers and can be dressed up to the builder’s desires. The interior is rather Spartan, and I guess that, for the time frame, even a Deluxe Mustang Interior would not be all that elaborate. The painting instructions for the interior are skimpy, at best. The online references and photos of existing examples mostly show an all-black interior with very little extras.

To read the entire review please visit http://web.ipmsusa3.org/content/1967-shelby-gt-350-mustang

My blog writing has been rather erratic this year. All I can say is that the day-to-day business of developing Polar Lights model kits is easy to get caught up. There is rarely a lull in our breakneck working pace. In an effort to make up for some of my lapses, I have weekly blogs scheduled for the month of December… or at least leading up to Christmas…

Let’s kick off the month with a check in on our upcoming Alien Executive Officer Kane resin figure kit. Right now we are looking into a production source. Once that is settled, we’ll be able to finalize its release date. Here are some pics of the rapid prototype that arrived recently.

Next week… Reliant!

Continuing weekly Polar Lights Model Kit updates for the month of December, here is a look at the U.S.S. Reliant mockup that was reviewed recently. This is a much anticipated addition to our Star Trek line of 1:1000 scale kits. This is a new source and the prototype had a few unexpected flaws (like the wavy saucer) as well as the usual amount of fix up we find that is required. A slight mishap resulted in broken Starboard phasers.

Other than that the ship isn’t in too bad of shape overall, but as anyone reading this blog will know that the devil is in the details. Most notably are the grid lines on the top of the ship, not just the saucer section, but the rear end as well. We’ll get that fixed up as well as the other 20-odd points of interest pointed we out to the factory.

Next week… Kong!

Santa’s coming soon and in the spirit of giving, we are presenting inside-looks at some of the projects we have in the works here at Polar Lights models. By now you should have seen our updates on Kane and the U.S.S. Reliant. We had given inside looks at earlier stages of both of those earlier in the year. This month we give the unveiling of something new.

Feast you eyes on the 8th wonder of the world, King Kong. This fabulous sculpt was done by Gabriel Marquez. I’ve kept him in mind for this project ever since he contacted me about it when we first go into the model kit biz. The sculpt is currently being reviewed by the licensor. Look for it in 2014. More details when they become available.

Next week… the Queen!

Before you lay your head down Christmas Eve and visions of new model kits start dancing through your heads, let’s finish up our rundown of projects in the hopper here at Polar Lights models. I hope you have enjoyed the looks the progress on Kane, the U.S.S. Reliant and King Kong kits.

We announced acquiring the Alien/Aliens license at Wonderfest. Here is a look at something we have talked much about yet, the Alien Queen! This is the digital sculpt as rendered by Bill Wieger, the same sculptor we used on the Kane kit. The model offers a dynamic look at the creature. We are still nailing down the details on the final scale and release date. We’ll announce more when we know more.

Well, that wraps up a great 2013! Please have happy and safe holidays. We’ll see you next year!