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Foreword

by John Greczula

Model Kit Development Director, Round 2

As a show rod fan, it really has come full circle for me over the course of nearly four decades. I’ve been on both sides of the fence: first, the excitable kid, crazy about building and collecting models. Now, so many years later, I’m a person in charge of planning nearly every detail in the preproduction and manufacturing of some of the very same kits I enjoyed all those years ago.

I became “hooked on plastic” in the 1970s when a cousin introduced me to a new local hobby shop and the excitement of building models. Soon after, my tastes began to focus and no longer would just any old model car do. I wanted the wildest kits with mod exposed motors and cool deep-dish mag wheels. The ones with eye-poppin’ box art in vibrant color that practically leaped off the hobby shop shelves. I quickly began consuming a steady diet of Tom Daniel–designed kits, produced by Monogram. Bad Medicine, Tijuana Taxi, Dog Catcher, Cherry Bomb, T’rantula, S’cool Bus, and others all beckoned and I responded! However, I was far from a brand snob and my interest continued to grow. Show rod models from just about every manufacturer began to overflow from my bedroom closet during the 1980s, as collecting interests overtook building. By late in the decade, I had learned the whereabouts of Tom Daniel himself and began corresponding with him regularly.

I WAS INTERESTED IN ONLY ONE THING:

SHOW RODS

In the early 1990s, many of the older model-collecting peers I had found didn’t take me seriously. They’d allow me to travel with them to the Toledo Toy Fair, held at the Lucas County Recreation Center in Maumee, Ohio, several times a year. But they thought it was ridiculous that when the doors opened and the mad scramble to find collectible treasures in plastic ensued, I was interested in only one thing: show rods. What could possibly possess me to want to collect such silly and outlandish kits, when there were valuable and desirable models such as AMT 3-in-1 annuals to be had? We all have our vices, as they say, and the show rod compulsion had an unshakeable hold on me.

After attending more and more toy shows, I became interested in the different variations and issues of the show rod kits I was collecting. I began making contact with others who had similar interests and assimilated as much information on the subject as I could. I even went so far as to visit Revell-Monogram in 1996 to interview Bob Reder, Roger Harney, and John Cather. I wanted to write a book on what I had learned, but the scope was deemed too narrow. One of my lifetime goals has indirectly been completed by living vicariously through author Scotty Gosson!

In 1995, I received a call from Tom Lowe at Playing Mantis. He had a plan to turn several Tom Daniel designs into 1/64-scale diecast cars. Tom Daniel advised Tom Lowe to give me a call to get some help in acquiring the plastic kits to use for reference. That was my first step toward working in the hobby kit industry. From that point on, Tom Lowe and I wanted to work together, but it wasn’t until 2006 that we were finally able to make it happen. Today, I am the Director of Design and Development for AMT and MPC model kits at Tom’s second company, Round 2, LLC.

I’ve quickly learned how things work in kit manufacturing and today’s retail market. Don’t get me wrong; I still pinch myself regularly in disbelief that I get to be involved. As a 10-year-old kid, never in a million years would I have dreamed that one day I’d get to be a caretaker of the AMT and MPC model kit brands. But these days I have to chuckle at the wishful and overzealous kit collector I was, versus now, being on the development and production side. I remember a specific phone call from my collecting days with the late Bill Lastovich from Revell-Monogram, telling me I was on the fringe of what I wanted. Now I understand exactly why.

Models have always been made of 1:1 cars, but nowhere is the link stronger than in the show rod genre. It’s easy to see the obvious connection between full-size show rods and their model kit counterparts. It was a natural progression that became a symbiotic relationship. The exploding model kit industry was hungry for exciting new subject matter. Several model companies plucked famous custom-car designers out of the 1:1 world to help produce scale replicas of the show rods that were taking the nation’s custom-car shows by storm. Other companies purchased real show rods outright, kitted them, and then gave them away in sweepstakes contests. It was two worlds colliding, and feeding off each other quite effectively. What kid went to a car show in the early 1960s and didn’t come away wanting his own Outlaw or Li’l Coffin kit? In some cases, it became a “chicken or the egg” situation. Which came first, the kit or the actual car?

The designers and customizers became consultants to the model companies, dreaming up stylized parts for custom versions of other, otherwise “stock” models. Some even designed wonderful series of fictitious show rods that young modelers gobbled up in mind-boggling quantities. AMT had Barris, Winfield, and the Alexander Brothers; MPC had Jeffries, Casper, and Bradley; Monogram had Starbird and Daniel; Revell had Roth and Deal. It was perfect timing, because any show rod kit could sell in the quantities necessary to recoup the tooling costs, negating any concerns of the inability to produce additional kit variants from the same molds. The kits sold so well that in-house designers were used to create even more crazy kits to meet the demand. AMT’s John Bogosian and Dave Carlock dreamed up some of the most imaginative show rod models ever seen!

Today, show rod models are a dicey proposition. A unique and only partial segment of the remaining model kit market, it has been proven that a re-issued vintage show rod model kit is only going to sell a limited volume. Many kits will never be re-issued for that reason, making the original issues highly collectible and valuable. As for an all-new kit of a vintage show rod, it’s highly unlikely. The primary reason is that not enough copies could be sold to pay for, and turn a profit from, a tool that can only make one single kit. These days, model kit manufacturers carefully plan all-new kit tools in such a way that several different variations of the subject matter can be produced from the tooling. It’s a necessary process to make the investment a sound business decision.

Whether we’re talking about full-size cars or model kits, it’s unfortunate when the show rod era is discounted as not having any historical significance. What other automotive genre can boast numerous vehicles that started out first as best-selling model kits, becoming so popular they were then built as full-scale vehicles? Tom Daniel’s Red Baron and Denny Johnson’s Zingers became gangbuster kits, selling in such large quantities that they were commissioned to be built by customizer and craftsman Chuck Miller in 1:1 size. The cars drew crowds to the shows, which in turn sold even more kits. Remember what I said about a symbiotic relationship?

It has been a fun and educational ride over the past 30-plus years. I am one of the lucky few who have been able to turn their favorite hobby into a rewarding career. I have Tom Daniel to thank for the position with Round 2 that I enjoy today. Even on the other side of the fence, I still get that buzz of excitement when I look at my collection of show rod kits, especially the ones that say, “A Tom Daniel Design.” It was a huge honor for me when Tom suggested to Scotty Gosson that I write the foreword for this long-overdue book. Putting this work together with another of Scotty’s books, America’s Wildest Show Rods of the 1960s & 1970s, you can enjoy a look into one of the most unique and fun periods of automotive customization. Show rods were hot and Scotty’s books showcase many of the most unique vehicles ever created, in steel, fiberglass, and in scale plastic!