The year was 1985. I was in high school and working part-time at a local grocery store. We had a small toy section in the non-foods area of the store, and among the items intended for five year-olds was a small selection of MPC model kits.
The 1/72 F-86D caught my attention, but I didn’t buy it immediately. I’d pass it every time I had to run for a price check in that part of the store and every evening I’d “close” and be tasked with corning sweeping and dust mopping. I would imagine how I might build it and paint it, but I never pulled the trigger. This went on for months and months.
One day I finally bought the model. It was only five or six dollars as I recall, so it didn’t impact my meager budget all that much. I suppose that was the most unusual place I’ve ever purchased a kit, a grocery store. That’s a pretty lame story, I must admit. I hope other members of the Union have more compelling stories to share.
Ironically, I never build the model.
I'll go out on a limb in two regards - the definition of "model" and whether I personally purchased them :-)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I recall with fondness getting the R&L "models" out of packets of breakfast cereal in my very young days. R&L, Rosenhain & Lipmann, produced a variety of really good cereal premium toys in the 1960s when I was a nipper. The ones I recall in reference to your question were the "Space Age" range - see details at this site:
http://cratercr.ipower.com/page24.html
These came cellophane wrapped on sprues in the cereal packets and had a number of parts, some quite fine and small for a kid. They struck me as something above toys, and replcated their subjects quite well. I think they may have had an effect on me going on to make models from Airfix, revell, etc, as a youth.
No, I didn't buy them in those days. Does a 4 or 5 year old buy their own cereal from the supermarket? Mum bought them :-)
Thanks.
That's awesome. It's interesting to think that a small item in a cereal box could spark an interest in scale modeling.
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