A new take on the old Aurora kits

[theBaron]

Just checking in today, and yep, those are the Pyro kits. They were God-awful, by today's standards. Most of the dinosaurs were smooth-skinned, shapes were soft, and fit was terrible. I remember the Ankylosaur's head as consisting of three pieces-left and right sides of the face, and the skull plate fit over it, but it didn't fit right. And yeah, those little cavemen! I think the plastic was relatively brittle, too, and I recall some of the kits having swirls, where the styrene hadn't quite mixed thoroughly before they shot it into the molds.

But when I was six, they were the coolest things I had ever seen. Lindberg has the molds for some or maybe all of these, today, and those kits are still available. Of the series, the Corythosaurus was probably the best-detailed, with a textured hide. If it weren't for its tripod stance, it wouldn't look too out of place with more recent kits, like Tamiya's second generation of dinos.

I got a whiff of nostalgia for Pyro kits last summer, when I collected a bunch of their "Table-Top Navy" waterline kits of WWII ships. When I opened up the first one I got, the texture and the smell of the plastic took me back to those dinosaur kits. It was exactly the same as I remembered it. Lindberg has some of those kits, too, and they have re-released them in boxed sets of two kits each, one for the USN, one for the IJN and most recently, for the Royal Navy.

 

[badger]

they should sell the full size ones

 

[Babelfish]

I remember seeing Salems Lot for the first time as a youth with my brother in law. It was really scary for its time.

Yeah that vampire kid floating outside and tapping on the window fair put the willies up me the first time I saw it. And I think I was about 16 at the time!

- Steve

 

[Babelfish]

Just checking in today, and yep, those are the Pyro kits. They were God-awful, by today's standards. Most of the dinosaurs were smooth-skinned, shapes were soft, and fit was terrible. I remember the Ankylosaur's head as consisting of three pieces-left and right sides of the face, and the skull plate fit over it, but it didn't fit right. And yeah, those little cavemen! I think the plastic was relatively brittle, too, and I recall some of the kits having swirls, where the styrene hadn't quite mixed thoroughly before they shot it into the molds.

But when I was six, they were the coolest things I had ever seen. Lindberg has the molds for some or maybe all of these, today, and those kits are still available. Of the series, the Corythosaurus was probably the best-detailed, with a textured hide. If it weren't for its tripod stance, it wouldn't look too out of place with more recent kits, like Tamiya's second generation of dinos.

Haha! Yes I well remember being completely bamboozled by that Ankylosaurus head, it ended up with glue everywhere as I tried to force it all to fit together. And my recollection of the Corythosaurus is also that it was one of the better ones. Protoceratops was another one I recall doing, and painting all-over in what I can only describe as "bile green", which may have been one of my very early attempts at mixing paints to get a "unique" shade. This was back in the days when Airfix paints used to come in little screw-top glass jars.

- Steve

 

[Red Five]

Those full sized Monster kits were made by an old friend of mine, Mike Hill.

 

[ausf]

Outstanding.

I just bought the OOP kit of the repop of the originals. Paid through the nose, but wanted to see how they stood up compared to what I remembered.

 

[Jazz]

Those full sized Monster kits were made by an old friend of mine, Mike Hill.

The man is certainly a very talented artist. Please pass on my respect if you see him.
John