Monogram Models History, The Kits, Tom Daniel, The Owners, Aurora, & The Merger - Revell Monogram 

Monogram Models History, The Kits, Tom Daniel, The Owners, Aurora, & The Merger - Revell-Monogram
Get my FREE report on “Model Scales” here: bit.ly/SCALE-MEAN
Shop online here: www.advantaged...
Connect with me on social media!
Facebook: bit.ly/FBP-ADC
Instagram: bit.ly/IG-ADC
Facebook Group: bit.ly/FBG-64th...
Podcast: bit.ly/Toy-Talk
Boom. What's going on everybody?
I am Logan, “the 64th Gear Jammer” Skeele & this is Toy Talk.
Nothing says surf's up like a garbage truck.
Tom Daniel creator of most of Monograms automotive kits back in the 1970s, he created a custom zany garbage truck that you could take to the beach. This became one of his more popular kits along with the Paddy Wagon, Beer Wagon & Red Baron. More on Daniel later on in this, this video.
I've got other videos coming up, so go on & hit that red subscribe button & ring the bell next to it in order to get notified of all of my upcoming videos.
Monogram. It was founded in Chicago, Illinois, back in 1945 by two men. Those men were Jack Besser & Bob Reder. Monogram started off by making balsa wood model kits of ships & airplanes.
By 1954, the airplane lineup included the Speedee Built series, which were rubber band powered airplanes. Soon after the airplane kits, model kits of cars were created. The first one being a jet powered racer followed closely on those was model ships & the model ships included battleships, aircraft carriers, & cruisers
Like a AMT & all other manufacturer out there, they're key to success is marketing. AMT had Budd "the Kat" Anderson. And from the other video about AMT, I talked about where Budd went out to custom car shows & customizing model kit shows in order to market AMTs products. And this was very successful in selling AMT model kits.
Monogram, they had a star in a man named Tom Daniel. Tom Daniel created “Off the Sketchpad” articles, which were run in Rod & Custom magazine. “Off the sketchpad” was pictures of Daniel’s custom car designs.
Daniel's first design was the Beer Wagon. It was soon followed up by Red Baron.
Daniel's designs were so successful that monogram commissioned Daniel to create over 75 more designs from 1968, all the way up to 1975. These included the Garbage Truck, the Paddy Wagon, & many other wildly designed kits. The wilder the Daniel's design, the better the kits sold for Monogram.
Tom Daniel’s most famous creation was the Munsters Koach. George Barris hired Tom Daniel in to design the coach.
Interestingly enough, Monogram did not create a kit based on Daniel’s design for the Munsters Koach. Instead, the Munsters Koach came out in kit form by AMT. This was most likely due to the long standing licensing agreement that AMT had with Barris custom cars.
When the company was bought by Mattel in 1968, custom car designs from Tom Daniel & other designers were now available in small scale & large scale. The small scale versions were Hot Wheels.
Model kit manufacturer, Aurora who manufactured more “toy-like” model kits was failing in the 70s. So, in 1977, Monogram acquired the Aurora molds & began producing those model kits.
Tom Gannon, the former president of Monogram under the Mattel ownership, got a group of investors together & bought Monogram from Mattel in 1984.
Odyssey Partners purchased Monogram in 1986. A few months later, they also purchased Revell, & they merged the two kit makers together form Revell-Monogram.
In 1994, Hallmark Cards purchased Revell-Monogram. Hallmark then moved Revell-Monogram into their Binney & Smith division.
In September of 2001 Binney & Smith sold off Revell-Monogram to Alpha International.
Just a short year later, Alpha sells Revell-Monogram off to Gearbox Toys also of Cedar Rapids.
On May 2nd, 2007 Hobbico Inc. announced that they had acquired Revell-Monogram, LLC. It was at this time that the Monogram name was dropped.
On June 30th, 2018, it was announced that Hobbico had filed for chapter seven bankruptcy & went into liquidation.
Revell & its associated trademarks, Revell-Monogram & Monogram were sold off to a German investment company called blitz during this liquidation. Blitz continues the Revell product lines today, but there is no word at all on whether or not they will ever bring back the Monogram name.
Monogram, they've had a rich & colorful history. And they provided tons of enjoyment for millions & millions of fans worldwide. Their kits are still available on the secondary market today & often they fetch quite a sum of money. So, go on & please cherish your Monogram kits.
I am Logan the 64th gear Jammer Skeele, & this is Toy Talk.
Toy Talk is hosted by Logan Skeele Founder of Advantage Diecast, LLC