When did they stop making common factory stock models?

Hi ;

 As far as plastics , I think it sputtered out in the 70s . There wasn't much demand for factory Stock anything . Mopar had so many Muscle machines that is what dominated .Fords , Chrysler products and G.M. There was no apparent interest in a stock Pontiac version of the Vega for instance or Other smaller cars .

 The Diecast industry kept some going though . Albeit in the smaller scales .

 I personally miss the plastic versions of what could've been a honey jar full of inventive builds .  O.C.G.

I know the MPC Chevette and AMT Rabbit both came with optional parts to customize or make into stock versions. I remember building a Plymouth car that came with all sorts of fender flares and such.

Revell did a stock version of the Focus.

They were known as anuals if im not mistaken. There were the staple kit cause back in the day you could get an impala every year or a corvette or galaxie etc you could count on the same model line. Now they change model line more often after annuals the did customs and submodel my theory anyways 

The need for mainstream stock models is not at all in demand.  This may be the reason why you see top-of-the-line muscle cars.  Some resin casters offer 4-door versions of some mainstream cars.  As for when, I don't believe there is an exact cut off date.  It is something that has happened over time.

Dam pcs cell phones and playstations

mrmike

The need for mainstream stock models is not at all in demand.  This may be the reason why you see top-of-the-line muscle cars.  Some resin casters offer 4-door versions of some mainstream cars.  As for when, I don't believe there is an exact cut off date.  It is something that has happened over time.

 

I truly believe that the only reason we even had the variety of "bread and butter" model car kits that were available in the 60s and 70s was because of promos being requested from the 1:1 car companies. If it weren't for them providing contracts to the model companies, the promos of these cars wouldn't exist and therefore the model kits wouldn't have existed either.

The model companies tried, many times, to invest in tooling kits of "regular" cars, but most of those kits failed to sell in any great numbers. Therefore,  model companies are reluctant to go out on any limbs to spend that much money on tooling that they aren't absolutely confident will give them a return on their investment! It's just too risky and too expensive to fail.

The best way to see the kits we want is to pool our voices together and vote for the most interesting cars we would not only want to see, but to BUY in multiples. We as hobbyists have to agree collectively on which kits we're most interested in and hone down our variety of tastes into a marketable small list that they can see as being very popular to sell.

It worked in the past! The AMT 66 Nova SS is a perfect example of model builder's voting collectively to the model companies and the model companies listening to them.

Look at my recent thread posted in the Muscle Cars section for folks to voice their opinions on which models of cars from the 70s they would like to see in kit form. I've noticed a swell of interest in both big luxury cars and in small economy cars,  both of which were really popular real cars in the 1970s but not so much in model kits at that same time period.

That thread, while interesting in the variety of kit ideas won't move mountains to the model companies. That is unless we all, as hobbyists, gather together and vote for our favorite top 10 kits we want to buy.

Each car idea should have suggestions for options and versions to make each kit as interesting and marketable to as many of us as possible.

Please check out that thread and post your ideas. And if you see some ideas that interest you add your vote to it, and let's see if we can get a consensus narrowed down to a top 10 list of 1970's model car kit requests. Now THAT would get their attention!

And if anyone wants to start threads of 1960s and 1980s kit ideas, I would be glad to add my ideas to them.

Now, start thinking and let's have our voices be heard - TOGETHER!