Aurora Plastics Corporation

The Aurora Plastics Corporation is a U.S. toy and hobby manufacturing and marketing company. It is known primarily for its production of plastic model kits in the 1960s.

Contents

History

Aurora Plastics Corporation was founded in March, 1950 by engineer Joseph E. Giammarino (1916–1992) and businessman Abe Shikes (1908–1997) in Brooklyn, New York (moving to West Hempstead, Long Island in 1954), as a contract manufacturer of injection molded plastics (Giammarino 2007; Graham 2007, pp. 1-2).

With the hiring in 1952 of salesman John Cuomo (1901–1971), the company began the manufacture of its own line of plastic model kits. These kits were marketed to young hobbyists, as were the kits of rivals Monogram and Revell. Aurora profitably targeted to a younger demographic than their competitors, creating smaller-sized, less detailed models at a lower price point (O'Connor 2006).

Kit selections

Aurora Plastic's first kits were aircraft and this was a backbone of sales through the 1950s and 1960s. From early on the company's "Famous Fighters" line was popular. Included were WWI, WWII, 'Jet Age' aircraft and a variety of "whirlybirds". A series of aircraft from the 1930s were also offered. Sailing ships, warships, tanks and other military vehicles were available as well (DeHaviland 1957). One WWI airplane was the DeHaviland DeH-4. Many planes, like the Blue Angel F-4J McDonnell-Douglas Phantom II and the LTV A-7D Corsair II, were offered in a larger 1/48 scale. Others were smaller scale such as the Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker in about 1:100, because it would have been over two feet long in 1/48. Others were smaller, like the Convair B-58 Hustler bomber in a diminutive 1:200 scale, or about 6 inches long.

Some would say, however, it is with their figure kits that Aurora is most associated and had their biggest success. There was a series of popular "knights in armor" historical figures, and other 'still life' plastic figures like buildings, animals, boats, a clown, the Liberty Bell and other intriguing objects. "Guys and Gals of all Nations" were also seen and included Dutch, Chinese, Indian and Scotch figures (DeHaviland 1957).

Aurora acquired a license from Universal Studios to create a line of kits based on Universal monsters, which became the company’s most popular offerings. Aurora's kit of Frankenstein appeared in 1961, and was followed by twelve other monster figures that were issued and reissued in various versions through the early 1970s (Castile 1996). Licensed models based on characters from movies, TV shows and comic books were also introduced. Batman was a regular offering as was the Hulk, so both DC and Marvel characters were represented. Model kits from the Man from U.N.C.L.E., the Mod Squad, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (the larger Seaview sub and a separate kit of its flying sub), the Invaders, Lost in Space and Land of the Giants appeared. These kits were often a TV related scene where heroes battled some kind of large monster, alien, or animal. Aurora’s figure kits continue to be highly valued by collectors. Aurora used artist James Bama for some of their box art.

Model Motoring

In the late 1950s, Aurora acquired the rights to the "Model Motoring" slot car racing system from U.K. toy manufacturer Playcraft. Aurora's first HO-gauge racing sets appeared in the fall of 1960. Following improvements in the chassis with the Thunderjet and A/FX series and the adoption of popular racing car body styles, Aurora's "Model Motoring" race sets became top sellers, with over 25,000,000 cars sold by 1965 (HO Slot Car Racing 1999-2011). By the end of the 1970s, however, the slot car craze had passed and modeling in general was on the decline (HO Slot Car Racing 1999-2011). One website attributes the decline to both the maturing of the baby-boom generation along with the fragile economics of the slot car industry and the closing of many slot car shops as toy companies offered smaller sets to be used at home (Slotblog 2007).

Competition with Matchbox & Hot Wheels

In 1968, Aurora introduced its Cigarbox miniature cars and the timing could not have been worse. These were developed to compete with 'Matchbox' in the year that Mattel's Hot Wheels premiered. The Cigarbox car line, rather bland plastic bodied cars with metal chassis, in the slot car style. These were packaged in small yellow 'Cigar'-like boxes and were claimed to be HO scale, but cars were a bit larger. Cigarbox boxes were slightly larger and more rectangular than Match 'boxes' (Breithaupt no date) - if Lesney could have 'Match' boxes, Aurora figured it could have 'Cigar' boxes. Rumors said that Matchbox took Aurora to court for copyright infringement over the similar appelation - but that is not certain. In any event, later issues were sold on blister cards under the "Speedline" name with 'Cigarbox' no longer mentioned. The Speedline cars were also offered as "Hop-Up Kits" to be assembled. Alas, to say competition was keen would be an understatement and the Cigarbox line was gone by 1970.

Some of the cars offered, however, were unique and not often seen in miniature - like the 1967 Ford Galaxie 500, the 1963 Buick Riviera, the Mako Shark Corvette concept, and the Porsche 904. Cigarbox also offered several Formula 1 cars in the series (Southwest Spirit Antiques 1998-2011).

Initially, most cars were offered in normal unpainted plastic bodies with unattractive high friction ('squeaky') wheels with rubber tires, somewhat similar to Matchbox. Some of the cars like the deTomaso Mangusta, had working steering. Later, slicker thinner low-friction wheels and chrome-like finishes with stripes were rushed in, but financial troubles were upon Aurora and it was too late for the Cigarbox line.

Changes

Aurora’s founders retired in the late 1960s and the company was sold to outside investors in 1969. After expanding into the toys and games market with limited success, the new owners sold the company to Nabisco in 1971. Nabisco in turn sold the model kit division in 1977 to Aurora’s one-time rival Monogram.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, toy and hobby company Playing Mantis created a division called Polar Lights (as a reference to "aurora") which reissued some of Aurora’s most popular kits. Other companies reissuing earlier Aurora kits include Moebius, Atlantis and Monarch, mostly focusing on the Aurora trend of horror and sci-fi figures and scenes. For example, Moebius, started by a former distributor of Polar Lights models in Glenwood, Florida, has reissued the large kit of the submarine 'Seaview' from the 1960s 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea' TV show and the old 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' figures kit (Moebius Models website). Monarch models is based in London, Ontario, Canada - started by a Doctor (Powell 2009; Monarch Models website 2011). Atlantis Models is based in East Northport, New York and though also making sci-fi figures, has equal focus on animal dioramas (Atlantis Models website; Powell 2010). Polar Lights, Monarch and Moebius all use an oval logo very similar in shape to that of the original Aurora style, while Atlantis (see Zorro re-issue), is uses a nostalgic oval broken into six sections.

In the 1990s, the family of Joseph Giammarino announced the return of Aurora Plastics Corporation as a manufacturer of hobby kits under the name LAPCO, or "Lost Aurora Plastics Corporation", with a product line to include reverse engineered reissues of long gone kits. Nothing came of this. Again in 2007, Giammarino's family announced the return of Aurora, with their first offerings stated to include aircraft and figure kits from their original 1960s line (Giammarino 2007). But the models still have not come to pass, the phone number for the company has been disconnected, and the website has not been updated since 2007.

References

Atlantis Models. No date. Company website. [1]

Breithaupt, Doug. No date. Cigarbox by Aurora. Webpage. [2]

Castile, Raymond. 1996. The Gallery of Monster Toys. Website. [3]

DeHaviland. 1957. Aurora DeHaviland DeH-4 World War I plane. Kit instructions and kit listing.

Giammarino, Michael J. 2007. Aurora Plastics Corporation website. [4]

Graham, Thomas. 2007. Aurora Model Kits, 2nd edition. Schiffer Publishing. ISBN 0764325183

HO Slot Car Racing. 1999-2011. HO Racing History. Website. [5]

Moebius Models. No date. Company website. [6]

Monarch Models. 2011. Company website. [7]

O'Connor, Mike. 2006. Modeling Madness website. On-line review of Aurora Model Kits, 1rst edition. [8]

Powell, Todd. 2009. Monarch gears up to become 21st century Aurora. Resin the Barbarian. Modeling website. [9]

Powell, Todd. 2010. Atlantis rises on a tidal wave of plastic to bring back more of the model kits from hobbyists’ past and future. Resin the Barbarian. Modeling website. [10]

Slotblog. 2007. Why did slot car racing fade so quickly in popularity in 1967-68? Webstring forum. [11]

Southwest Spirit Antiques. 1998-2011. Webpage featuring Cigarbox 1967 Formula One Ferrari Toy Car. [12]

External links