Talk about a book being snatched up and purchased without even being opened, first…yup, this was it.

 And that is because a Revell airplane kit, an F-89D Scorpion in box scale, on a magical black-wire revolving rack in Woolworth’s, Chicago, was this writer’s entry into the hobby, in November of 1955.

 Possibly the fondest long-term memories of childhood…came from building one after another, so many models, discovering ‘all about’ battleships and a koala and the Atlas-Mercury launchpad and aircraft carriers and Sherman tanks and 155mm artillery and Ford Skyliners and “Highway Pioneers” and 1962 Chryslers and P-39 Airacobras and an Allison Tuboprop and Chrysler Slant 6 engine and the Douglas Skyrocket and Wind class icebreakers and the Cat In The Hat and a moon rocket and a nuclear power plant and….

 Interesting in this golden era of “it’s a great time to be a plastic modeler, ” MANY Revell model subjects, though 50 years old and issued in ‘box scale’ have not yet been redone by current major  manufacturers! That is leading the pack!

 Think back to the great kit manufacturers of the time (50s and 60s). Aurora did a good subject cross-section, but was considered inconsistent in quality. Lindberg specialized in aircraft. Renwal was heavy into USN ships and insects and “Visible” stuff like V-8s and Women and Cows and Trout. Monogram was airplane-y and space-y and pioneered 1/35 military, only flirting with ships much later. Comet, Life-Like, Pyro, ITC, Hawk…were smaller, specialized.

 In the world of plastic kit manufacturers, in many ways, Venice, California-based Revell was “The Man” (as hopelessly hip, youthful Chicago types would say, accompanied by flambuoyant gestures and exaggerated, sweeping hand movements.) 

 Revell in the 1950s and early 60s, was SO much a leading-edge company, they were willing to cut steel and commission box art and draw instructions on subjects as varied as an angled-deck Essex class carrier, Currituck class seaplane tender, Treasury class Coast Guard Cutter, T-2 Tanker, Attack Transport, Convair Tradewind, Martin Mariner and Seamaster flying boats, 54-foot Chris-Craft, M4 Tractor for 155 gun, Tactical Missiles (Dart and Little John), Regulus II on landing gear, twin Terrier missile…

 …no jive, these guys were HOT! They were bold, they were experimentative. Their box art tended to be overall, the best. Revell was so, so far ahead of the rest of the 50s and 60s modeling industry, during their golden days, during the plastic modeling hobby’s most prolific era.

 Author Thomas Graham can really sit back with a tall umbrella-drink and blow smoke rings from his bootleg Cuban stogie like the person who’s just written the Great American Novel.

 Book report in “ten words or less;” no sweat, you got it: This book is a jewel. (See, ‘only needed five!)

 Wildly, gloriously illustrated in magnificent colour, with a few tasty period photographs (model company execs bought a lot of Brylcreem hair grease!) …and a breathtaking array of box art…cover after cover after cover after cover. Turning these pages will bring stupid grins to the most grinch-ly geezer…and make kit collectors drool. 

In fact, when you sit down to really dig this volume, select your fave loungy-chair and blender yourself a tall umbrella-drink. Oh, wait, go to the loo, first (and remember to lower the seat after); you will be with this fine tome for quite a while. It’s that good a mental-spiritual-plastic model-nostalgia trip.

 Unhesitatingly (shoot, don’t even think about not buying it) highly recommended, especially for two classes of readers:

·        One, for the aging still-model geek as a journey back into some of THE best days of our misspent youth.

·        Two, for our not-yet-grizzled brethren-in-plastic, to understand what this hobby looked like in perhaps its golden-est years, when plastic models were built to some degree by virtually every boy, when the hobby was a thorough joy, pre-rivet-counting / too thick-trailing edges / wrong shade of Neutral Grey-angst.

 Review copy courtesy of the reviewer's chequebook, purchased…somewhere.

Reviewed by James Hood

 see Scott Van Aken's m2 and other reviews of James Hood's novel Adventure--Into The Neverland, of exploring a parallel, Alternate world (concept based on the Superstring theory of physics) using WW II surplus ships, aircraft and vehicles at:)    <http://users3.ev1.net/~bjmonkeyandcj/James_Hood.htm>

Book can be ordered at <http://www.authorhouse.com/BookStore/SearchCatalog.aspx>  or from your local bookstore (ISBN 0-7596-9062-6 Hardbound or ISBN-0-7596-2646-4 Softcover

August 2005

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