![]() All eight did not have landing gear or missiles and have minimal panel line and rivet detail. Price extensions were used for the first time. These kits, with the F-90 and F9F, constitute the famous and rare “ Brooklyn Eight” from 1953. The success of the the first two “Hawk Copy” kits encouraged Aurora to cut six more molds. ![]() It was the right strategy for the 1950s/early 1960s, but not for the future. The mold presses ran 24 hours a day and some popular kits had runs of over 1,000,000 copies. Many ‘Lean’ Manufacturing practices (Toyota Production System) were put into place long before they were practiced in Japan. At Aurora, Shikes and Giammarino kept overhead low and operated with a minimal staff. Injection molding changed that and introduced an entire generation of boys to model building. Prior to this, most airplane kits came with blocks of wood and plans -leaving the builder to carve, whittle and scratchbuild in such a fashion that most models were never completed. Injection molded kits were completely pre-shaped and went together quickly with out carving or sanding. The accuracy of early Aurora kits suffered accordingly, but the young model market did not care. Aurora simply wanted to sell low- priced kits of fascinating new subjects to the younger audience. Revell and Monogram prided themselves on making kits that were highly accurate and had the maximum number of operating features. ![]() However, Aurora did not copy any further Hawk kits and after many years tensions eased to the point where each company could joke about the incident at future shows.įrom the start, Aurora marketing strategy was simple and effective. Hawk began hiding the word ‘HAWK’ in morse code in rivet detail. Reportedly, sharp words were exchanged at trade shows. The Mates Brothers, owners and operators of Hawk, were not happy. To keep production costs and time down, Aurora simply purchased the two Hawk kits, copied the dimensions of the kits and made their own molds. The Hawk kits predate the Aurora kits but there is no evidence of mold swapping. If you have the early Hawk releases of the F9F or F-90, you will notice that they are almost exact copies of each other, down to the stand design. Issues exist with the instructions printed on the inside of the box and with the instructions printed on a separate piece of paper. There was no price extension after the kit number. These first two kits carried no landing gear or missiles and had minimal rivet and panel line detail. The first two kits were the 1/48 F9F Panther Jet (kit #22) and 1/48 Lockheed F-90A (kit #33). These kits were in one-piece flip-top boxes and carried the circular logo and the “U-Ma-Kit” slogan. Kit production started in the Brooklyn Plant in late 1952. The three produced many toys but quickly realized that plastic model kits were the wave of the future, so they banked Aurora’s future on it. In 1952, they hired a salesman named John Cuomo. Injection molding was booming in post-war American and business went well. In 1950, Abe Shikes and Joseph Giammarino created Aurora as an injection molding job-shop. The line was very diverse and included military and civil aircraft, ships, tanks, missiles, figures (monster and many others), science fiction, automotive, animals, guns, totem poles, HO train items, electronic kits, “Coppersmith” sets, prehistoric scenes and more. Without your tireless attention to detail, this would be impossible.Īurora was one of the most prolific names in American Modeling from 1952 to 1977. Many thanks to John Burns, Tom Graham and the innumerable number of collectors who have helped to compile this information over the years.
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