I have no idea at all why you do this stuff. But, I am so glad you do! Thank you. And thank you Dad (RIP) for helping me build the Airfix Superfortress just after Christmas 1969. You did this after a full night shift at Black and Decker and I remember you dropped a propellor in your cup of tea because you were so tired. Sigh... I hope I have given my three sons a similarly loving upbringing. Thanks again John. The internet as it SHOULD be used. To inform, educate, inspire and recall.

Thanks for this... it brings back SO many memories: Dad showing me how to build a model airoplane back in about 1966/67 - a bagged, pale blue plastic Airfix Spitfire kit; I was only about 6 then! I remember him helping me to make the plane - no paint involved; that would come later, he said - and then showing how to attach the wheels to the long 'prong' of the undercarriage door, and heat a knife blade over a stove-top flame to melt the tip of the 'prong' to keep the wheel in place!! We then did the water-slide transfers - as Airfix always called them back then (and which I've always preferred over 'decals') - onto the model and now I had my own Spitfire! It took an afternoon, and it changed me forever!! :-) Good old Airfix.... been a part of my life ever since. Model making in my early teens - splatting paint - Humbrol gloss enamel usually, and then into more recent times of actually taking time with the small cockpit and undercarriage details - that never existed back in the 60s, 70s, and 80s!! These new kits under the Hornby umbrella are fabulous: Great new re-toolings of classics, and look and fit amazingly well - most of the time! The newest one that I'm most looking forward to is the new 1/72 Mosquito due out later this year: 2021.... early previews look brilliant!! Thanks again for this video! Airfix are a great company, and it's nice to know that things seem to be good for them at the moment, with plenty of newly tooled kits due to be released! :-)

Nothing gives me more nostalgia then old Airfix (and Matchbox, Heller, Italeri) boxart....✨....and you're 7 years old again!

My first ever model kits were Airfix ones..back in the mid seventies they were by far the most available brand of model kits where I lived, I built everything from the Sunderland to the Graf Spee..good times.

Thanks for taking the trouble to put this together. I did have a Betta Bilda set as a wee nipper and I'm pretty sure the building blocks weren't larger than Lego's, but quite a bit smaller. It was one reason I actually preferred the Airfix version.

This really well presented - It's like a trip back in time. I even had Airfix Betta Bilda starter kit one Christmas when I was very small. It came in a circular, clear plastic cylinder. Used to love doing the WWII planes and military vehicles when I was older.

At 16.30 I had those pre-built WW2 vehicles. Endless fun playing war games in the garden, they were a bigger scale than normal plastic kits and Corgis models. The wheels turned, the truck tarpaulin came off, the landing craft gate came down. I built up quite an army over time. :) was I the only one who bought multiple hurricane plastic kits to build a complete squadron? Blame the Battle of Britain movie for that one... I wanted a big wing :)

I love building Airfix Kits The New ones from Hornby are superb but the nostalgia around the older kits just gets me everytime

Well, well, well! What a blast through my childhood memories that was! 😜👍🏻👍🏻 I really enjoyed that presentation and thank you for taking the time to produce it, quite the evenings enjoyment, having found it on KZfaq, so thank you again. Interestingly, I had that FN Rifle and it fired silver, plastic bullets.....good god, they’d have absolute fits over that these days, wouldn’t they? 😂😂😂 HMS Leander.....if I built it once, I built it at least three times but never got round to their Type 21 Frigate....and I regret that, as it was one of the best looking ships that the RN operated! Anyhow, I could ramble on all night but I wont....thanks again, it was worth all the time and effort that you put into it!

Excellent, informative and full of nostalga. thank you so much for this video, built my first Aifix kit about 1965/6 a Wellington Bomber. I was about 9 years old, I didnt do a particularly good job but I was instantly hooked... I'm now 62 and still in love with Airfix and still building their kits...

As a kid, used to watch the old SUNDERLAND flying boats take off from ROSE BAY in SYDNEY. This inspired me to building one of my first AIRFIX kits which was a Sunderland

Thanks for this video! This brings back a lot of happy memories! My first Airfix kit was a 1/72 scale P-38 Lightning. The exciting box art was irresistible to an eight year old and was the primary selling point! I soon discovered the range of soft plastic soldiers and the battle sets with the vacu-formed diorama bases! So much great stuff! Thanks again for the trip back to my chidhood!

I had built these kits in my youth and for many years thereafter, I am now 72. Recently, I joined the local IPMS and to my surprise, the average age was about 65. I haven't constructed any kits lately, but I have about 300 boxed kits in my basement (which I discovered is fairly normal for old model enthusiasts!!) And I have hundreds of completed models still packed in boxes after my last move. Consider my memory jogged. Thanks from Canada.

It's bringing back memories of Christmas pasts!. I actually went out and bought the old Defiant kit just to see what I could do with it and I turned it into a reasonable representation of the Defiant. Then Airfix released the new tooled kit! Just having a mull over about starting a old Hurricane kit from 75.

Thank you for this excellently researched and presented video! It was a nice walk down memory lane for me, seeing again the boxes and packaging that I had looked longingly at as a young boy in stores and catalogs. Great job!

Great video John, thanks. Trip down memory lane with those older kits, and I know that years gone by, I bought just about all of those howlers. Great research and history with comprehensive company overview - really enjoyed it.

I owe Airfix a great vote of thanks for all the happy and absorbing hours I spent in my teens and pre-teens building their models. Quite often I'd have two or even three builds on the go at any one time - during the cold, wet winter months in London. My mother would have to pressure me to free up the kitchen table. My first build was a Supermarine Schneider Trophy seaplane (either an S4 or S6) - not the best kit for a beginner, I made a terrible mess of it, but you learn. Many thanks for an informative and enjoyable video.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane! I think I built most of the Airfix plane and army kits as a boy, and I still have most of the 1/72 and 1/32 figure sets, as well as many of the playsets (the pontoon bridge and bunkers are regularly repurposed for 1/87 and 28mm play). The one favorite I didn’t see was the 1/600 Channel Ferry, which was amazing.

The Vosper MTB was something I yearned aftr for years and finally got as a Christmas present - the Bentley was something else I obsessed over but never got. TBH over here in Australia I ended up with Matchbox kits more often than not, they were more available and less costly, but I spent years poring over the one copy of the Arifix catalog I had - can't remember what year it was. From memory it had some buidling tips too, so a lot of the first information I got about how to build/paint came from Airifix, so that was the start of me doing more than just the miniumum cut off the sprue and slap on some glue - actually it was usually quite a lot of glue in those days - my kits were invariably covered in blobs of glue and glue fingerprints. I have to admit the boxing with the photos put me off Airfix kits - the classic illustrations were much more attractive and enticing to my eye. And the SLR - I didn't realise that was an Airfix product, but that was another thing I saw and yearned for, but never managed to get. I remember it as very accurate for a toy gun - in my memory it was the most realistic toy gun I ever saw. Ultimately the romance of the Airfix catalog and products probably influenced my choice to join the army. So yes, thanks Airfix - you were a huge influence in my early life. And my latter life, because scale modelling is still a big part of my out of work life. So again thanks Airfix And thanks John for this video which bought all these memories and thoughts flooding back.

You did a better job on captureing the feel than some of the books i read about the company

Great presentation. When i was a kid AIRFIX was King of the model kits

So many memories and the kits and fun came flooding back oh for the childhood sense of play thanks for the enjoyment well done

The Betta Builder I had , the bricks were red ,windows were white and the Bricks were roughly 12mm by 6mm.. My first kit was the SS France.

I'm a 64 year old South African modeller..and started my scale model building life on a 1/72 scale P-51 Mustang in a plastic bag..in 1969! This was in Johannesburg,and I bought it from the only hobby shop in then Eloffstreet,central Jhb. I've over the years since,built everything I could buy aircraft wise,plus the OO scale military vehicles and the 25pounder gun and Matador tractor and resupply trailer,.then also the 5.5 inch gun and Matador gun tractor..etc..as also many Centurion tanks to modify etc,when in 1973 I went into the military to serve in artillery on exactly the 25pounder and 5.5 inch guns I had many models of. Today I'm searching high and low for the 1/24 scale,or 1/48 scale H.S.Buccaneer SM.K-50,our version of the HS Buccaneer S.Mk.2 the RN/RAF used.

Hey, just stumbled across this and BRILLIANT! Like so many here this took me back. Your passion for the subject just shines through so well done :)

The howlers ,I built .Hawker Typhoon, Supermarine Spitfire Mk- 1X .De Havilland Mosquito and the Tirpitz, The Sopwith Camel was a dog model. Plastic was sub par. But I built a lot of other models that were great. Painted a couple of hundred of the HO scale army guys. Africa Corps , Napoleonic British and French infantry and Cavalry.

Late 60s, used to buy mine in woolworths............. Remember the tube of glue ...little bottles of paint.. .humbrol tins of paint ! Hanging compleated planes on the ceiling with cotton.......... Happy days........

Airfix were years ahead of their time led by a man with vision and passion. I was building many in the 60s and 70s, some which are now rare. The red stripe boxes and artwork got me every time which was their intention. I have picked up many of the kits agin over the past 10years and really enjoy building them as the finished result is just fine and I dont need to spend months on a kit like with the modern manfrs. Also the original instructions remain some of the best in the business and their catalogues from the 70s were wonderful. Nostalgia heh? 🙂

Great Video, I was brought up on Airfix 1/76 - 72 soldiers' & military kits cost at the time, 0.25 - 0.55. That combination smell of glue, melted plastic, enamel paint, and White Sprite, takes one back to a much healthier sleeping environment.

Being born in 62 , I was brought up on Airfix . I remember my Dad building HMS Cossack and a level crossing for my model railway . I think my first kit , aged 6 was a republic Thunderbolt . It was to keep me quiet while visiting relatives . Parents clearly didn’t have any issues letting me loose with polystyrene cement! Red stripe kits were most of my kits . Airplanes , airliners and warships .

I loved Airfix kits when I was young.Yes my first kit was the Golden Hind but I do remember my father giving me the E type Jag at the same time.My aim was to collect/ make all the models in the mid 70s catalogue and I got pretty close with the planes,warships and military vehicles and figures.One Xmas I got the 1/24 Messerschmitt and yes the 1/12 Bentley both amazing kits.I don’t think I ever fully finished the Bentley as girlfriends,guitars and booze came along.Now i am 58 yrs old and on a pension I am now back into modelling and model railways.I have picked up the odd vintage kits in opp shops and garage sales including a box of plastic bag kits and yes the Golden Hind was in there all for $20.(26 kits)And I still buy the odd new kit but money is tight.Thx for the vid.

Thanks for the story. Long time ago, plastics were the hobby to keep me a good kid.

Amazing how one company can have a huge part in your life, I bet a lot of folk watching were calling out..I had that! and I forgot I built that........... (there was one that I said 'I set fire to that one'...but we won't get into that)

Very interesting. I think the Golden Hind was my first kit followed by a Spitfire in bags with paper top! I`m still building Airfix kits today!

Aaaaah My old 1:32 8th Army and Africa Corps battles were happy times haha. Cheers for the upload.

That N.A. Vigilante was a great kit to do and of a beautiful plane. I used to fly my planes onto my airfix flight deck.from a fixing to a tree. They looked great head on coming into land. The vigilante really was a handful trying to land on that deck just like in real life as it was really too heavy. Happy times

The first model kit I ever built was the Airfix Northrop F-5A which my dad helped (hindered) me with. I graduated to Matchbox 1/76 tanks and stuff with the diorama bases. I remember building and painting an Airfix 1/72 Mk.1 Male tank and was thrilled to bits when the older kid up the road ( I was probably 10, he was a lot older and an accomplished model builder with air brushes etc !) told me how good a job I'd done of it - especially the paint job. That inspired me a lot. But I couldn't afford to buy kits back then so I either had them given to me as gifts for Christmas or birthdays, otherwise I stole them from the local model shop when my mates were buying theirs. Years later , in the early 90's I still used the model shop from time to time and I gave the owner a sum of money for the kits I never paid for as a kid ! He was quite taken aback, as by this time we were on fist name terms. Anyway, Airfix was the go-to brand as a kid, not much else around then that was cheap apart from Matchbox. The Airfix BP Defiant was bad , even by the standards of the day. But when I was older , perhaps in my 20's , I bought the Wellington - what a piece of crap. Flash everywhere, mouldings that were warped or missing altogether and the fuselage didn't fit together. I managed to get an old Matchbox Wellington and apart from the trench panel lines was far superior.

I enjoyed that video very much, thank you for taking the time to do it.

Grew up with Airfix, first model around 1972, was the Bristol Freighter, painted with a tiny old eyebrow liner brush of my Mums...took forever! Then the Avro Anson. My great Dad would occasionally bring a kit home with him from work. I recall the B17, with its mesmorizing box art, the Huge Shorts Stirling and the Hampden. I loved the C130, as my Matchbox cars would go on regular transport flights around the living room! At prep school we had a model club. For sale (by a teacher running it) were many of the famouis plastic packet kits. So many good memories and I remember well the old instruction sheets. Written out in steps rather than just exploded diagrams. It's how I learnt the technical terms for aeroplane parts and control surfaces. I'm sure Airfix played a part in me eventually following a flying career in aviation. It's great to se the company has re-invented itself and is doing so well with it's excellent world class re-tooled kits.

Happy memories and very informative.....thank you for your work and for posting 👍🙏

My first Airfix kit was the yellow Auster at age 8 in 1968. Little did i know it would lead to a life in aviation. I blame Airfix. The Bentley was the first time i ever saw chromed plastic back in the 70's. Interesting that the space 1999 lander, actually had parts from model kits and then it becomes a model kit itself. Trouble now i pay £200 for a kit instead of 2/6.

Very nice presentation. Their figure kits, especially the napoleonic kits were very influential in the evolution of the ‘toy/tin soldier’ hobby into the hobby that it is today. Many modelers used air fix kits as starting points for kit bashed figures used in dioramas that focused on the humans and horses, rather than a vehicle.

Excellent video. My first Airfix kit was the Hawker Hart from a rack at the local barber shop in the mid 1960's.

I'm not English so I guess I don't have quite the attachment to the brand as you might, although I certainly built plenty as a kid and have quite a few in the stash. That said, I would put Airfix near Revel. Highly variable quality, likely to reissue kits that are really well and truly past their use by date and new releases that can be brilliant or middle of the road. I see them overall as a B tier company these days in the hobby that occasionally shines. A lot of the newer brands on the market are outpacing them and at least here in Australia, Airfix is getting crowded out on the shelves by a lot of new competitors. I think like Revel, they need to forget the old moulds that are 20+ years on the market or brand and price them cheaper as a budget line. That said, brilliant video and thanks for taking the time to put them together.

I remember this line of kits well. I was a sales rep for a large hobby distributor. One of the issues was as a distributor we had the cheeriest part of the line, so we didn’t sell the 007, Space 1999 items. It was a shame not to have a larger part of the line.

As a kid I had a very large collection of Airfix OO scale figures (including fan faves like the Marching Band, Wagon Trail and Arabs) and some of the diorama sets like Fort Apache, the Waterloo farm and the Gun Emplacement (with Real Gun!). I will never forgive myself for giving it all away. BTW: looks like i got most of the howler kits like that Heinkel. back then in the 70's you just didnt know until you started building it.

I did build this fabulous Bentley Blower kit in the seventies. The first of many 1/12 cars I've build through the years. If I remember correctly, all the body parts were green, chassis and some engine parts black and some chrome and transparent parts. It was a great kit and I'm planning to build it again someday.

Brilliant video John but a slight mistake...WE, i.e. the UK went fishing in Iceland's water, not the other way round, The Best fishing was and still is around Iceland/Greenland.North Norway etc as the water is cold (Cod Like cold water) Plus they have or Had huge stocks, Britain had extensively over fished our stocks so that the Huge hauls of herring from the North Sea will never be repeated. Iceland desperately tried to hang onto her Fish stocks as Fishing was (and still is to a lesser extent) the main industry (before Game of thrones etc made tourism a big 'earner'

In the sixties and seventies, Airfix models were ubiquitous in Belgium. I have fond memories of the James Bond DB5, and the early 19th-century double-decker bus. I wish the latter were still available, it made for a beautiful decoration piece.

Cod war was the British nicking fish from Iceland's waters and HMS Phoebe's pennant number was F-42 (though the kit could also be built as HMS Hero that also was F-42 from the BBC TV Series Warship).

Airfix kits these days get hammered for their raised panel-lines and rivet detail, but I like those old kits, especially the Avro Lancaster and Short Stirling. However if Airfix does a new tool of the Stirling like they have with the Lancaster 'll definitely get one as I'm an Airfix fan through and through. OK now for the German E-boat, the British called it an E-boat meaning Enemy boat, the Germans called it a S-boot (Schnellboot) meaning fast-boat. This has probably already been explained but I haven't read all the comments...So if I've repeated what someone else has already said I apologise.

Memory may fail, but I'm fairly certain I was buying the small aeroplane kits from around 1964. Card top, parts in the stapled-on polythene bag. They were two shillings to buy, no small sum at the time. They were 1:72 scale, mostly WW1 fighters. There wasn't glue included, you had to buy it separately [Edit. There might have been a minute squeezy-bottle with a snip-off top]. And the Humbrol paint.

That was very interesting John, thank you for that. The first kit I built was the Airfix Spitfires.

My first model was a 1/72 Hawker Hurricane bagged up the same way as the tractor in 1958 I believe. It cost me 39 cents US. Thanks to these models I'm winding up a 50 year career in aviation.

Airfix are the reason I now do what I do. Boeing/Airbus certifying engineer. I'm so lucky

For middle aged gentlemen of a certain age, (I'm 57...) Airfix was the introduction into a life-long hobby. Later, of course, we discovered Heller, Revel, Frog, Matchbox etc. and later still Hasegawa and Tamiya. But you always remember your first kit, and it was probably Airfix! Mine, bought and made when I was about 8 in 1970, was the Airfix 'Avro Anson' "Annie", which is a really uncool choice, looking back??? Considering the hundreds of kits/sets I bought with pocket-money as a child, (and I bought EVERYTHING!) it strikes me that had I kept them unboxed and unmade I could probably sell them now and comfortably retire... (But that wasn't the point...) As I type, I have just recent 2 Airfix kits, unbuilt, in storage. (The 'BE-2C' and the 'Fokker Eindekker'... ) I'll probably never build them, but having them reminds me of many happy and concentrated hours I spent as a boy... Thank you for this walk down memory lane! xx SF

I have made nearly all of the worst kits when I was a kid and I don't remember thinking that they were poorly done., but then I was a kid so ... I bought my first Airfix kit for forty years or so a couple of weeks a go - the new 1/35 Early Production Tiger (full interior). Looking forward to making it.

Betta Buida had smaller bricks than Lego, and I used to make some complicated buildings with it - the roof tiles were a bit fiddley for kids though!

My first foray into model building was a 1:24 scale Hurricane which my dad helped me to build and I was hooked. Had most of the kits available during the 70's, except for the Star Wars ones (Still looking for that Star Destroyer) Now I am working on a 1:72 scale Nakajima "Kate" torpedo bomber ( from a recently bought Pearl Harbor 75th anniversary box) and a 1:24 scale Subaru Imprezza, bought for a tenner on my local market. Unfortunately most of the model shops in my home Town (Walsall UK have since closed down

Great history I and friends at an early years built many of the models produced from these companies

Great nostalgic video where my modelling began on that mark IX Spitfire in its polly bag.I also remember the airfix paints came in near triangle like glass bottles. Oh, E-Boat, E stood for enemy, as it was named E-Boat by allies during the war.

I was working in a place called The Modellers Den in central Bristol. Dick Emery was in town filming and he popped in to have a look at what we were stocking. As well as Airfix we also stocked Tamiya kits and a big range of die cast as well. He was so obviously passionate about modelling and entertained us for a good while with anecdotes etc, good times. Alas, the shop is long gone, redeveloped as part of a mall but I'll always remember working there with fondness.

The Dehavlland comet racer, a red plastic monstrosity, through the group run by an elderly lady (the models were sold at the church fare to raise money for the Mission to Seamen), I built loads of them and the very small ships on sea bases, both pilots were part of each fuselage half!, still the only model of it around at the time, the waterline ships were OK with the sea effect base and acetate rigging you cut from a sheet and the flags cut and folded from the instruction sheet/bag top, the flags sometimes would fly backwards despite the wind filling the sails!!, I started as a five year old in sixty five, still making models today, still learning, thanks for the memory lane trip and all the best.

I know when I built the Belfast I couldn’t get the hull to fit right. I remember being a bit disappointed at the time but when it’s re released in the VC range I might try my hand at it again.

Congratulations you really know your subject perfectly, this was very informative and i n-depht. A cloud of nostalgia though... why is it that I suddenly find myself so old ?

Thanks for the memories John.

The box art on a rigid kits were fantastic.

I always read the reason why the palitoy versions used photographed boxarts was because of regulation laws for toys, people complained that the actual product was much different to the drawn boxart so from the late 70s toy companys had to show the actual product

I got a resin model of the Nautilus submarine from the Disney movie. It was made from an Airfix prototype model of the Nautilus. The prototype was never used to produce it as a model, ie rumor has it that when the owner of Airfix died, the wife decided to nix the Nautilus project saying that Airfix was known for producing accurate models of real life airplanes, ships, etc. Too bad for us, but you can still find now and then a resin model copy of the prototype master that was produced by Comet Miniatures in England (maybe a couple hundred copies only were produced).

Nice overview. The Type 2 artwork was the best ever and only now has Airfix come back with great artwork again and packaging IMHO

oh the memories,thanks John. Much Enjoyed.

Yes, .. in my school years I was engaged in assembling aircraft models ... In my youth I still remember models of Airfix and other firms and factories. I still have FROG models - have remained in the kit since the 80s. 22 models ... TWEEN MUSTANG, PHANTOM and many others. Some have decals and no box packaging ...

I was a member of the Airfix Modellers Club. I had many of those kits. "Fit issues" on the Herc is an understatement. I actually own the Bentley Blower, but I was only 8 or 9 when I got it for christmas, so it's unfinished. But I do still have the original kit in the attic. Green plastic.

Can anybody please enlighten me on the origins of 1/700th scale for ships, and how that odd number was arrived at? 1/600th is quite natural, as being "fifty feet to one inch", and so is 1/720 as a logical (decimal) downsizing of the ubiquitous 1/72 scale. But 1/700??? 7 is a very "unnatural" number in all things metric. I know the scale started in Japan in the early ´70´s with the Tamiya/Hasegawa warships, but unless number 7 is in any natural way related to some Japanese traditional metric, the choice of the "700" scale is a puzzle to me. Any ideas? Thanks!

E-Boat = Enemy Boat. BTW, loved your overview on Airfix! Thanks for sharing.

I had the Defiant NF when I was an impressionable 11 year old. I loved it, but had no idea it was so inaccurate. I hear the new tooling version is very good.

Well while there were a few 1/72nd howlers some of their 1/48th aircraft offerings were totally abysmal. I git my first Airfix kit in 1963 when I had my 5th birthday, siting there patiently while dad built it. Never looked back since and still going now. Just waiting on a 1/48th Buccaneer please.

amazing stuff,thanks for sharing.

While watching your great documentary, I was wondering if the kits that were anomalies to Airfix's 'constant scale' approach had something to do with the fact that at least some of the kits that were depicted had been kits produced by other companies. The dinosaurs for example were originally Pyro kits. Those kits have been reproduced by a number of other companies. Lindberg was one such company and they also had some odd scales turning up, and again this might be an indication of what kits in their range had originally been Pryo kits or Palmer, for example. Just a thought.

I know anytime I find an air fix kit in America I have to have it but it’s hard to find now a days well the old ones I mean

And of course congrats for the very in-depth video and big heap of research behind! Really interesting! I can confirm quality of Mirage F1, much better parts breakdown than (the original) Heller! Hasegawa had some detail issues, the ESCI some size problems...

Excellent and nostalgic for me, thanks. I think the polythene already assembled Panther and Tiger tanks were in grey plastic.

I had one of those cars at 15:42! You fed a long programmed card into one end under the car and it fed it in with levers that were moved by the cuts on each side to control motion and steering. ( At least it worked like this one looks. I don"t know about "discs" though. More like cards."

I personally love the old Airfix blister packs most of all but also the Type 4 boxes and the either pale blue or black plastic they had. Wary of any of the 90's packaging that had the blue box ends though as they had the worst plastic ever.. Thanks for the video John.

GGRREEAAATTTT SHOW. Thank you for getting the cob webs, out of OUR brains....and making us " old fart s ".....a kid again.

Just a geeky note that Palitoy was never owned by Mattel - when Palitoy owned the Airfix brand, it was owned by the US General Mills Company. General Mills made the Airfix kits at the former Tri-ang factory in Calais...which had once made Frog kits.

Cool .thanks for sharing

In the fifties Airfix was the manufacturer that started my hobby of building model kits and, at 70, I'm still carrying on this hobby.

As I understand it FROG had made plastic kits called Penguins before WW2. Were they not injection molded?

Ohh man. I still have the BTK Spitfire in the bag in my stach. =)

17:23 ESCI was an acronym (in Italian) and was pronounced "Esh ee". It even used to tell you so on some of the instruction sheets. Great Airfix presentation, by the way. Those were the days.

Thank you so much for an impressive walk through of Airfix’s history and their models and boxes. Wonderful:-) In your last section of kits to avoid I can see that I took my share of the avoiders in the 70’ties. I actually think you missed the one to avoid most. The Me-109G... it was really awful in all details and in scale. But thank you for your fantastic video 🙏

So, I write it down here: The Airfix Scandal in Hungary (a tale about the 'soft' soviet dictatorship in a satellite country). In 1970 the official state-toy-retailer (Triál) decided for a brave move to sell Airfix kits. For every kid's and aircraft enthusiast's relief, as eastern bloc was not that much to offer. Things went ok till Christmas '72, when a self-made-historian, youth-concerned journalist has written an article in Hungary's biggest women's magazine about children playing with weapons of "evil, killing masses of children in Vietnam imperialists' let alone some of the fascists'"! Ministry of interior seized the full stock at every toy-shop and destroyed it. Till 1988, when Triál started selling Matchbox, only "under counter" or "gray import" western or japanese kits could've been bought here, for 5 to 10 time multiplied price! Sad that the founder of this fantastic company Airfix was of Hungarian origin, no less painful, that this mentioned journalist dares to write articles, make reports about history even today here...only few know this story.

funny that you should mention it, my airfix bristol bulldog is my favourite airplane built so far :D

Thanks for this vid!! Bought back many memories!!

HO scale 1/72 was perfect. i sometimes found these at Newbergs 3 for $1. built an almost division of german, british, american and soviet tank division supplemented with 1/76 ROCO MINITANKS!

Excellent history video!

Последние модели в красных коробках - супер!!!Конкуренты ,,отдыхают,,...

I can see that you are a dedicated modeler and most likely have had your hands on the classic pocher models. I have never built one, I could never afford them when they were on business, but it would be nice if you give us some insights into a model company that made most of us kids drool over the window

No little army men? Foreign Legion and Arabs? Loved those.