Pop Culture

For decades, Popular Culture has been the primary source for many Fantastic Plastic model kits. But it was not always so. Although science-fiction subjects were all the rage in the 1950s, virtually all of the kits produced during that era were drawn from designs created by legitimate aerospace experts, not Hollywood art directors. (Even the Man in Space kits that were branded by Walt Disney were, in fact, Werner von Braun designs.)

This all changed in the 1960s when Aurora purchased the license for a number of Irwin Allen designs, beginning with the SSRN Seaview from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964-69) and ending with the Spindrift from Land of the Giants (1969-71). The runaway success of Star Wars in 1977 finally brought sci-fi, and sci-fi modeling, into the mainstream, a market that remained healthy for more than 20 years.

Today, Pop Culture kits -- like most Fantastic Plastic subjects -- are few and far between. But companies like Polar Lights, Fine Molds and Bandai are continuing to keep hope alive.

X-Wing Fighter from "Star Wars" (1977)

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