. for the publishing house see baker publishing group . revell industry hobbies founded 1943 headquarters elk grove village illinois united states products model kits parent hobbico website http www.revell.com revell is the well known brand name today used by two distinct manufacturers of scale plastic models . the original american revell eventually merged with monogram . in 2007 american revell was purchased by hobbico . by contrast european revell germany separated from the american company in 2006 until hobbico purchased it bringing the two back together again under the same company umbrella . contents 1 early history 1.1 gowland and highway pioneers 1.2 other 1950s offerings 2 the kustom 1960s 2.1 money troubles and monogram merger 3 revell in germany 4 recent history 5 kit construction skill levels 6 gallery 7 see also 8 references 8.1 footnotes 8.2 notes 8.3 sources 9 external links early history edit lewis h. glaser a california entrepreneur founded a plastics molding firm called precision specialties in hollywood during 1943 . a the company made a variety of products contracted for different companies . 1 one of the first toy related products were ho scale 1 87 train sets including locomotives and a variety of cars along with buildings . the building line was extensive including a farm group a suburban passenger station and a variety of utility structures . many of these originals were later reproduced in other scales . the toy lne later was marketed under the brand name revell . reportedly the name revell came from the french word reveille meaning new beginning . 2 the revell logo at the time was the early relative of today s design . an early revell maxwell action pull toy from about 1953 . these were originally made by the gowland bros. in england . gowland and highway pioneers edit about 1950 revell reproduced maxwell and ford model t assembled toys originally designed by the gowland brothers in england a company producing toys since 1932 . 3 according to noted collector cecil gibson 4 these did not sell so well in england but revell had much better luck with the series in the u.s. the revell box said by john gowland creator of champ and chu chu . 5 the 1911 maxwell and 1910 model t were about 1 16 scale and called action pull toys which consisted of a wound thin metal cord with a plastic handle . the cord was attached through the front of the car to the rear axle . the car s body was hinged so when the plastic handle was pulled the car bounced on the floor with the driver bobbing up and down . the box advertised that these were made in hollywood and were called revell play planned toys . a couple of years later these toys were scaled down and modeled as 3 8 to a foot scale four to five inches and called highway pioneers quick construction kits most without the rather cartoonish figures and without the mechanical action . 3 these new 1 32 toys met with great success and sold much better than the larger maxwell even though it was made famous by jack benny s radio show circa 1953 . the original larger cars were discontinued and revell focused on the newer kits with the gowland hot air balloon logo still shown on the green yellow or orange boxes . 5 box information shows models were offered in at least four series not including the maxwell and four other highway pioneers released in uk from the hudson miniature molds . series one consisted of a 1900 packard 1903 ford model a 1910 ford model t roadster 1909 stanley steamer and a 1903 cadillac . series two was 1914 stutz bearcat 1915 ford model t sedan 1908 buick rumble 1910 studebaker and a 1910 cadillac . series three was the 1904 oldsmobile 1904 rambler 1907 sears 1910 pierce arrow and a 1911 rolls royce gowland & gowland 2007 . revell also offered gift sets of the five car seried and a collector s kit set with ten individually wrapped kits of the highway pioneer models in one box . models in the highway pioneers series were commonly retooled and later offered by a number of other companies including premier lincoln international j & l randall ltd merit brand lodela licensed in mexico crush and minicraft . eventually the original highway pioneers tools were acquired by british model train manufacturer dapol ltd. the models are currently out of production and reportedly the tooling is located in wales headquarters of dapol along with redundant tools from airfix kitmaster and tri ang model land . some of these copies and knock offs appeared very early and at the same time revell was making them . for example the 1911 maxwell offered by hudson miniatures of scranton pennsylvania appeared in 1952 under the lil old timers name . the hudson miniatures kits usually were manufactured with a small brochure giving historical facts on each vehicle . one preserved example sold around 1953 in strouss hirshbergs for 69 cents ; the box advertised the model as a quickie kit . other 1950s offerings edit in 1953 a replica of the battleship uss missouri was produced by revell its first casting beyond the british gowland models . reportedly their models of u.s. navy warships were so accurate that in 1960 it was discovered that the kremlin had purchased a significant number of different models to help fill in blank spots in their intelligence regarding the design of american warships . several jet and propeller aeroplane models followed along with ships classic and contemporary jet engines and in the late 1950s rockets and spacecraft . 6 this included models of redstone and other military test missiles and vanguard jupiter and atlas rockets . other issues like the helios nuclear powered ship moon ship a passenger rocket a space taxi and a not so incredible space shuttle were kits more in the science fiction realm . several of these kits featured illustrations of and booklets by willy ley who popularized space flight at this time for example see ley 1957 . one site describes the one time 1959 issue of an envisioned space station as the holy grail of revell kits old model 2005 2014 . infantry figures and various dioramas especially for railroad setups were also produced . a 4 year old boy starts painting a revell model of the south goodwin lightship in the later 1950s revell began making more automotive related models . beside jet engines car engine models like the chrysler slant six were produced . car models tended toward a more global selection than amt or mpc or other american plastic model makers with many european brands produced including many british makes . one interesting offering came about with a collaboration with amt making the 1955 and 1956 promotional buick . the models were atypical for the time in that there was full chassis detail and bodies were cast in several pieces . revell made these specifically built up for showroom display . 7 another interesting kit offering related to pop culture was the 1956 lincoln futura concept car a vehicle that with out this world bubble windows would eventually become george barris s batmobile jefferis 2010 . the kustom 1960s edit starting in the late 1950s model kits began to veer away strongly from stock presentations and focus on customizing hot rodding and racing . the 1960s solidified this direction with almost infinite variations in how a kit could be built . this trend showed both the extensive new marketing reach of the hobby as well as the pervasive individuality portrayed in american car customizing . 8 model companies hired big name customizers to create new and striking designs . just as amt had hired george barris and darryl starbird revell hired ed big daddy roth about 1962 as their new stylist . 5 hawk models would use bill campbell s weird ohs like davey the wild motor bike rider and digger the dragster and later monogram would hire designer tom daniel . at this time roth created the bubble glassed beatnik bandit later made even more famous when produced by hot wheels the double engined mysterion the asymmetrical orbitron the outlaw a highly styled t bucket and the road agent . apart from wheeled wonders arguably his most famous creation was the rat fink an anti mickey mouse figure . 9 roth s web site reports that in 1963 revell paid roth 1 cent for every one of his model kits sold totaling 32 000 . 10 in the early to mid 1960s slot car racing became a fad and like many other companies revell attempted to enter the fray by using its plastic model car bodies with mechanicals underneath fit for the track . in 1965 revell acquired international raceways planning high grade race tracks that could fill whole rooms . 11 it may have been too much too late the competition was too keen and the slot car hobby was already starting to wane in influence . 5 slot car kings like chicago s strombecker would eventually be purchased by tootsietoy and end up making simple plastic cars and other toys . by 1967 revell s experiment in the hobby had racked up a nearly half a million dollar loss . 5 money troubles and monogram merger edit about 1980 as the modeling hobby was weakening in america and sales of plastic kits plummeted revell was purchased by french toy company generale du jouet also known as ceji which hoped to take advantage of revell s european division and presence . still generale du jouet was having financial troubles of its own and by 1983 revell was again spun off . 5 in 1986 after declining profitability in a new era of video games and cable television revell was purchased by odyssey partners of new york and folded into monogram models of morton grove illinois which odyssey had purchased earlier that year . its plant in venice was closed and all its usable assets were transferred to monogram s number 2 plant in des plaines illinois . the new company then moved to northbrook illinois . due to the world wide name recognition revell has become the primary brand name used on many of its kit lines and after years of seeing both names on the logo the monogram name is now again portrayed separately . the company was then headquartered in elk grove village illinois united states . its major american competitors in the plastic model kit market include amt ertl lindberg and testors . revell in germany edit in 1956 the german subsidiary revell plastics gmbh was founded in b nde west germany . during the 1970s this company started developing and manufacturing its own lines of model kits independently and outside the direct control of revell usa . these models were imported into the united states and some of the newer kits earned a reputation for high quality . however the german kits are now only produced in eastern europe or china under the german revell label . once known as revell ag private stock company the german company has now changed to the legal form of gmbh & co. kg inc. public stock company . revell germany became independent after its formal separation from revell monogram llc in september 2006 but was purchased by hobbico early in 2012 bringing both revells back into the same company once again . while separate the german products continued to be advertised on the american company web site and its logo was almost identical to that of revell in the united states . when it comes to total revenue the german company ranked somewhat above the former american parent company . besides an array of airplane and military kits revell germany also has made a variety of 1 24 and 1