As a kid, I stayed away from revell kits as most of them seemed toylike compared to the Monogram offerings and those were basically the two brands I had to choose from.
Now, I am re-visiting Revell. I picked up the 1/72 Jolly Green Jiant on eBay and really like it. I am may also aquire their 1/72 Stuka, A-7D and F-111 (TFX).
Any other good builders out there?
I loved that F-111. I have one of the old ones that came with both the long nose -A and short nose -B with shorter wingtips. The swing wings, odd working landing gear and the capsule cockpit that would be detached.
Another one I liked was the large helicopter that came with a Jeep (Jolly Green Giant?) and the Skycrane. I have the Skycrane that was reissued a few years ago with the MASH pod.
I still have quite a collection of small 1/72 scale WW2 fighters and a few of the WW1 planes. I also have a bagged, builder’s kit of the olive green B-26 Martin Marauder “Flak Bait”, although the one I built in my childhood was the one molded in silver with invasion stripes and a cool shark’s mouth decal.
Basically, if it was US, either WW2 or Vietnam era, I bought the kit. I think one of the last new (at time of release) 1/72 scale aircraft kits I ever bought was the B-1 bomber. But I think that was a new Monogram one, not Revell. It was molded in white and had red, white and blue markings.
No, wait, I am pretty sure the last new Revell 1/72 scale kit was the imagined B-2 Stealth bomber. The big bat-shaped one that doesn’t quite look like the real B-2. I know I built it and hung in from my sons’ ceiling. I bought another about ten years ago.
Memphis Belle, rivet monster.
A bit of an oddity but a real looker- the FW 200 Condor.
And the Dam Buster Lanc.
I guess I really liked four engine bombers.
Man I built plenty of their stuff when I was a kid in school. But I don’t remember any of their pre merger 1/72 stuff being all that. Especially, like you said, compared to Monogram at the same time. But they had more choices in 1/72 compared to Monogram. And I have not built a 1/72 kit of theirs in probably 35 years now, so I sure can’t recommend any kits. But I do remember seeing that they did some 1/72 Soviet stuff that they did late pre merger that I would love to have built if I had still been building Braille Scale: Sukhois, MiGs, etc. I would advise you to have a look for those just because the molding should be better due to the era.
I think my experience is likely echoing a lot of fellow Americans here … we were pretty much limited to Revell and Monogram. I have so many fond memories of building all those Monogram kits, but outside of the Memphis Belle and maybe an olive drab B-24 (I am remembering the box art more than the kit), I don’t recall building the 72nd scale Revell kits. I do remember building all of their 32nd scale kits (well, I say all, but I should qualify that as all that were readily available in the SE Texas area; I have found that there were many, many more Revell 1/32 kits manufactured than I was ever aware of).
In fairly recent years, I did build their Fw200 Condor and Do335 Arrow. Neither were overly great kits but they were not hot garbage either.
Hi,
Although I built a fair number of 1/72 scale models when I was younger I can’t honestly remeber which were Revell and which weren’t. I guess my memory just isn;t all that good any more 
Pat
The OD B-24 was “The Blue Streak” if I remember right. It had Ploesti Raid box art. They also did another boxing of the same mold in USN colors as a PB4Y.
Too bad this is limited to 1/72. I really enjoyed building the box scale kits that came before all this newfangled constant scale stuff. One of my favorites was the radar Constellation, it was the first one I actually kept the glue off of the prop shafts so they all spun freely. Well, they did until one day my older neighbor took me for a ride in his car and I held it out the window so the props could all spin. I guess we went too fast and before long the propellers seized up never to turn again. The disappointment is still fresh[U]
When I first started building in the mid late seventies 72nd was what I chose to build. I remember the Strawberry Bitch B-24, the Yak-38 Forger which was supposed to be a -36. MiG-31 and the big one the Space Shuttle
Many years ago in High School and earlier, I built most of the 1/72 subjects from both Revell and Monogram, and later Airfix and Heller. I was particularly attracted to the triple kits Revell put out, Pioneer Fighters, Aces of WWI, etc. Lately I’ve been revisiting some and find them very basic, generally accurate, but an enjoyable build at a fraction of the cost and stress of a $20 single engine WWII fighter with PE and resin detail. I’ve even started collecting alot of them off of eBay and have been eyeing a Heller Potez for my next foray…
I came across a letter to the editor in an old FSM about an F-102 from Revell with all the ground equipment. 1/48, not 1/72 though. The writer was a guy named John Eaton.
It’s a small world at times…
One of the first I built was a Revell 1/72 scale F-102. I haven’t seen that kit in years.
Ya got me!
1/49, more or less was the scale.
Man they gave lots of ground equipment with that kit.
i remember building the Revell 1/72 F-102 and Saab Draaken. But I never came across that fancy F-102.
Go ahead jeaton01, I actually would be interested in the box scale stuff as well!
jeaton01
Too bad this is limited to 1/72. I really enjoyed building the box scale kits that came before all this newfangled constant scale stuff.
Hey , Rob !
I thought the short nosed F-111 was a release from Aurora , especially with the working features you mention . T.B.
Oh My !
I still have two of those ! That was fun more than once ! Especially with all that extra stuff . Now , did you know that you could put the wingtips on wrong ? That made it a Case X instead of the first edition . T.B. P.S. Please show that poor kitty mercy . She didn’t mean to sleep on top of all those parts in the open box - Much ! LOL.LOL.
Hi “G”;
I think that Lanc was my first Bomber from them . T.B.
Hi Rob ;
Smee agin ! I had a bunch of their Navy and Marine fighters . I loved the one with the Double tails , I think it was a neat plane , I believe it was an F-7-U Cutlass . It was featured in a Steve Canyon , Sunday Comic strip about the time of it’s release . T.B.