1988 Buick Regal and Reatta kits - who made these?

[Motor City]

Has anyone determined who the manufacturer of these curbside kits was?  They are 1/24 scale.  

Edited December 6, 2020 by Motor City

[Luc Janssens]

Dunno, but would like to have the wire wheels of the Regal.

 

[the other Mike S.]

When those came out, I was very disappointed to find they were 1/24th scale instead of 1/25th.  So, I never bought either one of them.  I wonder if the values today would be much higher if they were 1/25th scale instead. 

[ZTony8]

I never knew that they came as kits. I only ever saw them( and have them) as promos.

[Mark]

Only promos as far as I know.  People were asking who made those back when they were new.  As I remember, Dennis Doty (Model Car Journal) did find out who it was that made those, but did not reveal the info at the time.  The company that made those didn't normally make promotional models, and had no interest in offering them as kits, or getting into the model kit business.  I'd guess too, that their contract with GM probably didn't allow them to sell the promos, assembled or not, to anyone but GM.

[Motor City]

Tony and Mark,

You are correct.  I just looked at mine, which are still in the box.  I bought the Reatta in '91 and the Regal in '92.  My intention was to disassemble them and detail them, but haven't gotten around to it almost 30 years later!  I bought them at local hobby shops.

 

 

Edited December 7, 2020 by Motor City
where purchased

[Rodent]

Makes you wonder if it was one of the myriad of companies that molded 1:1 plastic parts for GM at the time. Isn't that how IMC got their start in models? Dash bezels to model kits?

[Joe Handley]

Wouldn’t those have been AMT/ERTL promos?

[Mark]

1 hour ago, Rodent said:

Makes you wonder if it was one of the myriad of companies that molded 1:1 plastic parts for GM at the time. Isn't that how IMC got their start in models? Dash bezels to model kits?

IMC supposedly was a supplier of plastic parts to auto manufacturers.  AMT did some of that too, from what I have heard they supplied some plated (vacuum metalized, as with model kit chrome) parts to Ford in the early-mid Sixties.

[Rodent]

Didn't know that about AMT. Wonder if they made that "chrome" and black camera-case dash in my '68 Mustang? It was a San Jose build, so they may have another supplier closer to the plant.

Edited December 7, 2020 by Rodent

[lordairgtar]

I found the makers of these.

Established in 1976, Product Dynamics Ltd is a full-service product development and design company. Based in Levittown, Pa., it is one of the leading companies in the design and fabrication of precision prototype models in the United States. The company provides various services, such as rapid protyping, tooling patterns, breadboards, mechanism development, vacuum forming and custom color matching, to name a few. Its portfolio of clients includes Rubbermaid, InsyncDesign, Tyco, Exoto Inc., Mattel and Gerber, among others. So, maybe they still have the tooling. Round 2? Atlantis? You guys looking to buy more tooling? LOL

 

Edited December 7, 2020 by lordairgtar

[Motor City]

Hi Gregg,

How did you determine this company made them?

[lordairgtar]

6 hours ago, Motor City said:

Hi Gregg,

How did you determine this company made them?

About a five minute search on Google.

 

[Motor City]

On 12/7/2020 at 11:52 PM, lordairgtar said:

About a five minute search on Google.

 

I guess it will remain a mystery for some reason.

[Russell C]

On 12/7/2020 at 9:52 PM, lordairgtar said:

About a five minute search on Google.

Took me a lot longer, but I probably started out with the wrong set of search words. The trick to getting Google to spit out better than average results is to not be satisfied with superficial searches of items like 1988 Buick Regal promo, but to instead put specific sets or words into Google's search window that are within quotations marks. That forces Google to give you only results of those specific words, not overlaps of all the words. What finally worked for me was the string "1988 Buick Regal" "plastic" "promotional" "manufacturer", where the top result was Uptown Automotive Hobby Shop's Promo Perspective website page, which had a link within it taking readers down the page to the section telling the story of the never-named Product Dynamics Ltd company. Put that company name within quote marks in a Google search and one of the top results is a MapQuest page showing where it is located, along with a description of its portfolio of customers. Now, how each of those sources arrived at their claims remains to be seen. The task there is to take on the role of an investigator, and find out if there is more material out there to corroborate these claims. As near as I can tell, Product Dynamics Ltd doesn't have a current website (some other unrelated company seems to have it, I think). At a minimum, I found this Worthpoint page of an old eBay listing for an entire carton of 1988 Buick promos with the Product Dynamics Ltd label on it, but by this time, I'm running out of gas for further digging. But I hope all that helps on how to make the ol' Google system work for its living.

Edited December 10, 2020 by Russell C

[lordairgtar]

1 hour ago, Motor City said:

I guess it will remain a mystery for some reason.

This is info I got from a web site called Uptown Automotive Hobby Shop.

1988 Buick, 1/24 scale, Regal and Reatta coupe by Product Dynamics Ltd., a company in Pennsylvania, which, prior to these Buicks I had not heard of, either in relation to promotional scale model cars, nor anything else for that matter.

Neither the models, nor their colorful packages, mention the name of the company that made them, so they were somewhat of a mystery, or at least a curiosity, when they were released. I don't recall seeing or hearing any advance press on these models before they appeared. I will say that they were welcome surprises in the era of only Camaro and Corvette promotional models being made.

The packages do not label the models as a specific year, and though they are most commonly considered 1988s, they are often listed as 1988 or 1989. The Regal is molded in a maroon metallic, with black A and B pillars, and a red interior, while the Reatta is a solid red, with a tan interior. (The regal pictured here has been repainted).

[lordairgtar]

3 minutes ago, Russell C said:

Took me a lot longer, but I probably started out with the wrong set of search words. The trick to getting Google to spit out better than average results is to not be satisfied with superficial searches of items like 1988 Buick Regal promo, but to instead put specific sets or words into Google's search window that are within quotations marks. That forces Google to give you only results of those specific words, not overlaps of all the words. What finally worked for me was the string "1988 Buick Regal" "plastic" "promotional" "manufacturer", where the top result was Uptown Automotive Hobby Shop's Promo Perspective website page, which had a link within it taking readers down the page to the section telling the story of the never-named Product Dynamics Ltd company. Put that company name within quote marks in a Google search and the top result is a MapQuest page showing where it is located, along with a description of its portfolio of customers. Now, how each of those sources arrived at their claims remains to be seen. The task there is to take on the role of an investigator, and find out if there is more material out there to corroborate these claims. As near as I can tell, Product Dynamics Ltd doesn't have a current website (some other unrelated company seems to have it, I think). At a minimum, I found this Worthpoint page of an old eBay listing for an entire carton of 1988 Buick promos with the Product Dynamics Ltd label on it, but by this time, I'm running out of gas for further digging. But I hope all that helps on how to make the ol' Google system work for its living.

You got in before I could post...thanks. Your info matches mine.

[Russell C]

3 minutes ago, lordairgtar said:

You got in before I could post...thanks. Your info matches mine.

But you beat me on the search time by a long shot. Sometimes I'm more lucky on finding the right combo of words sooner.

[lordairgtar]

Russel, I read the info off one of your links on the worthpoint ebay ad. That info puts a lot of info at hand about what the company was and what they made. I read they had a hand in doing a lot of Franklin and Danbury die casts as well. I am surprised that they remained hidden so long. Sounded like a really great company in the toy and collector hobbies.

[Motor City]

thanks for the information, Russell and Gregg; I gave up after many false hits on Google

[ZTony8]

I can't remember where I scored my first '88 Regal but I got another one and a Reatta at a national Buick meet in Flint ( I think it was in 2003). The promos were being sold as fund raisers for, I believe,  the Sloan Museum. The models were donated by GM and I think I got them for  five or ten dollars each.