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A NOSTALGIC TRIBUTE TO FROG MODEL KITS


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Who else but the FROG artist would have the imagination to create this scene, a sedate four seat radio training and communications aeroplane peeling off in a classic fighter attack ...................  " Attacking now ! " .................. imagine the poor instructor and radio pupil in the back of the cabin holding on for dear life .................

 

But this is exactly why I found FROG kits so interesting in my childhood, the imaginative artwork portraying the unusual in exciting ways, any other artist would have tried to get the whole subject in frame but to this artist it did not matter that one wing is off picture, it was the movement and scene that mattered.

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30 minutes ago, adey m said:

bc33a466-1a80-43ec-b92b-424bca000456.jpg

 

Who else but the FROG artist would have the imagination to create this scene, a sedate four seat radio training and communications aeroplane peeling off in a classic fighter attack ...................  " Attacking now ! " .................. imagine the poor instructor and radio pupil in the back of the cabin holding on for dear life .................

 

But this is exactly why I found FROG kits so interesting in my childhood, the imaginative artwork portraying the unusual in exciting ways, any other artist would have tried to get the whole subject in frame but to this artist it did not matter that one wing is off picture, it was the movement and scene that mattered.

 

That's a great point,  I never saw them for sale as I  was buying kits in the early 80s and they weren't in the shops in my neck of the woods by then (they weren't model shops but shops selling toys and beach goods).  I agree their artwork is fab.  The kit is lovely too and builds up well.  I have just recently bought the Sea Fury as I was looking for a bit of nostalgia and love the box art of it on deck too, I was also looking for a Sea Fury, but it won out over all others available on Ebay and was also still sealed, great stuff. I love the feeling of purchasing an old kit that is still sealed.

 

Chris

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Well they were never on sale anywhere I visited from late 60s to the whole 70s!  That was east london to essex in those days when 10 year olds wandered around on public transport or bike with no adults around.  I must have seen every obscure Japanese brand for sale but never a Frog, except once at a birthday party.

No wonder they went to the wall and there are a gazillion unsold kits at shows (or were).

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1 hour ago, malpaso said:

Well they were never on sale anywhere I visited from late 60s to the whole 70s! 

 

In a way that is part of the fascination about FROG kits. They were sold in our little village Post Office in Suffolk, and I remember seeing a Shackleton for the first time in the toy shop in Woodbridge. In Whitby they were sold in a small Post Office within a cycle ride of our house and a newsagent sold them down in the town. They were also sold in small numbers in Stakesby stores on the edge of our housing estate, it was here that I saw the biggest of the new FROG kits on display up high on a top shelf, the B-47 Stratojet and the Nakajima Renzan bomber, I was over awed by them. They would also appear in the most unlikely places too, like gift shops or hardware shops. 

 

But this is what probably led to their downfall too, they were stocked in small numbers and you did not find them in Woolworths for example.

 

Edited by adey m
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FROG Hawker Sea Fury

 

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Oh yes Chris, happy memories of seeing this box in the window of our village Post Office back in the late 1960s.

 

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And then strangely FROG decided to change the artwork when they introduced the clear packaging in the early 1970s. I got up early one Sunday morning in Whitby and cycled to the Parade Post Office because they sold FROG kits and they were one of the very few shops that opened on a Sunday back in the early 1970s. And I returned home with a Sea Fury exactly like this, and it was built, painted and decaled by tea time. It built up into a big fighter with that impressive five blade propeller.

 

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And then strangely again, NOVO reverted back to the original artwork.

 

 

 

 

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I wonder why they changed the image   that one of the Sea Fury on deck is awesome and the one in flight slightly underwhelming.   Crikey now Novo, some more memories,  my first Novo Kit was the Vickers Vimy which was a tad ambitious for a teenager, but I did the silver option.  I have a replacement kit in the stash to do one day soon.

Chris

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13 minutes ago, bigbadbadge said:

I wonder why they changed the image   that one of the Sea Fury on deck is awesome and the one in flight slightly underwhelming

 

When FROG introduced their new clear packaging the artwork had to be reduced in depth to fit on the header card which meant that some of the interesting things that were happening on the original artwork disappeared off picture, such as the V1 Doodlebug on the Tempest artwork, on the original box artwork the Tempest is about to tip the V1 over with a wingtip, on the later card header the V1 has gone and the Tempest looks like the pilot is just up on a jolly fly around.

 

On that 1970s Sea Fury artwork, what might be missing is the MIG 15 it has just shot down ................

 

 

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There was a shop not far from me ‘when I were a lad’ which sold bagged Frog models and they were always hung up on a door at the back of the shop. I remember an MS.406 and deciding to use the Swiss markings mainly to go with my Airfix Ju-52 Swiss floatplane (I know!)

 

Trevor

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Nice to hear people's reminiscences about not seeing FROG kits around very much when they were younger.

 

There was an empty shop in a terrace back in the early 1970s on Rookery Road in Handsworth in Birmingham that must have sold the kits at some point because there was one of those banners across the top of the shop window advertising FROG kits.  It always prompted a wish to be able to go back in time - even though I'd imagine the shop had only closed down a few short years before - to see what it would have been like in its prime.  I imagined it having a huge stock of kits of all kinds carefully selected by an old fellah who'd served in the trenches during the First War. 

 

FROG were just so quirky in their choice of subjects compared to Airfix.  I'd see the odd FROG kit around but I guess by the time I was really getting into modelling they'd already had their day.  Like for so many us, Woolworths was my shop of choice and of course it seemed they only did Airfix.

 

Still remember coming across Tamiya kits for the first time though in Arthur Penn's wonderful little model shop on College Road.  Ah, the nostalgia!  What a fantastic thread this is.  

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Thankyou for bringing back all those lovely memories of the 1960s ,the first frog kit i built got me hooked on them.From the spitfire & flying bomb to the black widow  that dad took me to my local newsagents to get for my 10th birthday .Nearly all of them have good memories associated with them .Looking forward to seeing more thankyou. 

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2 hours ago, adey m said:

 

When FROG introduced their new clear packaging the artwork had to be reduced in depth to fit on the header card which meant that some of the interesting things that were happening on the original artwork disappeared off picture, such as the V1 Doodlebug on the Tempest artwork, on the original box artwork the Tempest is about to tip the V1 over with a wingtip, on the later card header the V1 has gone and the Tempest looks like the pilot is just up on a jolly fly around.

 

On that 1970s Sea Fury artwork, what might be missing is the MIG 15 it has just shot down ................

 

 

And of course there was the move away from anything that suggested aircraft might be used for any purpose other than simply flying around in - which led to the neutering of much of Roy Cross's superb Airfix box-top art.

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FROG Hawker Tempest V

 

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The original Tempest artwork on the Black Series box, depicting the time that a Tempest pilot caught up with a V1, flew alongside it, and knocked it out of stable flight with his wing tip, and we have the typical southern English coast line below, another feature of the FROG artwork being the appropriate scenery in the background..

 

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The V1 disappeared on the later packaging unfortunately.

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20 hours ago, adey m said:

Advertisement for the new FROG Dewoitine 520 which appeared in Air Pictorial in September 1963.

It text of this advertisement there is announcement of Baltimore and Martinet to be released soon (in 1963) by Frog. Was Martinet ever released by Frog? I know only Master and Magister from Miles in Frog range...

Regards

J-W

 

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I'm another one who never saw Frog kits for sale (at least not as far as I can remember).

 

I used to buy mine from The Doll's Hospital in Swan Lane in  Guildford. If my memory is true, they sold mostly Airfix and Revell kits. I clearly remember saving my 6d weekly pocket money, combining it with my paper round pay and going into Guidford on the bus with my dad on Saturday mornings. I nearly always came home with a new kit. I spent ten bob on an Airfix Lancaster once and had the whole thing made, painted, decalled and hanging from my bedroom ceiling by Sunday evening.

 

The Doll's Hospital was so-named because it used to repair dolls and teddy bears. I've not been back to Guildford for very many years and wonder if it's still there.

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2 hours ago, JWM said:

It text of this advertisement there is announcement of Baltimore and Martinet to be released soon (in 1963) by Frog. Was Martinet ever released by Frog? I know only Master and Magister from Miles in Frog range...

Regards

 

I wondered if anybody would spot that, well done JWM. The Martinet was not released by FROG, I think that this was probably printed in error and they were supposed to mention the Master.

 

There are people however who have converted their FROG Master into a Martinet.

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I remember having a pair of Frog models bought for me by my Mum from a feature in a Woman's magazine of the time (1960's).
 

The magazine must have bought a bulk lot and sold them on as the kits were just in plastic bags with no boxes.

 

Quite large models, they were a Martin Marauder and HMS Warspite.

 

I recall the Martin being sand coloured plastic and the Warspite of course being grey. 

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53 minutes ago, adey m said:

There are people however who have converted their FROG Master into a Martinet.

Yes, that is me, for example :) (Master Mk I  is Pavla, two others Frog)

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J-W

 

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1 hour ago, JWM said:
2 hours ago, adey m said:

There are people however who have converted their FROG Master into a Martinet.

Yes, that is me, for example :) (Master Mk I  is Pavla, two others Frog)

 

A wonderful trio of Miles aircraft, I love the Martinet conversion, thank you JWM.

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4 hours ago, Neil.C said:

I remember having a pair of Frog models bought for me by my Mum from a feature in a Woman's magazine of the time (1960's).
 

The magazine must have bought a bulk lot and sold them on as the kits were just in plastic bags with no boxes.

 

Quite large models, they were a Martin Marauder and HMS Warspite.

 

I recall the Martin being sand coloured plastic and the Warspite of course being grey.

Wonderful personal memories brought back just by talking about these models.

 

I remember asking my mum to keep buying some food item when I was about ten because if you collected so many tokens off the packets you then had the choice of about four AIRFIX Series One jets to send off for.

I chose the F-5 Freedom Fighter and excitedly waited for about three weeks for it to arrive through the post. It came in a plastic bag without the AIRFIX header.

 

I also remember a friend having the FROG Marauder and that was in a sand coloured plastic.

Edited by adey m
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7 hours ago, tomkil said:

FROG were just so quirky in their choice of subjects compared to Airfix.  I'd see the odd FROG kit around but I guess by the time I was really getting into modelling they'd already had their day.  Like for so many us, Woolworths was my shop of choice and of course it seemed they only did Airfix.

 

There was a reason for Woolworth's only doing Airfix: there was an exclusive contract in place from the late '50s onward, under which Woolworth's had each new Airfix kit before other shops and Woolworth's sold only Airfix kits. Frog was in the corner shops, department stores, cycle shops, toy shops and of course, model shops.

 

 

10 hours ago, adey m said:

But this is what probably led to their downfall too, they were stocked in small numbers and you did not find them in Woolworths for example.

 

You know, Adey, I think that - while it was a contributory factor - distribution wasn't the real killer, although it might have been inevitable a decade later when even Airfix failed. It was the "asset stripping" of the Rovex/Triang empire which resulted in Frog being sold off and disappearing into Novo.

 

I once had an interesting conversation with Mike Silk, the gentleman who ran Modeltoys in Portsmouth. It would have been in early 1981, when Airfix was in financial trouble and about to be absorbed into Palitoy. Mike was of the strong opinion that if Airfix would concentrate on their kit business, which was apparently profitable, and cease the ventures into plastic buckets, general toy production, etc, they could have survived independently. In the end, at least under Hornby, this is finally what happened.

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52 minutes ago, KevinK said:

Woolworth's had each new Airfix kit before other shops and Woolworth's sold only Airfix kits. Frog was in the corner shops, department stores, cycle shops, toy shops and of course, model shops.

Woolworths did sell Novo kits,  I remember them coming in, and they were cheaper than Airfix, this must be spring 1977,  Getting the Novo Barracuda for 22p, and being bitterly disappointed when the decals disintegrated. 

Did put me off Novo kits,  as I had no other decal source,  and was unaware of aftermarket or replacements,  or clear coating (I was 10/11) which was a shame as they were something like 2/3 the price of Airfix.

 

There were lots of Frog kits floating about though,  in model shops, toy shops and newsagents in 77-78 though,  I had quite a few,  but I'd only encountered a  few previous to that, the mainstay was Airfix, then Matchbox, and then Revell who i wasn't much of a fan of, though I did get a some kits via Green Shield stamps,  a 4 pack of fighters, Ki-61, PZL-11, Fokker Eindekker and something else IIRC, which writing this now looks like some hard to shift items bundled, and were oddly exotic then, and not ones I'd have picked individually, but 'for free' they were more kits that I happily built,  and a 1/32nd Spitfire Mk.I,  this would be 1975 or early 76.....  an odd detail I'd nearly forgotten all about...

 

8 hours ago, Timmas said:

The Doll's Hospital was so-named because it used to repair dolls and teddy bears.

There was one in Brighton as well, in Trafalgar Street IIRC,  I remember going there to get replacement gripping hands for my Action Men when they went brittle and the fingers fell off, which was a great discovery for me! 

 

55 minutes ago, KevinK said:

It would have been in early 1981, when Airfix was in financial trouble and about to be absorbed into Palitoy. Mike was of the strong opinion that if Airfix would concentrate on their kit business, which was apparently profitable, and cease the ventures into plastic buckets, general toy production, etc, they could have survived independently. In the end, at least under Hornby, this is finally what happened.

The kit business was always profitable,  Airfix collapsed in 1981 for a combination of factors according to Arthur Ward, in The Boys Book of Airfix  which were stated as (paraphrased from memory)

"intransigent unions at Meccano, and other parts of the overall Airfix family,  and externally a very strong pound,  making exports very expensive,, and Airfix exported a lot and government not concerned about British manufacturing in general. " 

 

If you could have got the kit division as a separate entity,  they would have survived.    Even now, a debt free independent Airfix would be a very different beast, I suspect they'd have a lot larger backcatalogue available.     

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2 hours ago, Troy Smith said:

Woolworths did sell Novo kits,  I remember them coming in, and they were cheaper than Airfix, this must be spring 1977

 

Yes - I think that low price must have been the key to the Woolworth's agreement, and quite possibly it was the availability of cheap Novo kits which ended it.

 

Lines and Hellstrom's "Frog Model Aircraft 1932-1976" says for 1955:  "Airfix had done a deal with F.W. Woolworth whereby Woolworth's would automatically take a large quantity of each new kit that Airfix brought out. This enabled Airfix to spread their tooling cost over a high volume and thus achieve a retail price of 2/- for the smaller planes. The cheapest of the new Frog kits was 5/3 but as there was no clash of subject at this stage this was not too serious".

 

This was also why Airfix went to bagged packaging, while Frog retained boxes: one was the low-cost mass-market producer, while the other went towards niche subjects and a wide range of retailers. At the time, these were valid decisions, but as the world and the markets changed.....

Edited by KevinK
Failing keyboard skipping letters!
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52 minutes ago, KevinK said:

This was also why Airfix went to bagged packaging, while Frog retained boxes:

Frog did go for bagged kits later though, their equivalent of Airfix Series 1, several are shown in this thread.  They seem to be late 60's/early 70's era.  

 

The Novo kits in Woolworths were bagged as well.   I'm still a bit narked about those Barracuda decals disintegrating even now 😠 

 

A question, did Novo ever have useable decals? Or did they become useable with liquid decal film?   @adey m possibly one for you.

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9 minutes ago, Troy Smith said:

A question, did Novo ever have useable decals? Or did they become useable with liquid decal film?

 

Good question! You, I and many others had that experience and, personally, I bought one of the packs of multiple Frog decal sheets which were being sold for about 50p and gave up on the Novo ones. Of course, this didn't help for kits like the DH106 Comet, which weren't in the decal multipack!

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6 hours ago, Troy Smith said:

A question, did Novo ever have useable decals? Or did they become useable with liquid decal film?

 

I first saw NOVO kits in 1977 when they appeared in smart blue boxes in a small model shop in Scarborough, subjects such as the Fairey FD2, Vickers Vimy and Westland Wallace.

 

Then bagged NOVOs appeared in the Tip Top pharmacy shop in Scarborough, subjects such as the Lysander, Magister and Proctor. I bought quite a number of them in 1977/1978, they were after all FROGs and very cheap. But hey, I too was very dissapointed when the decals disintegrated in the water, but my college friend Stuart who also built a few of these told me about painting the decal sheet with two coats of gloss varnish, then cutting the decals out before putting in the water, and hey presto, they held together and they stuck to the model. I have used this technique successfully many times.

 

And as KevinK has said I too remember buying a pack of FROG decals for about 50p which were being advertised at the time in model magazines. I think I still have some in my decals collection. FROG decals from the late 1960s and 1970s were excellent quality and are still useable today, 40 years later.

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