Thanks for providing the history of this kit here and on cultTVman. I am going to build, or finishing a build, a vintage long box kit my father started around 50 years ago and never completed. My dad died of Covid-19 last month and after finding this kit in his basement I decided to finish it as a way to retroactively build the kit "with" my dad. I started a vlog here on youtube that will document the project and would welcome whatever insight or advice you might have about building it. Thank you.
Thank you. It's a "lighted" kit with little grain of wheat bulbs. My father had already installed them, glued the saucer together and ran the wires out to be fed through the neck later. I am not holding my breath that they will still work after all these years, and I don't want to take it apart to change anything because I don't want to take away from the work he did on it. I'll complete the wiring when I connect the secondary haul and we'll see what happens. The other thing, and I mention this in my video, is trying to figure out how to connect the pylons with the "pin" mechanism this early kit used. Not sure if that is really a good way to go about it, which maybe is why AMT likely changed it. Have you built one of the long box kits? Anything I should know to get them secure and aligned? The "pin" inside the secondary haul holding the pylons secure seems to require fixing the alignment of the pylons early on in the build without the secondary haul being completed, or having the saucer attached, making it difficult to line up how the nacelles will sit in relation to the rest of the ship.
I built a slightly later design Long Box when I built a U.S.S. Constellation replica. The LB pylon slots were cut wrong, causing the nacelles to splay outward. So they really need to be angled opposite in the holes to correct that.
Thanks for replying and the dialogue. So do you think I should abandon the "pins" as stated in the instructions and just try to secure them another way after the secondary haul is built and saucer attached? Just lots of glue and patience to hold them in the desired place and hope the hold?
The holes in the end of the pylon tabs on the late long box kits are so they can slot into a separately molded bulkhead piece that goes inside the secondary hull. It was an attempt to fix the poor design of the nacelle tabs from the earlier issued kits and it might have worked, except the angles for the pylon holes were cut wrong in the first place. They corrected that problem completely with the 1970s "small box" retooling. Part 2 and Part 3 of this video series talk about the differences in more detail.
JMChladek: The best way to find out if the Enterprise is a original 1960s release is to look at the color of the saucer domes. On the original 1967 release the saucer domes are a tinted green color rather than clear plastic in later releases. I have one sitting on my desk at the moment.
Randall Williams The green tinted domes remained in production up to the late 1970s issue (my very first Enterprise as a kid was a 1978 vintage one in blue plastic with green domes). Yes, the new Round2/AMT kit has domes that aren't as green (they have a slight green tint). Clear domes were common in the AMT/Ertl days. Part of what I was trying to convey in this video is there are OTHER ways to tell, especially if one is perhaps looking at pictures on eBay of a model for sale and they can't necessarily inspect the parts up close and personal, or might only see pictures of some of the parts.
Glad to hear it. Some great things are in store for fans of that kit this coming year. I can't say much at this time, but it will be something cool for 2022.
ERNEST ISIP: The original AMT stock number for the Star Trek Enterprise model kit from the 1960s is S951. Be aware that up until AMT/ERTL reissued the kit under stock number 6676 earlier releases were also S951. The best way to find If the kit has the light-up option is to look at the carton. A halo effect surrounds the top and bottom of the saucer bridge domes and around the bussard collectors (domes in front of nacelles). The round2 version does not include a lighting option but has the original packaging. Always look for "NBC TV" logo on the side panel of the carton.
I've been building these models ever since they started producing the kits , I do remember that the box covers originals where " hand painted artwork " and most of all faced to the left ,NOT as Shown . my first ship came with clear parts along with translucent white plastic main parts and a lot of mini lights , that whent everywhere ; saucer main hull , dorsel , secondary hull and warp nacelles which ran off 2 D cell batteries and you had to twist the forward section of the secondary hull and scanner dish to turn on the lights . the Klingon D-7 was a great let down , smaller and fewer lights and less details .
Klingon 1701 You might be thinking of the TMP Enterprise refit kit AMT did in 1979. That one had bulbs for saucer lights and rainbow stickers for the warp engines. Both it and the original 18" kit had secondary hull mounted batteries. The refit used bigger cells.
The original kit had 4 lights. Nacelles, upper saucer and lower saucer. The 2nd edition in the same box had 2 lights only for the saucer sections. The third edition in the same box had no lights.
I have built three kits back in the early and mid '70s. The first one I had was the second "long box" kit with the lighting kit for the upper/lower saucer domes an the nacelle domes. The missing section of your long box would have had the overhead diagram of the Starship Enterprise with the Aircraft carrier Enterprise for size comparison. Some one may have clipped it out for a 'pocket reference'. The other were from the short box. No light kit and the nacelle domes were solid white plastic. The third kit was decaled as the U.S.S. Exeter. I did noticed that the decals of the later kits were not accurate and seemed compressed to fit the decal sheet.
Regarding the short box kits: I found out the hard way that there was apparently some overlap in boxes and the changes in the plastic. I picked up a kit, still shrinkwrapped, of a kit in a box still sporting the old kit S951 number and jacket offer. Open it up, and it's the 6676 plastic. So, kids, be extra cautious when dealing with kits "still unopened". There might still be a surprise inside...
That's likely due to an unscrupulous seller with access to a shrink-wrap machine to pass a model off as something it is not. 6676 didn't come around until Ertl owned AMT and I have never seen the light gray plastic with clear domes pop up in an S951 box.
@@CaptRobertApril If it is white plastic with green domes, it is S951. The green domes were used up until Ertl bought AMT. Some light blue plastic kits (with green domes) were produced right before AMT was owned by Lesney Matchbox and continued through that period. The vast majority of the small box S951 kits are white plastic and all had green domes.
@@JMChladek The mold is most definitely 6676. It's been in storage for a while, so I might be misremembering it a bit, but the big thing is that a later mold was in an older box. The morale of the story is, don't trust the box.
Upon further review, and some idle browsing on eBay, I happened across precisely the same thing I got, a 6676 in white plastic with green domes in a S951 box. Make of this what you will... www.ebay.com/itm/324326702792?ul_noapp=true
@LoRezJim I've also seen a first box art version of the Aurora kit as well. Granted I don't know if it was available in the UK (the one I saw I believe was issued in Canada), but it was offered. Those kits are pretty hard to find these days though as I sure as heck don't have the budget to acquire one. :)
seemed like a real piece of star trek. buying and bringing this home was magical. I had 12 of these enterprises and I couldn't get the nacelle struts to line up right or the glue wouldn't dry fast enough. I tried everything. It was years later that a better nacelle strut method was employed but This is way past my model phase. I also had a couple klingon cruisers. Those strangely enough came in black plastic color. While kind of cool, I really wanted white (Like the show).
Hi Jay! Gosh--this kit somehow seems VERY familiar to me?!?!? Thanks for taking the time to go over these kit differences. Lots of very tedious work on your part! Very valuable info for collectors! -Paul (SFAM 1-4 author)
I was surprised to see...or rather, NOT see, any reference to the Bar Code/UPC Label. Whether or not there is one anywhere on the box would be your first clue as to the era of the kit. The very first product to have a Bar Code on the packaging was WRIGLEY'S GUM in June of 1974, with other manufacturers progressively adopting it throughout the remainder of the 70s. If an AMT Model Kit box has a Bar Code, you can bet it's 1974 or later!
If I recall correctly, we didn't really start to see bar codes on kits until about the early to mid 1980s. Given that all the (what I term) "long box" kits were products of well before the UPC code period, there are other tells to look for. Thanks for bringing that up though as I was curious as to when the first bar codes came out.
I also had the original Star Trek Model Kit made by A.M.T. with the lighting kit and this is what I am looking for ... does anyone know the model number?
@brightonandhove1968 Yup, that matches my research as I understand the Aurora bussards were more yellow in color compared to the orange AMT ones. I assume the Aurora kit had no lights in it? I've never seen an Aurora example with lights fitted (either long or tall box versions). I've also heard that the Aurora boxes said "As seen on BBC TV" instead of "NBC TV".
Unfortunately I do not know of a source. I wish there was one though as then I could build a later long box model to look like an LB2 version with nacelle lights without having to search for a real LB2 to do it from. There are a few resin clear red casted and some clear casted domes out there though, even if they don't have the pedigree of the originals (and they probably fit better).
HI, I had an enterprise model when I was a kid in the 60's that had lighted domes on the top and bottom. I would like to relive my childhood by buying that model. Could you please tell me what model number that was. Thanks
Frank Della Rossa Your kit likely was an S921 kit (what I call a "long box 1") since that is the only version that I know of which just had the saucer lights. The LB2 kit (the first S951 kit) had lights for both the saucer and warp nacelles.
Question; what are the hole for on the end of the nacelle pylons? I just came across what I think is the 1973 release of the U.S.S. Enterprise kit in that long box.
Aurora actually came up with the first U.S.S. Enterprise as well as AMT later on. For some reason, AMT won the bid and used Aurora's molds Aurora models were produced and sold outside of the U.S. and AMT had Star Trek exclusivity for the U.S. Market for years. Yes, I did see a Aurora model kit in the box. You can see the insulated wires for the lights. I must say that the quality of the kit was much better than the AMT version (Aurora had much better artisans).
Randall Williams The Enterprise kit was ALWAYS AMT's design and it was because they had a working relationship going back to season 1 of Trek. The building of the exterior set piece for the shuttle Galileo was funded (and built at a hot rod shop) by AMT partly in exchange for getting the license to do a kit. Aurora did design a kit and that was the Spock with snakes model. AMT had the US license, Aurora had the Canada and Europe license, so they swapped kits, resulting in AMT being able to sell Aurora designed Spock kits in the US and Aurora being able to sell AMT designed Enterprise kits in Europe and Canada.
Ok, I saw the document again and read it more carefully. Aurora slightly altered the molds to segment the engine nacelles into two separate sections near the middle. Looking at the photograph now of the kit on the sprues in the opened box. Yes, I see the black wires with small bulbs on the end of each wire. 4 leads in all.
You should also say that the bar code on the box @ 12:56 came in the 1980's because in the 1960's, they didn't have that kind of technology. Besides, you say the fit on the old kit wasn't good. My dad has his and it's more perfect than the later edition.
Nice informative video, i had and 'original' 80/90's amt/ertl enterprise which i got for one xmas as a kid the one that was molded in grey plastic, alas it got thrown out many years ago (it wasn't very well painted as i was a kid when i built it) had i known better i may have kept it to restor. recently got one of the repro one, which is sadly seemingly poorer quality, has a lot of excess sprue on the saucer section, + its made in china sadly as opposed to the USA made kit i got as a kid :(
Yes, but it is very difficult to spot that with parts in a box on a relatively low res eBay photo. If a kit is right in front of you with an open box, it is very easy to see. There are other visual cues on the bigger parts that are easier to pick out at a glance (hence the video).
Good information there. Have a look at my video of the 66 Enterprise and 67 Alien Battle Cruiser kits for some more interesting facts on the history of these models.
This was great information - Thanks! I surfed in here because I kept the box top for a model I built a long time ago. I have an AMT S951 box top in excellent condition.
Hello, I have just come across a early 1966 star trex enterprise model during a clearance. i have listed it on Ebay as not really my thing. It has kit no 921-300 on. Unlike the early reproduction box you have showing it does not say AMT but Aurora and made in Canada. Anyway its now on Ebay and hopefully of interest to a collector. Cheers, Jon PS, I am in England but have listed it with worldwide post so you should be able to see it if its of interest.
The demand for the AMT kit was so huge in 1966 that AMT licensed Aurora to produce the kit in Canada for the Canadian market. The original price of the Canadian made kit was 3 dollars. The price for the US made kit in Canada was $ 3.20 Canadian. So by manufacturing in Canada they cut 20 cents off the price of the kit. I remember having both the original AMT Kit and the Aurora one. There was also a version made in England that had the identical box, however it said "from the BBC series" on the side of the box and was molded in England; probably by Humbrol. You have a rare kit.
Thanks for providing the history of this kit here and on cultTVman. I am going to build, or finishing a build, a vintage long box kit my father started around 50 years ago and never completed. My dad died of Covid-19 last month and after finding this kit in his basement I decided to finish it as a way to retroactively build the kit "with" my dad. I started a vlog here on youtube that will document the project and would welcome whatever insight or advice you might have about building it. Thank you.
Wow, sorry for your loss. That sounds like an awesome way to memorialize him and complete a project together. I know it will look great when done.
Thank you. It's a "lighted" kit with little grain of wheat bulbs. My father had already installed them, glued the saucer together and ran the wires out to be fed through the neck later. I am not holding my breath that they will still work after all these years, and I don't want to take it apart to change anything because I don't want to take away from the work he did on it. I'll complete the wiring when I connect the secondary haul and we'll see what happens. The other thing, and I mention this in my video, is trying to figure out how to connect the pylons with the "pin" mechanism this early kit used. Not sure if that is really a good way to go about it, which maybe is why AMT likely changed it. Have you built one of the long box kits? Anything I should know to get them secure and aligned? The "pin" inside the secondary haul holding the pylons secure seems to require fixing the alignment of the pylons early on in the build without the secondary haul being completed, or having the saucer attached, making it difficult to line up how the nacelles will sit in relation to the rest of the ship.
I built a slightly later design Long Box when I built a U.S.S. Constellation replica. The LB pylon slots were cut wrong, causing the nacelles to splay outward. So they really need to be angled opposite in the holes to correct that.
Thanks for replying and the dialogue. So do you think I should abandon the "pins" as stated in the instructions and just try to secure them another way after the secondary haul is built and saucer attached? Just lots of glue and patience to hold them in the desired place and hope the hold?
The holes in the end of the pylon tabs on the late long box kits are so they can slot into a separately molded bulkhead piece that goes inside the secondary hull. It was an attempt to fix the poor design of the nacelle tabs from the earlier issued kits and it might have worked, except the angles for the pylon holes were cut wrong in the first place. They corrected that problem completely with the 1970s "small box" retooling. Part 2 and Part 3 of this video series talk about the differences in more detail.
JMChladek: The best way to find out if the Enterprise is a original 1960s release is to look at the color of the saucer domes.
On the original 1967 release the saucer domes are a tinted green color rather than clear plastic in later releases. I have one
sitting on my desk at the moment.
Randall Williams The green tinted domes remained in production up to the late 1970s issue (my very first Enterprise as a kid was a 1978 vintage one in blue plastic with green domes). Yes, the new Round2/AMT kit has domes that aren't as green (they have a slight green tint). Clear domes were common in the AMT/Ertl days. Part of what I was trying to convey in this video is there are OTHER ways to tell, especially if one is perhaps looking at pictures on eBay of a model for sale and they can't necessarily inspect the parts up close and personal, or might only see pictures of some of the parts.
just home from Omaha, your shuttle is still on display, I was looking for you culttvman review on this kit last week
Glad to hear it. Some great things are in store for fans of that kit this coming year. I can't say much at this time, but it will be something cool for 2022.
ERNEST ISIP: The original AMT stock number for the Star Trek Enterprise model kit from the 1960s is S951.
Be aware that up until AMT/ERTL reissued the kit under stock number 6676 earlier releases were also S951.
The best way to find If the kit has the light-up option is to look at the carton. A halo effect surrounds the top and
bottom of the saucer bridge domes and around the bussard collectors (domes in front of nacelles). The round2
version does not include a lighting option but has the original packaging. Always look for "NBC TV" logo on the
side panel of the carton.
I've been building these models ever since they started producing the kits , I do remember that the box covers originals where " hand painted artwork " and most of all faced to the left ,NOT as Shown . my first ship came with clear parts along with translucent white plastic main parts and a lot of mini lights , that whent everywhere ; saucer main hull , dorsel , secondary hull and warp nacelles which ran off 2 D cell batteries and you had to twist the forward section of the secondary hull and scanner dish to turn on the lights . the Klingon D-7 was a great let down , smaller and fewer lights and less details .
Klingon 1701 You might be thinking of the TMP Enterprise refit kit AMT did in 1979. That one had bulbs for saucer lights and rainbow stickers for the warp engines. Both it and the original 18" kit had secondary hull mounted batteries. The refit used bigger cells.
The original kit had 4 lights. Nacelles, upper saucer and lower saucer. The 2nd edition in the same box had 2 lights only for the saucer sections. The third edition in the same box had no lights.
I have built three kits back in the early and mid '70s. The first one I had was the second "long box" kit with the lighting kit for the upper/lower saucer domes an the nacelle domes. The missing section of your long box would have had the overhead diagram of the Starship Enterprise with the Aircraft carrier Enterprise for size comparison. Some one may have clipped it out for a 'pocket reference'. The other were from the short box. No light kit and the nacelle domes were solid white plastic. The third kit was decaled as the U.S.S. Exeter. I did noticed that the decals of the later kits were not accurate and seemed compressed to fit the decal sheet.
Regarding the short box kits: I found out the hard way that there was apparently some overlap in boxes and the changes in the plastic. I picked up a kit, still shrinkwrapped, of a kit in a box still sporting the old kit S951 number and jacket offer. Open it up, and it's the 6676 plastic. So, kids, be extra cautious when dealing with kits "still unopened". There might still be a surprise inside...
That's likely due to an unscrupulous seller with access to a shrink-wrap machine to pass a model off as something it is not. 6676 didn't come around until Ertl owned AMT and I have never seen the light gray plastic with clear domes pop up in an S951 box.
@@JMChladek weirdly enough, it's white plastic and green domes.
@@CaptRobertApril If it is white plastic with green domes, it is S951. The green domes were used up until Ertl bought AMT. Some light blue plastic kits (with green domes) were produced right before AMT was owned by Lesney Matchbox and continued through that period. The vast majority of the small box S951 kits are white plastic and all had green domes.
@@JMChladek The mold is most definitely 6676. It's been in storage for a while, so I might be misremembering it a bit, but the big thing is that a later mold was in an older box. The morale of the story is, don't trust the box.
Upon further review, and some idle browsing on eBay, I happened across precisely the same thing I got, a 6676 in white plastic with green domes in a S951 box. Make of this what you will... www.ebay.com/itm/324326702792?ul_noapp=true
@LoRezJim I've also seen a first box art version of the Aurora kit as well. Granted I don't know if it was available in the UK (the one I saw I believe was issued in Canada), but it was offered. Those kits are pretty hard to find these days though as I sure as heck don't have the budget to acquire one. :)
seemed like a real piece of star trek. buying and bringing this home was magical. I had 12 of these enterprises and I couldn't get the nacelle struts to line up right or the glue wouldn't dry fast enough. I tried everything. It was years later that a better nacelle strut method was employed but This is way past my model phase. I also had a couple klingon cruisers. Those strangely enough came in black plastic color. While kind of cool, I really wanted white (Like the show).
Hi Jay!
Gosh--this kit somehow seems VERY familiar to me?!?!?
Thanks for taking the time to go over these kit differences. Lots of very tedious work on your part! Very valuable info for collectors! -Paul (SFAM 1-4 author)
I was surprised to see...or rather, NOT see, any reference to the Bar Code/UPC Label. Whether or not there is one anywhere on the box would be your first clue as to the era of the kit. The very first product to have a Bar Code on the packaging was WRIGLEY'S GUM in June of 1974, with other manufacturers progressively adopting it throughout the remainder of the 70s. If an AMT Model Kit box has a Bar Code, you can bet it's 1974 or later!
If I recall correctly, we didn't really start to see bar codes on kits until about the early to mid 1980s. Given that all the (what I term) "long box" kits were products of well before the UPC code period, there are other tells to look for. Thanks for bringing that up though as I was curious as to when the first bar codes came out.
I also had the original Star Trek Model Kit made by A.M.T. with the lighting kit and this is what I am looking for ... does anyone know the model number?
@brightonandhove1968 Yup, that matches my research as I understand the Aurora bussards were more yellow in color compared to the orange AMT ones. I assume the Aurora kit had no lights in it? I've never seen an Aurora example with lights fitted (either long or tall box versions). I've also heard that the Aurora boxes said "As seen on BBC TV" instead of "NBC TV".
What's the clicking noise in your video?
Unfortunately I do not know of a source. I wish there was one though as then I could build a later long box model to look like an LB2 version with nacelle lights without having to search for a real LB2 to do it from. There are a few resin clear red casted and some clear casted domes out there though, even if they don't have the pedigree of the originals (and they probably fit better).
HI, I had an enterprise model when I was a kid in the 60's that had lighted domes on the top and bottom. I would like to relive my childhood by buying that model. Could you please tell me what model number that was. Thanks
Frank Della Rossa Your kit likely was an S921 kit (what I call a "long box 1") since that is the only version that I know of which just had the saucer lights. The LB2 kit (the first S951 kit) had lights for both the saucer and warp nacelles.
Can you tell me what scale a AMT 1966 Star Trek Enterprise is. I need to buy a full set of decals.
THANKS
Frank Della Rossa It is typically listed as 1/650 scale.
Question; what are the hole for on the end of the nacelle pylons? I just came across what I think is the 1973 release of the U.S.S. Enterprise kit in that long box.
Wow, you did History of the AMT Enterprise ??? I love that article !!!
Aurora actually came up with the first U.S.S. Enterprise as well as AMT later on. For some reason, AMT won the bid and
used Aurora's molds Aurora models were produced and sold outside of the U.S. and AMT had Star Trek exclusivity for
the U.S. Market for years. Yes, I did see a Aurora model kit in the box. You can see the insulated wires for the lights.
I must say that the quality of the kit was much better than the AMT version (Aurora had much better artisans).
Randall Williams The Enterprise kit was ALWAYS AMT's design and it was because they had a working relationship going back to season 1 of Trek. The building of the exterior set piece for the shuttle Galileo was funded (and built at a hot rod shop) by AMT partly in exchange for getting the license to do a kit. Aurora did design a kit and that was the Spock with snakes model. AMT had the US license, Aurora had the Canada and Europe license, so they swapped kits, resulting in AMT being able to sell Aurora designed Spock kits in the US and Aurora being able to sell AMT designed Enterprise kits in Europe and Canada.
Ok, I saw the document again and read it more carefully. Aurora slightly altered the molds to segment the engine nacelles into two separate sections near the middle. Looking at the photograph now of the kit on the sprues in the opened box.
Yes, I see the black wires with small bulbs on the end of each wire. 4 leads in all.
It is probably me making that noise while talking. Its a habit I've tried to reduce in my later videos.
The first one i got had a lighting package.
You should also say that the bar code on the box @ 12:56 came in the 1980's because in the 1960's, they didn't have that kind of technology. Besides, you say the fit on the old kit wasn't good. My dad has his and it's more perfect than the later edition.
Nice informative video, i had and 'original' 80/90's amt/ertl enterprise which i got for one xmas as a kid the one that was molded in grey plastic, alas it got thrown out many years ago (it wasn't very well painted as i was a kid when i built it)
had i known better i may have kept it to restor. recently got one of the repro one, which is sadly seemingly poorer quality, has a lot of excess sprue on the saucer section, + its made in china sadly as opposed to the USA made kit i got as a kid :(
The repo model is NOT like an original kit from 66. One main difference is, there is no dome at the end of the engine's.
Yes, but it is very difficult to spot that with parts in a box on a relatively low res eBay photo. If a kit is right in front of you with an open box, it is very easy to see. There are other visual cues on the bigger parts that are easier to pick out at a glance (hence the video).
Good information there. Have a look at my video of the 66 Enterprise and 67
Alien Battle Cruiser kits for some more interesting facts on the history of these models.
Excellent
This was great information - Thanks! I surfed in here because I kept the box top for a model I built a long time ago. I have an AMT S951 box top in excellent condition.
I never new their where so many releases .
Thank You
Craigslist...hah! Such a relic these days.
Hello, I have just come across a early 1966 star trex enterprise model during a clearance. i have listed it on Ebay as not really my thing. It has kit no 921-300 on. Unlike the early reproduction box you have showing it does not say AMT but Aurora and made in Canada. Anyway its now on Ebay and hopefully of interest to a collector.
Cheers, Jon
PS, I am in England but have listed it with worldwide post so you should be able to see it if its of interest.
The demand for the AMT kit was so huge in 1966 that AMT licensed Aurora to produce the kit in Canada for the Canadian market. The original price of the Canadian made kit was 3 dollars. The price for the US made kit in Canada was $ 3.20 Canadian. So by manufacturing in Canada they cut 20 cents off the price of the kit. I remember having both the original AMT Kit and the Aurora one. There was also a version made in England that had the identical box, however it said "from the BBC series" on the side of the box and was molded in England; probably by Humbrol.
You have a rare kit.
With the 2 watt dome light.