Hudson Miniatures 1/16 1906 Columbia Electric Old Timers

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Hudson Miniatures 1/16 1906 Columbia Electric Old Timers plastic model kit

1/16 Hudson Miniatures 1906 Columbia Electric Old Timers

Wood Model Kit,   Box Condition: VG+

Dated 1949 and very well detailed for that time. Big scale kit features numerous die-cut and machined-to-shape wooden parts, beautiful plastic wheels, leaf spring assemblies and lanterns and a number of metal parts, accessories and die-cut cardstock. The kit has never been started. The parts have been inventoried 100% complete and includes large, excellent, detailed plans with instructions. The Columbia Electric was manufactured by the Electric Vehicle Co. of Hartford, Conn. It had a 1.5 HP motor with chain drive and three speeds. It cost $1350 in 1906 and tipped the scales at 1660 pounds. We think of electric cars as 'new' today but they are anything but. There were many advantages (and manufacturers) of these cars. There were no fuel lines and radiators to freeze in the winter and no overheating in the summer. They used no smelly gasoline and produced no odor when operated. The complete lack of noise made them popular with the ladies and the range was between 40 and 50 miles on a charge - not bad at all considering you could not very far anyway (on regular business or errands) in 1906. Hudson Miniatures created a very popular line of automobile kits in a constant 1/16 scale shortly after WWII. The kits sold very well...so well that you could argue that Gowland & Gowland borrowed Hudson's subject matter for their ground-breaking 'Highway Pioneers.' The Hudson Miniatures 'Old Timers' even spawned a line of imitators, with Fador's 'Smallster' being one of the better in quality. Sales did drop on the appearance and popularity of the much smaller (and less accurate) Gowland/Revell 'Highway Pioneers' in 1951. When the all-injection molded Gowland kits proved not to be a passing fad, Hudson quickly planned and released his own all-plastic, small-scale competition called 'Lil' Old Timers Quickie Kits.' The kits were of excellent quality, but it was too little too late. Additionally, sales of the excellent wooden kits faltered further in the next few years with the introduction of accurate, 1/24 and 1/32 all-plastic cars in the mid 1950s. This forced Hudson to discontinue the wood kits and the plastic line was sold to Revell and subsequently re-released. Today, these excellent, big 1/16 kits are often the only model available of these early automobiles. In the mid 1960s Aurora thought so highly of Hudson Miniatures that they purchased the wood kit assets and released a very small number of these in all-plastic models.

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