Model cars, a craze in the '60s , build a new following
By Noelle Chun
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| Thanks to "The Fast and the Furious" film series, model-car building has re-emerged as a popular hobby. Sunday's Pacific Basin Model Car Expo offers a chance to showcase your wheels.
Pacific Basin Model Car Expo 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Sunday Blaisdell Center, Pikake Room Free admission 754-1378 or 942-1799, www.himcc.org |
The chrome curves, the sharp glint of a smooth finish — the art is in extracting the rugged elegance of a regular car and compressing it into a 6-inch, 1:24 scale model. A plastic mini-beast, if you will.
Picking up one of the car kits, which costs $12 to $30, transforms an average Joe or Jane into an all-powerful demigod, able to configure cars without rupturing bank accounts.
The hobby, urged on by the advent of plastic, enjoyed its heyday during the '60s, when high school kids nationwide built the cars. While following decades brought less interest, the appeal seems to be on the rebound.
"It's been a lot more popular over the last year or so, especially with movies like 'Fast and the Furious,' '2 Fast 2 Furious,' and this Japanese anime series 'Initial D,' " said Aric Lum of collectors shop Toys n' Joys.
The Pacific Basin Model Car Expo celebrates the trend Sunday at Blaisdell Center.
Model-car enthusiasts can showcase their hottest wheels and enter them in a competition with 20 categories such as imports, hot rods, street machines and motorcycles. Admission to the expo is free, but there's a $5 entry fee to compete in the contest.
Kids can get into it as well, with Make It-Take it, an activity sponsored by Revell-Monogram, a model-car manufacturer. As the name suggests, the kids can build cars themselves and then take them home — for free.
Other attractions include a morning swap meet and a special guest from the Mainland who will demonstrate techniques to make model cars look their best.
Gregg Hutchings, the main man behind the expo, is editor of Honolulu-based Model Cars magazine, with 10,000 subscribers nationwide.
