Kits and Caboodles: Returning to a Hobby from My Youth

Reliving the past is certainly the focus of my endeavors here.  During my teenage years, one of my more devoted hobbies was building model kits, primarily those featuring vehicles and scenes from movies and television shows.  Back then, I was a modeler of average skill and was generally happy with my efforts.  But assembled model kits are fragile things and sadly, they did not survive the multiple moves of my early adulthood.

Over the past number of years I have returned to the hobby, with the specific goal of revisiting many of the kits I built in those earlier years.  Fortunately, many of these products have been reissued in recent decades with others being generally not difficult to find via eBay and collectible retailers.  My modelling skills have improved greatly and I am very much enjoying my return to the hobby.

Some of the earliest kits I purchased were from the Addar Planet of the Apes series, released in the early 1970s. I  modeled General Ursus (Beneath the Planet of the Apes) and General Aldo (Battle for the Planet of the Apes).  The series also included Cornelius (Beneath the Planet of the Apes), Dr. Zaius (Beneath the Planet of the Apes), Zira (Planet of the Apes), Caesar (Battle for the Planet of the Apes) and the Stallion and Soldier (Planet of the Apes).  Polar Lights reissued Cornelius, Zaius, Zira and Ursus in the early 2000s under the Aurora brand.  I purchased all four at the time and squirreled them away, finally returning to them in my recent modeling.

 I was inspired to work on General Ursus first, as I remember being totally in love with the kit as a kid.  The simple brick wall building ruins captured my post apocalyptic imagination.  In returning to the kit, I decided to embellish on that theme.  I ditched the tree limbs, built up a pile of rubble and added a Fallout Shelter sign to further emphasize the bomb-destroyed ruins of New York City from Beneath the Planet of the Apes,  The overall aesthetic ran a bit darker than I intended, but I was more or less pleased with the result.

 

I don't remember for certain if I owned the original Addar Cornelius kit, but if I did, I don't remember ever building it.  My skills had ramped up some in the few years between Ursus and my recent build of the Aurora Cornelius reissue.  I went for a straight build with no modifications; the base was especially well done, featuring the crumbling ruins of the New York Stock Exchange (an interesting choice on the designer's part as the character of Cornelius never visited the New York ruins in any of the films).

I still have the Zaius and Zira kits to complete, and I managed to track down an original Addar General Aldo that I am excited to revisit.  Caesar and the Stallion and Soldier kits were never reissued and are exceptionally rare and beyond my budget.