Anyone Remember the MPF History Kits

Have you tried

Keep in mind those kits were 1/76 (OO scale) and not 1/87 (HO scale) if you are going to use them with model railroad or ROCO items.

Cookie Sewell

Weren't those solely MPC's creation?

Yup, all they did was combine Airfix military kits, figure sets and buildings with a vacuformed base. Cheap and effective for its time.

Cookie Sewell

I loved the MPC Historama kits, and have re-collected all of them - I had to find mine on Ebay, so I'm sorry I don't have better advice for the original poster. When I got back into the hobby as an adult, the MPC Guadalcanal set with the M3 Lee and Japanese Infantry was one of the first things I tracked down. There was also a series that was done and sold by Airfix, which predated the MPC sets - but used the same formula of vacuform base, armor or aircraft model, and a set of figures.

MPC of course eventually did the giant size sets - Tank Battle at Alamein, Commandos Strike at Dawn, and two different Normandy sets. These had multiple vehicles, larger vac bases, and buildings/ emplacements in some cases ("Waterloo Farmhouse" serving as a Normandy villa).

ESCI and Hasegawa both also dabbled in this formula - the Hasegawa WWII dioramas were excellent, and the ESCI sets fetch some of the highest prices on Ebay, due their relative scarcity.

Bless 'em all, they were a ton of fun and play value for a kid, and we'll probably not see their like again.

Chris Kansas City

he MPC sets - but used the

There was also a series done by (of all manufacturers!!!) Tonka, the toy truck concern. I saw a few, a Wright Flyer diorama, a Spirit of St. Louis and a 1850s railroad diorama, the last od which I have. These were larger scale, maybe 1:72, although that Pioneer locomotive appears to be 1:48. I'm not sure offhand which other dioramas were offered, but I do know that they're were maybe ten in all.

Were they actually kits or the ready-made vehicles Airfix also sold?

(kim)

I think my local shop may have had one of those old sets, but I have not been there since before Christmas.

I remember having a couple of those sets, one was a Pearl Harbor attack with a Zero model, US soldiers and the dio base had a crashed US plane. Another one was Normandy with a pill box and either a Sherman or panzer (prob Tiger). It may have had both tanks, not sure.

Rob

There was also a WWI diorama that showed a Sopwith Camel straiffing a downed German observation balloon.

Balloon Buster!! That set actually had the Spad - the Camel was in the Red Baron set, which also included the Fokker Tripe.

Here's great Airfix site with pictures of the original, Airfix-brand sets. These are different subjects than the MPC Historama series, but same concept. Excellent Airfix figure reference site.

Pictures of all the MPC sets (and a ton of other cool stuff) towards the bottom here:

Chris Kansas City

There were a whole pile of different ones in the MPC "Historama" series:

Pat

never saw one and i looked at everything.

These were the two I remember having:

My memory was pretty close on both sets.

Thanks for the link.

They are way down towards the bottom of the page:

Pat

This is a very fun kit also:

I'm petty sure it's 1/76 scale, not 1/72 scale. Eidai made a lot of interesting models, including a V-2 launch team that I had: Pat

i meant in reel life, ya maroon!

They weren't all that hot of kits; the vacuform base was pretty flimsy, and when they did things like that coast artillery battery, the detail on it wasn't up to their kits by a long shot. The German Secret Strongpoint on the other hand had a injection molded base, and with some work could probably be turned into a pretty nifty diorama. ROCO (the "Minitanks" company) did some basic injection molded diorama bases also, IIRC.

Pat

never saw those. i' haven't done a lot of diorams and i kept then simple. a section of autobahn with a partial bridge and a do 335 under with it's panels open.

Lest we forget, Aurora did a few of these types too. "Anzio" and "The Rat Patrol" are the two that I best recall.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.