With the 1966 deal, AMT is one of the earliest known, if not the earliest, companies to hold an official license to produce Star Trek-related merchandise on a commercial basis and therefore one of the cornerstones of what was later recognized as the "Star Trek franchise". As it still holds the license as of 2019, AMT is presently also the oldest and longest surviving franchise partner of Star Trek.
Troy, Michigan-based AMT started out in 1948 as a manufacturer of model cars and trucks, both as model kits and as finished display pieces made for marketing purposes. Model kits became the company's core product line in the mid-1960s and Star Trek models were the company's first foray into producing products other than automobile and truck kits. In a reflection of this, AMT needed a company to build both full-scale and scaled automobile mock-ups (typically out of wood at the time) to promotional ends, as well as to manufacture the templates or masters in order to construct the molds from which the parts for their model kits were extracted or cast. To this end they asked Gene Winfield to start and head a subsidiary company, Speed and Custom Division Shop. Set up in Phoenix Arizona, Speed & Custom Shop, the more commonly used abbreviation, started operations in 1966.
AMT ended its existence as an independent company in 1977 when it was acquired by Lesney Products, the owner of Matchbox. In 1981, the die-cast toy and model kit manufacturer Ertl Company acquired AMT from Lesney and established the AMT/Ertl brand and logo in 1982.
The AMT/Ertl brand came to an end in 1999 when the company was acquired by Racing Champions, now known as RC2 Corporation. The combined company was then re-branded as Racing Champions/ERTL. However, the acquiring company was traditionally a toy and die-cast model manufacturing company, and had no affinity with model kits, the production of which virtually halted after AMT/Ertl was taken over. The company redefined its mission in 2003 and AMT/Ertl was split into its original components, ERTL originally being a die-cast model manufacturer. In 2007, AMT was sold to Round 2 LLC, its current owner.
Since then, after a hiatus of nearly a decade, AMT model kits were again released on a regular basis, though the majority of them are actually re-releases of previously released kits, with relatively few newly conceived kits sprinkled in.
Star Trek association
Galileo shuttlecraft model kit
AMT was given the rights in 1966 to produce models based on the show in exchange for helping out Desilu Studios with the construction of set pieces when needed. Stephen Poe was instrumental in brokering the deal, who in return was also given free access to the studio lot which eventually resulted in the book The Making of Star Trek. The details of the deal were negotiated by Edwin Perlstein, Director of Business Affairs at Desilu, and Don Beebe of AMT, and closed successfully on 1 August 1966, starting the decades-long association between the franchise and the model kit company, which thereby became the very first recorded franchise partner. For Producer Robert H. Justman, this was a godsend as the production costs for the upcoming episode "The Galileo Seven" were spiraling out of control, as he stated in a memo he sent Roddenberry, evidently relieved, "'[Perlstein] has made what I consider a very advantageous deal and has accomplished this at a time when everyone thought all was lost." (These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One, 1st ed, p. 304) Through their subsidiary at the time, Speed & Custom Shop, AMT was called upon to construct the studio model of the GalileoClass F shuttlecraft as well as the full scale interior and exterior mock-ups.
Also produced at the Speedshop was the studio model of the KlingonD7-class, which originated from the desire of AMT to do a follow-up of the very successful USS Enterprise model kit – over a million copies sold at that time according to Matt Jefferies (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 2, Issue 9, p. 66). Specifically designed for AMT by Jefferies, who also created the construction blueprints for the previous and subsequent outing in the Star Trek model kit line, one of the two solid wooden "master tooling models" (templates for the molds from which the production model kits were to be cast) fabricated, was immediately appropriated by the studio (struggling at the time with severe budget cuts) for use as filming model in the third season of Star Trek: The Original Series, betraying its origin as a master for model kit manufacturing by not having internal lighting rig. The Enterprise and D7 model kits were the only model kits released while the series was still running, before its cancellation in 1969.
During the period 1966-1972, AMT chose not to market the Star Trek name outside of the US themselves. During that period, Aurora, another noted model kit company, leased AMT's molds and released the models outside of the US. The molds were the same and even the packaging was, besides the imprint, virtually identical. Legally though, Aurora's releases of the four models were not associated with AMT. The Aurora Spock figure kit actually started out as a company original, but a reciprocal leasing agreement gave AMT the exclusive rights to release the figure in the US. AMT bought the Spock figure's tooling from Aurora in 1976.
It should be noted that it was Matt Jefferies who drew up the construction plans for the first three outings in AMT's Star Trek model kit line, that of the Galileo included, in his spare time and in initial conjuncture with Poe, but that both men were excluded from any and all royalties arrangements resulting from their hugely successful sales. (Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, 1997, p. 173) From this it could be inferred that the Galileo model kit was slated for a release during the production of the Original Series, but that its cancellation had postponed the release until its renewed popularity in syndication.
The company retained the license through the 1970s, and, at the time owned by Lesney (1977-1981), eventually produced kits for Star Trek: The Motion Picture. In 1981, the company was bought by Ertl, becoming AMT/Ertl. In 1984, after having renegotiated the license the previous year, the new combination began releasing Star Trek model kits, starting with reissues of some of the previously marketed kits under a new numbering system. The company began a true expansion of their Star Trek line with kits based on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine models followed in the 1990s, as well as more ships from the subsequent eight motion pictures. During the live-action Star Trek production in the Berman-era, the company did not acquire the license for Star Trek: Voyager, which went to Revell-Monogram, nor for Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek Nemesis and Star Trek: Discovery, which went to later sister company Polar Lights. The last "new" AMT kits of the Berman-era were released by 1999, all of them essentially reissues. Later that year the company was acquired by Racing Champions.
Releases of Star Trek model kits went dormant as the new parent company was trying to decide in what direction it would evolve. A half-hearted attempt to revive the line occurred when re-releases were announced, of which only four were marketed in 2005 under its original brand "AMT/Ertl", though the company by that time was already split up in its two original components. Those four kits were the only releases of the AMT line that were marketed in eight years. However, in 2007, AMT changed hands yet again, this time acquired by Polar Lights owner Round 2 under whose ownership AMT (sporting the original imprint of AMT) started the run of re-releases in 2008 with a commemorative edition of its very first Enterprise model kit – (though the Enterprise kit was not a reissue of the original kit, but was instead a reissue of the model from much later renditions of the tooling, and was substantially different from the original AMT Enterprise model from 1966.) Being presently a sister company, Polar Lights, occasionally releases accessories sets at the behest of AMT in order to enable their customers to customize their Star Trek kits. The relationship between the two was further strengthened when the Star Trek box-art was synchronized for the model kit releases of both companies from 2018 onward.
Assembled 2016 Ships of the Line pre-painted models
In 2010, Round 2 sub-licensed the manufacture of four former AMT/Ertl Star Trek model kits, representing the Enterprise's B through E, to model kit company Platz Co., Ltd. as limited editions for the Japanese market only. All four of them The Next Generation related, these kits were issued to commemorate the series' 20th anniversary first time airing in Japan and marketed as "Platz-AMT/ERTL" products; they were released prior to AMT/Round 2's own reissues that started later that year. To date, Platz has been the only company that has been given an international model kit sub-license, as Round 2 LLC administers the international marketing of their products themselves.
Remarkably and as of 2022, no truly new Star Trek model kit designs, excepting the 2017 AMT953 F-104 Starfighter kit, have been released by AMT ever since the line was revitalized under new ownership, when discounting the rescaled and/or remolded kit releases based off pre-existing kits – which the Star Trek version of the F-104 Starfighter actually also is [1]; instead Round 2 LLC has apparently appointed Polar Lights as the lead company to market such new releases.
The history and development of the AMT Star Trek line was featured in the "Star Trek" episode of The Toys That Made Us in 2018. In the documentary collectors and toy experts alike, favorably credit AMT as the first bonafide Star Trek merchandise company, as their 1966-1972 releases were not only closely associated with Star Trek, but also highly accurate for the times, in stark contrast to, for example, the contemporary toy releases of Remco. Former Star Trek production staffer, but then "Trekkie", Doug Drexler spoke for all his contemporaries when he commented on the first kit release, that of the USS Enterprise, "[T]he model kit was pretty close. It was the best thing that we had. I still remember vividly opening it up, and being able to be intimite with all the little parts of the Enterprise, I mean the impulse engines, the intercoolers, you know where the bridge was. To actually be able to see these things, I was flipping out!" Gene Winfield has also made an appearance in the documentary, commenting on his company's contributions to the AMT releases. The documentary ends with the conclusion that, of all the Star Trek toys and models ever made, it were the various incarnations of the USS Enterprise – perceived as the real star of Star Trek – that captured the imagination of generations of Star Trek fans in particular, first and foremost, as well as starting with, the first original AMT model kit.
Collector's edition; re-issue of S952; tin box with poster box-art; cast in light-green with chrome parts. New Decal sheet. Holes for lighting the head removed, 2 grills removed from top of 'wing', 2 small lights on 'head' made much smaller
AMT720
Re-issue of S952; cast in light-green with chrome parts; new decal sheet, as with AMT699 holes for lighting the head removed, 2 grills removed from top of 'wing', 2 small lights on 'head' made much smaller
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Moulding has inaccurate panel lines added from this issue onward, causing the original issue to be called the 'smoothie'
The USS Constellation as seen in TOS: "The Doomsday Machine" is an AMT model kit, No. S921, appropriately battle-damaged. The ship was given the registry NCC-1017, mostly because it was simple to rearrange the model's decal sheet and was the first time the reciprocal arrangement between AMT and the studio panned out in one of AMT's model kits showing up on screen.
Parts of AMT model kits were sometimes used by visual effects houses to embellish their professional studio models. An early example is the use of a warp nacelle from the Romulan warbird model kit and two nacelle caps of the USS Enterprise-D model kit used as features underneath Industrial Light & Magic's SD-103 studio model in The Undiscovered Country. [3] The Romulan warbird nacelle model part also doubled as a medical device used by Julian Bashir in DS9: "Visionary". Coincidentally, the Romulans were the main adversaries in the episode.
AMT/Ertl 30th Anniversary bonus posters
1995-1996
For the occasion of Star Trek's 30th anniversary, AMT/Ertl commissioned the production of two cutaway posters of the USS Enterprise-A and USS Enterprise-D and inserted those in their 1995-1996 model kit issues as a bonus. Which one was included was indicated by a sticker on the packaging. The artwork was done by C. Bruce Morser. As with the similar Sci-Pub Tech publications, the cutaway posters are not considered canon.
Set decorator James Mees used a colorfully repainted Hallmark "Keepsake" USS Voyager and a Klingon Bird-of-Prey for Miral Paris' baby crib mobile in VOY: "Prophecy". The mobile's Klingon D7-class battle cruiser was made from a small plastic model from the AMT Star Trek 3-Piece Space Ship Set.
The Enterprise AMT and Polar Lights models on the Young Sheldon set; unseen is that of the Enterprise-D to the right
Two AMT modelkits have made an interaction with a Star Trek parody and pop culture production. In the The Big Bang Theory television franchise kits S951 (USS Enterprise, alongside a Polar Lights model of the refit-Enterprise) and 6619 (USS Enterprise-D), or one of their many respective reissues, were featured in the Young Sheldon spin-off series as set dressing, suspended from a bedroom set ceiling. Remarkably, no AMT modelkits had hitherto been featured in the longrunning, otherwise heavily Star Trek referencing franchise.
The Leif Ericson
The confusing combined advertising in AMT's 1975 Hobby Shop Catalog
In 1974 AMT included an Interplanetary U.F.O. Mystery Ship into the Star Trek line, thereby suggesting that the design was part of the Star Trek universe, though it was not, its combined advertising on the box sides, pamphlets and catalogs of the time notwithstanding, a somewhat questionable industry practice known as "label slapping". (The Toys That Made Us; see also in this regard: Remco) It had, as one contemporary Star Trek collector put it in later life, "(...) confused the heck out of me as a kid." [4] Nonetheless, it did have some behind-the-scenes Star Trek connections.
Firstly, the U.F.O. Mystery Ship was originally designed as the Leif Ericson "Galactic Cruiser" by Original Series Art Director Matt Jefferies (with the forward bridge module having more than a passing resemblance of the conning tower of his SS Botany Bay) for an abandoned science fiction model kit line project named "Strategic Space Command." [5] The concept was thought up by Jefferies together with his friend Stephen Edward Poe. [6](X) AMT's idea behind backing the project – desiring to capitalize on the success of their first Star Trek model kits – was to release a series of science fiction themed kits accompanied by a worked-out "mini" background story and eventually create a Strategic Space Command universe, beefed out with an accompanying line of model kits. [7] AMT eventually released the model in 1968 as kit No. S954. When released, AMT had music recording studio Auravision even record a soundtrack as Sounds of Outer Space with a narrator speaking over futuristic sound effects with poetic lines like, "To be afraid and not care that you are afraid is the courage of which astronauts are made", and which came as a cardboard record with the initial release of the model. [8] The original kit was considered a commercial failure though, and the project fell apart.
"The Slaver Weapon" storyboards, featuring the Leif Ericson design
Secondly, according to Michael Okuda the design, being a Jefferies design, was seriously considered to be part of the Star Trek universe when it was briefly considered to make an appearance in Star Trek: The Animated Series, already showing up in several preliminary storyboards. [9](X)[10] However, it took the publication of the 2019 reference bookStar Trek: The Official Guide to the Animated Series to somewhat nuance Okuda's recollections; on page 108 it was stated that the series layout/storyboard artist, Robert Kline, had drawn Jefferies' design in his storyboards for the episode "The Slaver Weapon" as mere placeholders for the then yet-to-be conceived long range shuttlecraftCopernicus. A bonafide appearance of the design proper therefore, has more than likely never been considered in earnest.
In a ploy to recuperate their investments, AMT reissued the model kit twice more, now designated Interplanetary U.F.O. Mystery Ship, molded in phosphorescent plastic to achieve a glow-in-the-dark effect. It was the first 1974 reissue that became the attempt to marry the design into the Star Trek franchise through combined advertising, and was therefore timed to coincide with the airing of the The Animated Series, though its appearance there never came to fruition. Still, AMT's latest owner, Round 2 LLC, opted to reissue the kit twice more as well, starting in 2009 with the 1975 retro reissue edition, followed in 2011 by the original 1968 Leif Ericson retro reissue edition.
The Leif Ericson as the Pegasus
Jefferies himself, though, appeared to have been quite taken with his Leif Ericson and was not yet ready to let go of his design when he resubmitted it in 1973 as the "hyperspace carrier" Pegasus while working as production designer for legendary science fiction movie maker George Pal for his proposed War of the Worlds television series, an intended follow-up of his classic 1953 Paramount PicturesWar of the Worlds movie. Unfortunately, like the Strategic Space Command concept, the proposed series did not come to fruition, even though the series was briefly reconsidered four years later by Paramount for its projected fourth television network as a backup for Star Trek: Phase II, which was to serve as its flagship and on which Jefferies was now working. (Star Trek Movie Memories, 1995, p. 59; [11](X)) For this occasion he redesigned the shuttlecraft that came with the original model kit, and its redesigned configuration served as the basis for the refit-Galileo shuttlecraft design for the ultimately abandoned Phase II television project. However, it too did not come to fruition as Enterprise shuttlecraft were not featured in the first four Star Trek films.
Jefferies' design officially featured in Star Trek at last, courtesy Drexler and Koerner
Additionally, according to Doug Drexler, the design of the Leif Ericson was a co-influence on the design of the SS Conestoga, "The Conestoga is a colony transport ship with a slight design echo of the old DY-100, Greg Jein's Star Trek Chronology ship, the Valiant, and the Poe/Jefferies Lief [sic.] Erickson." [12](X) In 2014 though, Drexler, a huge admirer of Jefferies, seized upon the opportunity to have the design finally featured in a live-action production, when he, together with Gabriel Koerner, built a CGI model of the design which was featured as an Orion ship in the second episode "Lolani" of the fan film series Star Trek Continues. [13] Koerner used his co-build a year later for his May entry in the 2015 Star Trek: Ships of the Linecalendar, appropriately called "Leif Ericson", finally introducing the design into the official franchise, albeit in a licensed print production only.
