What the heck is that? – The AMT Enterprise at 55
by Glen Swanson
By mid September 1966, the ink had barely dried on the contract signed between Desilu Studios and the AMT Corporation to produce an 18-inch injection molded plastic model kit of the starship Enterprise.
Less than a month after the first episode of Star Trek premiered on NBC on September 8, 1966, AMT produced its first catalog to pass out at the fall model kit toy fairs. Front and center among the model cars shown on their catalog cover is a new model called simply “No. 921 Space Ship.” AMT did not even choose to associate the odd looking model with the new television series only to suggest that it retail for $1.70. Only folks fortunate enough to watch the new show on their grainy b&w TVs or read about it in the media would know what the heck they were looking at.
AMT may have been intentionally vague as to the identity of its new space ship model for a reason. By the time the dies were cast for the new model, there were no guarantees that the show would succeed. AMT may have just been more than a little uncertain that the model would fly as it is entirely within the realm of possibility that the show could be cancelled after only a few episodes had aired. This has happened before and is entirely within the right of the sponsoring network. After all, this was NBC’s show. Desilu Studios was just the provider.
This is one in a series of original postings created to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the very first Star Trek model kit. In June of 1967, Michigan-based Aluminum Model Toys (AMT) Corporation began selling an 18-inch injection-molded model of the starship Enterprise. Before the year was out, AMT would sell over a million copies of the kit. Since that first release, AMT and its successors went on to release at least 23 unique kits making it one of the longest running and most successful Star Trek licensees in the history of the franchise. A close-to-the-original 1:650 scale model kit is still being manufactured and sold through Round2 LLC, the current AMT licensee. Just in time to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the kit’s first release, Round2 has reissued the kit in the more commonly seen second long box (S951) form that first appeared in 1968 which features on the box top an assembled model kit orbiting the Earth.
