The model car "kit" hobby began in the post World War II era with Ace and Berkeley wooden model cars.

Revell pioneered the plastic model car in the late 1940s with their Maxwell kit, which was basically an unassembled version of a pull toy.

Derek Brand, from England, pioneered the first real plastic kit, a 1932 Ford Roadster for Revell. He was also known for developing a line of 1/32 scale model car kits in England for the Gowland brothers.

These kits were later introduced by Revell in the U.S. as the "Highway Pioneers" Series of kits (Funding Universe webpage; Gowland & Gowland 2007).

On the heels of the promotional model business, Aluminum Model Toys or AMT introduced model car kits in 1957.

Jo-Han, Revell and Monogram also started producing model car kits about this same time.

Most of these were known as "annual" kits, and were the unassembled kit version of the promotional models or 'promos' representing the new cars that were introduced at the beginning of each model year.

As early as 1962, avid British collector Cecil Gibson had even written a book on plastic model cars (Gibson 1962).

By the mid-1960s, plastic model kits had become more plentiful and varied, with increased level of detail. Typically, the kits often had opening hoods, separate engines and detailed suspension parts.