Hausser - Super Constellation
Introduction
The toy company Hausser, located in Neustadt Germany, was well
known for its figures and issued under the Elastolin label in
the 1950's. They were made from a mixture of clay, saw dust and
glue - red indians, knights, castles, animals and appropriate
accessories. Later they switched to injection moulded plastic as
material. Hausser declared bankruptcy in 1983.The mould
production facilty was taken over by Preisser
[1].
I remember well these figures and accesoiries having had them as
a child about the end of the 50's /early 60's but they are out
of scope of my collecting activity today and therefore as well
of this website. But Hausser had one product that aroused my
interest as plastic kit collector: A plastic kit of a Lockheed
Super Constellation which is listed in John Burn's aircraft
plastic kit directory PAK-20
[2]. That was not known to be in my
youth. I assume I started a research about this kit in 2005 or
early 2006 but did not find any information neither in the internet nor in
the printed media. So I subscribed to a search in a well-known
auction platform. The first hit came in April 2006, but
not for the kit but for a board game from Hausser. Its name is
Flug um die Welt (Flight around the
World). The game figures were Super Constellations. The seller
showed a leaflet were a kit of a Super Constellation is to be
seen. which aroused my interest.
Picture 1: Picture of leaflet as presented in the auction. In
fact it is an ad on the passenger ticket of the game. For more details see the
Flug um die Welt page.
It was confirmed now that a Hausser kit really existed.
In 2007, 2008 and 2009 the Hausser Super Constellation was
offered in auctions but I considered them for too expensive just
for satisfying my historical curiosity so I did not buy one
[3].
Finally I found a copy that was a bargin compared with the
auctions quoted above (pictures 1-4, right). Beeing occupied
with research in other interesting kits I put it aside,
especially as I did not yet find any more background information
about this kit.
A breakthrough regarding historical information about this kit
came when I came about a reference book and price catalogue of
Hausser plastic figures and accesories in October 2016
[4]. That made is possible and justifies to upgrade this page
substantially, which I started in 2009 just having pictures of
the board game.
Review of the Kit
According to the reference book quoted above, the Hausser Super
Constellaion kit was issued in 1954 with the product code 2554,
see pictures 2-5 on the right. A built-up kit is pictured below.
The parts did not come on sprues but were stored loosely in the
box separated by cardboard inlays. Small parts and decals came
in transparent bags, see picture 4.
Scale of the kit is HO (1:87), see
[5]. The kit comes with cabin
interior, which can bee presented by removing the upper half of
the fuselage (see picture 8, below).
In 1957
there was issued a so called gift set with the product code 2555. The
parts were pre-painted and the decals were already applied. The parts
were neatly
secured by strings to an cardboard inlay.
There was also offered a ready built model which emerged only very rarely
in the collector's market according to
[4].
Both kits were offered side by side at first but ould not
be found anymore in the 1960 catalogue according to
[4].
The box of the pre-assembled kit is larger than that of the kit
proper. Therefore the reference books speaks of a "small"
and a "big" kit. Apart from the different interior both versions
exhibit a different graphical layout externally (see pictures
right). I have identified two different boxarts for the small kit
version. One with Lufthansa logo on the lower left corner and
one with the KLM-Logo, the latter of which I have in
my collection.
Picture 7: Detail from 1956
catalogue. See larger resolution with remarks
here).
|
|
Plastic Kits
Picture 2: Hausser Flugzeug Modellbaukasten product
no. 2554. Plastic kit of a
Lockeed Super Constallation.
Picture 3, below: Left
boxend. Both ©cjk
Picture 4 above: Hausser Flugzeug Modellbaukasten. Parts,
separated by cardboard inlays. ©cjk
Picture 5: Hausser Flugzeug Modellbaukasten product
no. 2555. Preassembled and prepainted kit of a Super
Constallation. ©tintoy
Picture 6: Hausser Flugzeug Modellbaukasten.
Parts are secured by strings to an cardboard inlay. ©tintoy
Picture 8: Boxtop of the Buil-up kit
pictured below shows lufthansa logo but only Super Constellation
as livery of the aircraft.
©T.D.
|