Friday, November 12, 2015Contributed by Matthew HackettA new company was formed in Troy Michigan when lawyer West Gallogly, Sr. decided to start “Aluminum Model Toys” as a side project to his legal work for Ford Motor Company. Aluminum quickly became plastic, and the name was shortened to AMT. Many early models were promotional—sometimes given away at a dealership after a test drive. Ford vehicles were featured initially, and by the mid-50’s other car companies as well. According to Wikipedia, in the early 1950s, George Toteff became in charge of operations.With Headquarters in Troy, and production in Fraser and Troy on Maple Road, by the 1960’s AMT was producing hundreds of thousands of 1:25 scale models. Part of the ramp-up of production was the purchase of Birmingham-based Scale Model Projects (SMP)—who produced annual 3 in 1 kits (stock, custom, or racing). Kit production attracted more manufacturing, and even mini-biographies of full-scale automobile customizers.In the late 1960’s...
