Where I lived, Heller was unknown. It was only in my early teenage years that I was introduced to them, along with the beginnings of the Japanese influx of aircraft kits, and that was mostly order-by-mail from Squadron Shop, a place you might have taken a bit for granted being somewhat local to you, Paul. GRIN!

The only Heller kit that sticks in memory was a Potez 63, a nice kit of a very pretty aircraft.

By then, these weren't the stuff of childhood but the seriousness of teenage years. By then, Frog was gone. There was the early Aoshima stuff that came into the US under MRC's label, the 1/32 scale stuff from Revell, even Monogram's 1/48, all stuff I could only dream of affording if we even knew about it when I was staring at poly-bags or the little boxes of Airfix as a child.

I never seriously strayed from airplanes, though. No car kits, armour, ships or Aurora monsters (remember those?) My nostalgia was formulated by the aircraft kits of childhood; perhaps odd but no real desire to even build the stuff from teenage years again, but I will gleefully tackle a Frog Tomahawk or and Airfix Sopwith Camel.

GRIN!