As a teenager in the 60's the now horribly tacky television shows of producer Quinn Martin were not to be missed. Amongst them was the show The Invaders. This was done in the days before anything close to sophisticated special effects were available, so the plots tended to be very much the same and the effects similarly over-used. However, we stayed glued to the sets to see what was coming next.

Back in these days, plastic models were a major player in the toy and hobby industry. Unlike the waning days we are currently experiencing, the 'big boys' of Revell, Aurora, Monogram, and AMT were all selling just about everything they could produce. Monogram and Aurora were very big into doing kits based on popular television programs. It is from there that you get the Flying Sub, the Seaview, Spindrift, and an plethora of other TV based kits that included the UFO.

Several have written to me in the last day or so to tell me that this was probably an old Aurora kit that was part of the batch taken over when Monogram bought them out. I can believe it, though it is quite well molded for an old Aurora kit!

The kit itself is surprisingly made to a real scale, in this case 1/72. A lot of parts it does not have, but it really really does not need them. The kit is as mythical as the S4 UFO that Testors produced many years ago, only this time the aliens were very much like humans in size and form. The kit itself consists of very few parts. There are inner walls that fit into the central saucer section with chairs placed in front of various sections. There are also two inner walls that turn the central part into five sections. You are also given four figures that can be placed in various parts of the interior. The roof is designed so you don't have to glue it in place to show off the interior. Underside there are five landing legs and five red discs that serve, I guess, as the propulsion generators (or something).

The instruction sheet is actually quite small though complete. You can build the saucer 'in flight' if you so wish and that is really the only option given. There are some painting instructions given, but those are mostly for the interior of the kit. You are told to paint the outside 'to match the box art'. Actually, I 'd think that a metallic of some sort would be appropriate.

So there you have it. Is there anything particularly bad about the kit? Well yes. For some reason, all of the mold release marks are on the inside of the various wall consoles and on the outside of the detail on the underside (got that?). That means that you must laboriously and very carefully figure out how to fill them without trashing the detail that is there. Of course, back in those days, we didn't worry about such things and just painted over them, but nowadays we do care and they must be fixed.

Boomers will like this kit as they remember the TV shows. Collectors will want it as the originals from 1966 are VERY expensive. Sci-fi types will want it.....well, because it is sci-fi. The rest of us who like it do so because it is cool and looks like a UFO! Even beginners will like it because it doesn't have many parts.

Review kit courtesy of me and my wallet!

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