Editing Revell (section)

====The Kustom 1960s====
Starting in the late 1950s, model kits began to veer away strongly from stock presentations and focus on customizing, hot rodding, and racing. The 1960s solidified this direction with almost infinite variations in how a kit could be built. This trend showed both the extensive new marketing reach of the hobby as well as the pervasive individuality portrayed in American car customizing.<ref>{{cite book |last = DeWitt |first = John |year = 2002 |title = Cool Cars, High Art: The Rise of Kustom Culture |location = Jackson |publisher = University Press of Mississippi }}</ref>

[[File:RevellLowriderCadillac.JPG|thumb|left|A built Cadillac low-rider]]
Model companies hired big name customizers to create new and striking designs. Just as AMT had hired [[George Barris (auto customizer)|George Barris]] and Darryl Starbird, Revell hired [[Ed Roth|Ed "Big Daddy" Roth]] about 1962 as their new stylist.<ref name="funding">{{cite web |work = Funding Universe |date = n.d. |title = Company history of Revell-Monogram |url = http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/RevellMonogram-Inc-Company-History.html }}</ref> Hawk Models would use Bill Campbell's "'Weird-Ohs" like "Davey" the wild motor-bike rider and "Digger" the dragster, and later, [[Monogram models|Monogram]] would hire designer Tom Daniel. At this time, Roth created the bubble-glassed "Beatnik Bandit" (later made even more famous when produced by Hot Wheels), the double engined "Mysterion", the asymmetrical "Orbitron", the "Outlaw" (a highly styled T bucket), and the "Road Agent". Apart from wheeled wonders, arguably his most famous creation was the "Rat Fink", an anti-Mickey Mouse figure.<ref>{{cite web |title = Ed Roth Cars |year = 2008–2011 |work = Rat Fink, Official Site of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth. |url = http://www.ratfink.com/ed-roth-cars.php }}</ref> Roth's Web site reports that in 1963 Revell paid Roth 1 cent for every one of his model kits sold, totaling $32,000.<ref>{{cite web |title = The Biography of Ed Big Daddy Roth |year = 2008–2011 |work = Rat Fink, Official Site of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth |url = http://www.ratfink.com/big-daddy-roth-bio.php }}</ref><ref name="AutoCY-13">{{cite web |last = Siposs |first = George |date = November 1965 |title = MCRN Spotlight |url = http://vsrnonline.com/mags/mcrn/V1N12/MCRN_V1N12_p16.pdf |work = Model Car Racing News |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120319224518/http://vsrnonline.com/mags/mcrn/V1N12/MCRN_V1N12_p16.pdf |archive-date = March 19, 2012 |page = 16 }}</ref>

In the early-to-mid-1960s, slot car racing became a fad, and like many other companies, Revell attempted to enter the fray by using its plastic model car bodies with mechanicals underneath—fit for the track. In 1965 Revell acquired International Raceways, planning high grade race tracks that could fill whole rooms.<ref name="AutoCY-13"/>  Soon thereafter, the company opened a "Revell Raceway" commercial slot car racing facility at 6840 La Tijera Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, actively demonstrating six track configurations that commercial slot car racing businesses could order for fabrication by Revell, with prices ranging from $2,500 to $8,000. "One of the largest commercial model car raceways in the United States, being approximately 17,000 square feet, it features all the plush appointments and six tracks, the largest being 220 running feet with banked turns up to 60 degrees."<ref>{{cite book |first1 = Bob |last1 = Braverman |first2 = Bill |last2 = Meumann |year = 1966 |title = Here is Your Hobby... Slot Car Racing |publisher = Putnam |asin = B000RFA3MS }}</ref>  It may have been too much too late: the competition was too keen and the slot car hobby was already starting to wane in influence.<ref name="funding"/> Slot car kings like Chicago's Strombecker would eventually be purchased by Tootsietoy and end up making simple plastic cars and other toys. By 1967, Revell's experiment in the hobby had racked up a nearly half-million dollar loss<ref name="funding"/>