Big Lou's Johan Models

                               
Plastic modeling got it's start around 1947. A company Called Aluminum Model Toys had begun operations around that time. When plastic molding technology came out the company changed it's name to AMT. A year earlier a talented tool & die maker and very skilled model maker by the name of John Hanley setup his plastic modeling business in '47. He originally started with model aircraft and scale models of industrial products, Including a scale kitchen!! I have seen this kitchen in photographs and it's quite something.
In 1955 Hanley won contracts from Chrysler and GM to produce scale promotional models of their cars. He began operations as The Ideal Toy Company (note; I currently own a promo chassis plate with "Ideal Toys" molded into it! It's from a '56 Plymouth).

But he had to quickly change the name because there was already a large toy company by that name. so after a quick search, Hanley made a contraction of his own name, JOhn HANley, Or as we know it as Jo-han! Early Johan promos were made of acetate plastic as they were also at AMT. Over the years this acetate tends to warp badly and never gets better. Following AMT's example, they switched to polystyrene plastic in 1959. And we are all grateful he did!!
Around this time AMT introduced the concept of the '3-n-1" model, combining an unassembled promo with an assortment of custom and racing parts. Johan did this also to an equal degree. So all the '60s promo models came out to the dealers with model kits coming close behind. While AMT capitalized on the custom trends, hiring the likes of George Barris and Dean Jeffereys to design custom parts for kits and to make models of their custom show cars. Smaller Johan went a different route, making models of specific race cars and concentrating on super detailing. In '64, Johan brought out the first kit of a specific race car in the legendary number 43 of Richard Petty and his NASCAR '64 Belvedere. slightly later they also produced the '64 Plymouth of the soon to be famous Golden Commandos and the '64 dodge of the equally legendary candy striped Ramchargers '64 dodge Polara.
Through out the '60s and into the '70s, 3-n-1 kits were king. But into the '70s the kids that went nuts over the kits were growing up and many got out of the hobby. The oil crisis killed off all the big muscle cars, and also caused the price of model kits to rise dramatically.
During the '70s and into the '80s the other American model companies were bought by large conglomerates and resold again, keeping them in production until now. Johan was not as fortunate. The company kept re-releasing their "bread and butter' kits over and over again until 1991. That is when they were bought out by an automotive plastic supplier called Seville. I believe this was the time when Johan kits began appearing in a host of wild colors!! As Seville was an automotive supplier they would include the dies they used on real car parts in the Polystyrene used to make Johan kits. During this time there were labor disputes with Seville and its employees. Pieces and parts of tooling were stolen and sold for scrap by underpaid employees and Johan finally called it quits near the end of the decade.
In 2000, Johan was purchased by Okey Spaulding, who is trying to make new runs of some products from the original tooling. Things since have been spotty at best. Okey is in an never ending quest to secure funding for production. A few promos have been run and some new products have been introduced. But it's been just a trickle so far. Johan is not dead! All I can hope is that someone will help with funding and bring back one of the originals!

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