Press Pass 47: Revell Swamp Scene Model Announcement

The press release this month is a little different in that it is not from Fox or CBS. It also isn’t from the 1970s or 1980s. This press release is from 1994 announcing the Revell model kit of “The Swamp.” I have previously written about the three Revell M*A*S*H model kits that were available in the 1990s, so when I saw this press release come up for sale, I had to add it to the collection. There were hundreds of M*A*S*H licensed products released in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and I have written about quite a few of them. But I always found it interesting that new M*A*S*H items were still be created and released in the mid-1990s, more than a decade after the series ended. That speaks to the longevity of the series that there were still kids and adults who bought M*A*S*H items.

Revell is a well known producer of model kits in the United Sates, but they are best known for their scale models of cars, trucks, and planes. For M*A*S*H, they created three sets. One set was the famed Bell helicopter from the title sequence of M*A*S*H. Another was of a medical scene that included a large Army truck and figures of Col. Potter, B.J., and Klinger (in a nurses outfit). But this press release announced the third Revell kit, the Swamp scene. It is printed on a standard sheet of paper, but there is a black and white photo of the completed model glued to it. It then announces that the M*A*S*H scene was being added to the 1994 product line. It describes the scene as including “The Swamp,” Radar’s Jeep, the signpost, and figurines of Hawkeye (in his cowboy hat), Margaret, and Radar (holding his teddy bear). The announcement was likely sent to trade magazines as well as toy distributors to ensure that those in the market for a M*A*S*H model set would be aware.

So who was in the market for a M*A*S*H model in the mid-1990s? I was! I remember buying this exact model at a toy store in Branson, Missouri. I was a kid, and my family was on a weekend trip to Branson. We’d always stop at the outlet mall, and I remember buying this kit. It would have probably been in 1996 when I was nine years old. Therefore, this was likely my first M*A*S*H item! Unfortunately, I don’t have the kit that I had when I was kid. As I mentioned in my previous post about the models, they were pretty advanced since they not only had to be glued together, but the models needed to be painted. The figures of Hawkeye, Margaret, and Radar also didn’t come pre-painted. I don’t remember painting the kit, but I do know that I assembled it and played with it because the Jeep rolled. When I saw this press release available for sale, I knew I had to buy it. Not just for the collection, but for the nostalgia of buying my first M*A*S*H item at nine years old!