A salute to James Injection Molding and plastic classics

Before we get too far into 2016, I'd like to recognize James Injection Molding Co., the Northbrook, Ill.-based custom injection molder that once molded Revell and Monogram brand model toy kits.

The firm shut down last summer, as the result of a combination of factors, including losing business to China and of a customer taking its molding in-house. The Silovich family had owned and operated the small business since 1976. Plastics News editor Don Loepp wrote about the company's final days.

Those Revell and Monogram model kits are fondly remembered by at least two generations of kids. As someone who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, I remembered them as well.

Did I spend hours meticulously assembling those tiny snap-together plastic parts? Nope. When it comes to mechanical skill, I'm one of those people who could accidentally start a fire with a wrench.

But both Revell and Monogram were big advertisers in the comic books of the era. And if there's one form of literature I enjoy more than resin company press releases, it's comic books.

From the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, Revell and Monogram often occupied the prime ad real estate on the back covers of a great many comics. As a result, fans such as myself connect these ads mentally with comics of those eras. These two in particular graced the back covers of DC Comics titles in the mid-1970s.

First off, do you think for a second that kid really put that drag racer inside that bottle, step by agonizing step? No way. I'm guessing the whole thing snapped together and he told his friends he did all the work.

Secondly, as names for custom vans go, Vanana Split might just be the best ever. It's not hard to imagine Burt Reynolds tooling around 1970s Hollywood at the wheel of Vanana Split. Or to see it parked in front of the Regal Beagle on an episode of "Three's Company." “Jack, where'd you get that awesome van?”

So as James Injection Molding fades into the sunset, its former owners and employees can be assured that the legacy of its molded products will live on.