Carl Casper

With the permission of the International Model Car Builders' Museum, we are pleased to reprint the following article that appeared in Volume 9 #2 of the Museum's newsletter, The Builder. 

Special Acquisition by the Museum
by Mark S. Gustavson

The Museum benefits from some very generous donors. One, in particular, has given me instruction to call him when the Museum has the opportunity to acquire a particularly important bit of model car history. When something critical becomes available, I'll call this fellow and he either approves or declines to donate the funds necessary to acquire the proposed item. Naturally, not many items qualify, but, from time to time, something unique becomes available and we'll buy it.

In early April, a Museum member contacted me and told me of an set of items available on ebay. I linked to the auction, and almost fell off my chair by what was being offered: a full range of photos, negatives, memoranda and a photo of a cobbled up model of Carl Casper's Galloping Ghost model that was once contemplated by Aurora models to be offered as a kit.

Here's the text of the eBay auction:

"These oneofakind artifacts are part of the HMS Associates Archives, a large accumulation of prototypes, renderings & blueprints, publicity photos and other research material, and miscellaneous paper items that I purchased several years ago from the previous owner of this now defunct company. In order to appreciate the importance of these preproduction pieces of toy history, a little background on the company that produced them is necessary.

HMS Associates, founded in the late 1940's by three partners, was based in Willow Grove Pennsylvania. The company specialized in product development, taking their client's abstract ideas and converting them into "patterns", prototypes that could then be sent to tool companies who would copy them and make metal production molds. In 1952 one of HMS's partners, Raymond Haines, solicited Abe Shikes, president of Aurora Plastics Corp., convincing him of the huge potential market for plastic model kits, which was expanding greatly at that time. Thus, an almost two decade long relationship was born in which HMS provided Aurora with prototypes for virtually all of their models, as well as slot car bodies.

In addition to Aurora, HMS performed services for a number of other wellknown toy/hobby companies, including MPC, Ideal, Hasbro, Galoob, Kohner, and Remco. In 1994 the company was dissolved and all of it's assets sold, with the exception of the archives. The last owner (who purchased the company in 1989) was savvy enough to save most of this wonderful material from being discarded. After many years of negotiations, I was most fortunate enough to be able to obtain the entire remaining contents of the archives, the best examples of which will be offered here on Ebay. THE AURORA CARL CASPER'S GHOST HOT ROD REFERENCE MATERIAL. This is an extraordinary group of reference material pertaining to Aurora's quest to produce a scale model of wellknown show car builder Carl Casper's newest hot rod masterpiece, "Casper's Ghost". Of course, most every Aurora enthusiast knows that Casper and Aurora had previously collaborated on the spectacular "Undertaker Dragster" show car kit. This was to be the followup to that successful model. Unfortunately for kit builders then (and collectors now!), this kool kustom kar never made it past the master pattern stage.

To the best of my knowledge, the actual hand carved pattern has yet to be discovered and may in fact have been discarded years ago during a cleanout at HMS. What we have here is possibly the next best thing...original photos and other ephemeral material documenting the development process of this unproduced kit. The progression starts with many photos taken of the actual show car, which was transported to Aurora headquarters in Hempstead, Long Island. There are (4) 8"X10" b&w glossies, two showing Carl Casper himself with his creation, one showing Casper shaking hands with Joseph Giammarino (one of Aurora's founding partners) next to the Ghost, and one of the car by itself. Then, we have (21) smaller b&w closeup photos of virtually every aspect of the car. These pictures are extremely important as they were used (along with measurements) by the artists, engineers, precision machinists, and sculptors at HMS to produce renderings, blueprints, schematics, and finally, the master pattern.

Also included here are several original negatives for these pictures, the packet from a local Willow Grove, Pa film developer (with Ray Haines name on it), actual pencildrawn diagrams with measurements, and, last but not least, a professionally taken original 8"X10" b&w glossy photo of the actual prototype master pattern. A oneofakind lot of historical documentation! Incidentally, none of these items has ever been published or even reproduced in any way, shape, or form. Perfect for the Aurora or vintage hot rod historian, or perhaps someone who desires to write an updated book on the history of Aurora!"

Check out these great photos of the car and the master model which represent only a small part of the range of photos that were acquired. Thanks to our confidential supporter!

This is the handbuilt "master" for the still-born model. Note the close fidelity to the real car – unusual for a one-off handbuilt model crafted from hardwood and resin.