Aluminum Model Toys

Aluminum Model Toys (AMT) was the original producer of Star Trek model kits and acquired the license in, shortly after the premiere of the original series. This licensing deal was brokered between Gene Roddenberry and Stephen Edward Poe, an employee of an advertising firm which had been retained by AMT for marketing and communications purposes.

History
Michigan-based AMT started out in 1948 as a manufacturer of model cars and trucks, both as model kits and as finished display pieces made for marketing purposes. Model kits became the company's core product line in the mid-1960s and Star Trek models were the company's first foray into producing products other than automobile and truck kits.

AMT ended its existence as an independent company in 1977 when it was acquired by Lesney Products, the owner of. In 1981, the die-cast toy and model kit manufacturer Ertl Company acquired AMT from Lesney and established the AMT/Ertl brand and logo in 1982.

The AMT/Ertl brand came to an end in 1999 when the company was acquired by Racing Champions, now known as RC2 Corporation. The combined company was then re-branded as Racing Champions/ERTL. However, the company redefined its mission in 2003 and AMT/Ertl was split into its original components. In 2007, AMT was sold to Round 2 LLC, its current owner.

Star Trek association
AMT was given the rights in 1966 to produce models based on the show in exchange for helping out Desilu Studios with the construction of set pieces when needed. Stephen Poe was instrumental in brokering the deal, who was also was given free access to the studio lot which eventually resulted in the book The Making of Star Trek. Through their subsidiary at the time, Custom & Speed Shop, headed by Gene Winfield, AMT was called upon to construct the studio model of the Galileo Class F shuttlecraft as well as the full scale exterior mock-up. Also produced at the Speedshop was the studio model of the Klingon, which originated from the desire of AMT to do a follow-up of the very successful USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) model kit - over a million copies sold at that time according to Matt Jefferies (, p. 66). Specifically designed for AMT by Jefferies, one of the two "master tooling models" (templates for the molds from which the production model kits were to be cast) fabricated, was immediately appropriated by the studio (struggling at the time with severe budget cuts) for use as filming model in the third season of Star Trek: The Original Series, betraying its origin as a master for a model kit by not having internal lighting. The Enterprise and D7 model kits were the only model kits released while the series was still running. The company further released versions of Romulan Bird-of-Prey, a model of Spock, the Galileo shuttlecraft, a standard exploration set (communicator, phaser, and tricorder), the bridge, and Deep Space Station K-7, even after the series was canceled in.

During the period 1966-1972, AMT chose not to license the Star Trek name outside of the US. During that period, Aurora, another noted model kit company, leased AMT's molds and released the models outside of the US. Though the molds were the same and even the packaging was, besides the imprint, virtually identical, legally, Aurora's releases of the four models were not associated with AMT. The Spock figure kit originated from Aurora but a reciprocal leasing agreement gave AMT the exclusive rights to release the figure in the US. AMT bought the Spock figure's tooling from Aurora in 1976.

The company retained the license through the 1970s, and, at the time owned by Lesney (1977-1981), eventually produced kits for. In, the company was bought by Ertl, becoming AMT/Ertl. In 1984, after having renegotiated the license the previous year, the new combination began releasing Star Trek model kits, starting with reissues of some of the previously marketed kits under a new numbering system. The company began a true expansion of their Star Trek line with kits based on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine models followed in the 1990s, as well as more ships from the subsequent eight motion pictures. The company did not acquire the license for Star Trek: Voyager, which went to Revell-Monogram. The last new kits were released by. Later that year the company was acquired by Racing Champions.

Releases of Star Trek model kits went dormant as the new parent company was trying to decide in what direction it would evolve. A half hearted attempt to revive the line occurred when re-releases were announced, of which only four were marketed in 2005 under its original brand "AMT/Ertl", though the company by that time was already split up in its two original components. Those four kits were the only releases of the AMT line that were marketed in eight years. However, in 2007, AMT changed hands yet again, this time acquired by Round 2 under whose ownership AMT (sporting the original imprint of AMT) started the run of re-releases in 2008 with a commemorative edition of its very first Enterprise model kit - (though the Enterprise kit was not a reissue of the original kit, but was instead a reissue of the model from much later renditions of the tooling, and was substantially different from the original AMT Enterprise model from 1966.)

For reasons, as of yet undisclosed, Round 2 sublicenced in 2010 the manufacture of four former AMT/Ertl Star Trek model kits, representing the Enterprise's B-E, as limited editions for the Japanese market only, to model kit company Platz Co., Ltd.. The four kits eventually produced, were that year marketed as "Platz-AMT/ERTL" products, and were, remarkably, released prior to AMT/Round 2's own re-issues that started one year later. To date, Platz has been the only company that has been given an international model kit sub-license, as Round 2 LLC administers the international marketing of their products themselves.

Trivia

 * The USS Constellation (NCC-1017) as seen in is an AMT model kit, nr. S921, appropriately battle-damaged.  The ship was given the registry NCC-1017, mostly because it was simple to rearrange the model's decal sheet and was the first time the reciprocal arrangement between AMT and the studio panned out in one of AMT's model kits showing up on screen.
 * The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) as seen in was another AMT kit, seen in Lurry's office window and orbiting the far side of Deep Space Station K-7.
 * Industrial Light & Magic made use of a number of kits, no.S970, to construct custom-made smaller sized studio models of the refit-Enterprise and USS Reliant, both appearing for the first time in.
 * AMT/Ertl models often appeared as set dressings during the first few seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, including the Enterprise-A and an appraisal prototype of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) itself.
 * Rick Sternbach and Andrew Probert created the NCC-7100 study model from two Enterprise-A kits and various other parts.
 * AMT/Ertl models were used for several "kitbashed" starships from TNG and DS9. Parts from the Enterprise-D models were incorporated into the wrecked ships seen in  and the  study model seen in  and .  Many background ships seen during the Dominion War saga used parts from AMT/Ertl and Revell-Monogram model kits, specifically the Enterprise-A, the USS Excelsior, the USS Reliant, the runabout, the Maquis raider and the USS Voyager most notably in the episode.
 * The AMT model of the original Enterprise was released many times over nearly thirty years. One of these models was built by future producer Ronald D. Moore when he was young.  It ended up as a set decoration in James T. Kirk's crew quarters during.
 * Parts of AMT model kits were sometimes used by Visual Effects houses to embellish their professional studio models. An early example is the use of a warp nacelle from the Romulan warbird model kit and two nacelle caps of the USS Enterprise-D model kit used as features underneath Industrial Light & Magic's SD-103 type studio model in The Undiscovered Country.
 * On the occasion of the 30th Anniversary AMT/Ertl commissioned the production of two cutaway posters of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) and USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) and inserted those in their 1995-1996 model kit issues as a bonus. Which one was included was indicated by a sticker on the packaging. The artwork was done by C. Bruce Morser. As with the Sci-Pub Tech publications, the cutaway posters are not considered canon.
 * A medical device used by Julian Bashir in was an other warp nacelle from the Romulan warbird model kit. Coincidentally, the Romulans were the main adversaries in the episode.
 * Most of the gold models in the display cases in the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E) conference lounge, featured in and  were gold plated, resin-reinforced AMT/Ertl models, built by John Eaves.
 * Set decorator James Mees used a colorfully repainted Hallmark "Keepsake" USS Voyager and a Klingon Bird-of-Prey for Miral Paris' baby crib mobile in . The mobile's Klingon D7 class battle cruiser was made from a small plastic model from the AMT Star Trek 3-Piece Space Ship Set.

The Leif Ericson
In 1974 AMT included a Interplanetary U.F.O. Mystery Ship into the Star Trek line, thereby suggesting that the design was part of the Star Trek universe, though it was not, its combined advertising on the box sides, pamphlets and catalogues of the time notwithstanding. It did have however, had some behind-the-scenes connections. Firstly, the U.F.O. Mystery Ship was originally designed as the Leif Ericson by Matt Jefferies (with the forward bridge module having more than a passing resemblance of the conning tower of the SS Botany Bay) for an abandoned Sci-Fi project named, "Strategic Space Command.". The concept was thought up by Jefferies together with his friend Stephen Edward Poe. AMT's idea behind backing the project was–buoyed on by the success of their first Star Trek model kits–to release a series of Sci-Fi kits accompanied by a worked-out "mini" background story and eventually create a Strategic Space Command universe, beefed out with an accompanying line of model kits. AMT eventually released the model in 1968 as kit No.S954. The original kit was considered a commercial failure and the project fell apart.

Secondly, according to Michael Okuda the design, being a Jefferies design, was seriously considered to be part of the Star Trek universe, when it was briefly considered to make an appearance in Star Trek: The Animated Series, already showing up in several preliminary story boards. In a ploy to recuperate their investments, AMT re-released the model kit twice, now designated Interplanetary U.F.O. Mystery Ship, molded in phosphorscent plastic to achieve a glow-in-the-dark effect. The first re-release was an attempt to marry the ship into the Star Trek franchise through combined advertising, and was timed to coincide with the airing of the The Animated Series, though its appearance there never came to fruition. Still, AMT's latest owner, Round 2 LLC, opted to re-release the the kit, starting in 2009 with the 1975-issue as a retro edition.

According to Doug Drexler, the design of the Leif Ericson was a co-influence on the design of the SS Conestoga, "The Conestoga is a colony transport ship with a slight design echo of the old DY-100, Greg Jein’s Star Trek Chronology ship, the Valiant, and the Poe\Jefferies Lief Erickson."