An Aviation Enthusiast's Kit Collection Home How it All Began 50's & 60's 1970 up Various Topics Books Contact           back to 50's & 60's  Hausser - Super Constellation Introduction The toy company Hausser, located in Neustadt Germany, was well known for its figures and issued under the Elastolin label in the 1950's. They were made from a mixture of clay, saw dust and glue - red indians, knights, castles, animals and appropriate accessories. Later they switched to injection moulded plastic as material. Hausser declared  bankruptcy in 1983.The mould production facilty was taken over by Preisser [1]. I remember well these figures and accesoiries having had them as a child about the end of the 50's /early 60's but they are out of scope of my collecting activity today and therefore as well of this website. But Hausser had one product that aroused my interest as plastic kit collector: A plastic kit of a Lockheed Super Constellation which is listed in John Burn's aircraft plastic kit directory PAK-20 [2]. That was not known to be in my youth. I assume I started a research about this kit in 2005 or early 2006 but did not find any information neither in the internet nor in the printed media. So I subscribed to a search in a well-known auction platform. The first hit came in April 2006, but not for the kit but for a board game from Hausser. Its name is Flug um die Welt (Flight around the World). The game figures were Super Constellations. The seller showed a leaflet were a kit of a Super Constellation is to be seen.  which aroused my interest.  Picture 1: Picture of leaflet as presented in the auction. In fact it is an ad on the passenger ticket of the game. For more details see the Flug um die Welt page. It was confirmed now that a Hausser kit really existed. In 2007, 2008 and 2009 the Hausser Super Constellation was offered in auctions but I considered them for too expensive just for satisfying my historical curiosity so I did not buy one [3]. Finally I found a copy that was a bargin compared with the auctions quoted above (pictures 1-4, right). Beeing occupied with research in other interesting kits I put it aside, especially as I did not yet find any more background information about this kit. A breakthrough regarding historical information about this kit came when I came about a reference book and price catalogue of Hausser plastic figures and accesories in October  2016 [4]. That made is possible and justifies to upgrade this page substantially, which I started in 2009 just having pictures of the board game. Review of the Kit According to the reference book quoted above, the Hausser Super Constellaion kit  was issued in 1954 with the product code 2554, see pictures 2-5 on the right. A built-up kit is pictured below. The parts did not come on sprues but were stored loosely in the box separated by cardboard inlays. Small parts and decals came in transparent bags, see picture 4. Scale of the kit is HO (1:87), see [5]. The kit comes with cabin interior, which can bee presented by removing the upper half of the fuselage (see picture 8, below). In 1957 there was issued a so called gift set with the product code 2555. The parts were pre-painted and the decals were already applied. The parts were neatly secured by strings to an cardboard inlay. There was also offered a ready built model which emerged only very rarely in the collector's market according to [4]. Both kits were offered side by side at first but  ould not be found anymore in the 1960 catalogue according to [4]. The box of the pre-assembled kit is larger than that of the kit proper. Therefore the reference books speaks of a "small" and a "big" kit. Apart from the different interior both versions exhibit a different graphical layout externally (see pictures right). I have identified two different boxarts for the small kit version. One with Lufthansa logo on the lower left corner and one with the KLM-Logo, the latter of which I have in my collection. Picture 7: Detail from 1956 catalogue. See larger resolution with remarks here). Plastic Kits Picture 2: Hausser Flugzeug Modellbaukasten product no. 2554. Plastic kit of a Lockeed Super Constallation.  Picture 3, below:  Left boxend. Both ©cjk Picture 4 above: Hausser Flugzeug Modellbaukasten. Parts, separated by cardboard inlays. ©cjk Picture 5: Hausser Flugzeug Modellbaukasten product no. 2555. Preassembled and prepainted kit of a Super Constallation. ©tintoy Picture 6: Hausser Flugzeug Modellbaukasten. Parts are secured by strings to an cardboard inlay.  ©tintoy Picture 8: Boxtop of the Buil-up kit pictured below shows lufthansa logo but only Super Constellation as livery of the aircraft.  ©T.D. Picture 9: Hausser Flugzeug Modellbaukasten kit proper o.2554  assembled. ©T.D.   Picture10: Hausser Flugzeug Modellbaukasten . Upper fuselage half is detached and svows interior of cabin and cockpit. ©T.D.           back to 50's & 60's    Home How it All Began 50's & 60's 1970 up Various Topics Books Contact Started: September 2009   Revised: November 2016 Author: cjk  ©cjk