A guide to metal mould kit brand names and the companies behind them.
Collecting vintage metal mould kits means running into a lot of names — and not all of them are company names.
Castology is a collector-built reference that matches the brand names found on metal model kits to the companies that actually produced them. Over the years, brands were reused, shared, renamed, or quietly dropped, which can make attribution tricky.
This page brings those names together in one place, with dates and notes where known. Note that the dates shown below are quite "squishy" and should be seen more as a guide than exact dates!
| Brand | Company | Years Used | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| American-Craft | Sears Roebuck & Co. | 1940 | Sears did not manufacture their own moulds, they repackaged sets from other companies. American Craft was found in their 1940 Fall Catalog. I belive the sets in the Sears catalog were actually from American Craft Mfg. as the sets appears to match up to the Ever-Ready Sets. |
| Cast Rite | Home Foundry | 1935- bef. WWII | |
| Cast-A-Toy | Marks Bros Toy Company | ||
| Kast-A-Toy | ACE/Porter Chemical Co. | c.1930–1942 | |
| Kaster Kit Jr. | A. C. Gilbert | 1931-1942 | |
| Figure Caster | JL Wright/Lincoln | ||
| Castings | REB Toys, Inc. | 1972-Present | REB was also Castings, and eventually Dunken. |
| Electric Caster | Rapaport Bros. | ||
| Junior Caster | Rapaport Bros | 1930- bef. WWII | |
| Lincoln Lead Caster | J. L. Wright | These are the Lincoln Log people | |
| Ever-Ready | American Craft Mfg. | 1935–1940 | |
| Mastercraft | F.W. Nuthall | ||
| Metal Cast | Sachs | 1920–1928 | Initially S. Sachs (Samuel); his son took over - H. Sachs |
| Midget Caster | Rapaport Bros. | Used with the Buck Rogers set containing 2501 | |
| NRK Plasticor Jr. | NRK Manufacturing & Engineering Co. | ||
| Rapco | Martin Yale Co. | 1965-1969 |
If you have catalogs, packaging, ads, or first-hand knowledge that can help with this list, let me know in the comments section below!
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