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Celebrate Korean automotive heritage with 1/24 scale Academy car models featuring iconic vehicles from Korea's automotive golden age. This unique collection showcases precision-engineered kits including the legendary '75 Hyundai Pony, Korea's first mass-produced car, the versatile Hyundai Santa Fe SUV, charming Kia Brisa MCP w/Girl Driver Figure, and nostalgic Hyundai Pony Taxi. Manufactured by Academy Models, these exceptional kits preserve Korean automotive history with authentic detail and superior engineering.
Academy Models holds a unique position in the scale modeling world as the premier manufacturer of Korean automotive subjects, preserving the history of Korea's automotive industry through meticulously researched and beautifully engineered plastic model kits. This specialized collection celebrates Korean automotive achievement from the pioneering days of domestic car production through modern SUV development, offering modelers access to vehicles that are rarely if ever kitted by other manufacturers. Each kit represents not just a vehicle but a piece of Korean industrial and cultural history, capturing the designs that motorized a nation and established Korea as a major automotive manufacturing power. Academy's commitment to these subjects ensures that future generations can appreciate the vehicles that defined Korean motoring, from the humble Pony that put Korea on wheels to the Santa Fe that established Korean brands in global markets.
The Hyundai Pony holds legendary status in Korean automotive history as the nation's first mass-produced passenger car, representing Korea's emergence as an automotive manufacturing nation and the beginning of Hyundai's transformation from a construction company to a global automotive giant. The '75 Hyundai Pony captures the original 1975 model that launched Korea's automotive industry, featuring the distinctive Giorgetto Giugiaro-designed body that combined European styling sensibilities with practical Korean requirements. Academy's kit faithfully reproduces the Pony's characteristic features including the angular body lines that defined 1970s automotive design, distinctive front grille and headlight arrangement, detailed interior showing the simple but functional cabin, chrome bumpers and trim pieces, accurate wheel designs, and comprehensive decals providing authentic Hyundai badging and period-correct details.
The Pony's significance extends beyond mere transportation—it represented Korean industrial capability, national pride, and the democratization of personal mobility in a rapidly developing nation. The car's affordable price and reliable performance made car ownership accessible to middle-class Korean families for the first time, fundamentally changing Korean society and urban development. Academy's kit allows modelers to build a piece of this history, creating a tangible connection to a pivotal moment in Korean industrial development.
The Hyundai Pony Taxi represents another facet of the Pony's impact on Korean society, as these vehicles became the backbone of urban transportation in Seoul and other Korean cities throughout the 1970s and 1980s. The distinctive orange and white livery became synonymous with Korean taxi service, and the Pony taxi remains an iconic image of Korean urban life during the nation's rapid economic development. Academy's taxi version includes authentic taxi livery decals showing the distinctive orange and white color scheme, taxi signage and roof light, detailed interior configured for taxi service, period-correct wheels and trim, and markings representing actual Seoul taxi companies from the era. This variant offers modelers the opportunity to create dioramas depicting Korean street scenes, capturing the atmosphere of Seoul during its transformation into a modern metropolis.
The Kia Brisa MCP w/Girl Driver Figure represents Kia's entry into passenger car manufacturing, predating the company's later success with the Pride and Sephia models. The Brisa, based on Mazda technology through Kia's partnership with the Japanese manufacturer, established Kia as a serious automotive producer and provided Korean consumers with an alternative to Hyundai's offerings. Academy's kit captures the Brisa's distinctive styling including the compact dimensions suited to Korean urban environments, detailed interior showing the driver's compartment and passenger area, chrome trim and bumpers, accurate wheel and tire designs, and the charming inclusion of a girl driver figure that adds personality and storytelling possibilities to the model. The figure represents the growing number of women drivers in 1970s Korea, reflecting changing social dynamics and increasing prosperity that made car ownership accessible to more segments of society.
The Hyundai Santa Fe represents a different era of Korean automotive achievement, showcasing Hyundai's evolution from a manufacturer of economy cars to a producer of sophisticated SUVs competing in global markets. The Santa Fe, introduced in 2000, became Hyundai's first SUV and achieved significant success in North American and global markets, helping to establish Hyundai as a mainstream brand capable of competing with established Japanese and American manufacturers. Academy's Santa Fe kit features modern SUV styling with detailed body panels and trim, comprehensive interior showing the spacious cabin and modern amenities, detailed chassis and suspension components, accurate wheel and tire designs, and authentic Hyundai badging and trim details. The Santa Fe represents Korean automotive maturity, demonstrating the industry's progression from copying foreign designs to creating original vehicles that compete successfully in the most demanding markets.
The vehicles in this collection illustrate the evolution of Korean automotive design from the 1970s through the 2000s, showing how Korean manufacturers progressed from licensing foreign designs to developing distinctive styling and engineering. The early Pony and Brisa relied heavily on foreign technical partnerships—the Pony used Mitsubishi engines and British suspension technology, while the Brisa was essentially a rebadged Mazda. However, these partnerships provided the foundation for Korean manufacturers to develop indigenous capabilities, leading to the fully Korean-designed vehicles like the Santa Fe that established Korean brands as serious global competitors. Academy's kits preserve this design evolution, allowing modelers to trace Korean automotive development through the actual vehicles that defined each era.
Academy Models brings the same engineering excellence to automotive subjects that has made the company respected for aircraft and armor kits. The car kits feature crisp molding with fine detail including accurate panel lines, trim details, and surface textures, multi-part clear components for windows and lights providing excellent transparency, detailed interiors with separate seats, dashboard, steering wheel, and door panels, comprehensive chrome-plated parts for bumpers, trim, and wheels, detailed chassis showing suspension components and exhaust systems, optional-position parts allowing doors, hoods, and trunks to be displayed open or closed, and extensive decal sheets providing authentic badging, instrumentation, and detail markings. The engineering emphasizes both accuracy and buildability, with logical part breakdown and clear assembly sequences that make construction straightforward while maintaining high detail standards.
Academy's Korean car kits generally follow conventional automotive model construction sequences, beginning with interior assembly, proceeding to chassis and running gear, then body assembly and final detailing. The chrome-plated parts should be carefully removed from sprues to avoid damaging the plating, with any necessary cleanup done gently to preserve the chrome finish. Clear parts benefit from careful handling and polishing with fine-grit polishing compounds to achieve maximum transparency. Painting typically involves the distinctive colors associated with each vehicle—the Pony's characteristic earth tones and metallics, the taxi's orange and white livery, and the Santa Fe's modern automotive finishes. Decals should be applied over gloss surfaces for best adhesion and appearance, with decal setting solutions helping them conform to panel lines and curves.
These Korean automotive models offer unique display and diorama possibilities that tell stories beyond simple vehicle representation. The Pony and Brisa can be displayed in period Korean street scenes, perhaps with scratch-built or commercially available Korean buildings and signage creating authentic 1970s Seoul atmosphere. The Pony taxi invites dioramas showing Korean urban life, with figures representing passengers, street vendors, and the bustling activity of Korean cities during rapid development. The Santa Fe represents modern Korea, suitable for contemporary settings showing Korean automotive achievement in global context. Reference materials including period photographs, Korean films from different eras, and historical documentation provide inspiration for authentic presentations that honor these vehicles' cultural significance.
Academy's commitment to Korean automotive subjects performs an important cultural preservation function, ensuring that vehicles central to Korean industrial and social history remain accessible to future generations through scale models. Many of the actual vehicles represented in these kits are now rare, with few surviving examples preserved in museums or private collections. The models become historical documents in plastic, preserving design details, proportions, and characteristics that might otherwise be lost as actual vehicles deteriorate or are scrapped. For Korean modelers, these kits offer opportunities to build vehicles that evoke personal and family memories—perhaps a parent's first car, a memorable taxi ride, or vehicles that defined childhood experiences. For international modelers, the kits provide windows into Korean automotive history and culture, offering subjects that are genuinely unique and unavailable from other manufacturers.
Complement your Academy Korean car collection by exploring our comprehensive 1/24 Cars collection featuring automotive kits from multiple manufacturers. Discover additional car models from our 1/24 Tamiya Cars, 1/24 Fujimi Cars, 1/24 Hasegawa Cars, 1/24 Aoshima Cars, 1/24 Italeri Cars, 1/24 Heller Cars, 1/24 ICM Cars, 1/24 Atlantis Cars, and 1/24 Salvino Cars collections. For aircraft modeling, discover our 1/72 Academy Models Prop Aircraft, 1/72 Academy Models Jet Aircraft, 1/48 Academy Models Prop Aircraft, and 1/48 Academy Models Jet Aircraft collections.
Academy Models, founded in Seoul, South Korea in 1969, has grown from a small plastic model manufacturer to one of the world's leading producers of scale model kits across multiple categories including aircraft, armor, ships, and automotive subjects. The company's Korean heritage gives it unique insight into Korean automotive history and access to research materials and subject matter expertise that foreign manufacturers cannot match. Academy's commitment to Korean subjects ensures that vehicles central to Korean industrial and cultural history receive the detailed, accurate representation they deserve. The company's engineering expertise, developed through decades of producing aircraft and armor kits, translates to automotive subjects with kits that combine historical accuracy, fine detail, and practical construction. Academy's global distribution network makes these uniquely Korean subjects accessible to modelers worldwide, spreading appreciation for Korean automotive achievement and design. Visit the official Academy Models website to explore their complete product catalog and discover the full range of Korean and international subjects available from this respected manufacturer.
