Frog (models)

4, was launched in 1932, followed in 1936 by a range of 1:72 scale model aircraft kits made from cellulose acetate, which were the world's first.

Founded in 1931 by Charles Wilmot and Joe Mansour, International Model Aircraft Ltd. (IMA) originally used the Frog brand name (the F.R.O.G.

Also in 1932, a marketing partnership with the toy company Lines Bros Ltd. was formed and other Frog brand flying models followed.

Frog's 1:72 line-up by the 1970s including a large number of lesser-known aircraft types that were not available from any other model manufacturer at the time, such as the Avro Shackleton, Martin Baltimore and Maryland, Vultee Vengeance, Curtiss Tomahawk, Blackburn Shark and Skua, Bristol 138 and Beaufort, Tupolev SB2, Lavochkin La 7, Supermarine Attacker and Scimitar, Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, Gloster Javelin, SAAB Viggen, Grumman OV-1 Mohawk, de Havilland Vampire, Hornet, and DH 110, Dewoitine D.520, Morane Saulnier MS 406, Macchi MC202 Folgore, Fokker D21, Airspeed Oxford, Miles Magister, Miles Master III, Hawker Sea Fury and Tempest, Supermarine Spitfire Mk XIV, Fairey Gannet, Barracuda, Firefly I, and Fairey Delta II, Westland Wyvern, General Aircraft Hotspur, Focke-Wulf Ta 152H, Messerschmitt Me 410, Arado Ar 234, Heinkel He 162, Dornier Do 17z, Dornier Do 335, Heinkel He 219, Gloster E.28/39, North American Mustang II, Vickers Vimy, Ryan NYP "Spirit of St Louis", de Havilland Gypsy Moth "Jason", Fokker Southern Cross, and the Westland Wallace.

In addition to aircraft models, Frog also produced a number of ship kits, four examples being the MV Shell Welder coastal oil tanker, the THLV South Goodwin Lightship, HMS Tiger, and an RNLI lifeboat.

[3] In France, due to cultural disquiet over the word "frog", these kits were sold and marketed under the "Tri-ang" brand, whilst in North America, for similar reasons, the Frog name was thought unacceptable and the kits were repackaged as "Air Lines" – an allusion to Lines Brothers Ltd – the founders of IMA / Tri-ang.