“Anything goes… with “Rat Patrol!”
Released by Aurora in 1967, The Rat Patrol hobby kit drew inspiration from the World War II television series of the same name, which aired for two seasons on ABC in the mid-1960s.
The set offered builders a compact 1:87 scale diorama featuring 15 battle-action figures, two Rat Patrol jeeps, a German Panzer tank, a German Panther tank, and moulded terrain with sandbag bunkers, dunes, and palm trees. Once it was built, Aurora promoted the kit’s versatility to be configured in “thousands of different battle situations.”
Like other Aurora kits of the era, Rat Patrol’s was packaged with colourful box art. The combat scenes, based on the TV show, were illustrated by frequent contributor Harry Schaare.
Today, sealed or complete kits command high prices on the secondary market, often selling for several hundred dollars.
