ABOUT US

Salvinos J R Models is a couple of old friends. Their mutual friend David Berger introduced them in 1989 when Rick was starting a sports figurine company and needed a sculptor. At the time Jim was in the beginnings of a 35 year career sculpting licensed Disney, Lucasfilm, Warner Bros. and DreamWorks toy and collectible prototypes for many manufacturing and marketing companies – you have probably stepped on some his work in the dark if you had kids in the 90s. After creating dozens of figurines together, their businesses went different directions, Rick’s to bean filled sports bears, and Jim’s deeper into the toy industry. Though they weren’t working together on any projects, they stayed friends.

Fast forward twenty years and they decided to start working together as a new company producing injection molded products, the greatest hold ups were that Jim was escaping California, and he had no idea how to design on a computer! After a couple years of learning CAD, and realizing that cell phones and sharing files on the internet eliminated the need to be in the same town, they settled into creating model cars; NASCAR to be specific, a field of which Rick is crazy passionate and extremely knowledgeable. Rick’s dad Ralph Salvino ran STP racing throughout the 70s and 80s which allowed Rick to work with many NASCAR teams, especially Richard Petty and Dale Inmann. 

In July of 2018 They released their first kit, the Buddy Baker Gray Ghost and within four years have released 40 kits, have earned licenses with General Motors, Chrysler, Nascar, Petty, and Hendrick Racing, among other great teams, and for the first time ever in the model kit hobby, they have released a race car within a couple of months of its first races. In the coming months and years they have plans for more current cars, many more classic cars, and eventually spreading into other forms of American automotive racing.