'60 in scale. Dealer promo model cars from 1960. Can't buy the real car? Try a promotional model.

1960. Charlton Heston won an Academy Award for Ben Hur. The Flintstones first appeared on TV. And Elvis Presley returns from Germany after a two-year stint in the Army.

In the automotive world, designs were starting to get a little cleaner, a little more understated than the last couple of years. They're still big, chrome-encrusted, and glamorous, but you can see the impetus of the subdued '60s starting to take hold. Think about a '60 Cadillac. It's still very big. It still has big fins and a heavy chrome grill. But compared to a '59 Cadillac, it's a pretty sterile design.

If you like the transitional style of 1960, but can't afford a huge warehouse full of cars, there's a way to collect the year's greatest hits in the palm of your hand.

Dealer promotional models were given out or sold at dealerships as sales tools. For adults, they represented a three-dimensional, tangible reminder of that station wagon that they might have been on the fence about. They illustrated colors, models, and body styles in a way that a brochure never could.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY AND SEE A SLIDESHOW OF SEVERAL RARE MODELS