What would you do with 62 plastic monster model kits? Before you answer, let me explain what these model kits meant to kids of my generation…
Slide Show: Images of Joe Moe’s Monster Model display at last year’s Kevin Burns: Monsters & Friends gallery preview.
Growing up in the 60s and 70s, long before VHS tapes, the internet, or streaming apps, movies were not unlike live theater. Immediate and fleeting. Projected for an hour or two in a cool dark room with strangers shoveling popcorn into their faces, laughing, screaming, and occasionally crying together. But when the movie was over, it was over. Sure, back in the day, you’d be permitted to sit in the theater all afternoon and watch Planet of the Apes or Tales from the Crypt four or five times in a row. But once you left, all that remained was the memory of the experience. We’d run home, grab our sketch pads, and try to capture the fearsome faces that leaped off the screen and burrowed their way into our impressionable young minds. If you were captivated by Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror movies like I was, you’d turn to magazines like Famous Monsters of Filmland or other genre periodicals to fill the space between scarce opportunities to watch your favorite movies or TV shows. When you reached the back pages of any monster mag worth its weight in ghouls, you’d find yourself in the mail-order section. A place where items and objects specific to our obsession seduced us into spending our allowance, plus postage & handling, then waiting eagerly by our mailbox as we allowed six to eight weeks for delivery!
Amidst the deluxe monster masks, 8mm film reels, books, magazines, and other horror novelties, there lurked the coveted monster models. These cast-plastic, puzzle figures came in a cardboard box with a glorious full-color lid featuring a vivid image (painted by the brilliant James Bama) of your favorite movie monster, which we’d ultimately use as our paint master. Once newspapers were spread across the kitchen table, the tight-fitting lid would vibrate and practically hum as we pried it off the box bottom to reveal, first, the industrial perfume of fresh plastic. Next, we’d regard all the split, hollow pieces of our particular creature, suspended in a plastic spider’s web matrix of flashing that we would twist each model piece free of as carefully as you’d extract a loose, wiggling baby tooth. Once the pieces were laid out, we’d unfold the graphic instructions, which weren’t needed, but served to get you even more excited about the finished masterpiece you were about to assemble and paint. Unlike other collectibles you could buy, once you’d finished painting and detailing, your monster model would be a one-of-a-kind display piece – unique from anyone else’s.
AUCTION PREVIEW: 29045.Massive Collection of (62) Polar Lights/Aurora Monster Model Kits (1990s-2000s).
I should answer my question. What would I do with 62 monster model kits? Sure, if I sold them individually, they’d probably pay for themselves, and I’d still get to keep a crypt’s worth. But I could never be mercenary when it comes to the vessels of inspiration of my childhood. I’d use 30 kits for modeling parties. I’d invite friends to visit and choose their favorite monster. Then we’d sit around a plastic-covered dinner table and reminisce, laugh, glue, and paint. It seems somehow easier to discuss disasters, personal challenges even politics while in the act of creating something extraordinary. I’d reserve 20 kits to share with nieces, nephews, and other kids in one of the best bonding activities I can imagine. As they carefully assembled the limbs of their mini-Prometheus, I’d tell them the story of Frankenstein’s monster, a man-made creature stitched together from body parts. I would encourage them to think outside the box when using color – glitter if they like, to make a scary monster or even a pretty one. Just invent! That is the nature of creativity. And when we inspire a generation of kids to imagine, there’s virtually no obstacle they can’t think their way through. This would leave a dozen or so of my fave kits to stow in my hoarding closet for a rainy day.
While these models are contemporary castings of the vintage, original Aurora kits, they are still not easy to find. But you, your mantle, or display case won’t know the difference. Your fingers will glue and snap pieces together dexterously, and your best painting techniques will be as effective as those many decades ago when you made a monster while youthful hopes and dreams roiled about your head. An innocent time when monsters were imaginary and collecting was purely a hobby. If you end up with this monumental lot, you know where to send my invite to your paint party!
Some assembly (and bidding) are required.
As always a well thought out well described take on something that brings back so many wonderful memories of my childhood. What would I do with them……I would make sure I had one of each for myself and them gift them to the people that I know would truly appreciate them and probably sell the rest and take a vacation.
Thanks Joe for taking me back.
William, thank you for your comment.
William! This is one of those lots that has so many possibilities for dealers and private collectors alike. The fact that it could go for an opening bid is what makes the auction game so much fun. Even recasts are hard to find in this quantity and variety. If you do find them, they can run anywhere from $25-$100 each, on average! Thanks for commenting and stepping into the time machine with me! Joe Moe
My Dad handed down his aurora monster models to me. Dad worked in a store that carried the original auroras in the early 1960s. He had Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolf Man, Mummy, Phantom of the Opera and Creature from the Black Lagoon and the Hunchback. When I was a kid he let me pick one out to have on my dresser every week. Of course he got me an issue of FM in 1977 too! He would show me the Castle Films Creature from the Black Lagoon on my bedroom wall! I still have that monster magazine and all his models and the film reel. Dad and I are still monster kids and even visited the Ackermansion in the early 90s. Thanks Joe for such a great blog post!!!
Dustin, Thank you for commenting!
Dustin, you highlight the experience and impact of monster fandomspecifically and collecting in general. A sharing of some of the most vivid arts and crafts in the legacy of moviemaking. These model kits made us feel a part of the creative world we loved by letting us build the very monsters that haunted our Hollywood dreams and delightful nightmares. As is the case with your dad, they also represent a multi-generational bond between our parents, us, and the stuff we grew to love. Thanks for sharing! Joe Moe
Wow, this one lands very close to home. I can smell the plastic, paint and Testor’s model-kit glue just from the photos and description above. I spent so many hours as a kid – – building, painting and then gazing at the finished monster models adorning the shelf in my bedroom. I was even featured in Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine as a “Monster of the Month” for a photo I sent into the publication proudly standing in front of my collection of Aurora Monster Models (the Westworld issue #107 if you’d like to go through your back issues to take a look). So yes, I can imagine unpacking the large shipping box containing 62 classic monster models (I’m suddenly visualizing the image of Abbott and Costello opening a packing crate and finding Frankenstein’s monster inside). I’d invite friends over to assemble and paint the plastic treasures, like I did what seems like only a few years ago. Perhaps I could save them all for a wonderful Halloween party… or maybe just any Tuesday.
Sean, Thank you for commenting!
Sean! You nailed it! A total visceral and sensational experience taking you back to the craft table of your childhood. And when you build a monster model today, you’re effectively transported to your formative past and many more unexpected, potent memories of the era! Thanks for sharing your meaningful flashback! Joe Moe
Thoroughly enjoyed this post, Brother Joe. I can think of few things I’d enjoy more than spending a day making Aurora monster models with you! This one really brings back some fond memories — I wonder just HOW many times I built The Wolf Man and Dracula and Phantom over those magical years… often while watching the Universal Monster films on KTLA 5 during their frequent Monster Week blocks of programming. This looks like a fang-tastic (sorry Uncle 4E!) opportunity for some lucky Monster Kid collector… oh, what I’d give! 🙂 I’m sure there will be PLENTY of interest. Looking forward to see what it brings!
Michael,
Thank you for commenting!
It’s fascinating to imagine all the kids of that era (60s-70s) doing their best to assemble and detail their beloved, miniature monsters. Yes, kids named Michael Cathcart and Joe Moe owe some of our creative and artistic lives to the act of building and painting these gems. But our contemporaries who reached stratospheric acclaim also glued the same Wolfman, Bride of Frankenstein, and Dracula together (also getting glue and paint on their mom’s carpet). Kids named Spielberg, Del Toro, Lucas, and so many others. Brother, Michael! We’re in good company!
Great Memories!
Thanks for visiting, Randall! I love the idea that a fond memory for us kids of the 60s-70s can be shared with new generations today, thanks to these reissues! Oh, who am I kidding? Those memories can be RELIVED by big kids like me!!
This definitely lead me to think of my own memories of growing up with horror. Such an incredible written!
Stacie! So many memories are associated with these models and the act of building them! The smells, tactile sensations, and craft experienced when model-making can’t be replicated through social media. You have to sit at a table and physically do it! Thanks for visiting and taking a look backwards as we move into the future! Joe
Magnificent article. I cant help but feel people underestimate the value of the experience of building models. I’m no master builder by any means, but some of my best memories are of building models.
Mike, I know you to be not only a creative pro, but one firmly aiming your talents at the genre. I can only imagine the early act of building these monsters helped you on your path to success. Thanks for sharing! Joe
Wow. I haven’t thought about my old monster models for decades. Reading this makes me want to buy and build them all again. Thank you for this walk down memory lane!
John, Thanks for coming along on our little, visceral time-traveling excursion. I think you’ll find, as I have recently, building these models today, transports you back to a youthful time when our worries were so simple and innocent. Worries like, “I wonder if ‘so-and-so’ likes me?” “What’s for dinner,” and, how do I mix the perfect color for my Frankenstein’s monster model? Thanks for the comment. Joe
John, Thanks for coming along on our little, visceral time-traveling excursion. I think you’ll find, as I have recently, building these models today, transports you back to a youthful time when our worries were so simple and innocent. Worries like, “I wonder if ‘so-and-so’ likes me?” “What’s for dinner,” and, how do I mix the perfect color for my Frankenstein’s monster model? Thanks for the comment. Joe