Aurora Monster Models

[Teasing the Korean]

Just curious if any members here within a certain age group were as obsessed with Aurora monster models as I was when I was a kid. My older brother had a couple of these, and then I built several more when I got older.

Still, there were some I never built. For example, the Forgotten Prisoner was always hard to find for some reason. Also, they had phased out the Bride of Frankenstein by the time I was buying them in the early/mid 70s.

I never got into the glow in the dark versions. The concept made more sense with, say, Dracula, where all of the skin pieces glowed (i.e. hands and face). But it made no sense with Godzilla, where his head and hands glow but not the rest of him.

Also, I loved the bases, which always included rats, skulls, salamanders, etc.

Polar Lights has reissued some of these. Are they any good?

[catesta]

I was never obsessed but a friend of mine was. He had them all set up on a shelf in his basement.

The only one I remember having was a glow in the dark Godzilla.

[Jazzmoose]

If I had had an unlimited allowance, I guarantee I would have had them; loved the way they looked in the comic book ads! My limited model money usually went the way of Big Daddy Roth cars, though...

[7/4]

only cars and planes. I don't think any of the ones I built still exit today.

.

[DTMX]

I bought the Godzilla model. It was my first model that used glue - and one of the last (I'm not good with adhesives, especially when I was 6). I had never actually seen what Godzilla looked like so I glued the glow-in-the-dark parts to him. If I had it to do over again (and this topic came up just the other day), I'd have only used the luminescent dorsal fin which did glow in the movies.

The whole Aurora catalog freaked me out. For some reason, this picture of King Kong gave me nightmares.

[JSngry]

I tried to build Frankenstein when I was 8 but screwed up the paint work. That was 1963. How long were those thigs around anyway?

[JSngry]

And here's the Aurora logo I remember:

[Free For All]

Sure, I was totally into the monster models. I also built model cars, planes, tanks, whatever. Like all good pyromaniacal teenagers, I eventually blew them all up with explosives.

I still have scars from my Xacto knives, and I think I probably have braim danage from sitting at a table for hours with all that Testors glue and paint (probably worse than all the things I smoked/ingested in college).

Edited June 15, 2008 by Free For All

[mikelz777]

[mikelz777]

[mikelz777]

[Free For All]

So why is Frankenstein standing on a grave that's marked "Frankenstein"? I mean, he was made from spare parts from other people and was still obviously "alive" at this point, so why the grave?

[mikelz777]

[Free For All]

That Hunchback thing is kind of a hot bondage fantasy....not mine, of course.

Also, dig that crazy green bong by the Bride's side.

Someone did a great job of painting those models!

Edited June 15, 2008 by Free For All

[catesta]

I tried to build Frankenstein when I was 8 but screwed up the paint work. That was 1963. How long were those thigs around anyway?

I think they were around until the mid 70s.

[Aggie87]

Also, dig that crazy green bong by the Bride's side.

She looks like Helena Bonham Carter! LOL

I had a recurring Frankenstein nightmare as a kid. I had seen one of the flicks where the monster is frozen in a block of ice, and is thawed out and reawakened. For some reason at night that big block of ice invariably was in my closet, doing the slow melt until he finally busts out and attacks me. The suspense was awful! I think I must have been about 6 years old maybe.

Sorry for the tangent there - now back to your plastic & glue memories...

[Jazzmoose]

Like all good pyromaniacal teenagers, I eventually blew them all up with explosives.

Oh yeah....that or staged car wrecks with lighter fluid...

[DTMX]

Like all good pyromaniacal teenagers, I eventually blew them all up with explosives.

Oh yeah....that or staged car wrecks with lighter fluid...

My best friend used to do that. He would take a sheet of plywood and paint it to look like a street and then put two (or more models) on it in various stages of destruction, topped off with a little lighter fluid. He brought one of them to school for show-and-tell and the principal called his mother to come pick him up. He was gone for a few days.

It could have been worse though - he might have brought a sample from his Landmine GI Joe collection.

[Brad]

I think the only Aurora I had was the Scalextric racing cars. I think that was made by Aurora. I do remember the emblem that Jim posted.

[Man with the Golden Arm]

My Grandmother used to build these when I was a kid. Being an oil painter she had a different approach to the paint. (She was also a pretty good on the Wurlitzer - I think she played "Somewhere my Love" every morning ... also topped off the afternoon with extra thick black coffee and a Carling Black Label or two)

As I recall she built the Mummy, Frankenstein, Hunch Back, Wolfman and my favorite of all the King Kong.

My folks got rid of all of them and every time I get back to the homestead I look in the same storage spot hoping that they will someday reappear.

My mother also made some very cool model kits. I still have a group of four dinos plus these kits with bases of a lion, horse, tiger, spider monkey, boxer dog that are in this kind of "paint by numbers" assemblage.

Her favorite was a '65 Sting Ray (probably a Revell) she built that some one copped off of her office desk way back in the day.

Edited June 16, 2008 by Man with the Golden Arm

[RDK]

Here's my friend Keith's Aurora site...

http://www.majormattmason.net/aurora/