LET'S MAKE MONSTER MODELS!

During the vintage years of monster magazines, and to a certain extent even in today's monster mag publications, it was not unusual to see plastic monster model kits for sale in the back pages. For example, FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND'S mail order department, CAPTAIN COMPANY was a prime source for all the AURORA PLASTICS monster models, including the customizing kits that offered more bling for your thing. As a matter of fact, during the heyday of FM, they promoted a monster model making contest in a mutually-benefitting deal with Aurora. Thousands of kids from around the country heard the "call-to-model" and rushed to their local hobby shop to buy their favorite monster kit, build it, and bring it back for "judging" by the hobby shop proprieter.

Perhaps the grandaddy of all hobby shop owners back in the day was Rich Palmer. At the time, Rich owned the most profitable hobby shop in the nation. Located in Parsippany, New Jersey, Aurora hired Rich to organize the famed 1964 "Monster Model Customizing Contest" that took the plastic model-making business by storm and to new heights of monsterkid craziness. He held court in his shop's "Monster Korner" and was even featured on the CBS Evening News with an interview that was conducted by none other than Walter Cronkite on location at his store! Pictured above right is Rich Palmer in his Monster Korner from from AMAZING FIGURE MODELER #38. When it was all over and the horizontally-challenged lady sang, the winners were announced in FAMOUS MONSTERS #32, along with photos of their handi . . . er, monster-work. [NOTE: I will be discussing this event a little more at length in this coming Tuesday's MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD post.]

In case you're wondering, since monster models were a significant part of the monster craze and did appear frequently within the pages of FM and other 'zines, I do consider at least a couple of currently-published hobby mags as "monster magazines" because they usually devote a large portion of their issue to monster, sci-fi, and fantasy themes. The "big two" are pictured below. If you are interested in monster model making, I suggest you check out their links on the sidebar of this here blogroll. And, remember to come back to MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD next Tuesday when I talk more about FAMOUS MONSTERS and the also-famous monster model contest of 1964.