LET'S MAKE MONSTER MODELS! AURORA'S FIRST -- THE FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER

Something astonishing met readers' eyes as they devoured the 18th issue of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND in July of 1962. For only $1.00 plus 35-cents, you could send to CAPTAIN COMPANY, that Warren House of Monster Goodies, for a Frankenstein Monster "All Plastic Assembly Kit"! Suddenly, the ultimate monster kid's dream was within reach. The thought of being able to build your very own movie monster model was almost unthinkable.



The "Frankenstein Monster" plastic model kit ad in FAMOUS MONSTERS #18

If memory serves me correctly, my first model was another by Aurora -- The Red Knight of Vienna. Building this showed me that I had at least the fundamental aptitude to stick a few pieces of plastic together with some brain-bending stuff in a tube called model glue. This was of course in the days when all your model making materials were still OTC.

My first monster model, on the other hand, was The Mummy. I'll be sharing that lively experience with you sometime later.

Aurora's Frankenstein Monster, the first in a series, was introduced in 1961, which made the product barely a year old when it found its place among the monster masks, 8mm movie film reels and giant balloons in the back pages of FM. The kit became so popular, the Aurora plant was cranking out kits 24/7. It was later joined by others in the line and it would be a long time before they disappeared from the CAPTAIN COMPANY inventory.

Following is a bit of personal monster kid history as I share with you now the box top and the instruction sheet from the original Aurora Frankenstein monster model kit that I built (probably sometime around 1965). Somehow, I managed to hang on to them for all these years. I think the fact that I cut off the sides of the box enabling it to be saved flat had a lot to do with it.