MONSTER PAINT-BY-NUMBERS

By the time I was a nine year-old Monster Kid, each item I had in my monster collection was like a holy grail. Every Aurora model, every Marx figure, every monster mag was treated as a sacred object and irreplaceable. As a result, I had VERY few disasters, but one devastating incident I remember to this day.

Somehow, I managed to scrape together the two bucks to buy a Hasbro Paint-By Number Monster kit. It was 1963 and that kind of money was hard to come by and it's possible my parents even bought it for me. I can't remember the selection at the store, but I decided on the Dracula kit, probably because it was so menacing-looking with the candle-glow on his face. When the time came to paint it, I went down a few doors to my friend's house and the two mini-Michelangelo's went to work (I think my friend had the Wolfman kit). After painting for an indeterminate time, I was called back up to my house for dinner. Satisfied that I had made good progress, I put it into the box and put the lid on it for "safekeeping". When I got back home, I went in my room and pulled the lid off to admire my handiwork one more time before dinner. What met my eyes was a smeared, crappy mess on the canvas -- the box top had come in contact with the wet paint! A Banshee couldn't have wailed any louder than me at that moment. I was so distraught I tossed it in the trash. Looking back, I don't think anything I did could have save it. So traumatized was I that I never considered getting another one. Oh, well, another lesson learned on the long road of life. 

Image sources: eBay, Tumblr.

This unpainted kit went for over $800 at auction.

A full-page ad in -- guess where? -- FAMOUS MONSTERS!