Monster Model Kits

Monster-mania gripped America in the Sixties: There were monster movie marathons on TV; monster magazines like Famous Monsters and Monster World, and (to the consternation of parents everywhere) monster model kits.

Made of cheap plastic and packaged in garishly-illustrated boxes, these kits represented a multiple menace of expense, ghoulish imagery and all that potent, brain-frying adhesive required to stick them together (not to mention the way the finished products attracted dust like a magnet!).

No outfit could compete with the Aurora Plastics Company, whose inventory included classic horrors like The Wolfman and Mr Hyde, TV favourites The Addams Family and The Munsters, and in a glorious hybrid, hot-rodding monsters like Dracula’s Dragster and The Mummy’s Chariot.

1971 saw the introduction of Aurora’s ‘Frightening Lightning’ kits. These were reissues of the original kits with certain pieces that glowed in the dark.

Aurora Plastics liquidated in 1977, selling off their model moulds to rival Monogram, and the kits became the obsessive focus of collectors, with rare examples going for over $1,000.

In recent years, the Indiana (US) based company Polar Lights has reissued Aurora’s prized line-up, complete with reproductions of the original box artwork.