Collecting Monsters
INTRODUCTION
By Bradley Beard
4
C
ollecting movie memorabilia is a phenomenon that every American is familiar with and a hobby that a majority are involved in. It has been largely popular for the past 50 years. Prior to that however it had been a hobby that was limited to non-movie related items such as comic books, sports memorabilia, and toys. In the 1960’s Universal Studios changed the face of collecting forever. In 1961, Aurora models began producing the first ever monster model by including the newly licensed Frankenstein monster in their current product lineup. It was an immediate hit with young children and they were being bought off the store shelves nearly as fast as the company could produce them. The demand prompted Aurora to produce them 24 hours a day allowing the company to turn out 3 kits a minute or 8,000 kits a day. The success of the Frankenstein model led Aurora to develop and deliver a total of 13 monster kits in six years, 8 of which were under license from Universal Studios. The characters licensed from Universal in addition to Frankenstein included Dracula, The Mummy, The Wolfman, The Creature
