MAN MADE MONSTERS

CLOWN

MAN MADE MONSTERS: NOT JUST FOR KIDS Review By: Joe X Young

My earliest experience of Aurora model kits was when I was a small boy in the 1960s/70s. I first encountered them whilst flicking through a comic book, which particular comic has long since escaped my memory except that it was an American superhero one which ran a great many exotic advertisements for strange and fantastic things such as life-sized 7’ tall Frankenstein Monsters (which were 2-D cardboard cut-outs.), real working x-ray specs (which didn’t actually work), and a muscular depiction of Charles Atlas stating that I too could have a body like his. As things turned out, later in life I didn’t get the life-sized Frankenstein or the x-ray specs, neither did I get the Charles Atlas body, but something I did get was a Frankenstein’s Monster Aurora model kit which I must have had when I was around nine years old. In Birmingham, England back in the early 1970s these things were few and far between and for a basic gruesome little monster kid such as me it was fantastic. I did the best building/paint job that my little hands could handle.

Sadly I don’t still have the kit, or even a picture of it, but the memory stayed with me.

A few years later and that model kit was lost in a house move (so sad) but then one day I saw what was to become a fixation of mine for decades - ‘The Forgotten Prisoner of Castle Mare’. As the name suggests the figure is that of a skeleton dressed in rags, chained to a wall. Gloriously creepy and it totally ticked all of my boxes, so I just had to have it! However, that would mean going out and earning the money to buy it and justifying the purchase to my dad who had a totally different opinion of what I should be doing, and so he banned me from having it.

Decades rolled by and with it I grew to a mock adulthood, the child in me being something of a forgotten prisoner myself, kicking and screaming to be allowed to play, but the world is an angry and nasty place which promotes growing up as the right thing to do and so I tried hard to conform (It didn’t stick). Recently, with five decades under my belt the child in me grew stronger, and one of those rare right place, right time opportunities enabled me to see a bunch of tatty, already built Aurora Model Kits going for a rather decent price. I procrastinated, part of me believing that these are childish things, and another part of me knowing that as they were already painted and assembled they would require a lot of restoration. The child in me said “I can do it!” And I agreed with him, so I bought them.

If I had only known the direction it would take me in I wouldn’t have... I wouldn’t have... oh, who am I kidding! I would have done it anyway! One of my many beliefs is that adults should be able to play, we go through lots in our lives and as such, we should allow ourselves to do things which put us back in touch with a sense of fun we had as children, no matter what form that takes. I’ve always loved monsters, and I love to repair and restore things, so for me all of this is a no-brainer.

A very brief Aurora history lesson: Way back in the 1950s and 1960s the Aurora model company was successfully turning out polystyrene model kits of the more conventional subject matters of military aircraft, vehicles, Viking warships and costumed people of the world, as well as the first truly popular figure kits they produced which were Knights in Armour. It was purely by chance that Aurora’s advertising and ideas man, Bill Silverstein, saw a bunch of kids outside a cinema which was showing a Frankenstein and Dracula double bill. He had the idea to produce ‘Universal Monsters Model Kits’, but every time he presented the idea in meetings it was shot down in flames, until eventually the company went for it and the first Aurora Frankenstein’s Monster model kit was created. It was an instant success to the point where supply could not keep up with demand, the machines working day and night to produce the models.

The Kit Modelling community is all-encompassing, there are of course the purists who would prefer the Aurora kits, if not still mint condition in boxes then certainly built in accordance with the instructions and painted with Testor’s Enamels. The majority of the community has a different perspective in which anything goes, it is open to the individual to customise the model as they see fit as the hobby is really all about enjoying what you do, which I believe is the way it should be. On the Frankenstein’s monster I modified the arm and hand positions, used actual metal for his head staples and inserted a metal bar through his neck for the electrodes, all of which were well received by the modelling community. I re-carved the original face for a little more of a Karloff vibe, which is something I wouldn’t necessarily have to do because there are ‘after-market’ heads available from very talented sculptors, I just prefer to do it myself. The ruler is there to indicate the rough scale of the figures this one being 25cm, which is around 10 inches.

That was the first Aurora I tackled, after which I decided to do the Hunchback of Notre Dame, which entailed stripping away enamel paint, remoulding his face and hair with plastic putty and giving him a brighter paint job. As you can see, the Hunchback is around 17cm, just around 7 inches.

Alongside Frankenstein and The Hunchback Aurora produced kits of the following monsters: The Creature from the Black Lagoon. Dr Jekyll as Mr Hyde. Dracula. Godzilla. King Kong. The Forgotten Prisoner of Castle Mare. The Mummy. The Witch. The Wolfman. The Bride of Frankenstein. The Phantom of the Opera.

They were the original 13, however two of those listed; the Forgotten Prisoner and The Witch were not derived from any horror film but were original creations of Aurora.

Part 2 of MAN MADE MONSTERS coming in the next issue.

Zombie Chunks is an amazing series of short stories, where no two story lines are alike. With each author having such different ideas on what makes for an interesting horror story there is something for everyone within this book. Some would say a must read for any zombie fanatic.

With 13 stories inside for you to ‘feast’ your eyes on you will be hard pushed to put this down until you have managed to read every one.

We start with a trip to Atlantis…yes I said Atlantis, but there is a reason it disappeared all those years ago. You will just have to read this one to find out for yourself. With such an interesting start to these zombie shorts what could be next! Each author not only has his or her own ideas on storylines, but they also use differing writing styles. This is just one of the many reasons to get yourself a copy of this book.

Not all of our stories will send you hiding under the covers behind the sofa, some in fact will have you laughing aloud! With such varied stories, this truly is a book that will sit well on anyone’s bookshelf.

Happy reading!

Dead Score: 9.0/10.0

CONTACT jimkrut@helizombie.com

Zombie Rising Magazine is a US based, digital only, monthly magazine for zombie lovers everywhere. We have your latest updates and interviews on movies, books and zombie events around the world. We will have free poster downloads, zombie swag giveaways, zombie fashion and make-up tutorials, Fan Fiction and much, much more.