My Finished Kit:

This was the first Aurora classic re-issue kit I built. I
hadn't been aware of the re-issues of the old monsters
until I came across one in a Toys R Us. Suddenly, I
was transported back to my golden childhood days
of glue and paint in the garage. Great times.

I remembered a pact I made with a couple of my
grammar school chums; we promised to pool some
of our allowance into a fund to purchase all the kits.
We each had some that were our own, but planned
to share the rest among ourselves. (Sharing-such a subversive socialist concept!)

I don't think we ever completed the set to share, so
that's what I'm doing now, and sharing it with you.

Enough smaltzy reminiscing!

This kit was filled and sanded diligently to blend
all seams into the wrapping. I was successful
in hiding virtually all the joins. I also used dabs of
putty to create a rough "broken stone" texture on
the back of the split column.

I painted the figure in shades imitating black-and-
white film stock, with the exception of a red pupil.
I decided to forgo the blood dripping from hand and
eye socket from the box art.

I gave the base a warm yellow-brown cast, leaving
the hieroglyph details unpainted. I think this gave it
a convincing "ancient" look. Together with the gray-
scale figure, the overall effect is of a poster painting,
or a lobby card illustration.

Aurora's brilliant marketing blitz in popular comic book titles of the day helped firmly establish their product line in the minds of monster-loving kids by 1963. The demand for new kits led to the release that year of kits based on characters from classic Universal movies: The Creature (from the Black Lagoon), The Mummy, and The Phantom of the Opera.