AHI Monster Jigglers :Toy-Ventures

Toy-Ventures this week is all about the PVC rubbery goodness of the Azrak-Hamway 'World Famous Super Monster PVC Wigglies" or we call them Jigglers.

We'll get into their history and why they smell so much like childhood

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Topstone Vampire Girl flashlight

(another amazing guest post from Matt!) This wonderful flashlight is based upon the iconic image of the vampire girl from the Topstone mask series, sold in the back pages of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine.

Almost as iconic as her Shock monster cousin, The vampire girl image appeared on all types of unlicensed monster and Halloween paraphernalia throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s.

This flashlight was sold at Walgreens drugstore during the 1970s. Although the flashlight is beautiful, what really puts this one over the top is the gorgeous box art. The box calls her a "witch", but we all know who this is.

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Toy-Ventures: AHI Super Monsters Bend 'Ems!

Toy-Ventures this week is all about the World Famous Super Monsters Bend 'Ems line by Azrak-Hamway International. 

Frankenstein, the Wolfman, Dracula, King Kong, the Mummy, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon rounds out this wonderfully designed series of low-cost figures from 1975!

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Toy-Ventures 18: Parachuting Planet of the Apes

This week, we talk about one of my favorite subjects, cheap rack toys but even better, they're  planet of the apes rack toys. 

 We get into the history of licensed parachute toys, which are some of the most fun but also bizarre toys we could buy for under a buck. So we talk about RipCord, Star Trek, Batman, Space:1999, Sgt. Rock and the Mighty Crusaders as well. It's the most fun you ever had before you lost it in a tree.

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1986 Collegeville Halloween Costume Catalog

Collegeville was one of the leading Halloween costume manufacturers of the late twentieth century. 

 This extensive 1968 catalog really demonstrates the powerhouse licenses they were rocking in the 60s, including Labyrinth, The Transformers and the Go-Bots, WWF Wrasslers, Wuzzles, Rainbow Bright and the Peanuts, it's a good group and some solid 1980s nostalgia.

1986 Collegeville Halloween Costume Catalog

Gabriel Roto-Cast Monster Machine

This is the greatest toy I never owned, I wish I could send it back to myself in 1979.

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Vintage Halloween Pics Round up

At the beginning of October I put out the call for your vintage Halloween costume photos and brother, did you respond with your wood paneled goodness like this photo from Jason above.

To be honest, putting them all together became a daunting task, however, that's a good problem to have. An incredible vintage costume explosion awaits after the jump.

Monster Pillow Case Mystery

This pillow case was an awesome gift from my friend Corey at the last Mego Meet show. It's incredibly awesome but neither of us know it's origin.

It seriously looks like Fluffy from Creepshow but that's not possible right?

If anyone has any insight, I'd love to hear it! Until then, my daughter has taken posession of this and likely won't return it.

Denys Fisher Monster Factory

Sometimes I buy Monster toys and then totally forget about them in October, case in point this set. A wonderful "do it yourself" craft set from the UK that includes Frankenstein, the Wolfman and Dracula (the Chocolate, Vanilla and Strawberry of the monster world).

What's that you ask? Can we look inside Brain? Your wish is granted after the jump!

More Super 8 Monsters

This year my collection of Super 8 Monster movies has increased 300 fold (mainly cause i started with like one last year). While I planned to only buy these in the wild, some good deals on our vintage toys facebook group combined with Rodan coming from a generous friend makes me a happy boy.

I'm picky what monster movies I get on Super 8 but honestly Toho, Hammer and Harryhausen are everything right about the genre to me.

Official King Kong Water Gun by AHI

I haven't really added anything to my collection of Azrak-Hamway monster stuff in a long time. Mostly because the stuff I want is either a) extremely hard to find or b)insanely expensive or a combination of the two.

That's why I was excited to snag this open carded Kong squirt gun at the last Mego Meet for a decent price.

The AHI water guns are notoriously hard to find loose, so getting any on the card is a nice get. I don't know if I'll ever find a creature so it was nice to have at least one.

However, this display still gives me goosebumps and probably always will....

AHI Dracula on the card

I had a nice contribution by a fellow named Bob last night of this Azrak Hamway Dracula on the card. I actually didn't have this version in the AHI Monsters gallery so it was a welcome addition.

Dracula was sold in the AHI Official World Famous Super Monsters wave but in a way that distinguished him from the other monsters. The other monsters aren't mention on the card, nor are the monsters, just a huge portrait of Dracula.

Dracula didn't get a jiggler or a water pistol and his Bend N Flex figure looked more like Christopher Lee to be honest.

It's largely assumed this was due to ongoing litigation between Lugosi's estate and Universal Studios.

Most licensed 70s Dracula stuff is somewhat generic, the AHI Dracula is really no different


One of the more puzzling items is the presence of Bela on the card art. 

I'm assuming that use of his likeness on packaging was somewhat undefined at the time because his does appear on packaging, trading cards and other items but never in figure form.

Visit our AHI Monsters Gallery for more information

Gre-Gory: Big Bad Vampire Bat by Mattel

It finally happened, I got my hands on a Gre-Gory. After posting my disappointment ten years ago (ulp!) I found a good deal on one and decided to take the plunge.

More photos after the jump and my observations as I have never seen or held one of these in my life.

Topstone. Not Just another pretty face

Let's kick off Halloween talking about Topstone shall we? 

Topstone started marking masks in the 1950s, I mainly know them for their famous character art. this Wolfman was offered in comic books my entire childhood.

The company closed it's doors in the 1990s and Topstone masks are now highly collectible among passionate collectors.

I still remember how a bin of those smelled, I hope I never forget it.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters by GLJ

Just unearthed this sell sheet for GLJ toy's Godzilla bendy from the 1970s, there is nothing I don't like about this toy but the biggest thing is the amazing effort they put into this card art.

The connection to the Marvel Comic with the logo, really doesn't hurt does it?

Aurora Monster Scenes Store Display!

We've got an incredible treat this Friday before Halloween in the form of this incredible Aurora Monster Scenes store display, courtesy of my pal Matt, who will take over from here with the editorial.

This was actually assembled and painted at the Aurora factory, and then shipped built up to hobby stores.

Frankenstein doesn't come with the set. He is a vintage one from my childhood



There is little I can say about the Monster Scenes that hasn't already been said except that, in my opinion, they are the single greatest monster toy line to come out of the 1970s. 

They surpass even the Ahi monsters, as far as I'm concerned. If ever a toy line typified the early 1970s, this was it. 



Only in that decade could you get a model kit that was an action figure with a diorama that you built in order to reenact scenes of torture. 

No other decade would dare market a toy to kids rated "X" as a double-entendre. No other toy was made in that decade that so simply and directly tapped into that pre-adolescent boy mindset-- that transitory period where one is on the verge of transitioning away from loving "kids stuff" like monsters, and starting to think about girls... 

No one else has ever released a toy with that same cheerful mix of innocence and sadism. One would consider such a feat to be near impossible. But Aurora did. And it was the rock upon which they sank.


 
Here is the set with a random assortment of boxed Monster Scenes-- including the rare package variant "Victim" renamed as "Dr Deadly's Daughter" for Canadian markets. 


Thanks to Matt for being so awesome and sharing this piece of 1970s gold. Happy Halloween Everyone!

Lincoln Monsters in the 1976 Galoob Catalog

It wouldn't be Halloween without me waxing poetic about my favourite monster toy line of all time, the Lincoln Monsters.

This year I came across one of my absolute grails, in the form of finding the 1976 Galoob toys catalog. Although Galoob was later known for licensed items  and things such as Micro Machines, 1976 saw them as more of an importer of Hong Kong novelties including items produced by Lincoln International.



Here they are featured among the Lincoln Action Soldier toys and other Rack Toy merchandise. Galoob was definitely the the company that got the following memorable Montgomery Ward's catalog spread from 1976:

More Lincoln International Monster Love here:

Remco Monsterizer Video

One of my favourite monster toys of all time is the Remco Monsterizer, even though it doesn't a have ton of play value, it's just such a nice and thoughtful prop.

I was happy to discover that mine actually worked the other day and it inspired me to make this little video short all about it. Special thanks to my ever patient assistant, my daughter for her hand modelling. Hope you enjoy it!

More Remco Monsters!

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Spotlight: Toynami Shogun Warriors Godzilla

What better time to do a photo review of a shiny new Godzilla toy than the month of October?

This isn't any Godzilla but Toynami's retake of our childhood classic, the Shogun Warriors Godzilla. I tried to resist  this but seeing as I was denied the original as a kid, it was inevitable. 

So let's take a long loving look at the king of all monster shall we? A very comprehensive after the jump!

Rapco Monster Casting Kit

Every year I post about the Rapco Monsters along with the phrase "Why don't I own these?" This year is no different.

From a previous Halloween the 1975 Rapco Catalog