The recent mention of Tomland toys rekindled my old passion for their Monsters line. Coming out too late to tempt me away from heavy rock and parties in my late teens, the original release sadly passed me by.
It was only years later that I discovered this UK company's grrrroovy Famous Monsters of Legend line. OK, they had to cover the classic big beasts like Frankie and Wolfie but it was the B-league monsters who never saw the light of a toy shop window that caught my eye.
The Fly, Vincent Price's finest hour, got a look in, as did Harryhausen's Cyclops, the Time Machine's Morlock and the Abominable Snowman.
Deliciously cheapo with raggedy clothes, like the basic knockoff action men I had as a kid, they came with brilliant card art. I still don't own any but have admired them at toy fairs for years and loved finding out about them in my toy books and latterly the internet. I'm sure I have a colouring book that features the card art as well somewhere, but not the original one, which you can read about, along with all the monsters and their outer space chums, the Star Raiders, on the brilliant Plaid Stallions.
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