Hi Woodsy
We were talking about the Aurora Monster Scenes book a while ago, and you mentioned one of the kits they had trouble with. I do not know if you want to post this, as it is a bit gruesome, but here are a few You Tube items on the Aurora Chamber of Horrors Guillotine, which show it 'in action'. Seems the kit was reissued in later years by Polar Lights.
This one runs through the process for beheading someone with a guillotine, so at least it is educational. There is also a shot of the sprues.
This shows both the Aurora and Polar Lights kits, and a much larger 1/8th scale model in wood and resin. The owner describes the Aurora kit as 'cute'. Not sure if that is the word I would use.
A build of the Polar Lights Glow in the Dark version (only the figure glows in the dark - including his severed head).
There are also several short videos showing the guillotine in use.
Yours Sincerely,
Paul Adams from New Zealand
One of my friends at secondary school his dad was a bit cool and we didn't know it at the time, his garage was packed with playboy mags, Aurora horror kits and various guitars all with a turquoise metal flake finish (I can only assume turquoise was his favourite color). Years later there's a model shop down the road from where I work with loads of Aurora kits for huge sums of money,am I right in thinking there's a Pit and the Pendulum set??- MJ Southcoast base
ReplyDeleteAurora made a kit called The Pendulum, in 1/13th scale, which was in keeping with their other horror themed kits - I assume 1/13th was chosen given the spooky/sinister connotations of the number 13. It came out in 1971, and was later re-issued by Moebius. Another of the many gruesome models in the Aurora range, none of which I ever had. Even the re-issues are expensive, from what I have seen. Here is a short clip from You Tube showing the kit.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0g899-jYXU
I remember as a kid in the UK seeing various Aurora kits. I got the small Lost In Space Giant and the original tall box Godzilla. When the Aurora's were reissued in Frightening Lightning, I got a Forgotten Prisoner of Castlemare. I was annoyed that his kneecaps weren't moulded in glow plastic, but I fixed that with a bottle of Lightning Bug Glow Juice -anyone remember that?
ReplyDeleteMy Mother took me shopping past a department store in Barnes, during Wednesday afternoon Early Closing (remember that, Boomers?) and safely behind the plate glass window were Zeroids and the dreaded Aurora Guillotine!
That was the closest I ever came to that particular piece of 60's Grande Guignol!
I had the caveman kit, moulded in a burnt orange plastic, it wasn't an easy build and remained unfinished, I think now I would have given it a good old college try and filled gaps and fabricated bits to finish it off! I remember it being massive too, anyone else have that experience? - MJ
DeleteDon't recall Lightning Juice Looety but I would have loved it I think! I remember half-day closing though. My late Mum worked in retail so she would have enjoyed an afternoon off mid-week. She did her shopping in Owen and Owen, BHS and Marks and Spencer. But Zeroids behind plate glass! I suppose they were alien robots!
DeleteNever had the Caveman kit MJ. I was a klutz with models and most of the decent monsters in the house were made by my older bro. Have you got photo's of your old models?
DeleteNada on the photos unfortunately, I wasn't good at painting or finishing a kit, still a bit of a bodger, now prefer figures to vehicles - MJ
DeleteNo probs MJ. I have hardly any pics of my toys, which is odd given that they were so damn important to me in the Sixties and early Seventies!
DeleteI've just customized the Spinmaster 2in1 Batmobile and Batman figure, it's at the shop so quarantined at the moment when I get a chance I'll send some pics - MJ
DeleteI had the guillotine kit as a kid - it was on the 'cutting edge' of monster kits lol g-r-o-a-n
ReplyDeleteWhat "Neck" of the woods are you from? - MJ Southcoast base
Deleteoriginally Milwaukee, now in Lost Wages, NV
DeleteI had a couple of the Auroira kits, including JFK sitting on his rocker in the Oval office. I also remember I did a TERRIBLE job putting them together. JFK looked like a ghost after using that thick, gooey, crummy Testors 'flesh' colored paint
DeleteWho MJ, me or Ed? I'm in West Yorkshire.
ReplyDeleteEd😉- MJ
DeleteThanks Ed for the locale,couldn't resist the neck gag- MJ
ReplyDelete