Hi and Happy Halloween!
The US kit company Aurora was famous for its Monster kits, most of which are based on various Universal movies from the 1920s (The Phantom of the Opera) to the 1950s (Creature From the Black Lagoon).
Seeing the success of these kits, which first appeared in 1962, other companies wanted a piece of the Monster pie, but Aurora had the rights to all the big name Monsters. Everyone else had to invent their own Monsters, and pit these unknown horrors against the likes of Dracula and Frankenstein. No contest.
Lindberg was a well known name, with a long history, but they were never in the Big Three. They produced several small groups of horror kits, including this set of four Monsters. They have appeared before on Moonbase Central, but I thought they deserved a closer look.
The Universal Monster Army site also devotes three pages to these kits.
Apart from this there is not a lot of information out there on the kits, just some photographs. They are not even listed on the Scalemates site.
There were four kits in the series. The box art has a horror movie look to it, perhaps trying to suggest a link to well known movie monsters. Wotan also suggested that they may have been inspired by American Indian ceremonial costumes and masks. They are certainly very similar.
No.272:50 Krimson Terror - perhaps based on The Masque of the Red Death (1964), which was a Roger Corman movie ? The figure has four arms.
No.273:50 Creeping Crusher - a vampire in its bat form ?
No.274:50 Green Ghoul - a Mummy, although the bands seem to be overlapping plates rather than bandages. Lobster Man ?
No.275:50 Mad Mangler - Frankenstein's Monster ? Two mouths.
Calling these models 'kits' is really pushing it!
On opening the box there are only two parts, front and rear body half, plus a tuft of coloured Monster Hair to glue on top of the head. The result resembles a Troll. The models all seem to be moulded in plain white plastic. If Lindberg had at least moulded them in different colours, it would have made them more attractive.
The colour of the Monster Hair seems to have varied, and was not a set colour for each kit. Height was about six inches or so.
There was a folded sheet of Assembly Plans, with photos of the model. Here are the written assembly instructions in full: Cement body halves 1 and 2 together. Next paint monster following colors on box cover. Now cement monster hair in place. See below.
Lindberg clearly put little effort or money in to these kits. Design and tooling costs would have been minimal given the lack of parts. Even in the most basic aircraft kit you could expect in excess of a dozen parts.
The copyright date on the side of the box is 1965. The box also says 'See these Lindberg Monsters at your hobby dealer'. Just below this is 'The Lindberg Line - for those who demand the best'.
The original retail price of these kits was 50 cents. The price being included in the catalogue number. For comparison, the Aurora movie monsters sold for 98 cents, but were twice the size, contained far more parts, and were much more detailed. They were far better value.
Having bought one of these kits, and seen what was in the box, how many monster fans would have wanted the rest of the series ? Reader Andy B says he was so disappointed, he took his kit back to the shop. How many others did the same thing ?
To the best of my knowledge these kits have not been re-issued, although resin copies seem to be available online.
Six photos, in three batches. All from Worthpoint or Ebay.
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Lindberg Postscript!
This looks like an old comic book ad on Pinterest for the Lindberg Monster kits. Although there is no mention of the Lindberg name, the line is described as Unknown Creatures. Un-named...Un-tamed.
None of the models are named, and there is no mention of them being kits, nor do the pictures show the tufts of Monster Hair that were a feature of the Lindberg versions. Price $1 each. That is double what the Lindberg kits were, so are these a later re-issue, either by Lindberg or another company ?
No idea what the packaging was like. I am stumped. Could not find anything further on these. The company name at the bottom of the page is Victory Specialties, but I assume this is just a mail order company ? I cannot read the address.
Model numbers from the ad. I have added the Lindberg number and name for identification purposes only.
X201 is Lindberg No.272:50 Krimson Terror
X202 is No.273:50 Creeping Crusher
X203 is No.274:50 Green Ghoul
X204 is No.275:50 Mad Mangler
Let these terrifying intruders scare you out of this world. Plastic models...gory...grim...grotesque...5 1/2" high...These never-never-landers are available in four types...one uglier than the next. May be painted with plastic model paints...to suit the individual's horror taste.
This is everything I have on this range.
Happy Halloween!
Paul Adams from New Zealand
Good Godzilla! I never knew Lindberg made Monster models, and they are truly bizarre! I am sure kids were disappointed, but what I would give to build one of these suckers now! They are beyond weird! I bet the originals are worth a king's ransom! Wowee, what a find!
ReplyDeleteThank you. Glad you enjoyed these strange little 'kits'. There were plenty of oddball subjects made in the early days of plastic kits, in the 1950s and 1960s, and monsters were big in the 1960s following the success of Aurora with their Universal movie monster kits.
ReplyDeleteBoth the Creeping Crusher and Green Ghouls faces are based on First Nation masks depicting gods and creatures from various mythologies, such as Dzunkwa and the Cannibal Giant.
ReplyDeleteWhen I bought my monster kit in the mid 1960s, I think there was at least one more Lindberg monster kit, a monster in an open (saloon?) car. I was so put off by the first one I bought (and returned) I never went near the other, which may have been better.
ReplyDeleteThey can be customized easy enough.a little Sculpey and paint,you can easily turn meh into monstrous!
ReplyDeleteApologies Paul and readers, just noticed this article I edited for Paul remained unformatted, hence the huge white blocks. I've been out all day with Junior. The article is fixed now.
ReplyDeleteThank you. No problem.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Lindberg monster in a car, there was a line called Lindy Loonys, which included four different vehicles, driven by various creatures. There were also kits by several other US companies around this time, the most famous being the Weird-Ohs line by Hawk. Most of these have been re-issued over the years. Clearly, another subject requiring a closer look.
Update on the old mail order ad. The company is not Victory Specialties as I originally thought, but Victor Specialties, P.O. Box 151, Derby, Connecticut, USA.
ReplyDeleteI had some of these. At the time I thought they were the worst model kits I'd ever seen.
ReplyDeleteBefore I went to secondary school in the 60’s , I had a collection of Aurora Universal Monsters and horror kits, including ‘La Guillotine’, The Munsters, The Witch and King Kong.
ReplyDeleteMy favourites were The Mummy and The Creature From The Black Lagoon.
Living in the UK, and not being sophisticated enough to even know how to order from the US, I had to rely on my local bike and hobby-shop store.
I was also able to acquire some of the Limberg kits, and Freddy Flame-Out, from Hawk models.
By the time I’d discovered Revell’s Ed ‘Big Daddy’ Roth’s, Rat Fink Series, my interest was well on the wane.
Thank you for your comments. That was a great collection of models. You just did not see those sorts of kits in NZ back in the 1970s when I started modelling.
ReplyDeleteHearing from someone who actually built such models at the time is always interesting.