This is a story that goes back a good few years. Parts have been blogged, some parts not.
This is the whole story.
Always a monster nut I loved monster action figures as a kid. Figures like Lincoln International's classic monsters.
So a while back I was amazed to see a strange girl doll on Plaid Stallion's Lincoln Monsters page (pictured).
What?
The rare 1970's doll was called The Girl Victim, a risky choice given that Aurora ran into a lot of trouble with the same named kit ten years earlier in the 60's.
Image: property of Lincoln Monsters.com
Just over two years ago I thought I'd actually found the doll in a Selby charity shop but this was a big red Sindy herring.
https://projectswordtoys.blogspot.com/2022/09/sometimes-great-motion.html
Then I saw that Plaidstallions had already ID'd the real doll, a mini vintage Barbie called Mod Miss.
Now I had a name to go on!
I searched and searched and eventually got this bagged Mod Miss from Italian Ebay.
I was chuffed!
The game was on. I could maybe make my own Lincoln Victim figure after all!
All I needed was the right material. I sampled one of the pictures online and sent this image to an online cloth printer. I kept it economic by simply ordering a napkin.
The result was excellent, although I worried it wasn't enough material.
I asked our good friend Franzi E, a trained tailor in Germany, to do a favour when we visited last month and have a go at making the doll's onesie.
I needn't have worried. Franzi made such a great job of the little outfit that there was material left over!
Complete with lace trim here's Franzis fabulous work.
The next job was the backing card. The original never had one, a loose doll in a Spiegel catalogue box of monsters.
I asked Wotan Bill what he'd do and he kindly produced this first fabulous draft inspired by the poster for Dementia 13.
After some discussion and a few changes Bills final artwork was terrific.
With the doll, the suit and the artwork, I added one final touch - and inspired by Auroras Frightening Lightening kits - some Glow in the Dark paint on the doll's exposed parts.
All that remained to do was put everything together.
Bill's artwork glued on card [my lack of proper post-glue smoothing let it down i think]
My doll with Franzi's suit on the card.
And finally, a blister I found.
Eh, voila!
Our custom MoonBase International Victim Doll.
And so we've come full circle. Job done! It's been monstrous fun!
*
Final observations:
The blister's temporary until a better one turns up. The Glow in the Dark paint worked - pictured below. I went on to find three more proper Mod Miss's in a Selby Charity shop!
By way of comparison, here's BKC's, a professional German customiser's version of the Girl Victim, along with a few of his other many customs.
I don't think ours is too far off the mark after all. What do you think readers?
Super! I could see some folks complaining today, but wouldn't have expected it in the 1960s. I had the Aurora Girl Victim and never heard a peep. Certainly not from my parents.
ReplyDeleteGlad you like it and Wow, you had one Baron? The Aurora Victim? yep, it was a scandal. Mothers of America went nuts. Wiki says " Nabisco received unwanted publicity when Aurora introduced a line of “Monster Scenes” which included torture devices and a scantily clad female victim; newspapers reported negatively on the line, and the National Organization for Women voiced their objection." There's even a new book on the subject! https://www.amazon.com/Aurora-Monster-Scenes-Controversial-Generation/dp/0692202870
DeleteHah! Never heard of "Mothers of America," is that supposed to be a group of some significance? Anyway, tempest in a tea pot. I liked horror movies, all this stuff appeared in horror movies, don't see a problem. Today I assume people's heads would explode, but I still don't see a problem.
DeleteMothers of America is my phrase Baron, the actual movement that protested was thge national Organisation for Women. Here's a News article from the time https://i0.wp.com/desperate-living.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/monsterscenes-protests.jpg?resize=735%2C570&ssl=1 I don't think the doll or kit would sit well in modern Britain either.
DeleteLOL, OK, twelve women for an hour and a half. Thanks for the link!
DeleteWow, that is an enormous amount of work, by a number of people, across several different countries, to produce a work of art. But you got there in the end. Well done, to all.
ReplyDeletePerhaps a rubber brayer (roller) from an art shop might have helped smooth out the paper, or even a rolling pin ?
The Aurora kit of The Victim, part of the Monster Scenes series, was released in 1971, not the 1960s. That book on the Monster Scene kits was published in 2014, and is now out of print. It is stunningly expensive. Co-authored by Andy Yanchus of Aurora.