Iconic Monster Toy Art

[MonsterBaker666]

They look like someone tried copying the James Bama Aurora box art, especially Dracula.

As a matter of fact, the art for the display box clearly copied the Aurora model box art. 

Not sure if they had in-house artists doing the work.

[Anton Phibes]

Aurora's success made them the "unofficial official" style guide for all things monsters of the 60's for product like AHI, wallets, etc.

[MonsterBaker666]

The old Cragstan's Creeping Crawling Hand toy used the Aurora Frankenstein art for their box art - just changed the face a bit and did a closeup of one of the hands.  Loved that toy. 

[Monolith]

You owned the original wallet art!? When and where did you get them? What size were they?

Yes, any info you could give us would be much appreciated. Did you own the original paintings? Were they done in gouache? Gouache was commonly used for illustration in the early 1960's. What size were they? Was there any writing or printed info on the back?

[skully]

Hi Monolith.  Yes, I once owned them.  And yes, they were actually done in gouache, very colorful and dynamic in appearance, probably as close as one could get with Aurora box art likeness. They weren't too big, probably around 10x12 or so.  No writing was on the art boards, they each had clear overlay with the writing on them, they were framed with the overlays intact and showing.

[Monolith]

Hi Monolith.  Yes, I once owned them.  And yes, they were actually done in gouache, very colorful and dynamic in appearance, probably as close as one could get with Aurora box art likeness. They weren't too big, probably around 10x12 or so.  No writing was on the art boards, they each had clear overlay with the writing on them, they were framed with the overlays intact and showing.

Wow! Those are a very cool thing to have owned. Thanks for the info.

[Hepcat]

I was awed when I saw pictures of the original art for several of these wallets on (I think) the inside back cover of some issue of Bill Bruegman's Model and Toy Collector magazine in 1989(?) or so.



It must though have been after the first half dozen issues or so because these were published in B&W only.

 

[Hepcat]

The Ideal board games had better box art than the other ones since Ralph Pereida's artwork was a cut above those of other board game artists. Here are some examples:















I have an Ideal Man from U.N.C.L.E. board game in my own collection:



 

[Hepcat]

The artist who did the box art for Revell's "Big Daddy" Roth model kits was the legendary Jack Leynnwood:



Box Art Illustrator Jack Leynnwood

Leynnwood did the art for five "Big Daddy" Roth's show car kits in 1962-63 before tackling any finks. His effort on the Mysterion is the wildest if not the best:



Leynnwood then did a whole series of the fink kits for Revell. Here are some examples:















 

[Hepcat]

Bill Campbell was the Hawk staff artist who created the iconic Weird-Ohs and did the box art:



















Bill Campbell was responsible for most of Hawk's box art from the mid 1950's to 1965. Here's a self-portrait he did surrounded by some of his most famous creations:



And here's a book by Mark Cantrell devoted to Bill Campbell and his artwork:

[Hepcat]

Let's not forget about the original artwork for the Mego Wolfman box. Beautiful stuff.

Indeed it is! The artist responsible for the fabulous artwork on those Mego Mad Monster Series boxes from 1974 was Gray Morrow:





Gray Morrow had already achieved considerable reknown in monster fandom in the 1964-67 years as a regular story contributor to various Warren publications including Creepy, Eerie and Blazing Combat.

Creepy 1



Creepy 9



During those years he also pencilled the covers to Creepy 8, 13 & 14 and Eerie 4, 6 & 10.

(Not mine.)

(Not mine.)

 

[Hepcat]

Here's the cover and a few panels from the interior pages of the Neal Adams penciled booklet that was included inside the Aurora Monster Scenes model kits from 1971:







And these Aurora Comic Scenes boxes from 1974 featuring Neal Adams' artwork contain certain monstery or sci-fi elements:





 

[Hepcat]

Jack Davis is perhaps the most fabled monster artist of them all but I'm not aware of any specific monster toy box art on his part. Perhaps though these LPs can be classified as "toys":







Moreover this ad for a fabulous B&W poster of Frankenstein drawn by Jack Davis ran in Warren magazines for much of the 1960's:



Brentz Dolz released it as an action figure earlier this year:



 

[Hepcat]

Many/most monster or sci-fi fans are well aware of the covers that Ken Kelly did for Warren magazines. His renderings of Vampirella over the years were particularly striking:









But Ken Kelly also did the box art for Mego's 1976-80 line of Micronaut action figures. Here are a few examples:









 

[marsattacks666]

Beautiful art work.