Post an Image of a Favourite Monster or Sci-Fi Collectible!

[Hepcat]

Here are scans of five of my Charlton Gorgo comics:

2



6



10



11



14



 

[Hepcat]

Perhaps the best score of my young life to that time was in the summer of 1964 on a family trip to visit my uncle and his family in Detroit. I got my father to fund a purchase of a "Mad, Mad, Mad Scientist Laboratory" at the hobby shop on the north side of Seven Mile Road just west of the Southfield Expressway!













I guess my father thought that a chemistry set must be educational! It was a fabulous piece. My two best buddies were more than eager to be my demented half-brained lab assistants and enthusiastically fetched tap water for me while I mixed up the concoctions. I mean they would even squabble about whose turn it was to be my lead assistant!

Unfortunately, I think my father gave the set away to the snot-nosed kid down the street when I went off to boarding school in Kennebunkport, Maine for ninth grade. Very sad. I've been looking for another one ever since. It's my holy grail item.

 

[long live kong]

I'd have loved that as a kid Hepcat, what a cool toy! The box graphics are fantastic!

[long live kong]

This was one of my favourite toys as a child, you could actually achieve some pretty realistic effects with this bad boy, as you can see from the pic below (I applied that makeup myself!) I can still smell the liquid latex!

[Hepcat]

I'd have loved that as a kid Hepcat, what a cool toy! The box graphics are fantastic!

The box art is by the great Mort Kunstler who also did the box art for the Aurora Confederate Raider and Forgotten Prisoner of Castel Maré kits.

Mort Kunstler Official Site

 

[skully]

Hi Hepcat. Jo Kotula did the artwork for The Confederate Raider, and I believe James Bama did the Forgotten Prisoner.

[Hepcat]

Sorry. I'm wrong about the Confederate Raider. That was indeed by the legendary Jo Kotula.

You're wrong about the Forgotten Prisoner though:



 

[skully]

Hi Hepcat.  Unless Mort himself claimed fame to the painting, it was listed under Bama's works, Aurora history and price guide by Bill Bruegman, page 48.  I see you have a sampling of Mort's works, with it pictured in the group, but it still looks "Bama-ish". In the article in the book on paintings,  Bama was interviewed, and mentioned doing 22 monster type paintings, if you count the listing, there are 23 listed. Perhaps an error was made.

[Hepcat]

It's a pity that the thread I'd started on James Bama was deleted in the great purge of 30 April 2014.

 

Check out this thread though:

http://www.universalmonsterarmy.com/forum/index.php?topic=5319.0

Bill Bruegman just assumed that James Bama had done the Forgotten Prisoner because Bama had done the others. But the Forgotten Prisoner was released in 1966 after the others by which time Bama was sick of doing them!

 

Now as far as James Bama doing 22 monster type paintings for Aurora, which of the following did he not do then?

Frankenstein
Dracula
Wolfman
Mummy
Creature
Phantom of the Opera
Customizing Monster Kit
Customizing Monster Kit - The Vulture & Mad Dog
Hunchback of Notre Dame
Dr. Jekyll as Mr. Hyde
King Kong
Godzilla
Gigantic Frankenstein
Witch
Bride of Frankenstein
Frankenstein's Flivver
Dracula's Dragster
Wolfman's Wagon
Mummy's Chariot
King Kong's Thronester
Godzilla's Go-Kart
The Munsters
Addams Family Haunted House
Monster Colors

 

[skully]

Hi Hepcat.  Bill was not the one who did the interview with Bama for his book,  I don't think Bama did the Go-cart or the Thronester, and the monster colors, I'm not sure.

[Hepcat]

PEZ first issued the Mr. Ugly and His Friends series of Halloween dispensers in the fall of 1970 and continued to do so for the next few years.
 












 

[Hepcat]

One of the PEZ Halloween dispensers was modelled after me:







 

[Mike Scott]

PEZ first issued the Mr. Ugly and His Friends

Mr. U sure changes friends a lot! One-Eye an the Skull seem to be his only long term relations.

[Mike Scott]

One of the PEZ Halloween dispensers was modelled after me:

Dead ringer!

[Hepcat]

Here are some shots of Roback's Gurley Halloween candle collection: