Identification

[Monolith]

Here's my Nagasakiya Creature...

Creature made by Nagasakiya by donald deveau, on Flickr

[Monsters For Sale]

Here's my set of the "cake toppers". They are French and porcelain and they're actually meant to be baked inside the cake, not for decorating on top. They made a second set, which I don't have...

Tiny French Porcelain Universal Monsters (2004) by donald deveau, on Flickr

Here is the other set of Universal Monsters:


                          Universal Monsters - Figures (porcelain) - Epiphany Cake

They are designed to be baked into a King Cake for Three Kings Day, a Christian holiday also known as Epiphany.  Originally, it was representation of the Christ child, but has gone from being a simple bean, to actual Christ figures, to saints and today can be any number of popular figures.  Whoever found the "bean" won a prize.

The Universal Monsters were issued in two different years, with different Universal Logo pieces and different monster poses.  One set had the Phantom of the Opera and the other set had the Metaluna Mutant.

They used to be fairly common on eBay and not very expensive.  But today they are much harder to find and can go for over a hundred dollars a set.  (But you might get lucky.)

Look for them in French language listings.

[Hepcat]

They are designed to be baked into a King Cake for Three Kings Day, a Christian holiday also known as Epiphany.  Originally, it was representation of the Christ child, but has gone from being a simple bean, to actual Christ figures, to saints and today can be any number of popular figures.  Whoever found the "bean" won a prize.

Here is a Galette des Rois for the celebration of the Epiphany on January 6th:

[John Pertwee]

When I see the word Epiphany I think of the prank that was attempted in Tampa Bay. Every year, they throw a large white cross into the water, and 20 or 30 kids jump in to get it. A local DJ thought it would be funny to put a few dozen white crosses in the water the night before. When police divers found 22 fake crosses with the name Bubba written on them in Spring Bayou just before the Epiphany cross dive, the finger was immediately pointed at Bubba "the Love Sponge," shock jock for radio station WXTB-FM.

https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1999/01/08/bubba-says-he-didn-t-pull-prank-before-epiphany-dive/