Simply post a good memory you have of anything monster related. What's the 1st thing that comes to mind?? Shoot!
I have 2 that oddly enough have to do with rain....and food lol.
I'll do one for now, and save the other for later in the thread.
When I was a kid I spent my elementary years in an apartment complex right next to the town pool. One day I was with friends and it happened...got gray real quick, cool breeze and some thunder so I ran up the hill, cut through a back yard got poured on and made it to the living room. When I got there my mom had a fluffernutter sandwhich made and King Kong Escapes was on TV. I think Channel 9 in NY/NJ used to air Godzilla marathons in the Summer and I was lucky enough to catch it. I remember sitting in front of the TV, eating that sandwhich and just....."being happy".
To this day, that movie reminds me of that good memory. Sometimes a rainy day on the couch with a snack and an old movie is the perfect thing. I still whole heartedly believe that Air Conditioning, Godzilla movies and Fluffernutter are 3 of the most important things in life. ;)
I have many but i'll only list a couple. First is our Vacation to New york when I was 4 my Mom bought me a remco creature puppet from this mall that looked like a ship and it was sticking out of the water. My second is wearing Ben Cooper/ Collegeville costumes as a kid for Halloween. My mom always made it special for me. i wish I could go back and relive some of those memories.
A good memory I have is visiting Universal Studios in Florida and spending most of the day in the Universal Monsters Cafe (I believe that's what is was called). This was probably around 1999 or 2000. I used 3 disposable cameras in the restuarant and just had an awesome blast!
Ahhhh! These are so cool! BTW- BlackLagoon, you are so creative with your topis!
Ok- 1967....Kalamazoo, Michigan- I remember sitting in front of the tv, crossed legged on the floor, and watching The Munsters. I fondly recall the cold chocolate milk I was drinking and the Munsters paper dolls I was spreading out onto the floor, and deciding which paper dress Lily should wear during the show. Ahhh yes....a PERFECT day.
And I still think about the Munsters when I drink an ice cold glass of chocolate milk :)
My other distinct Monster memory was running to the tv and knocking my younger siblings out of the way- because Sir Graves Ghastly was coming on!!! Oh man, I loved Saturday afternoons watching those sweeeeeet movies!
Quote from: BlackLagoon on April 27, 2012, 10:54:09 PMSometimes a rainy day on the couch with a snack and an old movie is the perfect thing.
Sometimes? No, no, no... Everytimes!!!
I remember going to church on Sunday (12 o'clock mass---which was the cool one because there was music and singing) and then afterwards we always went to my grandparents' house on my mom's side for 'Sunday Supper'. It was a 2 o'clock meal-----and I never did figure out where it fit into their meal schedule (my grandparents')------but it was essentially a late lunch for me. I was, like, 5 or 6 and I remember a supper of sliced hot roast beef (I remember the sound of the electric knife as my dad sliced it)-----I always loved the end slice------and the iced tea freshly made (from mix, LOL) that was chilling in the fridge. It was a good bet that either green beans or limas were served and definitely mashed potatoes and corn. I always sat to the right of my grandfather-----but could never look at him as he ate because his food would be everywhere----mashed potatoes on his eye glasses, on the rim of his glass, etc. For dessert, TWO little ice cream cups called Dixie Cups, which were 1/2 chocolate and 1/2 vanilla. My dad always mixed them up for me, softer and added Reddi Whip just the way I liked it.
There was always a (I believe 1 o'clock) movie on either channel 9 or 11. And today it was Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein. This was glorious. They'd let me finish watching the movie in the other room and push back the supper to accomodate me. It's one of the reasons the movie is one of my all time favs. Such warm memories for me.
I remember watching Chiller Theatre at around 7:30 PM on WPIX 11 on Saturday night during the mid-to-late 60's. On occasion my parents and 2 brothers would be out of the house, and I would be frozen in fear, and couldn't even get up from the chair until someone arrived home. Now, this created a little problem for my bladder if I had to visit the bathroom. lol. Great memories, and my bladder is still around to talk about it. Okay, okay, bladders don't talk, but you get the point.
JP
Hard to choose, but I'd probably have to say 2nd grade, in '68-'69: Dark Shadows trading cards, seeing my first monster movie on the big screen at a b-day party (King Kong Escapes, a fav to this day), & a kid bringing the Monster Old Maid cards for show & tell.
The two movies it took me decades to identify, because my memories go so far back:
1. I am watching TV in the early morning and there is a helicopter flying through the fog. Hey, a movie about a helicopter. Sounds interesting. Very suddenly, a pterodactyl swoops out of the fog and bumps into the copter, causing it to crash. Completely out from nowhere. WHAT THE HECK?? Now I'm watching a monster movie, apparently. One of the most startling movie memories I can recall, that pterosaur!
2. A girl goes scuba diving in the ocean and sees a huge tentacled monstrosity, then swims to the surface and jumps into the boat with her gentleman friend, who doesn't believe her (she's a woman, after all) and thinks she saw a small octopus and "imagined" it was huge. Being silly, she allows him to convince her that she saw nothing. But late that night, the tentacled monstrosity, glowing with one big eye in the middle of its face, rises up out of the water...a nightmarish, horrible image!
It took a long time to figure out what these films were, based only on fragmented dim memories. But they were, as I'm sure you know, The Land Unknown and Monster from the Ocean Floor.
Great topic indeed!
I remember trick or treating on Halloween in London, Ontario with two of my best buddies in 1963 or 1964 when I was given one card in a generic wrapper. Opening it up we discovered the "Hairy Fiend" card from the Mars Attacks set. We were awestruck since we'd never never seen any of the cards before and the card was absolutely wild! Without the wrapper, we failed to even figure out the name of the set despite the Mars Attacks title on the back!
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/item_4969_2.jpg)
Nonetheless, that "Hairy Fiend" card became the prize of our gum card collection which was soon to reach 6500 cards or so. It wasn't until about 25 years ago that I figured out that our "Hairy Fiend" card was part of the notorious Mars Attacks set. I've been pecking away at the elusive, and expensive, Mars Attacks cards ever since but I still don't have a "Hairy Fiend" card!
hmjfym
One of my favorite monster memories was sleeping over my cousin Kevin's house when my parents went away for the weekend. They had a cool finished basement to which we were banished regularly.
I remember loading up with snacks and running downstairs, waiting anxiously for "The Big Valley" on WPIX to end and the "Chiller Theatre" intro with it's 6 fingered hand and creepy music to rise up and further set the mood for..........."EARTH VS. THE SPIDER"!!
Naturally, we fell asleep before the movie ended. But what great times those were!
When I was in Kindergarten, my 6th grade babysitter Leigh Ann, would read Alan Ormby's Movie Monsters to me on the bus ride to school. I carried that book around with me non stop.
A&C Meet Frankenstein on a small B&W TV in the kitchen eating cereal on a Saturday morning.
Watching Count Gore's Halloween showing of Dracula, eating our TOT loot while still in my Ben Cooper Darth Vader costume.
My brother and I running upstairs in the middle of The Exorcist. We still laugh about that.
Watching Count Gore on Saturday nights, Hammer horror on Saturday afternoons, my father taking us TOTing, AHI/Remco monsters....
There are so many.
Scouring the TV Guide each week, searching for the word, "melodrama", which meant it was a horror movie! Had to go through a lot of shows & pages to find one!
One of my fond Monster Memories happened at Easter oddly enough. But then, what are we if not odd? Anyway, it was Easter 1963 and my sisters and I hunted for Easter eggs in the back yard (in that house the "back yard" was about fifteen feet across and mostly concrete with a small patch of dirt that wrapped around the house where my sisters' swing set was placed) as I came around the corner toward that patch of dirt, there under the swing set was my Easter Basket. How did I know it was mine you may ask, well right there, in that basket, surrounded by fake green grass and candy eggs, larger than life itself was a cellophane wrapped Aurora Creature From The Black Lagoon model. In my memory a shaft of light beamed down upon that shiny cellophane and a choir of heavenly voices sang aloud. For me, that is a moment frozen in time.
Quote from: Unknown Primate on April 30, 2012, 09:13:08 PM
Scouring the TV Guide each week, searching for the word, "melodrama", which meant it was a horror movie! Had to go through a lot of shows to find one!
Forgot all about the "melodrama", I did the same thing. What an ominous word it was to me back in the 60's.
One of my fondest monster memories was back in about 66.' I bought a combination of of Famous Monsters, Creepy and Eerie magazines for a quarter from my sister's friend, about 20 total and I remember to this day the weather. It was overcast and the wind was picking up as I was walking home with these treasures. We lived in a Leave it to Beaver neighborhood and the wind going through the trees really set the mood while I was walking home.
Also, my first monster costume for Halloween, a Ben Cooper Frankenstein. I remember the smell of the plastic and the condensation building up on the inside of the mask as I walked down the hallway with stiff legs and my arms stretched out. Bought one on ebay with the box in great condition. Got displayed next to my G.I. Joe Deep Sea Diver.
Quote from: Jim Bertges on May 01, 2012, 01:48:30 AM...as I came around the corner toward that patch of dirt, there under the swing set was my Easter Basket. How did I know it was mine you may ask, well right there, in that basket, surrounded by fake green grass and candy eggs, larger than life itself was a cellophane wrapped Aurora Creature From The Black Lagoon model. In my memory a shaft of light beamed down upon that shiny cellophane and a choir of heavenly voices sang aloud. For me, that is a moment frozen in time.
Wow! But are you implying that your sister wasn't a big fan of the Creature as well?
???
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. 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 in Detroit!
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3086/4562075255_671eaa206b_b.jpg)
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3421/4562075389_d49773d786_b.jpg)
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4050/4562075583_9cfa4cffaf_b.jpg)
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3536/4562075781_3a1eba48cb_b.jpg)
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2716/4380924008_65d19d44e0_b.jpg)
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4032/4562705686_061c70caf9_b.jpg)
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 tapwater for me while I mixed up the concoctions.
Unfortunately, I think my father gave it 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.
:(
Quote from: Jethro on May 01, 2012, 09:54:05 AMOne of my fondest monster memories was back in about 66.' I bought a combination of of Famous Monsters, Creepy and Eerie magazines for a quarter from my sister's friend, about 20 total and I remember to this day the weather. It was overcast and the wind was picking up as I was walking home with these treasures. We lived in a Leave it to Beaver neighborhood and the wind going through the trees really set the mood while I was walking home.
Twenty for a quarter? Great score! And thanks to mother nature for helping to set the mood.
8)
Yes, around 1980, to my attention comes the comic book store a couple of miles away from home, with comic book characters painted all over the outside. I wonder to this day who painted them. It is surprising to find that it is not just a comic book store but something much more magical and mysterious. Inside are various comics in boxes, marvelously disorganized and begging to be thumbed through. There are old bookshelves with older paperback books--here's Horror Times Ten, and Curt Siodmak's Skyport. In the magazine section, after a little searching, I find one of the first issues of Eerie and some other Warrens. The Eerie looks like a real find, and I am started that the guy behind the counter wants a dollar for it--even in those days, a great price. There's a glass case near the cash register with treasures inside, including an old Castle Films Son of Frankenstein Super-8 film, beckoning.
The comic book store does not stay there forever. Today, the building is there but now they sell air conditioners.
When I was in first grade I went as the Creature from the Black Lagoon for Halloween. I loved that costume. I really stood out from the other kids because they were dressed up as happier things. Not me though. Though Wolfman is now my favorite Universal Monster, Creature was my first favorite. In 2002 at the first Flashback Weekend Horror convention I met Ben Chapman. He was such a nice guy....and really tall! It was such an honor to my one of my childhood heroes.
I just love reading all these great memories! Every one a special gem.
Where do you start? Playing with my Palmer monsters in the backyard. Having my brother assemble and my mother paint my Aurora Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Wolfman models...then staring at them for hours. Seeing Lugosi's Dracula for the first time when I visited my cousin in northern Mississippi and seeing Memphis horror host Sivad (he scared the crap out of me!). Getting an electric thrill when I went to the newstand in Fulton, KY and saw the latest issue of FM and the Horror of Dracula/Curse of Frankenstein filmbook. That filmbook gave me hours of chills looking at those b&w stills of the movies. Sitting in front of the television in the living room watching The Thing and jumping out of my skin when James Arness jumped out of the doorway at the humans! Watching Invisible Invaders and wondering if they might animate the bodies in the cemetery down the road. I waited and watched with my loaded bb gun. Wearing my Ben Cooper Dracula costume to the school Halloween carnival. Okay, I've got to stop...too much nostalgia.
Quote from: Hepcat on April 30, 2012, 11:48:26 AM
Great topic indeed!
I remember trick or treating on Halloween in London, Ontario with two of my best buddies in 1963 or 1964 when I was given one card in a generic wrapper. Opening it up we discovered the "Hairy Fiend" card from the Mars Attacks set. We were awestruck since we'd never never seen any of the cards before and the card was absolutely wild! Without the wrapper, we failed to even figure out the name of the set despite the Mars Attacks title on the back!
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/item_4969_2.jpg)
Nonetheless, that "Hairy Fiend" card became the prize of our gum card collection which was soon to reach 6500 cards or so. It wasn't until about 25 years ago that I figured out that our "Hairy Fiend" card was part of the notorious Mars Attacks set. I've been pecking away at the elusive, and expensive, Mars Attacks cards ever since but I still don't have a "Hairy Fiend" card!
hmjfym
I don't have this card yet either for my set. If memory serves me right i'm about half way there
It was a Saturday morning in April or May of 1964. My mission: to go door to door in downtown London and sell fifteen Globe & Mail newspapers for fifteen cents each. The reward, five cents per paper sold plus an SPP monster wallet of my choice!
(http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg232/mnroo/FMcouponclosed.jpg) (http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg232/mnroo/FMcouponopen.jpg)
These wallets were perhaps the coolest things that I'd ever seen and I absolutely, positively had to reach the target.
But the Globe & Mail was a pig of a paper and very tough to sell in London. First of all, the Globe & Mail was Toronto based. The London Free Press was the paper of choice for most Londoners. Secondly, the Saturday Free Press cost only a dime. Thirdly, coming all the way from Toronto, the Globe & Mail had to be printed much earlier and so didn't contain that many sports scores from the previous day. Fourthly, the Saturday Free Press was loaded with features including a coloured comic section. The Globe & Mail was comparatively drab and had no comparable comic section. Finally, on Saturdays a whopping three editions of the Free Press were published, the regular Free Press published early in the morning, the London Evening Free Press published in mid-afternoon and the Night Final which included various afternoon race results for punters and sundry other horse degenerates.
What did the Globe & Mail have to offer in return? Just the best business section of any newspaper in Canada. So I could only hope to sell the thing to stuffy old businessmen or the odd deluded Torontophile. The maximum I'd ever sold before was six or seven papers. I really had my job cut out for me.
But I could not fail! I flung myself into the task with avid, wild-eyed enthusiasm! And my efforts bore fruit. Nearing the end of the afternoon I'd sold eleven papers; then one more. So close, so close, but yet so far.... Time was up.
But then, an idea! I bought the remaining three copies of the stupid rag myself! And there they were, a whole box of wallets from which I, one of the successful newspaper boys, could choose! "i want the Mummy, I want the Mummy" was the popular refrain I was hearing from other boys. I, however, had a mind of my own and I chose shrewdly - the Creature-Wolfman wallet!
And the three papers I had bought myself? No problem. I sold one to my father and two to neighbours on my own street! Easy sales indeed.
And I was now the proud owner of a wallet like no other in the school yard! Shortly thereafter I caught on as a morning paperboy for the London Free Press (a real newspaper) with my own thirty paper delivery route which actually took me less than ten minutes since the houses were all on the same block. And there I was, proud as a peacock brandishing my super cool monster wallet as I went collecting from my customers every week, a wallet that I had incidentally earned stuffing the crappy Globe & Mail down customers' throats just a few months previously!
Unfortunately, my wallet's change purse started coming apart in less than a year (cheap bloody plastic) so I very sensibly threw it out. I mean what do you need a wallet for anymore if it's all falling apart? Right? Right?!
Now I've since managed to acquire the Mummy-Dracula and Frankenstein-Phantom wallets:
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/MonsterWalletsFrankenstein.jpg)
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/MonsterWalletsPhantom.jpg)
But another Creature-Wolfman wallet continues to elude me to this very day.
:(
Nice write up Hepcat, now I want some monster wallets too.
Gosh this is great topic! I still remember how I became addicted to monsters in the first place, it's one of the earliest things I can remember. I was about 3 or 4 years old at the time, back around 1974 0r 75. King Kong vs Godzilla came on TV and I was mesmerized as well as frightened. The real memory of this for me though come from after the movie when I was supposed to be taking my nap. I couldn't sleep because I was terrified that Kong and Godzilla were going to step on our house. I've never been the same since!
It was late autumn 1964. I was perusing the comic rack at the News Depot on the north side of Dundas Street just west of Wellington in downtown London. Staring me in the face right beside the comics were two monster magazines unlike any I'd ever seen before.
The first was this very wild 3-D magazine:
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/Comics/18-05-2011110410PM.jpg)
The second was the first issue of Creepy:
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/Comics/Creepy1.jpg)
So taken was I by these two magazines I forgot all about the comics. As a result, I can't narrow the date down to a certain month from the comics I remember on the rack.
I decided to choose just one of the two magazines, finances probably being a consideration. Now the 3-D concept was powerfully exciting to my young mind, but the Creepy magazine had more content overall. Moreover, the 3-D Monsters was $0.50 and the Creepy only $0.35. That settled it. So the Creepy it was!
A sound choice too in retrospect given how that Creepy issue launched a whole genre of new horror magazines while the 3-D Monsters ended up a largely forgotten one shot. But a vague recollection of that 3-D magazine stayed with me over the years and I wondered about its identity after I started reaccumulating the Warren magazines again thirty years ago. But lo and behold a copy showed up on the wall of Dragon Lady Comics on Queen Street in Toronto some twenty years ago, unused 3-D glasses and all! I snapped it right up.
cl:)
Finding some Marvel horror comics in another kids desk during detention in 1973 (no I didn't take them, just read them). Started a horror conversation with the kid a day or two later. Me and Jeff would bring issues almost every week for each other to read, and talked about the monster movies that were shown over the weekend.
My memory was being allowed to stay up on Saturday nights and watch Creature Features. I was 8 and got to stay up to watch a horror movie which ended at midnight. Creature Features introduced me the the Universal Classics and Dracula was the first movie I watched. It was also a treat for me to get the TV guide from the Chicago Sunday paper and look to see what movie was to be on the next Saturday.
http://wgncreaturefeatures.tvheaven.com (http://wgncreaturefeatures.tvheaven.com)
If you look at the site and click on TV Guide Ads and More, and go about half way down, you'll see "many thanks to Kent R Dulaga...". Right under that is what was a full middle section page of the newspaper with the opening poem, I had a copy of that hanging in my bedroom.
So many monster memories.... Every time my monster world grew bigger, it added another to the vault. One I've always tried to recapture whenever I watch a good ol' spooky movie was when I used to watch Science Fiction Theater as a kid. Every Thursday night they would show an old black and white movie with enough commercials to bump it up to 2 hours. That was where I discovered all the old 50s and earlier movies for the first time. Strange, I was never scared by them. They were neat little windows into a fantastic realm that I wish I could visit. Even then I loved Halloween more than Christmas. Each monster was a bigger movie star to me than John Wayne or Cary Grant.
Quote from: Zombiology on May 10, 2012, 02:30:50 AM
So many monster memories.... Every time my monster world grew bigger, it added another to the vault. One I've always tried to recapture whenever I watch a good ol' spooky movie was when I used to watch Science Fiction Theater as a kid. Every Thursday night they would show an old black and white movie with enough commercials to bump it up to 2 hours. That was where I discovered all the old 50s and earlier movies for the first time. Strange, I was never scared by them. They were neat little windows into a fantastic realm that I wish I could visit. Even then I loved Halloween more than Christmas. Each monster was a bigger movie star to me than John Wayne or Cary Grant.
It's funny I felt the same way as a kid. When I saw my movie monsters on I felt like i was seeing old friends. Even later when there were the movie host like Elvira and Joe Bob Briggs I loved watching that stuff as well. Most kids were out getting drunk and parting. Me i was home watching Monstervision with snacks. Man i really miss stuff like that. It really takes me back.
Hepcat - my pal had the Mad Scientist Lab when we were kids. He was the scientist & I was his created "monster". He would "command" me to break stuff, jump off stuff, chase other kids, etc. What fun!!
Quote from: horror1o1 on May 10, 2012, 03:29:35 AM
Most kids were out getting drunk and parting. Me i was home watching Monstervision with snacks. Man i really miss stuff like that. It really takes me back.
Yep, we used to have something called Sinister Cinema that came on at 11:30 pm on Saturday. All the kids would be home from cruising or whatever to watch it. I think it was an evil plan by all the parents to keep kids off the street ;D
Quote from: Zombiology on May 10, 2012, 01:33:44 PM
Yep, we used to have something called Sinister Cinema that came on at 11:30 pm on Saturday. All the kids would be home from cruising or whatever to watch it. I think it was an evil plan by all the parents to keep kids off the street ;D
That's a great plan. I would totally go home to watch that.lol
Quote from: Unknown Primate on May 10, 2012, 12:53:23 PM...my pal had the Mad Scientist Lab when we were kids. He was the scientist & I was his created "monster". He would "command" me to break stuff, jump off stuff, chase other kids, etc.
Good to know his mad experiments had such a long lasting affect!
;D
:laugh:
Ahhhh. Too many to list them all. First memories that came to mind reading this thread: Creature Features. and Dark Shadows. Curse of the Werewolf with Oliver Reed. Staying up late enough to see Gerry G. Bishop as Svengoolie.
My cousin taking me to the theatre downtown to see King Kong vs Godzilla on the big screen. Watching War of the Gargantuas on Saturday afternoon TV with my big brother. My first Godzilla model (it had glow in the dark fins!!) Building the Giant Mantis model (Gigantix?) I from my Easter basket (my brother got the Scorpion).
Buying Dick Smith's monster makeup book at a garage sale for $1.00, and repeatedly asking my mom to buy me some Leggs pantyhose so I could use the eggshell for zombie eyes...which she never did.
Years later, when VHS was fighting Beta, seeing The 7th Voyage of Sinbad at a 10:30am special "Kid Flicks Saturday" matinee at the local theatre- and being the only one over 15 who didn't have 2 or 3 younger siblings in tow.
Quote from: Walrus on May 10, 2012, 10:36:18 PM
Buying Dick Smith's monster makeup book at a garage sale for $1.00, and repeatedly asking my mom to buy me some Leggs pantyhose so I could use the eggshell for zombie eyes...which she never did.
What about those candy filled plastic Easter egg shells from the 70's painted white ? Same size and shape.
Quote from: Walrus on May 10, 2012, 10:36:18 PMFirst memories that came to mind reading this thread: Creature Features. and Dark Shadows.
Are you talking about the Topps Creature Feature gum cards or something else?
???
It must have been sometime in late 1962 or early 1963. My mother had taken me along on one of her shopping expeditions to the Kresge store in downtown London. While she was examining whatever, I of course gravitated to the toy department, and there on an island mixed in with other model kits and sundry stuff were a whole bunch of Aurora monster model kits! They were just too awesome! Wolfman was the one I wanted the most, but for whatever reason I cannot recall begging my mother for one. Perhaps I was making the shrewd calculation that if I asked for too much, I'd get nothing and I could kiss the bowl of ice cream she'd often buy me at the lunch counter goodbye. Or else I did ask and she said no.
Then on a subsequent visit in 1963 I saw that the Creature had joined Aurora's kit line:
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/Creature-1.jpg)
Man oh man, that was the one that became my favourite! Not that I got that one either. Curiously enough the first Aurora kit that I ended up buying and building a year or so later was the Bride of Frankenstein:
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/JCbridefranknstnMIBA_lg.jpg)
I guess I had enough of my own money from my paper route that day and the Bride was the kit staring me in the eye on the trip to the hobby shop. No harm done though. I have all the Aurora monster model kits in my collection today with the exception of Mummy's Chariot and the King Kong and Godzilla ones:
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/Hepcatlookingattshirt-1.jpg)
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/FullOpenModelCab2.jpg)
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/ModelCabinetAuroraKits.jpg)
cl:)
Quote from: RedKing on May 04, 2012, 05:06:23 PMGosh this is great topic!
It sure is! The Topps
You'll Die Laughing cards are my earliest monster related memory. I recall marvelling at these in the schoolyard in the fall of 1959 when I was in second grade. The Jack Davis artwork gracing the cards was just so right!
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/General%20Album%202/04-12-201284652PM.jpg)
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/General%20Album%202/04-12-201284655PM.jpg)
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/YoullDieLaughingcards.jpg)
I didn't have any of these You'll Die Laughing myself though because I can't recall seeing any for sale at the half dozen or so variety stores in my general neighbourhood I frequented in those days. It could have been that the controversial subject matter for the time caused most store owners to pass up on them, but any store owner who agreed to take on a box quickly sold every pack so they weren't there on display for long. Nonetheless, it was these You'll Die Laughing cards that put me firmly on the path to becoming a monster kid.
As a result, when the Leaf
Spook Stories cards hit store shelves late in 1961 or early in 1962, I was primed and ready! I collected them energetically and within a matter of weeks put together a set:
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/Spooktheatrefront.jpg)
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/SpookTheatreback.jpg)
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/SpookTheatrestickers.jpg)
cl:)
Marvelous thread and some incredible stories!
Of course TV is condemned for having the kind of influence that it does, particularly on kids, who seem drawn to the flickering images.
It took almost 40 years before I was able to identify (and finally re-watch!) "Monster from the Ocean Floor" as the movie that I had vivid, horrifying memories of when I saw part of it long ago on TV. To a teenager or an adult, I figure, this movie is merely passingly interesting or maybe mildly scary. To a really small kid in the early 70's, the image of the cyclopean tentacled creature rising out of the ocean was unbelievably freaky and frightening! I remember I had to turn the movie off after that.
Back then in Los Angeles, I think it was on Channel 9, KHJ, they would run a horror program fairly early, like around 11:00 in the morning, which I have always thought was an odd time-slot for horror. I'm pretty sure it was called "Creature Features" (and if so it was one of the many shows all over the country that had that name). If I remember correctly this would be on a Saturday. Their intro was a long panning shot of a miniature torture dungeon with rubber wiggly toys chained to the walls (!) and being shaken by little sticks or rods (not visible) coming through holes in the miniature dungeon wall. This weird image was accompanied by Disney's "Chilling Thrilling Sounds" sound effects record to provide thunderstorn and horrible shrieks. I could tell I was looking at a bunch of toys so this was not frightening at all, just cool! Only one person I've ever talked to remembers ever seeing this intro. Do any of YOU remember seeing this intro?
At about the same time this was on TV, I remember because the memories are linked, I had a rubber jiggly toy from the supermarket and it looked like a skinny, goofy freak with pointy ears wearing tattered clothing. I loved the rubber jiggly toy because I recognized that he was one of the shaking figures chained to the dungeon wall in the "Creature Features" intro!
Around that same time, my awesome mom had sent the boxtop and coins to get the H. R. Pufnstuf "Fweddy the Flute" cereal toy, and it arrived one day and I remember spending the day trying to figure out just what the heck I was supposed to do with it! It didn't talk like in the show, you know, it just kind of sat there.
I think that Creature Features was on channel 11-KTTV. The rubber toys were gnomes, I had both of them at the time. It was Saturday and around noon. I remember seeing tuning in after I had moved from Chicago area and seeing that Creature Features was on in LA as well and a bit bummed that the beginning for the two shows were different.
Some of my earliest Monster memories...
Out to eat with my parents at the Ferndale Dairy Ice Cream Bar in Berlin Ct. - must have been close to Halloween because who should walk in but Frankenstein's Monster himself! Must have been about ten feet tall! This wasn't a kid in a costume! This was him & he was beautiful! ;D
*The $1 MONSTER-Size Frankenstein poster hung on my closet door-
*Drooling over the Don Post masks...with hands & feet! But damn, look at that price tag!
*A haircut meant a new issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland-
*My (Palmer) Gorgo went everywhere with me-
*I'll always remember the day I got my Pop-Top Horrors (all on one card) at the GEM department store-
*& my dad would always bring me home the latest Aurora Monster model (from Amato's of New Britain - which is still there)-
*Collecting Munsters & Addams Family cards bought at Jake's (which is just a vacant lot now)-
There's a vague memory of some great monster art in a Cracked magazine that I'd copy over & over...
I've really got to fine this again-
Quote from: Street Worm on March 06, 2013, 03:28:59 PM
Some of my earliest Monster memories...
Out to eat with my parents at the Ferndale Dairy Ice Cream Bar in Berlin Ct. - must have been close to Halloween because who should walk in but Frankenstein's Monster himself! Must have been about ten feet tall! This wasn't a kid in a costume! This was him & he was beautiful! ;D
*The $1 MONSTER-Size Frankenstein poster hung on my closet door-
*Drooling over the Don Post masks...with hands & feet! But damn, look at that price tag!
*A haircut meant a new issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland-
*My (Palmer) Gorgo went everywhere with me-
*I'll always remember the day I got my Pop-Top Horrors (all on one card) at the GEM department store-
*& my dad would always bring me home the latest Aurora Monster model (from Amato's of New Britain - which is still there)-
*Collecting Munsters & Addams Family cards bought at Jake's (which is just a vacant lot now)-
There's a vague memory of some great monster art in a Cracked magazine that I'd copy over & over...
I've really got to fine this again-
those are great memories. I wish monster stuff was more popular when i was a kid. Almost every thing i got was used but man did i love it. Still do.
Quote from: Street Worm on March 06, 2013, 03:28:59 PM
Some of my earliest Monster memories...
Out to eat with my parents at the Ferndale Dairy Ice Cream Bar in Berlin Ct. - must have been close to Halloween because who should walk in but Frankenstein's Monster himself! Must have been about ten feet tall! This wasn't a kid in a costume! This was him & he was beautiful! ;D
*The $1 MONSTER-Size Frankenstein poster hung on my closet door-
*Drooling over the Don Post masks...with hands & feet! But damn, look at that price tag!
*A haircut meant a new issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland-
*My (Palmer) Gorgo went everywhere with me-
*I'll always remember the day I got my Pop-Top Horrors (all on one card) at the GEM department store-
*& my dad would always bring me home the latest Aurora Monster model (from Amato's of New Britain - which is still there)-
*Collecting Munsters & Addams Family cards bought at Jake's (which is just a vacant lot now)-
There's a vague memory of some great monster art in a Cracked magazine that I'd copy over & over...
I've really got to fine this again-
Cool stuff Street Worm. If it was great monster art in Cracked it was probably done by John Severin. Cracked was published by Robert Sproul who also published For Monsters Only. Both mags were full of awesome John Severin art. Ironically it was Sproul who was the undoing of possibly the greatest monster mag ever published....Web Of Horror. Wrightson, Jones, Reese...an all-star lineup of some of the best monster story talent in history filled the pages and covers of every issue of Web Of Horror for the entire run of...only three issues. Jim Warren hated it because he grudgingly realized that it was at least as good, if not better, than Creepy and Eerie. Sproul published Web Of Horror for those three issues and then skipped out on Wrightson and the others without paying them. He even stole some of the original art. Think of the greatness that would have followed if not for petty greed and pitiful stupidity. But I digress, John Severin is one of the greats. Dig up those For Monsters Only, too. They are big fun.
Quote from: Zackuth on March 06, 2013, 02:04:21 PM
I think that Creature Features was on channel 11-KTTV. The rubber toys were gnomes, I had both of them at the time. It was Saturday and around noon. I remember seeing tuning in after I had moved from Chicago area and seeing that Creature Features was on in LA as well and a bit bummed that the beginning for the two shows were different.
Wow, another person who actually remembers seeing that intro! Sorry it wasn't the Chicago Creature Features show, but I hope you found other monster distractions before long. Like the "SCI FI MOVIE" ...came on around 6 on a Sunday, I think? Channel 9 or 11. I saw "Monster from the Ocean Floor" on that show, as well as "Wild Wild Planet" and some others...
Thanks for that info horrorhunter, I'll be checking him out- :D
Quote from: Street Worm on March 06, 2013, 03:28:59 PMSome of my earliest Monster memories...
*The $1 MONSTER-Size Frankenstein poster hung on my closet door-
*Drooling over the Don Post masks...with hands & feet! But damn, look at that price tag!
*A haircut meant a new issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland-
*My (Palmer) Gorgo went everywhere with me-
*I'll always remember the day I got my Pop-Top Horrors (all on one card) at the GEM department store-
*& my dad would always bring me home the latest Aurora Monster model (from Amato's of New Britain - which is still there)-
*Collecting Munsters & Addams Family cards bought at Jake's (which is just a vacant lot now)-
Great memories indeed!
Quote from: Street Worm on March 06, 2013, 03:28:59 PMThere's a vague memory of some great monster art in a Cracked magazine that I'd copy over & over...
I've really got to fine this again-
If you could narrow this down to a year or two, someone might be able to identify the particular magazine for you.
;)
Best guess would be '66 to '69
which doesn't really narrow it down all that much...
I looked at all the covers and none stood out.
Checked out John Severin & don't think it was his stuff which is far too good for what I'm (kinda) thinking of...
this art was more cartoony - almost like monster caricatures (for lack of a better term).
Thanks guys~ ;)
Quote from: Hepcat on April 30, 2012, 11:48:26 AM
Great topic indeed!
I remember trick or treating on Halloween in London, Ontario with two of my best buddies in 1963 or 1964 when I was given one card in a generic wrapper. Opening it up we discovered the "Hairy Fiend" card from the Mars Attacks set. We were awestruck since we'd never never seen any of the cards before and the card was absolutely wild! Without the wrapper, we failed to even figure out the name of the set despite the Mars Attacks title on the back!
(http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g434/Balticprince/item_4969_2.jpg)
Nonetheless, that "Hairy Fiend" card became the prize of our gum card collection which was soon to reach 6500 cards or so. It wasn't until about 25 years ago that I figured out that our "Hairy Fiend" card was part of the notorious Mars Attacks set. I've been pecking away at the elusive, and expensive, Mars Attacks cards ever since but I still don't have a "Hairy Fiend" card!
hmjfym
Hey Hepcat -- I must be some sort of opposite universe version of you.... "Hairy Fiend" is the one and only original issue Mars Attacks card I own!
Aggghhhhh!!!!
:o
Since I was born in October of 1986 most of my monster memories deal with the monsters of the early '90s. I know a lot of people around here have a great disdain for monster related merchandise from this time period, but to me it was pure magic. One distinct memory I have is of my family going to Pizza Hut in (I guess) 1992, only to find these...
(http://i386.photobucket.com/albums/oo309/Sleepyhollowstudios86/monsterdrinkcup_zpse3582890.jpg)
(http://i386.photobucket.com/albums/oo309/Sleepyhollowstudios86/monsterpizzabox_zpsf1e479af.jpg)
I was in love! I still have my Dracula cup topper from that fateful night.
Now, I'm sure everyone feels the same way, but whenever I see my beloved monsters I get a sort of chill. I can literally hear the night wind howling through the trees. I can see the full moon shining high in the sky, only to be covered by black clouds a moment later. I'm transported to that eternal October night that only exists in our collective memories. As I said, being a child of the '90s, to this day I can't look at that early '90s Universal Studios Monsters logo without getting those chills. Every time I see it it's Halloween all over again, with red and orange leaves skittering across the road, and what sounds like a howl emanating from the woods beside my house.
Like I said, I understand a lot of people here not caring much for the way our monsters were portrayed in the early '90s, but to me? Perfection.
Ahh! I get goosebumps just thinking about it!
-Andy
'Watching Bob Wilkins hosting Creature Features and enjoying every minute of it, including is humor and the guests he interviewed. I had a life size skull model with a candle so that I could light my skull candle when he did on the show. 'Having a best friend sleep over to watch Creature Features and enjoying popcorn & checking to make sure ALL the doors and windows were locked before we slept.
First show to have Night of the Living Dead on TV, eventually showing more than 99% of the film, just deleting the second the girl takes a bite out of the guy's forearm...good times... 8)
Sleepyhollowstudios, your entry has the ring of true monsterifficness. We are born when we are, and each person's view of culture is a unique one. However, despite the fact that a lot of monster fans may be older than 1986, I think you will find that a lot of folks really like those 90's depictions. I do recall them fondly whenever I saw them in the grocery stores and such...
Well, I mean, when you saw that stuff, it meant that Halloween was near! That time of year that is as important as Christmas to any monster fan (if not moreso). One of my favorite monster memories, of any year, is that time when you start seeing the whole world put out the Halloween decorations and advertisements. You guys know what I'm talking about!
Quote from: neonnoodle on March 08, 2013, 03:27:55 AM
Sleepyhollowstudios, your entry has the ring of true monsterifficness. We are born when we are, and each person's view of culture is a unique one. However, despite the fact that a lot of monster fans may be older than 1986, I think you will find that a lot of folks really like those 90's depictions. I do recall them fondly whenever I saw them in the grocery stores and such...
Well, I mean, when you saw that stuff, it meant that Halloween was near! That time of year that is as important as Christmas to any monster fan (if not moreso). One of my favorite monster memories, of any year, is that time when you start seeing the whole world put out the Halloween decorations and advertisements. You guys know what I'm talking about!
Well, that's great to know! Those '90s depictions, generic Dracula and all, are the epitome of monsterdom for me!
And I know EXACTLY what you're talking about! Halloween advertisements always get me jazzed.
-Andy
Quote from: neonnoodle on March 06, 2013, 09:26:30 PM
Wow, another person who actually remembers seeing that intro! Sorry it wasn't the Chicago Creature Features show, but I hope you found other monster distractions before long. Like the "SCI FI MOVIE" ...came on around 6 on a Sunday, I think? Channel 9 or 11. I saw "Monster from the Ocean Floor" on that show, as well as "Wild Wild Planet" and some others...
I don't remember Sci Fi Movie, but I'm sure I saw it; if it was a horror or sci-fi movie, I was watching it!!! I remember Saturdays having a lot of movies, and sometimes overlapping. I remember my best friend and I planning sleepovers depending upon what horror movies were being shown.
My dad started crumpling his empty cigarette packs up--very quietly by the way--and tossing it into the lap of either my brother or I as we would be watching horror movies and not expecting anything. Yeah, we would jump. He once did that to my aunt when she was staying with us one summer. And I know it was because us kids were around that he did not hear exactly just how much she liked that.
Well I was born in 1971 so my earliest monster memories start around 1975. I saw King Kong vs Godzilla on TV and it changed me forever. I still vividly remember being scared afterwards when I was supposed to taking my nap that Kong and Godzilla were going to trample our house.Another life changer happened when I was in first grade. I was home from school sick and my mom brought the little portable black and white TV in my room so I could watch TV, which meant I had it on PBS. Well in the afternoon after Sesame Street and Mr Rogers what should come on but Nosferatu! I was terrified yet I couldn't stop watching. I had a steady diet of cool late 70s AIP flicks, Godzilla and Harryhausens at the drive in and theater and the 1976 Kong was a huge event for me as was seeing the original Kong on TV the same year. Whenever we'd go to town I'd get a new issue of FM or a horror comic-usually one from Charlton, or best of all to me an issue of Marvel's Godzilla comic! On late night TV in the late 70s I saw the Thing,Monster That Challenged the World, Godzilla vs the Smog Monster,Monster Zero, War of the Gargantuas, Rodan, Gorgo, Godzilla's Revenge,Mysterious Island,Yog and several more. On TV Star Trek reruns and the animated series hooked me onto Trek and Planet of the Apes movies were on all the time and I was a big fan of that series too. And the toys of the late 70s were kick-ass- Mego figures and especially Shogun Warriors which included Godzilla and Rodan!Then there was the 18 inch Kenner Alien! Shogun Godzilla unfortunately knocked Alien's head off with a vicious uppercut to the chin! By the early 80s Remco was on the scene with the awesome 8 inch Universal monster toys! Also by that time the local CBS channel started their own version of Chiller Theater which introduced me to the sublime terrors of Vincent Price! They showed alot of AIP greats like Pit and the Pendulum, Reptilicus, Blacula,Goliath and the Vampires,Frankenstein Conquers the World and Black Sabbath which was terrifying. In 1982 we got our first independent UHF station WXXA 23 which aired Theater Bizarre on Friday nights. ch 23 showed an amazing variety of films-everything from Universal classics, Hammer, AIP,Toho, Daiei,Paul Naschy, Allied Artists and lots of other stuff. I grew up with ch 23-Theater Bizarre ran until 1989 when I went to college. The Remco mini monsters from 1982 or so are still my favorite Universal monster toys, they were a huge part of my tween years as were the Monogram Aurora reissue kits. In 1984 when i was 13 we got a second UHF station WUSV 45 which showed alot of Toho movies, Gorgo and other wacky drive in style flicks including my favorite Bigfoot movies-Legend of Boggy Creek and Creature From Black Lake. Even though I didn't grow up in the 60s like Monster Boomers, I still think I had a great monster filled childhood.
Yeah--I saw King Kong versus Godzilla on TV when I was pretty small, too. And--all the kid got together on the school playground the next day and were talking about it excitedly. Now that I remember, there was a whole week of Godzilla films, and they were on the 3:30 movie, which was cool after you got home from school. So every day that week there was anticipation and discussion about all the different Godzilla films. Star Wars did not exist yet and we hadn't seen 2001 or Flash Gordon, so Godzilla (and the various monsters he fought) seemed pretty important! I may have seen the 1933 Kong by that time, but I don't remember for sure.
Quote from: Walrus on May 10, 2012, 10:36:18 PMBuying Dick Smith's monster makeup book at a garage sale for $1.00, and repeatedly asking my mom to buy me some Leggs pantyhose so I could use the eggshell for zombie eyes...which she never did.
She must have been afraid of enabling her son to take up cross dressing.
:o
Quote from: neonnoodle on March 14, 2013, 09:13:34 AMYeah--I saw King Kong versus Godzilla on TV when I was pretty small, too. And--all the kid got together on the school playground the next day and were talking about it excitedly. Now that I remember, there was a whole week of Godzilla films, and they were on the 3:30 movie, which was cool after you got home from school. So every day that week there was anticipation and discussion about all the different Godzilla films.
Cool! I saw
King Kong vs. Godzilla on its initial release in September 1962 at the Odeon Theatre in London. It was a must see movie and I actually passed up going to the Western Fair that day to see it.
(http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c191/ass666/1-king-kong-vs-godzilla-poster-art-everett.jpg)
cl:)
Quote from: neonnoodle on March 14, 2013, 09:13:34 AMStar Wars did not exist yet and we hadn't seen 2001 or Flash Gordon, so Godzilla (and the various monsters he fought) seemed pretty important!
Well Godzilla still seems important to me despite the existence of those other movies.
;)