1971 Vampirella with Aurora name removed?

[Simon Rowson]

Hi,

I have the opportunity to buy an original, unassembled 1971 Aurora Vampirella kit for a pretty reasonable price. It is only missing the box but everything else looks perfect and it has the original instructions.
However, when I asked for a photo of the base of the kit to make double sure it wasn't a reissue, I could then see the Aurora name has been sanded off, leaving the copyright symbol and "... CORP 1971". 
The seller told me that, when Aurora was cut loose by Nabisco, some of the kits were sold in bags with the original company name removed.
Has anyone else heard of this?

[MonsterBaker666]

I saw your post over at the CHFB - I'm banned there so I couldn't post a reply.  It looked like the base you showed in the photo without the Aurora name was in a kind of yellowish color.  The original Aurora kits were made of flesh color plastic.  The kit was reissued about 10 years ago from Moebius Models in a pinkish flesh color. 

IF the color of the kit isn't one of those colors, it could very well be a resin recast and not an injection molded kit. 

[Simon Rowson]

I saw your post over at the CHFB - I'm banned there so I couldn't post a reply.  It looked like the base you showed in the photo without the Aurora name was in a kind of yellowish color.  The original Aurora kits were made of flesh color plastic.  The kit was reissued about 10 years ago from Moebius Models in a pinkish flesh color. 

IF the color of the kit isn't one of those colors, it could very well be a resin recast and not an injection molded kit. 

Many thanks for that advice!

I don't believe it is a resin recast because the body and legs are all in two parts. In all the resin castings I've seen, these parts were snapped together for ease of moulding.
Also, the colour matches what you described in the original pictures from the seller. Only the one of the base (which I asked him to make in a hurry) has that odd, yellowish tone to it.

[MonsterBaker666]

In that photo you attached it does look like a real original Aurora kit. 

As to the base and Aurora name removed - not sure why it would be removed.  Aurora manufactured them, and when the Monster Scenes line was canceled in the USA, they just shipped all kits they had in stock to Canada, changed the boxes a bit, added new instruction sheets and sold them there.

[Simon Rowson]

In that photo you attached it does look like a real original Aurora kit. 

As to the base and Aurora name removed - not sure why it would be removed.  Aurora manufactured them, and when the Monster Scenes line was canceled in the USA, they just shipped all kits they had in stock to Canada, changed the boxes a bit, added new instruction sheets and sold them there.

I've found one other (long since sold), bagged but unboxed example of exactly the same kit from another Japanese seller. I'm assuming some of the discontinued kits found their way over here after the line was pulled in the States?



 

[Simon Rowson]

In that photo you attached it does look like a real original Aurora kit. 

As to the base and Aurora name removed - not sure why it would be removed.  Aurora manufactured them, and when the Monster Scenes line was canceled in the USA, they just shipped all kits they had in stock to Canada, changed the boxes a bit, added new instruction sheets and sold them there.

Well, I got the kit and now I know why it had the Aurora name sanded off.
I can confirm it's a genuine, 1971 original Vampirella with the correct instructions; nothing's missing except the sprues and the exterior of each piece is pristine.
And therein lies the catch ... 'the exterior of each piece'.

ALL the male snap-together pegs in the leg and torso halves have been broken off, with one still in situ in its matching female socket in the opposite piece.

This obviously tells a story of recasting. The company name erased and the 'two-half' components (torso and four legs) snapped together for ease of moulding, then clumsily pulled apart - thus breaking off all the pegs.

So, now I'm in a quandary.
* The seller has offered me a refund if I return the kit. (I paid $50 including postage)
* It's entirely buildable but has no value as a collectible (or does it?)
* It's almost certainly the only time I'll get my hands on an affordable example of the 1971 kit.

What do you think?

[Hepcat]

Do you plan to build it? If so, it would basically lose its value as a collectible anyway. Moreover collectors value the missing box highly as well.

 

[MonsterBaker666]

It depends on what you want to do with this kit.  I'm not a collector, so I just build the kits, paint them and display them.  If you want to re-sell it, you might not make any money on it since it has the pegs broken and the Aurora name sanded off.

When you first posted about it, my thought it was a resin recast due to the aurora name being missing.  I couldn't figure out why it would be removed on an original kit, but you're suggestion that whoever owned it previously used that original kit to make molds to recast it would make sense for them sanding off the Aurora name. 

IF you do plan on building it, painting will be easier since the plastic is flesh color already.  As I stated in an earlier post, the Moebius Models reissue was molded in a pinkish flesh color plastic, and it looks a bit "off", so I had to paint not only the red costume, but the flesh tone as well.  The original Aurora kits plastic color looks right, so you won't have to paint the flesh, only the costume and hair. 

I think the Moebius Models kit is no longer made, and if you can find one of those out there from an ebay reseller, it might cost as much as what you paid for the Aurora original.