For the love of AHI Monsters...

[Toy Ranch]

I was going through my parts pile today and found some more AHI's that I thought I had sold.  Then I looked over at my collection AHI's and realized I have many more of them than I should, but the idea of selling any of them makes me wince.  I found a Mego Frankenstein head and noted that the head is the same as the head on the Mego I have in my collection, but all the AHI's are a little different.... even beyond the sculpt differences, there are drastic paint and costume variations that make all of them unique.  I took some face pictures of my Franks and Dracs and here they are...



From top left across the top:

Green hands facing forward  AHI Frank
Jointed Wrist/Hairy body AHI Frank - head looks slightly different
Green hands facing side AHI Frank - This one came carded from Japan and the card came loose in the mail.  Bright shirt!

From bottom left across bottom:

Green hands facing forward AHI Frank - Folk Singer Outfit
Flesh hands facing side AHI Frank - totally different head
Flesh hands facing side AHI Frank - This one was mine when I was a kid and I still have it!

And the Dracs...



Top row are all jointed wrist/hairy body figures.

Bottom row are a 1st issue and a 2nd type/red body.

There are so many different types of AHI, it's almost like they made each one by hand, and I guess they did paint them that way...  anyone know why there were so many changes to the bodies, heads, hands, and costumes?

[Roback]

Fantastic images Bobby. You always come up with thought provoking posts not to mention visually entertaining. Your efforts certainly don't go unnoticed. As for your question, it's anybodys guess why so many variations took place. I know Marty Abrams downplayed the science of it all and pretty much left it up to whatever extra materials were hanging around at least for the costumes. Intentional design changes ( if there were any ) is anybodys guess. No idea why the sculpts would be changed though. You can clearly see where they have too. Maybe Ray or Andy can shed some light on this for us?

[Toy Ranch]

Thanks Bob

The materials thing for the costumes makes sense, but the body changes, the head sculpts, the 3 different styles of hands, the Draculas with hairy bodies don't even fit the clothes and shoes of the regular ones..  it's endlessly complicated.... 

[Jim Bertges]

It's like a web site for celebrity mug shots. Where's Nick Nolte?

[ramsey37]

I briefly flirted with the idea of building a collection of AHI Frankenstein variations awhile back, and after a few months I gave it up for two good reasons:
1) I was going broke fighting for them on eBay
2) darn near every AHI Frank I saw was some sort of variation of the others
If I had to pick only one to own now, I'd probably go with the jointed-wrist variation. I like the big ears on that one
George

[raycastile]

I love all those little sweeties!  Each one has its own personality.  No two AHIs are exactly alike.  

Bobby, you have "intrigued" me (as Terry likes to say) with that lower middle Frankie.  I have never seen that head before.  Very slender and Karloffian, much more so than any other AHI Frank head I've seen.

[mjaycox]

There aren't as many different head sculpts with AHI as most people think. The different plastics and the different quality mold materials produced different pulls. I am convinced of this. There were certainly chnages, no doubt, but not as many as most people think.

The different head shapes and plastic styles stems mainly form the fact, I believe, that AHI were cheapskates and probably changed their suppliers several times over. Plus there was a petroleum shortage in the 70s which affected plastics for toys. Marty Abrahms and Neal Kublan stated as much as the reason behind the inferior quality of the "Chips" heads and foriegn editions of the Fantastic Four. I imagine it was something similar with AHI. Spray painting the heads is done by creating a series of copper maks that fit over the heads. to mask off the areas to not be painted. My guess is when these wore out, they made new ones, and hence the paint schemes changed subtly.

Beast witches,

Matt Jaycox
UMA medic

[raycastile]

I have spoken to Mr. Azrak and Mr. Hamway on the phone (seriously, no joke).  Both conversations lasted about 30 seconds before they told me to get lost and basically hung up in my face.  I think one of them DID hang up in my face.  This was about two years ago.  So I've tried to get information straight from the horses' mouths, only to have the horses kick me.

[mjaycox]

Well, he wasn't dubbed Baron Karza for nothing. Anyone who was that big of a rip-off artist (I love em, but let's face it, those guys were rip off artists) is bound to not be that nice of a person.

Matt

I have spoken to Mr. Azrak and Mr. Hamway on the phone (seriously, no joke).  Both conversations lasted about 30 seconds before they told me to get lost and basically hung up in my face.  I think one of them DID hang up in my face.  This was about two years ago.  So I've tried to get information straight from the horses' mouths, only to have the horses kick me.

[Toy Ranch]

There are 2 different Frankenstein head sculpts there, and 3 different Drac head sculpts.  I looked at them very closely and examined different unique areas like a bump in the hair or the shape of a scar.  I thought there were at least 3 Franks there, but only 2.  That narrow head is just that, a narrow head, but the same sculpt.  I used a caliper on it and it's the same height, but definitely thinner overall.  The jointed wrist version in the top center is the same head as the other 3 on the middle and right, but it has considerably more fine detail than the others and was probably made earlier.  Very interesting... 

[ramsey37]

I love all those little sweeties!  Each one has its own personality.  No two AHIs are exactly alike. 

Bobby, you have "intrigued" me (as Terry likes to say) with that lower middle Frankie.  I have never seen that head before.  Very slender and Karloffian, much more so than any other AHI Frank head I've seen.

I had that particular variation a few years back. Mine was painted a translucent pale green and came on a flesh-colored body.  I think I got it from a seller in England.
George

[Toy Ranch]

That's too bad, Raymond.  Seems like they could have given you a few minutes of their time without putting themselves out to do it. 

[poseablemonster]

There are certainly a lot of subtle variations on almost every AHI you find.  I was working on collecting all the major variations...here's an interesting Frankenstein:

I've seen this particular head several times.  It is on a version "A" body with rivet joints, green forearms and hands, palms down.

[Toy Ranch]

Andy, the more I look at that head and compare it to the top/center head in the photo I posted above, it looks like the same sculpt.  Things like the small dimple next to his mouth, the ears, folds under the eyes, etc. are the same.  There is a lot more detail in that one than in the top/center head or the other 3 heads from the same sculpt, but there is less detail all over, from the wrinkles in the face to the hair, etc.  It looks to me like the mold just lost detail over time, and that is a very early one out.

I noticed a couple other things about the top/right Frank, which is the one that was carded and came loose from the card as it made it's way from Japan...  the shirt is light green/metallic, the sleeves of the jacket are cut at the bottom to make it look ragged, and the side-facing hands are not the only green thing about that body, the entire body is green.... 

[1975]

Maybe they switched factories/suppliers a lot.