What was your 1st monster toy?

[charp13]

Munster's Paper Dolls, 1967, Kalamazoo,Mi......... Ahhhh..... the memories of playing with those while drinking chocolate milk and watching the Munsters on TV. 

[Elisabeth]

  It wasn't a "monster toy", per se.  but it has a definite connection.  When I was in grammar school, the absolute RAGE were MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. trading cards.  There would be five cards and one stick of gum per pack.  I remember that there were 103 cards in the whole set.  I never DID get the whole set, but I  fondly remember the card with Elsa Lanchester as the Mad Scientist.. round and roly poly, with her hair streaked with silver and flying every which way...turned up nose and shining eyes.  One NEVER forgets a loved one's face....

Elisabeth 

[Mord]

Either the Aurora Frankenstein or the Marx RC Frankenstein. I got them as Christmas gifts in '63. Sadly, they're both gone.

[Mord]

BTW, Elisebeth, I had those U.N.C.L.E. and many weapons and toys from that show. I really loved it , too.

[Elisabeth]

I had a black plastic Luger with an impressed "S" on the grip.  We even had an U.N.C.L.E. club, that was mostly running and jumping, dressing in black turtlenecks and figuring out how to avoid  the local bullies.   How innocent we all were.  How innocent the times...

"E" 

[Gasport]

The Aurora long box Frankie in '63...still have it to this day. [the built up, not the box, though i did score a boxed version from John Green in California during the late 80's]

[Herr Vogel]

I lost my monster toy virginity to Milton Bradly's Monster Old Maid card game. Playing that card game at my grandmother's house was one of my earliest encounters with uni-merchandise. Then came the Aurora model kits and Spook Stories gum cards. My life went downhill from that point on. 

My story almost exactly...MB's Monster Old Maid, then the Aurora Frankenstein, Dracula and Wolfman models.

[Gillman-Fan]

I had a couple and I'm not sure which one came first . . . one was a hand-me-down "Green Ghost" game and the other was a "Forgotten Prisoner" model I got for Xmas.

[RICKH]

My first monster toy was the Great Garloo which I still have.  My first Universal monster was the Aurora Frankenstein which I got in 1963.  My older  brother put it together and painted it for me, and I still have it as well.  I think the Palmer monster figures came next...sadly, I don't have any of those.  They're probably buried in the backyard of my old house!

[americantoycoon]

Hello there,
My first monster toy was the Herman Munster hand puppet from Mattel. I bought it at a garage sale with money I earned from the sale of my old comic books (doh!). I still have my Herman Munster puppet today!

[Unknown Primate]

I'd probably have to research when they were released to figure out which ones I obtained first.  The first ones I remember having were:

THE MIGHTY KONG that beat his chest, roared & had flashing eyes
SON OF GARLOO
MPC 2" Monsters
PALMER Monsters
MARX 5" Monsters
AURORA FRANKENSTEIN
WOLF MAN PAINT-BY-NUMBERS (I have a photo of me holding it, I'll post later)
Had lots of hard plastic dinosaurs, too.

They are all in Monster Heaven, now, .

[AHI Creature]

Great topic. 

I recall being monstrously influenced and affected by jigglers of all types, beginning in the early 70s, maybe 1972 and '73 by imperial animal jigglers, soft rubber, 1.5 lb. rhino, polar bear, and platypus, they were $1.49 in a dump box at the hobby shop, and had to compete for my finances needed for model rocket parts and engines, seemed a bit reckless at the time to spend that much on a rubber rhino when I could buy 3 C6-7 engines and 6 feet of dynamite fuse with the same $1.49.  I still have the rhino with his horn bit cleanly off.  The platypus was thrown away after his bill was bitten off in the early 80s.  Almost bought an intact one in an ebay lot last year for over $300.  Other important jigglers back then included rubber alligators in 4" and 12" sizes from the Chicago Field Museum gift shop, also found in roadside junk stores while driving on vacation across the midwest, in between begging my dad to stop at fireworks stands.  Of course, obviously the standard 8" rubber gorillas, by Imperial and others unnamed Hong Kong manufacturers, available both hollow and solid on sticks and strings, at the county fair, and dump boxes at drug stores and junk shops, and always with the signature "morel mushroom" textured surface to imitate gorilla fur.  Gaping mouths and upraised left hands always.

Next, I went through an obsessive time of casting and painting Rapco Famous Monster busts (see my earlier thread describing a modern day return to this passion, search return of the Rapcos.)  Candles and plaster busts.

After that, 1973 and on, it was all AHI all the time, and has never stopped.  I swear I will post a photo of my AHI collection soon.

Also, Stretch Monster, Xmas 1977 was as magical and perfect a christmas present there could ever be.

Thank you for reading my post.

[aura of foreboding]

I have loved monsters ever since I was really little.  I had a lot of generic monster stuff, mostly Halloween-related merchandise all before I was three.  I remember my animated vampire in a coffin quite well.  I received him early on in my childhood.  This was probably my first ever monster toy. 

I was fortunate to grow up in a time when the Universal Monsters had made a comeback, the early '90s.  They were literally everywhere: Shopko, Safeway, K-Mart, Woolworth.  So, I had a lot of options when picking up my first licensed monster product.

My first Uni-monster item was probably the Rubies Dracula Halloween costume, which was purchased from Shopko in 1993. 

My first Universal monster toys were purchased around the same time.  Every Autumn, my family would take a road trip to this small town known only for its apple orchards and its pumpkin farms.  On the way back from this place, we would stop at a variety of towns and small cities.  One of them had a Wal*Mart, an invention which had not made its way to my city yet.  While at Wal*Mart, I fell in love with the 18" Motion-ettes of Dracula and Frankenstein.  I had to have them to add to my monster collection.  I convinced my family to purchase them for me, as well as batteries so I could use them RIGHT AWAY.  I was so pleased when I got them into the car, out of the boxes, and had installed the batteries.  Just as I had brought Dracula to life, it was starting to storm outside.  He was laughing and his eyes were glowing red and the rain was gently falling on the windows.  I had just removed Frankenstein from his box and installed the batteries when I heard the thunder clap.  Just moments later, I flipped the switch and the monster had come to life.  I didn't know it then, but I guess I had sort of unintentionally recreated a scene from the movie...  I was his father.  The lightning was his mother.  That experience will never be forgotten...     

[MDG]

I think it was a Ben Cooper-style Frankenstein mask (without a costume)--the same one used for the target display a few years back. Next was either a Creature Aurora model or the Colorforms Monster putty thing.

(Were the Palmer monsters or something similar ever packaged with a suction-cup-dart gun? I remember something like that....)

[zombiehorror]

Hmmm..let's see?!?!

I had The Mighty Men And Monster Maker 1978, Remco-mini's Phantom/Frankenstein/Monsterizer and a glow Jekyll/Hyde all around the same time....6/7 yrs old.