I grew up on the very tail end of the monster kid generation. In fact, had my brother not been four years older than me, I might have missed it altogether.
He had several Aurora kits, hailing from the square box/glow-in-the-dark run of the early 70s. Frankenstein, the Phantom of the Opera, and King Kong are permanently etched into my brain, as they sat atop the shelf above the drapes in our shared bedroom.
I was younger, less patient, and therefore with a predisposition for snap-together kits. Fortunately, Aurora was there for me, too. The Monsters of the Movies series was right up my alley, a slightly smaller scale but quickly built up and with movable parts. While I recall spending my hard-earned allowance to get the only one at Kiddie World at the time, the least exciting Dr. Jekyll kit, my all-time favorite was the MOTM Creature From the Black Lagoon I acquired in 1975. Not only did it have a better likeness than the standard Aurora Creature, the pose was awesome - the Gillman mid-stroke while swimming. You could literally fly him around the room like you might a toy airplane in this pose.
While I managed to retain a significant percentage of the toys I had as a kid (including the majority of my Creature from the Black Lagoon collection), this particular piece was lost to the ages. (We pause here for a moment of silence.)
Through the years I've kept an eye out for a replacement kit - built-up would be fine - but the cost of even that was prohibitive. I watched as countless companies reissued numerous other Aurora monster kits, including the MOTM Dracula, Franeknstein, Rodan and Ghidrah, but the Creature was nowhere to be found among them.
Fast forward 35 years. A few months back, the announcement finally came through. Moebius Models would re-release the MOTM Creature this summer. Despite our busy summer schedule, this was easily a high point of anticipation for 2010.
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| Click here to order your own Creature re-issue kit through CultTVMan.com |
Our special order arrived and I picked him up last week. Now that he's home, we'll give him some time to acclimate before we introduce him into the display case with his brethren.
It's been a long time coming, but it's good to have him back home where he belongs.
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