Target this year is doing more animated Halloween collectibles than I've seen in the past few years. There are the usual skeletons, Gothic decorations, and tombstones, but a lively (or deadly?) mantle clock strikes the gloomy doom hour for you, and doorbell chimes put the eye on you.
Someone recently sold this on eBay. What's cool about this (and, hey, if you're a monsterkid who played with one of these, that was way cool, too) is the graphic on the box cover: who says horror's just for the boys? I miss the more tactile pleasures of monster play. Don't you? Molding, painting, model kit building, it was fun. I still vividly remember that night my dad brought home an Aurora Wolf Man model. The long box was tied with string. He built it while I watched. I was too young at the time to build it myself. Of course, I would do a lot of model kit building later on as I got older. But that was the first time I'd seen a plastic model. And it was another step closer to becoming a monsterkid.
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A very odd costume, indeed. One can probably write a fascinating article on the change from single character to multi-character illustration on the costume itself, but there's another article in how suitability of mask to costume has varied over time and sociological development. I'll just note that the mask is completely mismatched to the costume. I'm guessing there was a production run of the mask for some other reason than this specific costume and Collegeville decided to save money and re-use the masks with this idea. If not, I'd be stumped as to who green-lit this one.
More horror movie coverage with lots of photos fills up Fantastic Monsters of the Films issue 4. The Raven from AIP gets nice coverage, James Bond's first outing with Dr. No gets a license to see, and George Pal is highlighted. A fantastic close-up of Lon Chaney Jr. as the Frankenstein Monster stands out among other great shots of him in various roles, and horror host Jeepers of Theatre 13 is spotlighted. A treat for Mexican horror fans is Thomas Bradley's article, Ship of Monsters. Another real treat is Vincent Price's In Defense of Horror Films. (This copy comes from Professor Kinema's archive.)
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I have fond memories of going to a New York City Chinatown theater, with friends, to see Bruce Lee kick up his heels. For you martial arts fans, all I need say is The Way of the Dragon (1972). Chuck Norris fighting Bruce Lee. It was like watching Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire go head to toe, two styles, two bad-ass pros going at it. In a movie theater in Chinatown in 1972. It doesn't get any better than that.
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Photos, photos, and more photos fill Fantastic Monsters of the Films magazine. Issue 3, courtesy of Professor Kinema, has The Devil's Workshop by Paul Blaisdell, Vincent Price in the Tower of London, an eye on Doctor Cyclops, and radio stories made into movies in Terror in the Air. Great shots from 3 Stooges Meet the Martians and for A Belfry of Bela make this another issue to treasure. But the piece de resistance is the photo on the inside back cover: it shows an early maquette of the Creature from the Black Lagoon!
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I'm not sold on the chattermouth gimmick for the mask, but this costume design is way robotastique. It has that Republic serial robotic feel to it: cheap, oddly artistic, and fun to look at.
Neutron fights mad science and robotic monsters in Neutron Contra El Dr. Caronte.
Santo and Blue Demon brawling, rocket ship whizzing through space, volcano erupting, what more can you ask for in a Mexican lobby card?
The Son of the Santo (Santito) brawls in Frontera Sin Ley. Some singing and church services may also happen.
An eye-popping cover by Kelly gives the 18th issue of Castle of Frankenstein a graphic jolt, but once you get under the covers that jolt fizzles. Which is one constant lapse in judgement seen throughout CoF's run: poor layout and small text. In this issue, the text goes minuscule, and against a dark background, makes it difficult to read. Wasting space on useless graphic filler, the editorial ironically mentions some articles had to be left out of this issue, while H. P. Norton's assault on H. P. Lovecraft (fishy byline, right?) uses very small text to capture quite a big space of opinion. On the other hand, John Carradine's interview is a welcome portrait for a great classic horror actor, who, at age 14 and after seeing the Merchant of Venice, decided he wanted to act. The interview is too short, though. Night of the Living Dead gets a positive review, an amateur picture story for Tarzan centerfold, and a so-so review for Tales from the Crypt round out the issue.
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