# 1966 Aurora Model Kits



## apls (Dec 5, 2005)

It seemed as if overnight in January of 1966, classic movie monsters were out and comic book superheroes were in. Batman premiered on January 12th 1966 on Wednesday and Thursday nights at 7:30. It was a difficult decision since Wednesday was Lost in Space, I would watch after January, only the second half yielding to Batman. Thursday nights wiped out The Munsters during the winter and led to its cancelation, shame too since season two of The Munsters was great.

Over at Aurora production was going round the clock producing their Batman kits to fill store shelves, their monster kits once very popular, now took a back seat. The DC Batman comic was hot as a pistol again, Famous Monsters and Mad Magazine were still staples, and one of the last monster kits released in 1966 was collaboration with Famous Monsters of Filmland and Aurora, The Forgotten Prisoner of Castle Mare.

But the sheer amount of kit releases at Aurora that year was staggering and was never repeated again. Television and movie licensing was in overdrive, and this is not counting the 12 inch dolls, they weren’t called action figures then, that also lined toy shelves. 

In 1966 boxed model kits some with beautiful box art and an instruction sheet with a finished photo of “when completed, you kit will look like this”, and it never did. Well painted airbrushed retouched photos were not my kits, they should shown the glue bombs slathered with gloss Testors paint in primary colors, the obscured any detail on the kit.

I got my Batman three weeks after the show aired; I remember thinking how it didn’t look like Adam West’s costume. Weeks later at Orner’s Corner, Fisher’s and the 5 and 10 cent store, where we bought our kits, the shelves soon filled up with James Bond and Odd Job, both Man From U.N.C.L.E., the Seaview, Lost in Space (both kits), the Castle Creatures, Hercules and the Lion (really Tarzan), Jessie James (reissue of the Marshall) The Musketeer (reissue with a base) by September the Batmobile from the show, the Batplane, and Robin the Boy Wonder and to top it off, the Marvel Superheroes, Spiderman, The Hulk, and Captain American. My head was spinning.

I recall seeing the Man From U.N.C.L.E factory build up in a store and getting depressed that my kits didn’t turn out that way. Lately I have been restoring some of these old kits, like Batman, Superman, Robin, and Willie Mays after being inspired by the late Buzz Conroy, I believe I got the hang of it after 52 years of building kits. 

But I cannot leave out a tribute to one of the greatest toys that became a model kit, Captain Action, that box was confusing since it had the same box art as the figure. So much so, I got him for my birthday, and had to tell my grandmother she got the wrong one, after digging through the garbage to find the receipt to get the right one, all was well. 50 years ago, WOW!


----------



## phrankenstign (Nov 29, 1999)

You've got a good memory for what was going on 50 years ago! I was six then, and I remember a few things from that period. However I can't remember which shows were on at the same time or anything like that. Since I was at the mercy of where my dad took us, I never knew back then how many monster and super-hero models Aurora produced. I can't recall ever going to a hobby shop back then, although my dad did buy, build, and paint Frankenstein, King Kong, and Superman. I do remember seeing Aurora ads on the back of a lot of DC comics. As a kid at that time, I could only wish I'd someday get any of those. Although I really liked the long box artwork, I didn't actually start buying models until the 70s when most were reissued in "Glow in the Dark" square boxes. I guess I was born just a few years too late to enjoy the golden age or crest of the monster and super-hero model wave.


----------



## apls (Dec 5, 2005)

I was seven, I do have a good memory, but can't tell you what happend last week! Most of the neighborhood kids built model kits back then and they were mostly sold in corner variety stores, I didn't get to an actual hobby shop until 1969 and it was nirvana. The first kit I built was the Aurora Dracula in 1964, I believe. The output of the company for that year was amazing, I grew up in Philadelphia back then it was the first home of Famous Monsters and the long time home of its mail order business, the Captain Company, where a lot of fans bought their model kits from through the mail.


----------



## rhinooctopus (May 22, 2011)

*Monsters in Minnesota*

If memory serves...I got the Aurora Frankenstein for Christmas in '62. My mom helped me put it together and paint it..."PLA" flat black for his clothes and "monster flesh", a cool green for his skin.
Of 4 boys in our family, the oldest 3 of us built models, but yours truly built most of the them and is the only one who kept it up for years. I grew up in a suburb of Minneapolis, MN called Crystal and I acquired my first kits from the hobby store in the basement of "Medical Center Pharmacy", which was mostly a bicycle shop, but they sold a lot of hobby stuff. Snyders Drug store and Woolworths, with their small toy departments, furnished me with a few kits. When I was old enough that my parents let me ride the bus all the way to downtown Minneapolis, I freaked-out when I went into the J.C. Penny toy department and saw the newly released Aurora "Bride" and "Witch" kits.
My most fond "hobby store memory" is that of "Gager's Hobby", which was located in one of the first "malls" in the Twin Cities area...Brookdale Mall. The "figure models" were stacked on the shelves on the back wall of the store, on the left side. Hordes of Aurora, monsters and super heroes, Hawk Weird Ohs, Revell "Fink" kits, etc.
Years later, after I bought my first house and wanted a second job (so I could buy more model kits, lol) I got a job working at Gager''s. But by then it was bought-out by a company called "Triarco" but it was still a great hobby store! The great part about working there was if you built/made something to display for the store, you got store credit, based on the amount of money you spent making your display piece. So you know what time period that was, Monogram had reissued the few Aurora monster kits.
The 60s was a great time to grow up! It was the "hayday" for model kits.
One final note. As for watching "Lost In Space" or "Batman"...the Kupka boys always argued with the Schmidt boys about which show was better. We watched Batman and they watched LIS. Thank God for reruns and later VCRs, Laser discs, DVDs, BluRay, etc. 

Phil


----------



## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

I remember having the '66 (I think) Aurora catalog well into my teens in the 70s. The models were all presented as line drawings, and I colored them in. Wish I still had that.


----------



## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

Good ol' HiWay Hobby House was always there for me. Dad drove me and shook his head sadly when I spent my entire allowance on models and paint (I remember once buying 5 models for 5 bucks, and one of those was a $2 kit!). In my early teens I'd ride my bike to HHH, even tho it was 7 miles away and across a major highway. It was quite a trip! I had baskets on the bike to fill with kits. When I later got a full-sized Schwinn that didn't come with baskets, I dug out my old paperboy shoulder bag. Once I got a car, I was probably there weekly, up until it closed a few years ago, and grown men cried.


----------



## apls (Dec 5, 2005)

When I was 13, I discovered Quaker City Hobby Shop in downtown Philadelphia, it was 1971 and for the next few years, they would stock a lot of old Aurora and Revell kits, some of these kits I still have like George Washington, Bonanza, and others. I began to use a pactra paints and the store was my go to for Star Trek kits as they were released the store moved to South Jersey in 1977, a new store call ALLIED Hobbies opened the same year blocks away in the new enclosed mall called the Gallery. Where I live now in South Jersey we have a great hobby store called AAA Hobbies also there is MegaHobby in nearby Runnemede.


----------



## LGFugate (Sep 11, 2000)

What a great thread!


My favorite hobby shop of my youth was Slot and Wing hobbies in Rantoul, Illinois. I used to ride my bike there every Saturday in the late 60's. It was right next to the main gates of Chanute Air Force Base, where my Dad was stationed. We lived several miles away in Rantoul, and I would ride my bike thru the base as a shortcut. I vividly remember in 1968, as the Apollo astronauts were about to orbit the moon that I begged $6 from my Dad to get the 1/144th scale Monogram Saturn V kit that had just come out. I rode in ice and snow, nearly wiping out crossing a major intersection on base when my bike slipped out from under me. Fortunately, my baskets protected the kit and I got it home safely. (I still have that model, too!!)


Slot and Wing Hobbies still exists, but they moved to Champaign, Illinois in the 70's.


Larry


----------



## apls (Dec 5, 2005)

I just finished the Polar Lights version of the Aurora Spiderman which was upscaled to about 1/7 scale. , some hobbiest cried sacrilege but I liked a bigger kit. 1966 was a strange year, over on the Sci Fi movies and tv thread , I talk about how 1966 was the greatest year in pop culture to this day has an impact today on entertainment.


----------



## Zathros (Dec 21, 2000)

*Yep....1966 was a banner year for TV shows and its licensed merchandise..I guess I am one of those "hobbyists" that cry "sacrilege" at the upscaled aurora repops. Not my cup of tea since I prefer them as they were...and I am paying for it NOW since I am restoring a 1966 spiderman, and FIGHTING to see where to apply the weblines on his costume..my eyes aint near as good as they were when I was 6 years old..lol. In any case I used to get my kits at a department store called "Stevens" on Queens blvd in Queens New York, and a few stationary stores in Brooklyn..I remember the very first kit I built myself was the incredible hulk, and also wondering why my hulk did not come out as good as the finished one on the instruction sheet..I completely flipped when I saw the Lost in space robot kit...I must have had about 6 of em that I went through as a kid, but my finished robots never looked as good as Aurora's completed one...then of course, out came great kits like the batmobile, flying sub, spindrift ( which I LOVED and still do) and the invaders ship,Marvel and DC superheroes, voyager moonbus, clipper, and of course ALL the Horror monsters...Some of these came out after 1966..but still in that golden age of the 1960's..thanks to Tom Lowe, and John F green...I have em all again*:laugh:


----------



## rhinooctopus (May 22, 2011)

I often wonder why ANY styrene model producer has never (to my knowledge) produced any of the Hammer Studios monsters. I have collected a number of the resin kits, but why haven't those monsters been done by a styrene kit company. (Think of the possibilities Moebius, Pegasus, etc.) Maybe licensing is out of this world. Anybody know?
(Back to the "wonder years of model building) Do you ever have dreams about going into a store and seeing shelves full of figure model kits that have never been produced? One time I had that dream and I went into a Target store. When I saw ALL THOSE KITS, I ran and got a shopping cart and over-filled it with only one of each. The sad part about that dream was that I couldn't get my cart full of kits to the checkout lanes! Now that's a nightmare!

Phil


----------



## RossW (Jan 12, 2000)

rhinooctopus said:


> I often wonder why ANY styrene model producer has never (to my knowledge) produced any of the Hammer Studios monsters. I have collected a number of the resin kits, but why haven't those monsters been done by a styrene kit company. (Think of the possibilities Moebius, Pegasus, etc.) Maybe licensing is out of this world. Anybody know?
> (Back to the "wonder years of model building) Do you ever have dreams about going into a store and seeing shelves full of figure model kits that have never been produced? One time I had that dream and I went into a Target store. When I saw ALL THOSE KITS, I ran and got a shopping cart and over-filled it with only one of each. The sad part about that dream was that I couldn't get my cart full of kits to the checkout lanes! Now that's a nightmare!
> 
> Phil


Yes! I had that recurring dream up till a few years ago. Not sure why it stopped; might have something to do with the 200+ kits sitting on my shelves that I know I'll never finish.

When I was around 7 or 8 a friend of mine's Dad drove us somewhere in Toronto to a hobby store that was FILLED with Aurora kits. I was in heaven! I can picture the street and where he parked the car, but damned if I could ever find it later on as a teenager. Sigh. The best hobby store in North York (suburb of Toronto) was Keith's Hobby Shop on Yonge St. Best hobby store I've ever been to. The last time I was there, about 15 yrs ago, the shelves were virtually empty and Keith was the only one left. It closed up shortly after that. That place was a big part of my childhood.


----------



## Bwain no more (May 18, 2005)

55555


----------



## Bwain no more (May 18, 2005)

rhinooctopus said:


> I often wonder why ANY styrene model producer has never (to my knowledge) produced any of the Hammer Studios monsters. I have collected a number of the resin kits, but why haven't those monsters been done by a styrene kit company. (Think of the possibilities Moebius, Pegasus, etc.) Maybe licensing is out of this world. Anybody know?
> Phil


I know that both Universal AND Warner Brothers (and maybe even Fox?) released Hammer Films theatrically here in the US with I believe Warner currently releasing them on DVD and BluRay. Frank at Moebius DID work out a deal to release a "Curse of the Werewolf" kit to be sculpted by Mike Hill, but I believe that has fallen by the wayside...:crying:
Tom


----------



## Jimmy B. (Jul 21, 2016)

Ok this is getting very Elm Street here. 
I've had that dream as well on a recurring basis. Stacks of models kits I never heard of in Aurora long boxes.
Lovecraftian Monsters, Harryhausen Monsters, the more obscure super heros like Sub-Mariner, Flash, ect.
In these Dreams I find the store but something prevents me from buying. Either I don't have any money, or I'm in a hurry
and have to leave or something. Then I try to go back to that merchant and I can't find the store (Different dimension??)


Anyway in 1966 I was 4 and have very limeted memory of the TV airings. I DO remember when Liberace' guest starred
on Batman because my mother and father had quite a sparring match over the wordly piano player. I have to admit my 
Father was somewhat bigoted and by no means politically correct by today's standards. That said I'm sure you can figure out the rest.

As for models...Sighhhhhhh oh for those days. I didn't jump in until 68 or 69 or so. I think I was like 15 the first time I ever visited an actual hobby store. You didn't need them back then because everyplace sold models.
Department stores, Drug stores, Confectionaries (now called convenience store) and how can we forget the beloved 5&10 stores.....Oh and Faulks Department stores

I recall the first monster model I ever got - The Wolfman LongBox and it came from the Western Auto store in Clinton NJ
which by trade was a hardware store. I remember likeing the model but couldn't understand why it wasn't the pointy ear monster hiding behind a tree like on the box. Later the square box glow version came out and the box art had the pose of the actual model (Shirtless and hands raised). My logic was "Its a switch-a-roo trick" Since the long box showed the tree hiding wolfman but really had the hands raised guy, then this square box one must be showing the hand raised guy but really has tree-hider inside.........Disappointed

Agree - Great thread here!!


----------



## GordonMitchell (Feb 12, 2009)

I was nine in 66 and it would be a couple of years before I would see any Aurora kits in a hobby shop here in Scotland,it was 69 and I got my first Batmobile(and only)in a shop called Clyde Model Dockyard,I then found another shop in Glasgow called Argyle Models(I was later to become an emloyee there in 74 until the shop closed in 82)I got the Aurora(reboxed AMT)USS Enterprise,then it was the glow monsters,a spindrift,the comic scenes,Batman etc,and like so many others mine never looked like any of the examples in the comic adds.....dont know why,I followed the instructions....:lol:,all restored now and looking good with a lot more that I didnt have as a kid/teenager and I'm still going strong and looking forward to the new kits from Moebius and Round 2,but its great to look back on the Golden Years of Comics and kits
cheers
Gordon:thumbsup:


----------



## apls (Dec 5, 2005)

Zathros said:


> *Yep....1966 was a banner year for TV shows and its licensed merchandise..I guess I am one of those "hobbyists" that cry "sacrilege" at the upscaled aurora repops. Not my cup of tea since I prefer them as they were...and I am paying for it NOW since I am restoring a 1966 spiderman, and FIGHTING to see where to apply the weblines on his costume..my eyes aint near as good as they were when I was 6 years old..lol. In any case I used to get my kits at a department store called "Stevens" on Queens blvd in Queens New York, and a few stationary stores in Brooklyn..I remember the very first kit I built myself was the incredible hulk, and also wondering why my hulk did not come out as good as the finished one on the instruction sheet..I completely flipped when I saw the Lost in space robot kit...I must have had about 6 of em that I went through as a kid, but my finished robots never looked as good as Aurora's completed one...then of course, out came great kits like the batmobile, flying sub, spindrift ( which I LOVED and still do) and the invaders ship,Marvel and DC superheroes, voyager moonbus, clipper, and of course ALL the Horror monsters...Some of these came out after 1966..but still in that golden age of the 1960's..thanks to Tom Lowe, and John F green...I have em all again*:laugh:


I understand about being a purist and all but I like the bigger Spider-man with the clear web, it still out of scale though.


----------



## Zathros (Dec 21, 2000)

Jimmy B. said:


> Ok this is getting very Elm Street here.
> I've had that dream as well on a recurring basis. Stacks of models kits I never heard of in Aurora long boxes.
> Lovecraftian Monsters, Harryhausen Monsters, the more obscure super heros like Sub-Mariner, Flash, ect.
> In these Dreams I find the store but something prevents me from buying. Either I don't have any money, or I'm in a hurry
> ...


*lol..I must have been the only kid that didnt care if the boxart matched the model inside...*


----------



## Frankie Boy (Feb 28, 2002)

Zathros said:


> *lol..I must have been the only kid that didnt care if the boxart matched the model inside...*


Funny. I didn't care about it either. To be perfectly honest, I didn't even really "notice" it as such. Perhaps even way back then I just instinctively knew it was advertising, and in advertising, reality rarely matches the promo. You know, like, the hamburgers pictured on the overhead McDonald's menu compared to what is actually served. Or more (then) contemporaneously, a Johnny-7 OMA.

Anyway, the model itself was the all important thing, not what was pictured on the box.


----------



## Zombie_61 (Apr 21, 2004)

Zathros said:


> *lol..I must have been the only kid that didnt care if the boxart matched the model inside...*


Until I read about it on the Internet, I never even noticed. But then, when I started building models in the late-60s I had difficulty finding the Aurora kits, so the only one I got that wasn't an exact match to the box art was Frankenstein.

I had forgotten that I had Aurora's Batmobile when I was a kid until I saw a photo of one on the 'Net. But I'm guessing my older sister built it for me, because I was only five years old when the show premiered in 1966 and she knew I was a fan.

I've mentioned this here before, but the first model I ever built was The Forgotten Prisoner of Castel-Maré, the "Fright'ning Lightning" version, 1969. I was 7 or 8 years old, and though I'd heard of model kits I really didn't know much about them. I was browsing the local toy store and the box art caught my eye. I grabbed it, ran to the front counter, and asked the clerk what it was. He took the time to explain the basics to me (read the instruction sheet, cut the pieces off, glue 'em together, and paint it), handed me a tube of good old Testors cement, a paint brush, three bottles of Pactra paint (black, white, and red, so I could paint the figure "like the box art"), and a bottle of Pactra paint thinner. Over the next two or three days I glue-bombed it together, slathered on the paint (black on the coat and pants, white on the shirt, red on the sash--just like the box!), and spent many subsequent nights falling asleep to the warm greenish glow of the Prisoner's skeleton staring back at me.

I've built a little of just about everything since then, but nostalgia for the Aurora kits still runs strong.


----------



## mcdougall (Oct 28, 2007)

Got most of my kits, in the mid 60s at the corner Smoke Shop...still remember the aromatic sweet pipe tobacco permeated the air and to this day when I open a kit my mind senses that same aroma (crazy or what?)...Back then it seemed that you could buy Aurora kits everywhere and that they would never end... Getting lost in thought here...... Great thread.....
Mcdee


----------



## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

Locally, within easier bike distance than Hiway Hobby, I could get models at: Both local pharmacies, the bicycle shop, the local luncheonette/magazine/newspaper store, the soda fountain, the 5&dime store, the Ben Franklin dept store...


----------



## phrankenstign (Nov 29, 1999)

Zombie_61 said:


> I've mentioned this here before, but the first model I ever built was The Forgotten Prisoner of Castel-Maré, the "Fright'ning Lightning" version, 1969. I was 7 or 8 years old, and though I'd heard of model kits I really didn't know much about them.





I think The Forgotten Prisoner of Castel-Maré was also the first kit I built and painted too. However mine was the Glow in the Dark version. I knew which monsters had been available, because I'd been reading and collecting Superman/Batman DC comics. Aurora advertised quite a lot in those comics back then---usually on the back cover. What I didn't know was the story behind each one. It wasn't until WGN-TV Channel 9 in Chicago started broadcasting all of the Universal monster movies under the umbrella title of Creature Features every Saturday night at 10:30pm that I finally learned all about those great monsters Aurora had been selling. I kept hoping to watch the movie about the Forgotten Prisoner, but to no avail. It wasn't until I was an adult that I finally learned he hadn't been featured in a movie at all. He was something Famous Monsters of Filmland and Aurora had concocted together. I believe Scary Terry later made up his origin story in a contest.


If I remember correctly, I followed the Forgotten Prisoner with Dracula since I'd finally seen the 1931 movie on Creature Features, and later The Wolf Man for the same reason. I think I was exposed to King Kong and Godzilla a few years later on WLS-TV Channel 7 3:00 (or was it 3:30?) movie. They also tended to present many of the foreign and Hammer horror films. I remember my little brother being excited because they were going to show Ten Tackles. He didn't know what an octopus was back then, but he told me the monster had ten squiggly things protruding that were called Tackles. Needless to say, the movie turned out to be the 1977 Italian-American film, Tentacles!


----------



## Zathros (Dec 21, 2000)

*Oh yes, model kits were everwhere back in the 1960's..I remember when I saw the Hulk , it was in the window of what they called a "nickel seltzer " soda jerk shop right across the street from the catholic grammer school I went to in Brooklyn. They were also in drug stores, and variety stores, like JJ Newberrys's and ben-Franks. ( more like 5 and 10 stores)...It was a real golden age...whose like we will probably never see again...And for more than one reason, of course. *


----------



## Zombie_61 (Apr 21, 2004)

mcdougall said:


> ...Back then it seemed that you could buy Aurora kits everywhere...





Zathros said:


> *Oh yes, model kits were everwhere back in the 1960's...*


I wish I could say that. I had only two sources--the local toy store, and the local sporting goods shop. Even as a kid I couldn't understand why a sporting goods store would sell model kits, but they had a couple of shelves filled with them. 



phrankenstign said:


> ...I knew which monsters had been available, because I'd been reading and collecting Superman/Batman DC comics. Aurora advertised quite a lot in those comics back then---usually on the back cover...


My source for that info was Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine. It not only introduced me to movies that I wouldn't have the opportunity to see until many years later (and some I still haven't seen), but it also had several pages of advertising for everything a growing young horror movie fan in the 1960s could want.


----------



## apls (Dec 5, 2005)

Aurora Plastic Corporation in 1966 in their figure kits outside of television and movies continued their Great Moments in Sports series by releasing Willie Mays, a beautiful slightly inaccurate scene from the 1954 World Series. The Say Hey Kid making “the catch”. In the 60’s a kid in my class had the kit, I bought in 1972 when he played for the Mets. Last year I restored the kit, a big tip of the hat to JT Graphics, which sold copies of Aurora’s decals, wonderful.

Aurora also released a kit of the Green Beret, I am sure to get in on the G.I. Joe interest. This was a great kit with a good rendering of the M-16 rifle. Today Mojo Resin has a great copy based on the box art with alternate John Wayne replacement head. I don’t know how popular this kit was with the anti war sentiment of the time.

The sword and sandal genre was still going on, as a companion piece to the great reissues of their Roman Gladiators, released Hercules, well sort of, this kit started out as Tarzan fighting a lion. Hercules didn’t wear a lion cloth. Aurora slapped a beard on Tarzan and a crown of larual leaves, omitted the Cheeta figure and called it Hercules.

I still have the boxed kits from the Man From U.N.C.L.E., I also have the Marx plastic figured which look better than the models. I still don’t know if I should build them, oh well.


----------

