# Aurora Square Monster Box's



## rangab (Oct 25, 2006)

I am looking for the Aurora square monster kits.Just looking to buy the boxes.Can someone lead me in the right direction,thx.


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## Mark McGovern (Apr 25, 1999)

Of course the first place to look would be eBay. You might also try the Aurora All Plastic Assembly group on Facebook.


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## djmadden99 (Dec 23, 2008)

Open question - Why is it the square boxes seem to go for higher prices than long boxes? At least they seem to consistently do so on eBay.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

I grew up with the square box kits. I never saw a long box until the late 80s or 90s. I'd buy a square box or square box kit over a long box just because that is what I am familiar with


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## djmadden99 (Dec 23, 2008)

First time I saw a longbox was the Witch at a comic convention in the early '90's. I had no idea such things existed and really had my mind blown after I got a copy of Classic Plastic by Rick Polizzi. It was great seeing all the kits offered by model companies in the 60's, but I have the nostalgia factor for the 70's. Hard to beat the Monster Scenes, Prehistoric Scenes and Monsters of the Movies in addition to the square boxes.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

As an aside, buying boxes is a good way to acquire complete kits for a collection. It may take a while but in the end you save some money. Case in point a friend actually gave me some nice old Aurora armor kit long boxes. The boxes are in great shape. Over the months/years I was able to find bagged Aurora kits to go in the boxes. It's funny but you can usually get a nice box for pretty cheap, and bagged kits go for a fraction of what an original boxed kit goes for. So if you bide your time and buy a box and a bagged kit, you can save some big money.


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## apls (Dec 5, 2005)

I alway wondered about the square boxes when for about for more than a decade, retailers' shelf spaces were for the long boxes. Nothing was more sorely missed than when Aurora reissued the superhero kits in those boxes. Anyone remember those kits based on the TV show "Rawhide" where Rowdy Yates didn't look like Clint Eastwood, Pyro, I think.


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## phrankenstign (Nov 29, 1999)

apls said:


> I alway wondered about the square boxes when for about for more than a decade, retailers' shelf spaces were for the long boxes. Nothing was more sorely missed than when Aurora reissued the superhero kits in those boxes. Anyone remember those kits based on the TV show "Rawhide" where Rowdy Yates didn't look like Clint Eastwood, Pyro, I think.



The only Pyro kits I remember were the six dinosaurs I built: Tyranosaurus Rex, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Protoceratops, Ankylosaurus, and Dimetrodon.....and the two I never got to: Brontosaurus, Corythosaurus. I used to buy all of my kits in downtown East Chicago at, of all places, an Ace hardware store. They carried all of the Aurora square box monsters, and all of the Pyro dinosaurs. They also had all of those Visible models: man, woman, heart, etc. I was never interested in their car models, so I'm not sure what else they carried. The only square box monster box that survived still has a horribly painted, half built Quasimodo in it. I figure someday I'll dip it in brake cleaner to get all of that old oil paint I used to use that was made by Pactra and Testors.


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## Zombie_61 (Apr 21, 2004)

By the time I learned about Aurora's "monster" models in 1969 (I was eight years old) the only ones I could find in the local toy stores were the "Fright'ning Lightning" versions in the square boxes. To be honest, I've never really understood the fascination with the boxes the kits came in. To me they've always been nothing more than something to keep the parts in, and to this day they go in the trash after I've finished building the kit.

As for the kits themselves, a good friend and I had a friendly competition to see which of us could collect and build the most of them. They were all "kid built" to be sure--it never occurred to either of us to even sand the seams to make them less obvious. Putty? What's that? He never even developed the patience for painting, so he'd use permanent markers to "paint" his kits. Neither of us ever collected all of them individually, but between us I think we had all of them except for The Witch. Out of all of those kits, the only one I kept was The Hunchback; I have no idea why I chose that one and none of the others.


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## apls (Dec 5, 2005)

I remember in 1969 when Fright'ing Lightin' hit stores with the tag line, "for the boy who has everything", the box art for the Wolfman finally reflected what was in the box, not the Lon Chaney / Oliver Reed hybrid. But the Mummy art at least in the ads, I am not sure if it made it on the "long box" issue, had different art, a great, I mean great painting of the Mummy comin' at you! I wish to see that again, it may have been a Canadian issue, not sure. The first FL kit I bought was the Phantom of the Opera, the last kit I bought from my main kit store, Fishers, stupid ten-year-old kid I was, walked out the store without a bag or the receipt after buying it. Later stopped in Woolworth's to see if they had them in, they did and the security guard thought I stole it, after crying he believed me and let me go, a real Bart Simpson moment.


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## Zombie_61 (Apr 21, 2004)

I've told this story here before, but the first model I ever built was the Fright'ning Lightning version of The Forgotten Prisoner of Castel-Maré. I'd heard of model kits but 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, 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"), and a bottle of Pactra paint thinner. Over the next two or three days I glue-bombed it together, slathered on the paint, 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.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Aurora's financial problems started in the late 60s and, as an attempt to draw in new customers to their old kit range, they went to the "Big A" logo square boxes. Pretty much any kit that could or would fit into some sort of oversize box was repackaged. The idea was that the new BIG boxes and new logo would create shelf dominance (yes that is a visual display merchandiser term). The little flat boxes had tiny pictures on the end that made it hard to see what the kit actually was compared to the new big boxes. Of course, manufacturers could also fit fewer kits on a shelf, so that was a double edge sword. Aurora had to also pad out some of their relatively simple and simplistic kits when they went to the giant boxes. The armor got large vacuuformed plastic bases so that it seemed at least that something large was in the large box, even if the kit itself was small. I have one of their Japanese subs in the "Big A" box and the box they used was the size of their big airplane kits like the B-29 and Chinook Helicopter ! To fit a 10 inch by 1 inch by 1 inch sub in a 20 inch by 8 inch box they added a big plastic base to mount the sub's little plastic display stand onto. 

As a kid I never kept the boxes for the kits. I remember using the lids to squeeze out glue from the tube, or to mix paint in. I did, however, keep my original Hunchback square box, along with the kit (sadly the instruction sheet vanished) and my King Ghidorah box.


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## apls (Dec 5, 2005)

I was looking on eBay for something else, I can across for sale the 1969 Aurora catalog, which I had back then, the picture was open to the page of the new Frightin' Lightin' kits. There it was the picture art for the Mummy I was talking about in my earlier post, just as I remembered it.


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## phrankenstign (Nov 29, 1999)

apls said:


> I was looking on eBay for something else, I can across for sale the 1969 Aurora catalog, which I had back then, the picture was open to the page of the new Frightin' Lightin' kits. There it was the picture art for the Mummy I was talking about in my earlier post, just as I remembered it.



LOL!


I clicked on your link to see the picture you were referring to, and I immediately started laughing! The Aurora clowns actually misspelled "Frightening Lightning"!!!


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## otto (Jan 1, 1970)

The pricing used to be the other way around with the longbox's bringing more. I wonder if its because the "longbox generation" is dying out and or selling off their collections and flooding the market? I still love the longboxes myself, but I've sold off most of my kits and toys and haven't bought many new ones in years. I guess after looking at some of this stuff for dang near 60 years, my interests changed a bit and I've changed my collecting habits. LOL I realized I cant take it with me, so I sold off stuff so I wouldn't pass the burden of getting rid of everything to my wife in case I bit the "big one". I reality mainly used the funds to buy other types of stuff to stare at! Which I cant take with me either.... LOL. But she will have less junk to deal with. Now watch me live another 50 years!
I think part of it too, is ebay made it so easy to complete collections that some collecters just got everything they needed in a pretty short time making the demand drop off fast?


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## mcdougall (Oct 28, 2007)

I grew up with the Long boxes and still like them best(they doubled as Humbrol paint tin holders back then.. so that's why a few lasted. I never really collected the boxes back then and only ever started collecting them for that Nostalgia reason. They were cool then and they are cool now.
Denis
Post 7000


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

I suspect the earlier long box kits were run in larger numbers (and for a few more years) than the later square box kits. And the boxes were sturdier too. I think the "hard" square boxes were only around a year or so around 1969-70 until Aurora went to a cheaper box. So, today, there are more long boxes around than square boxes. I notice the sealed square box kits bring a premium. That disappoints me as I really, really, really want a square box Creature since I had two of those as a kid. I'd take a square box Godzilla too since I think that was the first one I ever had myself. Prior to that my dad had built me or found a built up Frankenstein and Batman.


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## finaprint (Jan 29, 2006)

Long boxes rule..............I detest all the wasted white space on the squares, as well as the repaints over original Bama work. RUINATION!

And WHERE did that whopping big ugly 'A' come from? Diker, Diker, Diker............................(shaking head sadly)


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## djmadden99 (Dec 23, 2008)

When I think of Aurora kits, this is what I grew up with:


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