Could there be a better occasion than Halloween for reviving a blog from the dead? So here we are again folks … weeeee’re back!!! Mwahahaha!! Anybody who has followed this blog in the past will know that I’m a huge fan of Mego 1970s action figures. I’m also a huge fan of the old monster movies that were produced by Universal Studios from the 1920s through to the 1960s, so the Mad Monsters line by Mego comes top on my list of all-time favourite action figures. They may not have been officially licensed products, but they manage to skirt licensing laws and produce four figures that are spookily reminiscent of their silver screen counterparts.
Universal Monsters
It’s Alive! The Monster Frankenstein from Mego’s Mad Monster Series
With Halloween nearly upon us this seems like an excellent time to take a look at a recent vintage find that combines of two of my favourite action figure collecting passions – Universal Monsters and Mego. This wonderful Frankenstein Monster was released in 1974 as part of the Mad Monsters series, an offshoot of the hugely popular World’s Greatest Super-Heroes 8-inch figure line. The set also included the Dreadful Dracula, the Horrible Mummy, and the Human Wolfman, and while they may have been unlicensed figures, Mego did a fine job in creating figures as reminiscent as possible of the classic movie monsters.
Green Frankie aka Frankenstein’s Monster
With Halloween nearly upon us I thought it would be a great time to share another vintage figure from my Universal Monsters collection. I’m a huge fan of these classic horror movies produced by Universal Studios during the 1930s, movies which turned actors such as Bela Lugosi (Dracula), Lon Chaney, Jr. (The Wolf Man) and Boris Karloff (The Mummy and Frankenstein), into legendary Hollywood figures. Whilst the Remco Mini Monsters are the focus of my movie collection, I can never resist buying just about any action figure with a Universal Monsters theme, even if I don’t necessarily recognise the toy line.
Dracula – Mini Monsters by Remco
Halloween is almost here so what better way to mark the occasion than with an absolute classic horror film action figure from what has to be one of my favourite vintage lines – the Remco Mini Monsters.
This version of the most famous vampire of them all, Count Dracula as played by Bela Lugosi in the 1931 film Dracula, was issued in 1980 as part of Remco’s 3 ¾ inch action figure series. These figures may have been small, but they really were perfectly formed with all six Universal Monsters – Dracula, the Wolfman, Frankenstein, the Mummy, the Creature from the Black Lagoon and the Phantom of the Opera – bearing extremely accurate movie likenesses.
Hugh Jackman IS Van Helsing!
I actually found today’s action figure buried at the bottom of a toy box on a market stall some months ago, but have been waiting for the countdown to Halloween before posting him here. I was pretty pleased to find the companion figure to the Richard Roxburgh as Count Dracula we looked at last Halloween – the vampire’s arch-nemesis himself Gabriel Van Helsing, as played by Hugh Jackman in Stephen Sommers’ steampunk homage to the Universal Horror Monster films from the 1930s and 40s, Van Helsing.
Frankenstein Monster – Mini Monsters by Remco
Universal Monsters action figures, it seems, will never go out of fashion. Only this week the Intertubes were buzzing with news of the latest Diamond Select retro cloth Dracula and the Mummy figures, which are set to hit stores this Autumn, following the success of the Wolf Man and Frankenstein last year. These new figures are highly reminiscent of Remco’s 9-inch Universal Monsters from 1980, of course, which spurred me to share another classic Remco action figure from the same year – the Frankenstein Mini-Monster. At 3 ¾ inches, these figures were pint-sized plastic Universal Monsters released in conjunction with the larger figures (hence the “Mini” moniker), but have arguably become even more popular than their larger counterparts and have enjoyed almost continuous adoration from monster movie and action figure fans ever since.
The Phantom of the Opera – Mini Monsters by Remco
So here it is folks! The final post in our Halloween series for 2010 and one of my favourite horror film action figures and another Universal Monster movie classic – The Phantom of the Opera as played by Lon Chaney. Issued as part of the Mini Monsters line by Remco in 1980, this 3 ¾ inch action figure may be small, but it has one of the single best movie likenesses of all time. It features one of the earliest of the Universal Monsters – so early, in fact, that the 1925 version of The Phantom of the Opera, was a silent horror film. Chaney’s intentionally horrific, self-applied make-up, has been perfectly reproduced in this figure – a flattened nose, flared nostrils and jagged teeth in a mask-like deformed face. It’s an absolute gem of an action figure!
Creature from the Black Lagoon by Burger King
Regular readers to this blog may recall that as a vegetarian and somebody who hasn’t stepped inside a McDonald’s for a couple of decades, I’m not usually a collector of fast food toys…unless, of course, I happen across one at a flea market, as I did with this Creature from the Black Lagoon recently. As a Universal Monsters film fan I couldn’t resist this action figure, which was issued by Burger King in 1997 alongside equally accurate movie-likenesses of Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolf Man – all my concerns about the influence of these very toys on childhood obesity flew momentarily out of the window!