FRANKENSTEIN!

Frankenstein
Monogram reissue of Aurora model

This is the model that started the Aurora monster mania. Back in the late 50's, the local TV stations were faced with the problem of what to show in their Friday night time slots after the local news. Eventually they hit on spooky movie shows with such names as "Chiller Theatre", and some local yahoo was hired to dress up as a vampire or zombie and play host (Elvira got her start on this kind of show). Well, Universal dusted off their old movies from the 30's and 40's, and sold them cheap to the stations. We kids went bonkers for the monsters, and a craze was born.

First issued in 1961, this kit was an instant hit. Zillions of them were sold around the world, and Aurora followed up with models of the other monsters. The one I built was a Monogram reissue, last put out in 1994. There was another reissue exclusive to the Toys R Us stores in 2002 that came in a nice repro long box.  One problem with the reissued models, both the box art and the final drawing in the instructions of the Monogram reissue show a piece of rope knotted in front of Frankie's waist, but the instructions ignore this and the piece is not included with the model. Apparently the Glow in Dark issue by Aurora included this piece, and it's identical to the Wolf Man part. I made my own replacement, some people feel it's not needed. You decide.

The assembly is pretty simple. I filled in around the front grave markers and otherwise just took my time to do a good putty and paint job. I found a Dremel tool great for going in and restoring the texture of the clothing after smoothing the putty lines, but another tip is to use a texture medium like Gesso and dabbing with something like a damp sponge. The rest was just a simple drybrush job. One note about Frankie's skin color; he's supposed to be green but you see every shade used on him from lime to leaf green. I used a Forest Green mixed with a lot of white, what looks most like the old monster to me. After all, he is a Zombie when all is said.

Tip:  That seam on the back of Frankie's jacket is a killer. Tthe problem is it just won't line up correctly.  I've found if you cut off the locater tabs you can align it perfectly.  In fact, you can also glue the jacket together first, then fit it over the chest piece.  

This is maybe the third or forth one of these I've built over the years, and probably not the last. Frankenstein never dies.

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