BOXES & INSTUCTION SHEETS
Retailer's Booklet (Repro)
Giant Insect Box (Repro)
Dracula Box (Repro)
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde Box (Repro)
Animal Pit Box (Reconstruction)
Bride of Dracula Box (on Disc)
Bride of Dracula Instructions (on Disc)
Dungeon Box (Reconstruction)
NEW MONSTER SCENES KITS
Bride of Dracula with Base (taking orders)
Invisible Man with Base (Retired)
Doctor Deadly's Den (taking Orders)
The Sinister Stake (In Development)
The Parts Pit (In Development)
The Scream Queen (In Development)
KIT PARTS
Dracula - Part X - Original Base (Resin)
Dr Deadly - Part 15, 16 - Head (Resin)
Dr Deadly - Part 3B, 4B - Left Arm (Resin)
Dr Deadly - Parts 11F 12F - Left Arm (Resin)
Dr Deadly - Parts 11F 12F - Left Arm (Resin)
Dr Deadly - Parts 1A 2A - Right Arm (Resin)
Dr Deadly - Parts 1A 2A - Right Arm (Resin)
Dr Deadly - Parts 9E 10E - Right Arm (Resin)
Dr. Deadly - Part 10F - Right Arm Half:
Dr. Deadly - Part 11f - Arm Half:
Dr. Deadly - Part 12f - Arm Half:
Dr. Deadly - Part 13 - Body Back:
Dr. Deadly - Part 14 - Body Front:
Dr. Deadly - Part 2A - Right Arm Half:
Dr. Deadly - Part 3B - Left Arm Half:
Dr. Deadly - Part 5C - Right Arm Half:
Dr. Deadly - Part 6C - Left Arm Half:
Dr. Deadly - Part 7D - Left Arm Half:
Dr. Deadly - Part 8D - Left Arm Half:
Dr. Deadly - Part 9E - Right Arm Half:
Gruesome Goodies - Part 1 - Table top (Resin)
Gruesome Goodies - Part 1 - Table top:
Gruesome Goodies - Part 21 - Rat *no tail* (Resin)
Gruesome Goodies - Part 21 - Rat *no tail* (Resin)
Gruesome Goodies - Part 22 - Generator Front:
Gruesome Goodies - Part 23 - Generator side:
Gruesome Goodies - Part 25 - Generator Rear:
Hanging Cage - Part 19 - Lock (Resin)
Hanging Cage - Part 4 - Post Half:
Hanging Cage - Part 5 - Post Half:
Hanging Cage - Part 8 - Post Half:
Hanging Cage - Part 9 - Post Half:
Pendulum - Part X - Skull front:
Pendulum - Part X - Skull rear:
Victim - Part 10B - Leg half rear:
Victim - Part 11B - Leg half front:
Victim - Part 6 - Torso Front (Resin)
Victim - Parts 10B & 11B - Legs
Victim - Parts 8A & 9A - Legs
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The Most Notorious Toys of All Time?
Few products have the distinction of ruining their creator's careers, but the debacle that followed the introduction of the Aurora Plastic Company's series of Monster Scenes Model Kits has to rank as one of the greatest since the original Monster destroyed the life of Victor Frankenstien.
Hitting the market in the early seventies, these snap together kits allowed kids the opportunity to mix and match four original horror film characters with torture chamber devices and create their own "Monster Movie Scenes". Scaled down to 1/13th scale from Aurora's original Monsters series, kids could presumably fit more of these kits in limited shelf space. There were 4 original accessory kits - "The Pendulum", "The Hanging Cage", "Gruesome Goodies" and "The Pain Parlor" all of which more or less operated with moving winches and plastic blades.Of the figure kits, the Frankenstien Monster and Doctor Deadly (the mad Scientist) posed no problem with parents. However, the addition of the scantilly-clad and large-busomed Vampirella kit raised some eyebrows and another female kit, "the Victim", set off howls of protests among women's groups. Apparently, she was designed to fit too well into the torture devices. The slogan for the series... "Rated X for excitement" didn't help either.
Feminist & Parental Outrage
Newspaper letter writing campaigns followed. Even Rowan and Martin's "Laugh In" gave Aurora the "Fickle Finger of Fate" award for the series. In New York, the company was in damage control mode. Having just been taken over by Nabisco, Aurora pulled all the kits from American stores and sent them off to Canada -- presumably where the children were harder to "corrupt." Renaming The Victim kit "Doctor Deadly's Daughter" and changing some of the controversial box art were two measures employed to head off the type of reception the kits were met with stateside. The comic on the back of the instruction sheets was also elimated. Faced with a large inventory of kits and having tooled up for three new ones (the now ultra rare Dracula, Doctor Jekyll & Mister Hyde and the Giant Insect) Aurora dumped everything into their plant in Rexdale, Ontario.
Canadian Kids to the Rescue - Entire Inventory Shipped North
Monster Scenes thrived in Canada for a time, where the three Canadian kits had a
fairly successful production run as well as the rest of the original series. Two more kits were on the drawing board and original sculpts and box art had been done for "The Dungeon" and the collection's centrepiece... "The Animal Pit".
The Dungeon was to be a two-walled backdrop and work as a focal point for the figural kits, while the Animal Pit (with its 14 inch gallows) came complete with a winch and waist restraint for lowering the "Victim" into a pit that contained a hungry, mutated animal. It seems the concept for this one came before the original U.S. protests. Not suprisingly, these two large and expensive-to-produce kits were never to see the toy store shelves, as Nabisco finally decided the controversial series was not something they wanted to continue...the Monster Scenes series was finished.
Aurora re-released the Canadian Dracula and Mister Hyde kits in their Monsters of the Movies series, though not in the same colours the originals came in. The Monsters of the Movies Dr. Jekyll kit contains two of the original Canadian 1/13th scale Hyde heads, though it puts them on a newly-crafted 1/12th scale body.
Today, only the Dracula kit has had a recent production run... that being a limited edition MOTM series put out by Revell. Even in model kits, it seems, the old Count can never die.
Monster Scenes Rise Again !!!
In 2004, the first of the NEW LINE of Monster Scenes Resin Kits was created by noted kit sculptor Molemento Pete Parlagreco. The Monster Scenes Invisible Man was hailed by series fans as an exact match in style and proportion to the original kits. Multiple arm options and accessory pack for the fans of the Monsters of the Movies series saw many modellers buy 2 kits to display both ways.
2005 has seen the launch of two more Monster Scenes kits. The Bride of Dracula was an instant success following a pre-order system spearheaded here on the Parts Pit. This time, the kit came with an extra set of arms and legs as well as a base that interlocks with the Pain Parlor from the original series. Buyers also received a CD-ROM chock full of Aurora Goodies as well as a "Build Your Own Box" file painted by artist Dave Dorman of Star Wars fame.
James Webb's Dr. Deadly's Den saw the first accessory kit in the new line. This HUGE kit continues the new Interlocking base concept and is an amazing backdrop for all the Monster Scenes Figures.
Stay tuned for MORE additions !!!!
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