Table of contents for #5: Cryptic Collectibles in RUE MORGUE

BEFORE I LOVED MONSTER MOVIES, I LOVED MONSTER TOYS. THAT’S HOW IT STARTS FOR many of us. Before our parents allow us to see the films and TV shows that’ll give us nightmares (and them headaches!), we get our sugar-stained hands on an avatar. My first monsters were plastic dinosaurs, and then somewhere along the way someone gave me a six-inch-tall rubber King Kong, which quickly earned a place as both my travelling companion and, well, a chew toy. I managed to nervously gnaw one foot off, which was briefly reattached with a Band-Aid before being lost forever. Though hobbled, he would ride the dinos and eventually do battle with a rubber Frankenstein’s monster that I was gifted one Halloween. These items ignited my imagination, and I began to make…

GUILLERMO DEL TORO IS A MAN WHO NEEDS LITTLE INTRODUCTION. ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST celebrated contemporary filmmakers, he is known for imaginative, thought-provoking genre fare such as the Spanish-language films The Devil’s Backbone (2001) and Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), Hellboy (2004) and Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) – based upon Mike Mignola’s Hellboy comic series – and the giant monsters-versus-robots epic Pacific Rim (2013). He has also acted as a producer on horror films The Orphanage (2007) and Mama (2013) and has coauthored a trio of vampire novels with Chuck Hogan – The Strain (2009), The Fall (2010) and The Night Eternal (2011), which spawned the television series The Strain currently airing on the FX cable channel. Del Toro is also a lifelong collector of monster and genre-themed toys…

WHEN PSYCHO, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, Halloween, Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street were first released to movie screens, it’s doubtful anyone could have predicted companies would one day be churning out toys and collectibles of every kind bearing the visages of Norman Bates, Leatherface, Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees (and his mother, Pamela) and Freddy Krueger. It was actually with Freddy’s rise in popularity from mere movie villain to pop culture phenomenon in the late 1980s that manufacturers began to issue collectibles based on slasher film characters. Items such as the Talking Freddy Krueger Doll from Matchbox and Freddy’s Glove from Marty Toys were met with anger and concern from parents and psychiatrists when released in 1989, but such controversy would largely subside by the time McFarlane…

DANIEL ROEBUCK IS AN INCREDIBLY PROLIFIC CHARACTER ACTOR WITH A LENGTHY LIST OF credits spanning 30 years, including roles on TV’s Matlock and Lost, and roles in such films as River’s Edge, The Fugitive and US Marshalls, as well as numerous genre titles, including Final Destination, Rob Zombie’s Halloween and Halloween II, and Don Coscarelli’s Bubba Ho-Tep and John Dies at the End. A lifelong fan of classic movie monsters, Roebuck has amassed a large collection of monster-themed toys, masks and other memorabilia, and – following in the footsteps of esteemed collectors Bob Burns and Forrest J Ackerman – converted part of his home into a museum to display the items (which he used to open to public tours). Roebuck has also expressed his love for monster collectibles by writing,…

FOR MANY MONSTER-LOVING KIDS, GROWING UP DURING THE 1970S AND EARLY ’80S WAS HEAVEN Not only were local TV stations playing monster movie matinees, but children could assemble their favourite creatures in model kit form and read about them in the plethora of magazines and comics available at newsstands. One of the best things about growing up in that era, however, was that kids could pour themselves a big bowl of their favourite Monster Cereal before sitting down to catch Saturday morning cartoons. Count Chocula, Franken Berry, Boo Berry, Fruit Brute and Fruity Yummy Mummy – those names struck terror in the hearts of sugar-weary parents everywhere. But for many children, these little animated fiends were breakfast time pals. The cereals – which turned milk brown, pink or blue –…

MANY HORROR FANS HAVE A COLLECTION OF SOME SORT – A FEW FRAMED POSTERS ON THE wall, or perhaps some action figures or statues displayed on a bookshelf. But if you’re Kirk Hammett, lead guitarist for heavy metal giants Metallica, then that collection includes ultra-rare vintage horror movie posters, antique monster toys, one-of-a-kind pieces of artwork, and original, screen-used props and costumes. A monster fanatic since childhood, Hammett was first exposed to horror films at age five with a television broadcast of the 1962 flick The Day of the Triffids. Saving up the 25 cents his parents would give him daily to buy milk and a donut, he would instead use the money to buy comic books and issues of Creepy and Famous Monsters of Filmland. It was in Famous…

JAMES BURRELL HAS BEEN FASCINATED WITH MONSTERS AND ALL THINGS SCARY SINCE THE AGE of three. Growing up in Toronto during the ’70s and ’80s, he fed his insatiable appetite for horror with a steady diet of Hilarious House of Frightenstein and Saturday afternoon TV matinees of Universal, Hammer and Amicus flicks – all while eating too many bowls of Count Chocula, Boo Berry and Franken Berry. An avid collector of monster figures, model kits, vintage board games, books, records, comics, movie posters, pressbooks and lobby cards, James continues to search for that next item to add to his eclectic and ever-growing collection of horror ephemera. He is the recipient of the 2010 Rondo Classic Horror Award for Best Interview, for his feature on Sir Christopher Lee (“Royal Blood: An…

MY LOVE OF MONSTER TOYS AND HORROR MOVIE MEMORABILIA BEGAN AT AN an early age. Growing upin the 1970s and early ’80s, I was exposed to frequent airings of classic Universal, Hammer, Amicus and A.I.P. films on television, as well as the offbeat Canadian kids TV program The Hilarious House of Frightenstein (which not only featured Vincent Price in the role of a poetry-reciting quasi-host, but also had a green-skinned vampire, a werewolf, witch, and a creepy old librarian as characters). I soon found that I not only wanted to watch monsters on TV, but I also wanted to have toy monsters so I could create my own adventures. As a five-year-old back in 1977, I asked my parents to buy me The Curse of the Werewolf book-and-record set (from…

UNLEASHED IN THE SUMMER OF 1975, STEVEN SPIELBERG’S JAWS WAS TO TERRIFY MILLIONS OF moviegoers and take a huge bite out of the box office. Based on a popular novel by Peter Benchley, the film became the biggest money-making movie produced up to that point and established Spielberg as one of Hollywood’s most talented filmmakers. Jaws also created an instant demand for sharkthemed items and it led to a landslide of merchandise. Hundreds of collectibles were produced: beach towels, inflatable pool toys, T-shirts, a game, puzzles (which you could assemble to make your own movie poster), plastic model kits, tie-in novelizations and “making-of” books, a soundtrack album of John Williams’ memorable score, drinking cups and a Halloween costume. Many of these items were adorned with the iconic image of the…

THOUGH IT HAD BEEN IN EXISTENCE SINCE 1934, IT WASN’T UNTIL THE RELEASE of a trio of science fiction-tinged chillers (The Quatermass Xperiment, X the Unknown and Quatermass II) and the lush, full-colour gothic shockers The Curse of Frankenstein, Horror of Dracula and The Mummy in the mid to late 1950s that Britain’s Hammer Film Productions made its mark on the horror film landscape. Over the next decade and a half, the studio would release numerous Dracula films starring Christopher Lee as the bloodthirsty vampire, several Frankenstein installments with Peter Cushing as the driven scientist, along with other classics including The Curse of the Werewolf, The Kiss of the Vampire, The Phantom of the Opera, The Devil Rides Out, The Vampire Lovers and Vampire Circus. In doing so, Hammer would…

ALTHOUGH BOOTLEG TOYS ARE LARGELY THE DOMAIN OF SUPERHEROES AND SCI-FI properties, there have also been unlicensed horror-themed items haunting flea markets and dollar store shelves over the years. Though cheap and plentiful when released, some knockoffs are now more scarce than licensed products. Adding to their mysterious nature is the fact that many of the toys have no date or manufacturer name. Here are a few memorable examples. NIGHTMARE FEDDY (MANUFACTURER UNKNOWN, CIRCA LATE 1980S) This 12-inch figure is one of the most impressive bootlegs ever produced. Featuring a very nicely sculpted head (with exposed brain), fabric sweater, pants, plastic shoes and mini fedora, it’s evocative of the 1989 Maxx FX Freddy Krueger doll from Matchbox. The colourful box (depicting a rather muscular Freddy) and the misspelling of Krueger’s…

BOOKS: Bruegman, Bill, Aurora History & Price Guide, Cap’n Penny, 1992. Graham, Thomas, Aurora Model Kits (Revised Second Edition), Schiffer Publications Ltd., 2006. Hammett, Kirk (with Chirazi, Steffan), Too Much Horror Business: The Kirk Hammett Collection, Abrams Image, 2012. Hanneman, Nathan and Crowell, Aaron, Tomart’s Price Guide to Horror Movie Collectibles, Tomart Publications, 2003. Heiler, Brian, Rack Toys: Cheap, Crazed Playthings, Plaid Stallions Press, 2013. Leljeblad, Cynthia Boris, TV Toys and the Shows That Inspired Them, Krause Publications, 1996. Marshall, John, Collecting Monster Toys, Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 1999. Sideshow Collectibles (Product Catalog, Volume Nine), Sideshow International/Palace Press International, 2005. DVD: Dr. Shocker’s Vault of Horror, House of Wax Entertainment/Chuck Williams Productions, 2013. ONLINE SOURCES: Ali, Reyan, “‘Pop’Culture: The Incredible Rise of Funko Pop!” Rolling Stone rollingstone.com/culture/features/incredible-rise-of-funko-pop-20141112 Barr, Roger, “Features: Nightmare…

LONG BEFORE YOU COULD WALK INTO YOUR LOCAL TOY OR COMIC SHOP AND PICK UP GRUESOMELY detailed collectibles from McFarlane Toys or NECA, there were Monster Scenes model kits. Released by hobby giant Aurora Plastics Corporation in 1971, they were a Monster Kid’s delight and a parent’s nastiest nightmare. Featuring an evil mad scientist, his monstrous, manmade servant, oversized creepy creations, not to mention buxom, scantily-clad figures and terrible torture devices to put them in, they were billed by Aurora as “frightening good fun.” But many parents weren’t amused. In fact, the kits – marketed under the tagline “Rated X… For Excitement!” – aroused the ire of more than a few concerned citizens, including women’s groups and church organizations. Mired in controversy, they were soon yanked from store shelves in…

THOUGH IT ORIGINALLY LEFT THE AIRWAVES IN 1971, THE COFFIN NEVER REALLY REMAINED SHUT on vampire Barnabas Collins and the other creepy characters of the cult daytime drama Dark Shadows. Between two spinoff movies (1970’s House of Dark Shadows and 1971’s Night of Dark Shadows), syndicated repeats on television, yearly fan conventions, a 1991 remake series, numerous home video releases, merchandise and the 2012 Tim Burton film starring Johnny Depp, interest in the gothic soap opera has remained strong through the decades. Hundreds of items – from paperback novels and comic books to music boxes and costumes – have been released bearing the Dark Shadows name or featuring the familiar fanged visage of Barnabas. Although much of the merchandise was produced during the height of the program’s popularity in 1968/69,…

SIMPLY PUT, THE UNIVERSAL MONSTERS – COUNT DRACULA, THE FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER his Bride, the Wolf Man, the Mummy, the Phantom of the Opera, the Creature From the Black Lagoon, Quasimodo and the Invisible Man – are the most iconic of all horror movie characters. As immortalized by stars Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Sr. and Jr., Glenn Strange, Elsa Lanchester, Claude Rains, Ben Chapman and Ricou Browning, these creatures, who appeared in films produced by Hollywood’s Universal Studios from the 1920s to 1950s, have been (with perhaps the exception of Nosferatu’s Count Orlock and King Kong) in the public consciousness longer than any other fright fiends. As such, they have spawned more merchandise than any other horror film characters. Hundreds of different items have been produced throughout the decades…

HORROR FANS LOOKING FOR 3 3/4-INCH ACTION FIGURES OF CHARACTERS BEYOND THE USUAL suspects need look no further than indie toy outfit Retroband. Established in May 2013, the company has released limited-edition, custom-made figures of obscure ’70s and ’80s horror film characters that have never been rendered in action figure form before. Offerings have included the skeleton, pumpkin and witch-masked tykes from 1983’s Halloween III: Season of the Witch, the homicidal Santa Claus costume-wearing Billy from Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984), a zombified Nathan Grantham from the “Father’s Day” segment of Creepshow (1982), a white biohazard-suited Trixie Soldier from George A. Romero’s 1973 cult flick The Crazies, a mutant cannibalistic humanoid underground dweller from C.H.U.D. (1984), complete with glow-in the-dark eyes, and a pig head-sporting farmer Vincent from 1980’s Motel…