Today's Monster Memories are of:
The Haunted Mansion Hobby Kits
(click on images to view full size)
The Haunted Mansion Hobby Kits
(click on images to view full size)
In the early to mid 70's, the ads in the comics for the model kits and such were as interesting and entertaining to me as the comics themselves. And although I was never fortunate enough to own one of these, the ads themselves bring back a lot of fond memories of those times. I remember reading the ads for the first time on a rainy wintery day when it was too cold and wet to go outside. So now when I see them I get the mental impression of clouds and rain. It's funny how circumstances of the time can influence your current perceptions!
Disney's Haunted Mansion seemed to represent a physical location that Monster Kids could aspire to actually visit, and be in amongst the spooky environment that otherwise only existed in the movies and our imaginations. And model kits like this promised to let you bring a little of that place into your own room, as a visual accompaniment to the audio atmosphere created by the two records, which I was lucky enough to have. The pictures of them here are scans of my own copies.
Years later, I did get to visit Disney World and the Haunted Mansion was my main destination there. After all the years reading about it, and listening to the sound effects LPs, the actual experience was very fulfilling, and no disappointment; even though it was over in just a few minutes, I came out a bigger fan than when I went in. I'm one of the few people I know that actually enjoys the movie; I put it on quite often and watch it.
While going through some old comics last night, I found this two-page advertisement for the kits, and scanned them in to post here. If you haven't seen them for awhile, I hope they bring back some good memories of your own!
Here is an ad from Famous Monsters for the kits that I found last night also. Click on it to view biggie size!
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6 comments:
I love Disney horror, and those model kits were/are too cool for words. I scared myself silly as a youngster listening to the thrilling, chilling sounds record- As usual, I lost or destroyed my original copy, but I was lucky enough to snag another one a few years back. Listening to it now makes me laugh to think that I was actually scared by the sounds of that alien munching on the astronauts!
Patrick,
Yeah, the munching sounds were obviously meant to be funny, it sounded as if the astronauts were made of extra crunchy pork skins! I'm sure if they had made it more realistic, we kids would have needed therapy!
The warbling siren sounds the aliens made was funny too, as if they were wearing them on their heads.
These really bring back memories. Especially building up the myth of the Haunted Mansion in my head many years before I finally rode the actual ride. The images and sounds had become iconic to me already and it was so wonderful that when I finally visited the Haunted Mansion it was even better than I imagined. Because of the model kits and the albums seeing it all in person was like seeing celebrities.
Really enjoy your blog.
Dave,
Thanks for stopping by, and for commenting! I have enjoyed your blog also now, I see we do have a lot of similar interests.
Yeah, finally getting to visit the HM was like making a special pilgrimage to sacred ground! So much was familiar about it, but it made what we had read about it come to "life."
I remember when my Mom, my Grandpa and I went to Disneyland when I was six, Mom had to literally drag me onto the Haunted Mansion (my experiences with previous haunted houses were not so good) and I ended up loving it after that one ride. When we went to Disney World after I graduated, that was the first actual ride we went on... I ended up riding it a total of ten times during the week we were there (would've ridden it more if I'd had time).
Oh, and I also really enjoyed the HM movie.
I used to see ads for these back in my dad's old comic book collection, but I've never seen photos of any of these painted and put together. Did they hold up to the promise of the illustrations?
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