All Human Beings Are Eligible!

The 1964 ad seen below, widely printed in comic books and in Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine (of course), promoted Aurora's popular line of Universal Monster Model Kits with a frighteningly fun contest. It was actually diabolically clever for entrants had to purchase (that's right, purchase necessary for this contest) an Aurora Movie Monster Model Kit and create (Kreate?) a Kooky Konstruction using "a little nerve and a lot of imagination." Young monster makers were encouraged to "Build a bizarre Frankenstein" or "Put together a phrightful Phantom," with such terrible touches as real wires and bolts for the Frankenstein monster. As you can see from the ad, the grand prize was an apperance in a monster movie to be made in Hollywood, and one wonders in which monster movie the winner appeared, though we can safely assume it was a Universal movie. (Just in case you are tempted to take up the "dare" by entering the contest yourself, sorry—it came to "a horrible end" at midnight, on April 30... April 30, 1964, that is.) This was a pretty cool contest, and was held as a pretty cool collaborative effort between Aurora Plastics, Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine and Universal Studios. What better way to promote the Aurora Monster Model Kits than a trip to Hollywood to appear in a monster movie? After all, these are movie monsters. (Be warned—more Universal monster movie madness to come this month, so be on the lookout!)