Big Frankie, The Friendliest Monster In Town

Introduced in 1962, the Frankenstein Monster was the first of the now iconic Aurora Movie Monster Model Kits, and quickly became a sensation.The overwhelming success of the Frankenstein model meant the Aurora company had to add plants that operated 24/7 just to keep up with the demand, and of course led to the other classic Universal monsters such as Dracula and the Wolfman being added to the line. Frankenstein's monstrous sales led to the release of a new Frankenstein product in 1965, Gigantic  Frankenstein, as seen in this print ad. You can read for yourself about this oversized model yourself, but one intriguing note is the portrait of the monster on the cover of the box. It's intriguing that such a disturbing artwork was used for what is actually a rather whimsical (though some would say disturbing) plaything. The Frankenstein portrait was put to a more appropriate use (and indeed may have even been created for) a hobby-shop banner promoting the Aurora monster-model contest I wrote about here. The banner is shown below for your Halloween chills and thrills.