"Listen to them. The children of the night. What music they make."

I was really young when the Classic Monster Fad of the mid 70's hit the toy stores with a glut of merchandise. I came in really late to the game in 1980 and all I had was the Remco Dracula and Frankenstein that I got on markdown at the old Lionel Playworld. Over the years they got destroyed and all I have left to remember Dracula by is his black pants and the memories of his glow-in-the-dark head and hands that used to haunt me in my room in the middle of the night.

Recently, I have gone back to collect many of the 70's monster figures I missed and have discovered a huge world of monster toy nerds and very collectible figures.

Let's start off with my favorite piece of Monstermania.....The Mego Mad Monster Castle.

This is a very rare vinyl playset by Mego from 1975. As you can see from the box it folds and opens up into a castle with an interior monster labritory and four really cool parapets that make the castle even more imposing. I had always dreamed of having this playset having seen it in many old catalogs. But, of course it is one of those rare Mego sets that is very difficult to find in any condition and if one does come up for sale it goes for a lot of $$$.

This past year I was lucky and got this playset with everything except the lab table. Luckily, it comes easily in many of the Mego Planet of the Apes playset which are fairly common. And here she is.....

Ok....it is just a cardboard cheesy vinyl playset...but I love it!
 The creepy vines coming up from the ground.
The sweet lab equipment art on the inside.....the DRAWBRIDGE!!!
I mean come on...how can you not love this playset.

Now...how to accessorize this baby?

Not with wimpy Mego Mad Monsters....


I always thought they looked to silly and not daunting
and scary enough to go with this creepy castle.

So..then....the Lincoln International Monsters?

Super cool and funky, but very expensive and hard to collect.

What I really wanted was a classic movie monster to go
with this wonderful old playset. I did a bunch of research
 and the Remco Monster Line from 1980 fit the nostalgic monster kick I was in.

The Remco Monsters are based on the Universal Horror Films of the 1930's.
The are officially licensed and are incredibly detailed
and sculpted for figures from that era.

They each have a button on the back that squeezes their arms
together to grab their unknowning victims.
The head and hands glow-in-the-dark and they are
highly articulated in the Mego style.
The are about 1 inch larger than their Mego cousins
and are about a million times better!!!

The best part of the Remco collection is a Monsterizer lab
table that can be used to charged up the monsters
 and make them ready for a full night of glowing.

The Monsterizer fits in very well with the Mad Monster Castle
and it looks like they were born to go together.

This collection also has a Creature from the Black Lagoon
and Phantom of the Opera figure,
but,they are very expensive and elusive.

Don't worry. They will soon be mine.

Update! 7/17/12

The Phantom has come home to me...

The collection is almost complete!

Still need that stinkin' Creature. Blah!

This all just puts me in the mood for an old movie.
I am going to go and watch Lon Chaney
scare the pants of somebody in The Wolfman.....

Ooooowwwwoooooooooo!!!!!!!!