Today's Monster Memories are of:
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!