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Subject: Aurora Superman model | Author | Messages | 
Hoy Murphy
Posts: 710
 | Posted: 3/30/2008 7:58:42 PM | Here is an ad from the back of a borrowed 1964 DC comic I read today. This ad came out at the perfect time for me. I was nine years old and had been reading all the Superman and Batman comics I could find for the previous year or so. I remember seeing this ad and haunting the five and dime store in town that sold models until it came out. My wonderful mother bought it for me, knowing how much I loved the character, even though $.98 plus the cost of glue and paint was hard to come by in those days.
I was able to buy the later Batman model, but not Robin or Wonder Woman or even Superboy. But even today I remember the smell of the glue as I put together the body and brick wall of that Superman model, and spreading red paint all over the cape, trunks and boots.
--your pal, Hoy
| dblanchard
Posts: 1121
| Posted: 3/31/2008 6:05:43 AM | My pal Hoy wrote:
>> Even today I remember the smell of the glue as I put together the body and brick wall of that Superman model, and spreading red paint all over the cape, trunks and boots. <<
My dad spent most of his career working for Testor Corp., which made most of the model paint and glue that kids used in the Silver Age (curiously, despite having a virtually limitless supply of all the paint and glue and even model kits that I wanted for free, I was never much into modeling in the 1960s or '70s).
I forget exactly when it was, but there was a big national uproar during the 1960s about kids smelling airplane glue (so called because it was the glue used to assemble model planes, which was big back then), supposedly to get some kind of high off the fumes. Testor ended up adding horse radish to the glue formula, which effectively cancelled out any hallucinogenic -- real or imagined -- properties its glue had.
Dave Blanchard
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Brent Frankenhoff
Posts: 3931
| Posted: 3/31/2008 6:36:45 AM | I can well remember the orange peel smell of the glue I used to assemble my first airplane model in the mid-1970s. If you recall any of the Calvin & Hobbes comic strips where Calvin attempts model assembly, my attempts/results were similar.
As for the Aurora models, Praying Mantis made some reproductions of several of the kits a few years ago. I have an unassembled Captain America sitting on the shelf right now and I believe they also reproduced the Spider-Man diorama among others.
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Lee Houston, Junior
Posts: 1036
| Posted: 3/31/2008 8:46:49 AM | Dear Brent, Hoy, Dave, et al.:
Auroa rereleased the Superman and Batman models with accompany comic book that included the assembly instructions and a short story featuring a full page that served as a backdrop to the model.
I have the Robin, Spider-Man, and Incredible Hulk models that Preying Mantis has rereleased earlier this decade, but they did not include any comics.
I have seen ads in back issues for other figures during their original release, but alas the ones listed above are all I have. 
But I will agree about the fun of assembling them. I have scores of other models that I have built over the years, including classic cars, some of the Robotech fighters, various spaceships, and even Godzilla. It took me a couple of weeks to paint the Tokyo Terror, for I just had to find the right colors to do it justice.
Back when I started building plastic models, Testor was already making a non-toxic glue in a blue colored tube. It took longer to dry, but there was no smell. I still do use the regular glue in the orange tube when it is important to seal two parts together quickly.
If anyone wants to 'hear' any more modeling tips, you know where to find me. 
An aside to Brent
I remember CBG in its traditional newspaper days once ran an article about how someone took existing model kits and converted them to represent characters that were never featured in model kits before.
How about an article about the existing (comic book based) model kits in general? Maybe you could reprint or update the previous article as a sidebar.
A comic book reader, and I do stress the R word, since Action Comics #434, May 1974!
Editor-In-Chief of The Free Choice e-zine.
Associate Editor at Large Affinity Storm Press. | 
Mr. Silver Age
Posts: 1666
| Posted: 3/31/2008 10:35:51 AM | Ahem. Not to brag or anything here, my friends and pal, but once that Superman model came out (when I was 10), I was a model-making fool. I scarfed up each one as it came out. I'm not sure if I was hoarding my allowance, blackmailing my brothers or leveraging my birthdays, but I managed to score quite a few of them.
I loved those suckers! I wasn't the greatest painter in the world, but that didn't really matter, since only I was seeing them for the most part. I liked putting them together, and I thought they were the coolest things to have on the shelf.
I never got much into the villains (that also is still true for action figures; I usually figure my collection is complete when I have the heroes). But I expanded my exertise to include some of the TV show models, too.
And when I left for college, my parents, bless their hearts, boxed up all the stuff on my bedroom's shelves and stuck it down the basement next to my comic-book collection. And then, a few years after college, when I bought a house, they rented a trailer, carted everything to me 420 miles away, and dumped it in my new living room.
And then I unpacked it all and put it up on new shelves in what was to become Mr. Silver Age's office! I know I also had Tarzan and Land of the Giants, but they sadly did not survive (neither, I note, did Krypto, who should be helping Superboy). Maybe they didn't fit into the box my parents used.
Here's a shot that may take you back to those Silver days. And not a replica kit in the bunch!
-- Craig Shutt
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Brent Frankenhoff
Posts: 3931
| Posted: 3/31/2008 11:27:37 AM | Impressive!
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Hoy Murphy
Posts: 710
| Posted: 3/31/2008 12:43:04 PM | Impressive indeed, especially the part about your parents actually saving the stuff for you.
>I remember CBG in its traditional newspaper days once ran an article about how someone took existing model kits and converted them to represent characters that were never featured in model kits before.
How about an article about the existing (comic book based) model kits in general? Maybe you could reprint or update the previous article as a sidebar.<
I remember reading a similar article somewhere back in the late 1970s, I think maybe in an issue of The Amazing World of DC Comics. It showed how the author, working to create the Golden Age Justice Society, had changed Superboy into The Atom, Superman into Green Lantern, etc. The reason I remember it is that I somehow got hold of a Superman kit and tried to convert it to Doctor Fate. Everything went well until I tried to make a helmet out of putty and it looked awful, so I quit.
These days I have all the DC Direct GA JSA action figures available. I need to take a picture and post it here as soon as I get all my Happy Marvels together and show those.
--your pal, Hoy, never too old for toys
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cboldman
Posts: 110
| Posted: 3/31/2008 2:59:26 PM | I had most of those model kits and lost them along the way. But before Playing Mantis took them over, another model maker (Revell, I think) reissued the Superman kit, and I bought that one for old time's sake. While both looked the same, the reissue seemed less substantial. The Aurora kit was so sturdy you could give someone a concussion with it. The Revell Superman seemed flimsier. I also recall that the Aurora Superman had the "S" symbol sculpted into his chest, while the Revell kit used a decal. Somehow the later kit just wasn't the same, and I don't think I even completed building it.
By the way, I seem to remember that the cover painting on that Superman kit was gorgeous.
Jerry Ordway paid homage to the Superman model kit with this cover:
Craig Boldman
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webcomic.
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TOOXAZ
Posts: 67
| Posted: 3/31/2008 10:04:21 PM | Hey Hoy! You're right about the article on the JSA models. I think it was in Amazing World of DC # 16, the Golden Age issue with the wrap around Marshall Rogers cover. At least, I would think it would be in that issue.
Later
Eduardo Duran
Eduardo |
Mr. Silver Age
Posts: 1666
| Posted: 4/11/2008 7:49:07 AM | It was indeed AWODCC #16, the JSA issue, that had the model-customization article. It took me awhile until I had the time to dig it out and scan it, but here it is.
It may not be too easy to read, but any fool can see that page 1 features Dr. Fate (top) and The Flash (bottom). Jay Garrick was easy, being Superman with new paint and some plastic putty. Kent Nelson, however, features the Phantom’s legs and boots, Superman’s torso, arms and cape, and the Wolfman’s hands. Whatever works.
Page 2 features Hawkman (made from Batman’s head and legs, Wolfman’s torso, Superman’s hands and wings from an American Eagle model) and GL (using Batman’s body and Superman’s head and cape) and Wonder Woman (made from a plastic girl display and WW’s real rope, because, you see, there actually *was* a WW model you could use rather than customize one).
Page 3 shows author Fred Schneider working on Dr. Mid-Nite, Dr. Fate alongside The Spectre (the Visible Man, who likewise is sitting on my shelf, still visible). Below that is The Atom, based on Superboy (with the Phantom’s fists).
This stuff was pretty cool to see back in the day (which was December of 1977), and it’s still pretty cool, IMO.
-- Craig Shutt
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Mr. Silver Age
Posts: 1666
| Posted: 4/11/2008 8:29:54 AM | The magazine Amazing Figure Modeler features this kind of customization regularly, and these guys create some phenomenal models, with realistic paint jobs. They also spend vast amounts of time sanding, painting, sculpting, etc. It's obviously a labor of love.
Given my own model-making background, I really like seeing how these turn out, especially when they are models I’m familiar with. So I scooped up last year’s special issue on Aurora, which had a full-color supplement showing examples from the various 1960s Aurora kits and a blow-by-blow account of making a very cool version of the WW model shown on the cover.
And, just to show how complete these guys get, there also was an article on the related hobby of creating replica Aurora boxes for models that should have been made but weren’t.
Its customization section that month also showed the Batman and Robin models with sculpted heads for the Batman TV show, plus a Space Ghost made from Superman.
I used to love this stuff back in the day, which no doubt led me to try customizing some Mego figures, which I considered much easier. I posted some of the results of my efforts here and here, from the site’s earliest days.
My talents and time for this area being severely limited, that’s as far as I ever got. But I still like to see the custom versions of both Aurora models and Megos any time I can!
-- Craig Shutt
| JimmyF
Posts: 1
| Posted: 1/8/2010 3:56:04 PM | I know this is an old post, but anyone have an idea who did the artwork on the Aurora Wonder Woman box back in the 60's?
| titansmaster
Posts: 280
| Posted: 1/8/2010 9:29:51 PM | Old post indeed!! I hadn't seen it before, either.
Looking at the shelves of models, I can clearly remember having the Superboy and Spider-Man models. Also had Batman.
Sadly none survived my childhood.
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If you are buying a title but not enjoying it --- why waste the money????????????? |
Mr. Silver Age
Posts: 1666
| Posted: 1/9/2010 6:03:33 PM | I couldn't find any expert info on the Aurora box, but it looks to me like Murphy Anderson did it, or at least inked it. I think he did some of the others, too.
-- Craig Shutt
| Ron Nasty
Posts: 3
| Posted: 2/8/2010 4:22:05 PM | Mr. Age, you still have the Aurora models?! Man, you one lucky Mister! Mine have been gone since probably the late 60's.
Please put up more pix!
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