Thursday, October 25, 2007

31 Days of Halloween - Day 25





These are two of the oldest surviving toys from my childhood. Frankenstein wigglers made by Ben Cooper that went through a lot of punishment at the hands of toothpick spears that could be stuck right through them, and one of the two had even worn a fair share of fake blood. One of the poor guys is missing most of one hand. It's amazing they survived at all. I think that mainly, I used them as Toho Frankenstein monsters such as the giant in "Frankenstein Conquers the World" or the two Gargantua brothers from "War of the Gargantuas," two movies that aired a lot on the Creature Double Feature and other times on tv.

Part of the reason I used them as giant Frankenstein monsters was that they were a lot more imposing when facing off against my plastic army men than my 12" tall G.I. Joes.

As you can see in the image taken from a 1982 Ben Cooper catalog, these were called "Mighty Monster." I'm guesing the name change either had something to do with a Universal licensing fee, or that Ben Cooper had a different wiggler by then that was being sold as "Frankenstein." I also had that Dracula wiggler, but half of his cape tore off within the first week I had him.

I'm amazed that Ben Cooper was producing these as late as 1982, as the monster craze had died out about five years earlier, and we were still in the "Star Wars" era in 1982. My Frankenstein Wigglers were probably obtained between 1970-1972.

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