I began in this hobby when I was around 8 years old. I had always had a fascination with old horror films from a young age on. My favorite was the Creature From the Black Lagoon. I don’t exactly know why or how for sure, but he has always intrigued me. When I was a kid my parents would pick up these books for me at garage sales that had a lot of the still photos from the films. They had photos from Frankenstein, Dracula and all of the others. I was more familiar with them than most characters you would see in children’s books.
When I was growing up, local TV stations still ran old horror films on Saturday nights at midnight. Man those were the days! So through the years I would get to see different horror films here and there.
When I was around the age of 8 or so I found a re-pop of the Aurora Dracula. I had never seen anything like it in my life. And boy was it cool to me, despite the fact that the likeness looked nothing like Bela Lugosi. I mean there was a diorama, bats, a dead tree, not to mention that there were also glow in the dark pieces to choose from! Being the days before any of the magazines dedicated to this hobby or the internet, I was at a loss when it came to finding any of the other kits in the series. The model disappeared some time later, but not my memories of it. To say it stuck with me is an understatement in the least.
Flash forward to 1989. Tim Burton was about to release his telling of the Batman story. It caught me eye right away. I had liked the comics when I was young and the movie seemed just way to cool to pass up. In the frenzy of popularity of Batman came the widespread pressings of the magazine Model and Toy Collector. The first issue I picked up had loads of Batman stuff in it. Not to mention a review of the Billiken Frankenstein by Terry J. Webb. I stared at the close up photos in amazement at the detail in the likeness. It looked just like the photos from the books that parents had bought me when I was a kid.
But wait; there would more in the next issue to come. So when the next issue came out I made sure to pick it up. The issue had the promised Batman stuff that really wasn’t as cool as the last issue, but it also had a big salute to these things called Garage Kits.
“Garage Kits?” I thought. “What the hell is that?” I was perplexed. These models had nothing to do with garages at all, they were models of people. I later found out that this was more of nod to the hobbies humble beginnings than to what the kits were supposed to be, but hey I was 12 years old at the time. As I paged through the issue in amazement more than once I found a couple of articles about Aurora models and even the Dracula I had got several years before at a garage sale. I was sucked by the detail on the models. Getting to see all the James Bama artwork for the Aurora boxes thrilled me to no end.
I got a new copy of this issue not to long ago on ebay and was stunned at some of the names I found floating through the issue. Of course there was Terry Webb. But I also found names like David Fisher and George Stephenson. David and Terry went on to start Amazing Figure Modeler magazine a few short years later, not to mention that David went on to start the Model Mania videos that have not only taught but inspired so many in this hobby. George went on to be one of the main guys behind Geometric Design and more recently Black Heart Design, both right here in Minnesota.
I would like to tell you that I began buying models and painting them right then and there. But alas, I was young and listened to intently when others told me I’d be stupid to pay $35 for a Billiken model kit. Yeah, I learned my lesson once I found out what some of those models went on to be worth years later. Needless to say when people tell me that they think I’m wasting my money on this, I remind them that they too waste money in foolish ways. Mine has the side effect me having a museum in my living room instead of, say, a hangover.
About a year later I came across some of the Luminators in a store and was thrilled. I picked up Frankenstein and the Mummy. Sure, they were hideous colors and didn’t really make much sense. It didn’t matter to me, I HAD MONSTER MODELS! I later went back and purchased the Wolfman and Dracula. I put the models together in fury. But once they were done something seemed to be missing. Color, I thought. Why not paint them? There’s no one here telling me I can’t. I still have Frankenstein and the Mummy in my collection and I do plan on posting photos of the Frankenstein here. The Mummy has become more of a testing ground for stuff over the years, not much to brag about.
After they were finished I showed them to some friends. I wasn’t expecting much except to get made fun of for my “toys”. Much to my surprise they said things like “Wow that’s pretty cool” and “You’re pretty good at that”. Guess that showed me, huh?
Flash-forward again by another 2 years or so. I was on a field trip in high school and some of the other students didn’t want to get back to class too quickly due to the fact that they have to take any English test they totally unprepared to take in the first place. So we ended up eating at buffet style restaurant to try to take up as much time as possible. In an effort to waste time we went in to some of the shops that were in the mall were the restaurant, one of which happened to be a Hobby Town USA.
Low and behold they had figure models from Horizon and Geometric Design. I remembered Horizon from stuff I had seen in Model and Toy Collector years before, so they were familiar to me. Well, somewhat. Again, everybody was saying things like “Why the hell would you pay $45 for a model kit?” I tried explaining it to them to no avail. This is just one of the many times I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that I’m a whole different world of weird for some people. Yep, I hear the phrase “you’re the weirdest person I’ve ever met” more often than I can count. Then again, I guess it is better that hearing “you have the most girlish knee caps I’ve ever seen on a man” phrase. Which by the way I do have very girlish looking knee caps, I guess.
I ended up going back to that Hobby Town after I graduated high school several months later. I asked the guy at the counter if what they had out was all they had in stock. He said yes, but if I wanted, they could order any of the kits they had in the store catalog. I was floored when I looked at the list they had in that catalog. Indiana Jones, Robocop, the Terminator and of course the Universal monsters! There was also kits from Screamin listed too, but I ended up going with the Horizon Frankenstein. The real kicker was that if I paid in full, they would discount me 10%! Wow, those were the days.
The kit arrived about a week and a half later and I was now hooked. When I opened the kit I could not believe my eyes. Staring back at me was this amazing likeness to Boris Karloff. It still knocks my socks off when I look at it. I didn’t really get much done on the kit as I had no idea what to do until I picked up a copy of Horizon’s Explorations in Painting video. It was no Model Mania, but man I learned my chops on that one. Soon after I wanted to every kit I could get my hands on. And I had the perfect chance when I was 19 and laid off from my job. I was on unemployment, living at home and didn’t have a care in the world. I picked up a good number of Horizon’s that summer: the Hulk, the Mummy, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Catwoman, Batman from Batman Returns, the Penguin, the Arnold T-800, Spiderman and so on. Most of these kits didn’t survive with me due to me made a very stupid decision after the break up of a relationship. Yeah, I know, it was childish. But hey, I was 19 and giving up on models seemed like a realistic idea. I’m not sure why for sure.
Over the years I went back and forth with modeling, but it wasn’t until the internet that I got back into modeling full on. First I found sites like Monsters in Motion and the ebay. Man has ebay ever taken more than one of paychecks. I was thrilled to find the old Horizons I loved so much not so long ago. And once again I was on a buying spree snatching any and all the kits I could. I soon amassed quite a collection. I had almost every 1/6 scale vinyl Horizon kit at one point. But I also amassed a much larger problem than my kit collecting. I was in the middle of putting myself through college for graphic design, had quit a horrible job that drove me to the decision to go back to school and I was drinking heavily almost 7 days a week. I was broke without a hope and a good portion of my collection went up on ebay. I lost money and things were sliding down hill fast. Along with everything I just mentioned I lost my Grandfather and one of my biggest idols from when I began playing guitar, Dimebag Darrell, in about a two week time span.
Needless to say, Christmas was a disaster. I was drunk for the most part and had one hell of a puking binge on Christmas Eve that rivaled any I had had before. I was shaking, I thought I was puking up blood and I just couldn’t seem to generate and body heat. It right then and there that I decided to quit. So what does this have to do with me making models? Well, when I told one of my best friends and his wife that I was quitting, my best friends wife turned and looked me and said “Well what are you gonna do now?” with a straight face.
It was obvious, I was gonna make monsters. I began to focus on what I the subjects I liked most and picked the rest of the Model Mania videos. I’m still no pro, but I get more done and more proud of the work I do now. It’s been 5 years since I was laying on the bathroom floor of my Fathers place at 3 in the morning, but it’s been worth it all the way.
Like I said before the only side effect of this waste of my money is I got a really cool museum in my living room instead of a hangover.
Brian
