Sunday 2 January 2011

"FASTER THAN A SPEEDING BULLET..."


Aurora Superman kit - built and painted by me

Well, we've had The BATMAN, so we might as well now have his good pal SUPERMAN.  In an earlier post, I featured the 1964 version of this fabulous kit by AURORA, so this time around let's have the 1974 version, which had a few differences.  Mainly, the nameplate was omitted and, instead of the 'S' emblem being moulded onto the costume and cape, a couple of adhesive labels were supplied.  Also, the copyright details on the base were updated.

Because of the contours of Supe's manly physique, the chest emblem didn't really adhere too well - in subsequent releases of the kit by MONOGRAM, MPC, and REVELL-MONOGRAM (the two companies merged in 1986), this was overcome by the supply of waterslide decals in place of stickers.  For my own kit, I simply hand-painted the 'S' emblem in the appropriate places.  I also affixed a spare '64 name-plate because, to my eyes, the kit didn't seem complete without it.

Aurora really were the "bees' knees" when it came to plastic model figure kits - the WORLD'S FINEST, you might say.  Incidentally, the  first box below is the one from 1964, not the 1970s, simply because I think it's better.  However, as I'm known far and wide for my generosity and consideration for others, for completists, the '70s one is presented underneath it.

Box art by JAMES BAMA or JAMES KUNSTLER?

The British version didn't have the 8 page comic, alas
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2 comments:

  1. Steve Does Comics2 January 2011 at 21:07

    Wasn't there a Creature from the Black Lagoon one with a glowing head? I was always impressed by the idea of having a glowing head although I still can't see the evolutionary advantage in having one.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kid2 January 2011 at 22:50

    Yup - glow-in-the-dark head, hands and feet I think, plus maybe even a few other parts. That was the Aurora monster kits - when they were first released in the '60s they had a lightning bolt across the box with the legend "Frightening Lightning Strikes!".

    Unfortunately, when stacked with the other models in shops, they were almost indistinguishable from the non-glow kits and a lot of kids were unaware of them.

    Aurora rethought their strategy, which eventually led to the new square boxes for the kits with the "Glows-In-The-Dark" blurb on them.

    I've got a non-glow Creature kit, but I haven't built it yet.

    ReplyDelete

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