Universal Monsters are Incredible...Question why Glenn Strange over Karloff?

[johnmiic]

If you wanted to I bet you could get a license to do Abbot & Costello. I haven't heard any horror stories about their families being troublesome.

Also, it's lesser known but Karloff used to play Baddies in Silent Westerns back in the day. Perhaps a young Karloff as Western Bad Guy would be a new angle and just Karloff as Karloff like from his TV series? Would make a nice couple of figures.

[The Bat]

I absolutely LOVE this line! I sure hope you Guys can pull off the Creature...he's my favorite Monster. Also, I'd love to see a Christopher Lee Dracula.

[hobub]

Quite late to this thread but I was wondering about the sculpts. Nice read. If you can ever reissue the monster with a Karloff head, I'll be sure to buy.

[EMCEtoys]

I don't think Goblin gets the joke...

I just wish I could FIND the first series. It sucks living in Mexico. Nothing EVER good comes here. I need these figures for the Monster Cafe!

Shoot me a PM. I know your cafe and I would love to send you a set to display there.

[EMCEtoys]

Yeah, I hear they're really attached to their green. They need to scale down their expectations.

Good one! I will admit that I was fishing around for more puns but yours got me hooked.

[PNGwynne]

As for a Chaney "Phantom"? Film is in the public domain, likeness is 100% Chaney family owned. Stay tuned.

Oh, I will--I buy most every remego I can find, & I love these monsters!

But the Phantom is my favorite, and I hope Chaney exclusivity will not hamper his acquisition.

[BOTZWANA]

I don't think Goblin gets the joke...

I just wish I could FIND the first series. It sucks living in Mexico. Nothing EVER good comes here. I need these figures for the Monster Cafe!

[Goblin19]

That's a shame if the Creech people don't see the light. And I'd be all over Abbott and Costello figures. My boys and I love to watch A&C. We started with A&C Meet Frankenstein, of course.

[zeedox]

So let the wish lists begin ;-)

How about:

Henry Frankenstein
Van Helsing

Hunchback of Notre Dame
Mr. Hyde

Fritz
Lucy (Vampire)

[SciFiGuyLA]

That said, we're having a hell of a time with The Creature's estate. Those guys are sharks.

As for a Chaney "Phantom"? Film is in the public domain, likeness is 100% Chaney family owned. Stay tuned.

Sooooo.... you're saying that some thought has already gone into continuing this line beyond the four figures that have been announced? Sweet!

I do have one, but only one, complaint about this line. I have to wait a whole year to get the next two figures!!!

Seriously, Franky and the Wolfman are the best figures you guys have done to date! Keep it up!

[Sandman9580]

That said, we're having a hell of a time with The Creature's estate. Those guys are sharks.

Yeah, I hear they're really attached to their green. They need to scale down their expectations.

[EMCEtoys]

Okay, okay, sorry I tuned into this one late.

When we first decided to get involved with the design, we wanted it to be a correction of the original MEGO monsters (yes, I'm surprised there are fans of that line here), and if MEGO had the chance to do real Universal Monsters correctly, what would they look like?

This would have happened way before the Karloff, Lugosi and Chaney families got involved with Universal, so likenesses would not have been a factor in the decision. Chances are, they would have just aped the Aurora sculpts.

So, we wanted something that was going to resemble a "generic" Frankenstein, the kind of which was done a lot in the 70s licenses. The person who put up the Bama illustration is dead-on. That's exactly what we were going for. In fact, I still have my glow-in-the-dark version of that poster and other monsters I got in some kind of cereal premium from back in the day.

However, you'll notice that the card background bears the Karloff likeness. That's because, strangely enough (no pun intended), apparently Uni has some kind of settlement with Sara for the use of the likeness in packaging.

This was also apparent in Paul's aforementioned note about Im-Ho-Tep vs. Kharis. Not that there's no Chaney likeness agreement (otherwise we wouldn't have been able to do the Wolfman the way we did), but that they only want Im-Ho-Tep represented in this line (I know, I know, I want my Kharis, too).

Having been part of the initial Karloff/Chaney/Lugosi battles when I was at Universal, it seems that things have changed considerably. I think they realize that the time to make huge bank on the likenesses are over and are happy for whatever comes their way.

That said, we're having a hell of a time with The Creature's estate. Those guys are sharks.

As for a Chaney "Phantom"? Film is in the public domain, likeness is 100% Chaney family owned. Stay tuned.

[drmego]

Yeah, I can see the possibilities now - Buck Privates, Hold That Ghost,
The Time of their Lives, A & C meet the Invisible Man.

I used to watch those movies every Sunday morning at 11:30 - which
was the official signal that it was time to get dressed, if you weren't
already. The last mass was at 1:30 so we could watch the end of the
movie, then hi-tail it to church.

[PNGwynne]

^ A great idea, if their license can be secured.

[zeedox]

About that Abbott and Costello thought...

They wouldn't be such a bad addition to this line eh?