I was a tiny tot when plastic monster models were all the rage but I remember my friends' big brothers having them on their dresser and desks. At the time, I thought they were the last word in tasteful bedroom decor. Today, of course, I feel the same way.
See them big at The Magnetic Brain: Glob, Blurp, Voop, and Zopp (via Coop)
I still remember the day I found Zopp, who couldn’t have cost more than 39 cents at the time, and brought him home to free him from his flashing. Zopp was a gateway drug (I must also have assembled Voop). I later assembled Aurora monster models, esp. Creature from the Black Lagoon. Batman and Superman were joined by the Munster family car and a Chuck Barris Batmobile (confiscated by my evil 6th grade teacher because I dared to bring it to school to show my classmates). I think the last mass-market models I painted and assembled were the Enterprise, and a Klingon Bird of Prey.
The package art doesn’t do justice to Zopp. In 3D, he was much more the one-eyed monster–very pokey.
I wrote Chuck Barris, when I meant George Barris. I should be gonged for that.
Anyone else think Zopp is a bit… yonic?
Yep. Yopp is essentially a walking dentata.
Zopp reminds me of Georgia O’Keefe… or something.
I recall a Leave it to Beaver episode when Beav and his friends all bought shirts with similar characters, and promised to wear them to school on the same day. None of the parents would allow it, but the Beav snuck his out of the house and put it on before getting to school. Of course he was the only one wearing it and was promptly sent to the principle’s office.
My nephew suffered a similar fate many years later when he wore a heavy metal tee that showed an arm with a sword sticking out of a toilet, with the saying “Metal up your ass.” He too was promptly sent to the principle’s office, and had to wear his tee-shirt inside-out the rest of the day.
Styles may change but the reactions from authority rarely does. Sadly, it looks like some of us are turning into our parents.
Now, I could likely wear one of these designs to work and few would even notice. Some tattoos I see are much more graphic (not mine though), and obviously more permanent.
Oh, and I’m 57 now.
For the record, the Magnetic Brain blog lifted these images without attribution from here: http://www.mysticskull.com/weird-model-kits.html
You can tell by the wear and stains on the kit boxes.
Any photos of the actual plastic models?
I would so totally buy these if they were currently available.
Did your friends’ big brothers have these models? The sentence was kind of cut off.
I remember buying, at a yard sale, a box of Testor’s (Pactra?) model paints in “monster colors.”
The idea of building and painting a monster model seems very alien now-a-days.
And ironically, the idea of building and painting an alien model seems very monster now-a-days.
Aren’t these also the names for the fictitious characters on a standard I.Q. test?
There are a couple of photos here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/36483253@N05/sets/72157616148720654/
Wish I still had my hand-brushed Rat Fink!
Ah dear Blurp, I remember him/her/it well – lovingly painted and assembled by my older brother and looking just like the picture on the box lid. Unfortunately, as is the way with delicate things with lots of sticky-out bits, age ‘diminished’ him to the point where he had to find a new home – in a land-fill.
Gone, but not forgotten.
Personally, I never had a problem with Glob, Blurp, Zopp, or Voop. It was Poop I had a problem with, he was quite the little turd.
Looks like the Gazillionaire corps have been taken over by hedge fund managers.
these are great monsters!
[Zopp totally looks like a vagina]
funny you should say that because zopp (spelt with a double bb instead of double pp but pronounced the same) means c*ck in my native language lol…
Well, it’s downright neighborly of you to introduce us, Mark, but I have already made their acquaintance. They kept me company for several different eternities after accidentally getting some hippy-era STP into my system while cleaning out my father-in-law’s walk-in freezer. It had been deep frozen since about 1968 and in 1984, we defrosted and shoveled, prepping for a demolition. We even found a foil and wax paper packet filled with several full bibles of original Owsley Orange Sunshine. Being frozen for so long, it was still viable as no water got to it in our cleaning process. A literal blast from the past. But these gentlemen are well known to me.
it’s a sad world we live in when i fully expected all of these to be Web 2.0 sites i’ve never heard of and will probably never visit at any point in my life.
like Mahalo.
I had those. Still have a couple of them around somewhere.
I’m wondering if Zopp inspired Coop’s latest painting, in addition to Rat Fink…