Ah, yes, with that famous line of dialogue, the era of Universal Horror movies truly kicked off, as the hideous face of the Phantom of the Opera was finally revealed in all its terrible glory! I remember the first time I saw that scene; I was just a kid, and although I had begun my fascination with the classic monsters, seeing them as less scary and more like companions, the face of the Phantom still had power to run chills down my spine. The image of it burned into my brain and has never left. I think a large part of my fascination with the character, beyond the amazing makeup developed by Lon Chaney, lay also in the rarity of a screening of the film. Creature Feature regularly showed any number of classic films featuring Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolfman, the Mummy, etc, but those were all movies with sound. The original Phantom being silent meant it was never going to be shown on those Saturday afternoon tv shows... I only knew about it through books and magazines f
I've been building models since the days when monsters ruled, and "Aurora" was king of the kits. I'll showcase some of my favorites I've built over the years and am in the process of building, and maybe even a secret or two about how I bring 'em to life. Although I focus mainly on figure kits, don't be surprised to see the odd vehicle or two. And I do mean "odd". Those are my favorite kinds of kits, after all.