Spotlight On...



"And lo, the beast looked upon the face of beauty.
And it stayed its hand from killing.
And from that day, it was as one dead."
- Old Arabian Proverb

One of the earliest examples of great Special Effects in a Science Fiction film, RKO's KING KONG remains as popular today as it did when it first came out in 1933!

And of all the monster movies of our youth, this character remains my all time favorite!! So let's turn the Spotlight On our favorite Ape and see what kits have been made to tame the savage beast...

First on the scene, once again, was our favorite AURORA company!

Scale wise, this kit is a nightmare! Measure Fay Wray against those palm trees and you suddenly have your own '50 foot Woman'!!

But besides that small error, this was a great kit!




Next came this 'Glow' kit version... & the MONOGRAM Luminators version!
POLAR LIGHTS' came out with a reissued version
of the AURORA kit in October 2000!

  

Aurora (and later Polar Lights) came out
with KING KONG's THRONESTER kit.

Chuck Morrow recently walked into a shop, and there sitting on a shelf was this KING KONG made entirely of brass!!!

He put a hold on it, went home and started asking around the net if anyone knew anything about this piece!? He tells us it weights about 3 pounds, has oxidation in spots, and Faye's hand is broken off, but that didn't stop him from running back to the shop and buying it!

Take a close look at the base details as well. You'll see some slight differences on where the builder placed the various trees and stuff that vary from the instructions.

Overall, it's a great piece and wouldn't mind owning this myself!


MEGO issued a kit based on the 1976 remake of KING KONG. Like the Aurora kit, this too suffered from some obvious scale relationships! This was a SNAP-TIGHT kit. Ironically, since 9/11 this kit has shot up in value.

What I recently learned was that MEGO had a 2nd kit in the works. Unfortunately, it never saw the light of day.


Once the styrene companies dried out, the Garage Kit folks took over.

GEOmetric SFR's
Base
Mike Hill Mad Labs Mike Hill

smc1.jpg 24Kb
Nagle Works KONG VS
PTERADACTYL
Resin From
The Grave
5th Sense Dark Horse Dark Horse


...and if you ever run across a kit on eBay entitled, "Going Ape In N.Y.C.", it's actually a recasted version of the above Dark Horse Kit!

Tsukuda Mike Wood's
Joe Young
Jeff Taylor's
SILVERBACK
Joe Laudati's
sculpt
Mike Wood's
sculpt

       
Billiken


  
Joe Laudati &
Mark Van Tine's
Resin From
The Grave
Murakami Dimensional
Design
Bill's
Kitchen
Tony
Mcvey

     
Jim Davidson


Kobiyashi Kits
'Log Roll'
LUNAR
Models
Kobiyashi Kits
'Rock Throw'
Twin Flame
Design
Japanese
Kit

  
Kong Lamp
seen on eBay
AFM's Xacto
Knife Holder
Alternative
Images'
Burroughs
Model Works
Bowen
Designs
Gas
Grenade

       
Shawn Nagle (KONG)
Mike Manit (T-REX)
Amazing
Figure Modeler
Scott Richard


Amazing
Figure Modeler
Mike Wood's
Kong Bust
Kobioshi Kits'
'The Unveiling'
Needful Things'
'King & I'
Fantamation
Studios


Alternative
Images
TimeSlip
Creations
MouldArt Murakami Monsters In
Motion
Killer Kits Tony
McVey


Unknown Gorilla
Skull
Monkey
Business
Jeff Yagher &
Mike Wallace
Fontegris
Miniatures
Studio
Oxmox
Resin
Realities


          
Murakami Model
Mansion
X-Plus Posthumous
Prods


Taylor
Designs
GEOMetric Six String
Prods
Tony
Cipriano
Unknown Jim
Davidson
Joe
Laudati


Killer Kits Moohead
Models
Daimos Mike
Wallace
Chlouis Molemento
Pete
Tony
Zang
Terry
Norton


Mad Labs Alternative
Images
Ultratumba
Prods
Tower of
London
Mark VanTine
(WIP)
CoP Terry
Prince


Alternative
Images
(WIP)
Alternative
Images
Resin In
Motion
(WIP)
Paul Gill
(WIP)




Talk about life size!
Hollywood Wax Museum
in Branson, Missouri!

A scratch built dio by
Shawn Caldwell using
the Dark Horse Kong.

   
These are commissioned, one-of-a-kind sculpts
that Jim Davidson just finished up!

Visit his site to see more of his work!

Jeff Yagher recently completed this commission for a client.
Based off the measurements of the Bob Burns armature.


Slightly out of the ordinary... if you like your AURORA Kong wrapped in metal foil!

This large Kong display greeted attendees to the 2006 WONDERFEST convention,
as well as the original 1933 Kong & Mighty Joe armatures, brought to the show by Bob Burns.

   

Kaiyodo, out of Japan, came out with these bottle cap
figures, based on the Peter Jackson Kong!

Kaiyodo Bottle Caps



Came across this one on eBay. The description said:

"Made for the Dino De Laurentis 1976 film, this model was made from the original molds used for the preliminary presentation to sell the film.

The models were given to distributors and other important people in the industry. Very few were made, and they seldom come on the market. The model is 20" high and the base is 3" high."


Randy Stiefer took this photo at a model show in Texas.

This diorama was done by our own Bill Jones!! Great work on the massive gate and tiny figures!


Bruce Horton took a GEOMetric KONG
and turned it into this nicely done diorama!

LAPCO bought SM Clark's KONG sculpture and last I heard, Clark recently bought it back, so I'm hoping we'll see it produced one day!

When I asked him why he sculpted this figure, since it was very close to the DARK HORSE version, he replied that he wasn't even AWARE that second DH version existed or he would never have sculpted his own 'Kong Busts Loose' piece!!

He notes that he did fix the fact that it was Kong's right hand which breaks the chains first and not the left!

Spot Light On...