Toy Monsters Offer Dispersal Of Fears

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30316, 17 December 1963, Page 17

Toy Monsters Offer Dispersal Of Fears

(N .Z.P .A.-Reuter—Copyright) NEW YORK, December 15. A rash of make-it-your-self monsters are among the latest additions to the thousands of toys being piled in American shops

as Christmas draws near. Parents are being offered kits which will enable their child to build his own Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, Wolf Man or other favourite ghoul out of easilyassembled plastic parts. The monsters, when completed, stand six to nine inches high. Most are liberally stained with blood. One firm has prod r :ed more than 3.000,000 monster kits since mid-1962. The kits began selling strongly this year.

Another firm did some heart-searching before swinging into monster kit production. However, it is now convinced that its consulting psychologists were right when they said the monsters were good for small children.

According to the experts, children lose some of their fears of monsters when they

build a miniature monster themselves.

Chain stores, apart from selling the kits, also sell a six-inch high “motorised*' Frankenstein monster. When a button is pressed the monster’s pants drop, exposing his red-striped long underwear, and he blushes.