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the Vampirella collectables by clicking
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Browse the Vampirella statues by clicking on the appropriate heading to the right |
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The Aurora Vampirella doll was the first Vampirella 'statue' to be sold to the fans. She is shown to left and right here (photos courtesy of Terry Sanders). She is not exactly the prettiest of Vampirella statues, and both her hair style (the fringe) and her grin leave a lot to be desired, but she was the first. But she comes with an interesting story, a story of intrigue, deceit and fear that borders on the unbelievable. |
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The story of the Aurora Vampirella model kit is almost as bizarre as many of the other stories in Warren's famous black and white magazines at the time. |
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The entire back cover of Vampirella #12 (published in May 1971 but with a cover date of July 1971) featured the advertisement shown right. In this rather tasteless advertisement we see the evil scientist Dr Deadly, aided by Vampirella and Frankenstein's monster, capture a 'girl victim' to enable him to carry out an experiment where he plans to turn the victim into a fly. The model kit advertised enabled you, dear reader, to carry on the plot where the strip cartoon leaves off (click here for the in-box story), because the kit contained all the elements needed to continue the story, including instruments of torture such as the cage, pendulum, etc euphemistically referred to as 'lab equipment'. Incidentally this advertise- ment was auctioned on eBay with a starting price of $6. No-one bid for it (at least not this time round). Shame - it's a bit of history. Below is a later version of the advertisment. |
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Naturally the parents of America (well, 3 of them) rose up in protest at this, and the resulting media fuss eventually stopped the sale of the Aurora kit (and incidentally also stopped Mattell from releasing a Barbie model of Vampi). The letter below (in Vampirella 20, October 1972) showed the extent of the paranoia - but also how Warren could change the facts when it suited as there was no doubt about the original adverts. |
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To try and pretend that the original adverts did not contain an obvious link between Vampirella and a torture chamber is blatantly naive (or untrue), apart from the fact that 'torture' is not mentioned specifically in the advertisement. However you could lock the victim in the cage and cut off her arms and legs. Pretty normal behavior - isn't it? |
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However, the outcry worked and 16 months after the original ad stopped (it ran from July 1971 to June 1972) a new one appeared (left) with just the Vampirella doll for sale (note the price hike from $1.30 to $2.00 with much less in the kit). What is so crazy about the whole thing (to me anyway) is the rather grim appearance of the model herself (see above) which does little to promote our heroine. Later models and statues would show Vampi in a much more attractive light, and some could even be called sexy (see the Susumu Sugita model). Still, the Aurora model has her place in history, and currently Aurora models are selling on eBay for around $30 - $40, which is not exactly ecstatic prices, but it isn't bad either. Photos of the statue on this page by Terry Sanders |
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All images on this site are copyright © 2007, Harris Publications, Inc. VAMPIRELLA ® and other characters are trademarks of Harris Publications, Inc. Text and concepts © 2007 Mike Grace. All rights reserved. |