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

NAGLE WORKS Rumble In The Jungle	KONG VS PTERADACTYL	KONG VS T-REX	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

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

  
Here's two nice versions sculpted by motion
picture visual effects artist 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

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

Alternative Images' 'Battle'	TimeSlip Creations	MouldArt	Murakami	Monsters In Motion	Killer Kits

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

Murakami	Model Mansion	Moohead Models	X-Plus	Posthumous Prods

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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!

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!

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Happy Modeling! - Buc    

Spot Light On...