"How could they stop the devouring death...that lived by sucking on living human bones!?"

Island Of Terror was released in 1966 and although it's been a while since I've seen it, I remember it being a rather underrated movie. Or maybe I shouldn't say underrated as much as unknown. It's certainly not one of the movies that immediately comes to mind when you think of Peter Cushing, but maybe that speaks more for his illustrious career than it does against this film.

When I placed my first order with Ultratumba Productions, I decided to have them throw in these little resin figures as well, mostly because they were cheap. I didn't expect to like them as much as I do.

These Creatures of Terror (aka the Silicates) come in a small (approximately 5"x5"x2") cardboard box with a picture of the product on the lid and brief assembly instructions on the side. The figures rest in a styrofoam tray.

The creatures themselves are just these big green blobs that would slither along the ground and attack with their long tentacles. On these figures, the tentacles are flexible and need to be attached, but a small dab of super glue will take care of that. Each piece comes pre-painted. The biggest one (without the tentacle) is a bit shy of 3" in length while the two smaller ones are less than 2" long (not including the tentacles).

One thing that may seem minor, but that impressed me, is that the two little Silicates are actually unique sculpts. You don't really notice it in pictures, but to see them in person confirms it. When I ordered them, I fully expected the same sculpt on both would be used as a cost cutting measure so I was pleasantly surprised to see they they made the extra effort to make them distinguishable from one another, in a way besides just having a differently shape tentacle.

I find that these are great "filler" pieces in my monster display. With their small size, you can fit them just about anywhere and they add a unique flavor to the overall display.

But here's the best part of all.... each individual Silicate has a MAGNET embedded in the bottom!! Yep, if you'd rather not have them on your shelf, you can leave them on your fridge!

The idea of putting magnets in these was a stroke of genius. For a mere $9, these have been one of the better bargains that I've acquired in my monster collection.

"A monstrous nightmare - Terror turned loose in a fight to the Death!"

Well, after successfully completing my first ever model kit, El Baron, I decided to try to hunt down the second release in Ultratumba's line of kits of characters from Mexican monster movies. The second kit was the Aztec Mummy from the third movie in the Aztec Mummy series, "La Momia Azteca contra el robot humano" (aka "The Robot versus The Aztec Mummy") from 1958.

This kit is slightly more complicated than El Baron was, but it's still very easy to assemble. The kit comes in several pieces: body, arms, hands, base and 4 pieces of "wrappings".

The easiest way to assemble it was to glue the arms and hands on first, then paint everything and then attach the wrappings to the body and the whole figure to the base. Actually, before painting, this time I actually made the effort to fill in the seams on the arms with some extra Magic Sculpt I had sitting around. I figured since that area was all exposed flesh, it would look better if it were smooth.

This time around I decided to go with a lighter skin tone, not only to differentiate it from El Baron, but I figured since the character was a mummy, he should have a less life-like appearance.

Although assembly of this kit is still easy, I found it to be a bit more challenging than El Baron to paint. I felt like all of the exposed skin gave you a bit less room for error and the sandals in particular were a challenge. But overall, I think it looks ok.

One area that the Aztec Mummy is definitely an improvement over El Baron is the packaging. The box this time around is a much nicer presentation with a flip top lid. Oddly though, the interior packaging was a step backwards. Whereas all the parts for El Baron were stored in styrofoam, the parts of the Aztec Mummy were just wrapped in plastic and bubble wrap. I got this from someplace other than directly from Ultratumba, so who knows, maybe it wasn't originally sold that way. Makes no difference to me, either way, since once you build it up, it won't be going back into it's box anyway.

Just like El Baron, the Aztec Mummy is a limited release (200 pieces) and comes signed and numbered (mine is #47). It seems a bit strange, but the Aztec Mummy seems to be sold out everywhere, despite being a less popular and more expensive kit than El Baron. Both kits stand about 4.5" tall when completed and on their bases. Unfortunately, the third release in the series, planned to be the "Gilman" from the 1967 film "La Mujer Murcielago" (aka "Batwoman") was never released.

A cheap and easy to build resin model kit. Great for beginners!

El Baron here represents a landmark occasion for me. I finally gave real model building a try. Honest to god glue and paint type model building. I've mentioned before how common this is for monster collectors so I knew it would only be a matter of time before I had to give it a go myself, and when I saw how cheap this kit from Ultratumba was, I figured it was as good a time as any.

El Baron comes from the movie "El Baron del Terror", which is more widely known in the the US as The Brainiac. This is a movie that I vividly remember seeing clips of on the old late night celebration of cult movies, Reel Wild Cinema, but I never actually saw the entire movie until just recently. If you are unfamiliar with it, it is viewable online.

This kit by Ultratumba is great for beginners like me. Not only is the initial cost cheap, but construction of the main body is very simple. All you need to do is to line up the arms and glue them onto the body. You can fill in the seams at the shoulders if you like, but it really doesn't need it too much and I didn't bother to do that on mine. Both legs and the pelvis are one solid piece and attach easily as well. Then you can choose which tongue you'd like to display and glue that on. I thought the curved one looked a bit more interesting so I chose that over the one that is straight. Lastly, just add a drop of glue to the bottom of the feet and attach to the base, although I thought it was best to paint the figure before doing this.

As with any model kit, you can choose whatever colors suit your fancy. Of course, with the original movie being in black and white, there's really no set color scheme that you need to match, but I chose to stick pretty close to the image on the box. For a first try, I wasn't looking to be very creative here. I just wanted to get it to look good enough to display.

Ok, well maybe that's not entirely true. As you know, we here at CollectionDX love all things glow so I figured I would try to use up some leftover glow paint that I had while I was at it. But where on a piece like this would glow be appropriate? I decided that painting the tongue with red glow paint would be the most obvious place to start. And after having what I considered to be a bit of success with painting this, I guess I decided to get a bit crafty after all and try adding a touch of glow paint to the eyes and teeth. I don't exactly have the hands of a surgeon as they say so I was really afraid I was pushing my luck to try to paint such tiny areas, but overall, I think I did a pretty good job for a first try.

Well, that's all well and good, but really, I felt like having just a small amount of glow on the face was not quite enough. The glow was too localized. So what to do then? Well, as you see in the movie, this character comes to Earth in a meteor so although it's not exactly in the movie, I thought it would be neat to add a touch of glow to the base to represent a sort of "star dust" sprinkled on the ground around himk. So, I decided to mix in a small amount of glow paint with the regular paint for the base in the hopes that it would produce the desired effect. I think it did!

El Baron is limited to only 250 pieces and comes with a signed and numbered certificate of authenticity. It was a pretty fun kit to build and great for a beginner like me. I was always too hesitant to try this in the past because so many kits are expensive and I was afraid I would be wasting my money if I tried and failed. This one was not only inexpensive, but it gave me the confidence to try the second in this series of Mexican movie monster kits from Ultratumba, the Aztec Mummy. Coming soon!

"CREEPING HORROR....from the depths of time and space!"

One of the most fun and endearing science fiction movies of the 1950s was Invasion Of The Saucer-Men, released in 1957 from A.I.P. studios. Although the movie's biggest name actor was Frank Gorshin (later The Riddler on the 1966 Batman TV show), the real stars of the movie were the aliens, as created by legendary prop man/costume designer the late Paul Blaisdell (1927-1983). Blaisdell was also responsible for such iconic monsters as Beulah from "It Conquered The World", Marty, the 3 Eyed Mutant from "The Day The World Ended", The She Creature from the movie of the same name and more. This resin statue of his alien Saucermen comes courtesy of Ultratumba Productions and was sculpted by Ultratumba's Paul Schiola.

This pre-painted resin statue stands 14" tall and includes a display base with the movie title sculpted into it, raising the total height of the piece to a very impressive 15.75" tall. This will really stand out in your collection.

It comes packaged in a beautiful full color box, partially replicating the original (and highly sought after) movie poster. However, a picture of the figure has been added into the image and the effect is quite pleasing to the eye. The box alone is a substantial display piece at 18" tall, 13" across and 6.5" deep. Each side of the box is adorned with either a picture of the statue, stills from the movie (2) or best of all, an image of Paul Blaisdell and Bob Burns, along with a synopsis of the movie and Paul Schiola's thoughts on producing the statue. Overall, it's a very impressive presentation.

Although this statue is pre-painted, it does require a small amount of assembly. But don't panic, it's really simple to do. Just a bit of glue and all the pieces fit where they should with ease. There are 8 pieces included in the box, each wrapped in plastic and packed safely in styofoam.

You'll notice that there are THREE arms in the picture above. This is because in the movie, one of the aliens gets it's hand cut off. So, here you have the option of displaying this with either two good arms, or one with the hand off. Of course, in the movie the hand continues to live and terrorize so an extra hand, standing up on it's fingers, is included as well.

I've decided to display mine with the two good hands and the severed hand crawling at it's feet. It makes sense since there were multiple saucermen in the movie. Y'know what? Why do I keep telling you about this awesome movie? You SHOULD have already seen it and if you haven't, then watch it now. Seriously. RIGHT NOW!

Wasn't that awesome?

Anyway, back to this statue. In addition to an alternate arm/hand, you can also choose to display it with a weapon held in the left hand if you want to. The weapon has a small tab that you can insert into a hole in the palm of the hand, but unfortunately, it really doesn't hold without a spot of glue. So, choose carefully if you want it in there or not.

I think the sculpt on this thing is fantastic and it's one of my favorite items in my burgeoning monster collection. That huge head and those bulging eyes are irresistible. The veiny hands and head, the pointy ears...this is what saucermen look like! However, if you are the ultimate picky sort and think it doesn't look exactly like what you just saw onscreen, you should know that several different masks were used in the movie and Paul tried to incorporate the look of all of them into one piece, rather than go for a dead on accurate representation of one particular mask. I think the final result looks amazing. Really, pictures don't do it justice.

I'm not sure what else to say about this one. It's awesome. Just awesome. And it marks a definite upward trend from Ultratumba Productions. The Tingler was good. Beulah was great. And now this Saucerman is about to make my head explode. I can't wait to find out what is next.* This statue is limited to only 300 pieces so I highly recommend you link on over to Ultratumba and get one of these guys for yourself, before they are all sold out. If it's not yet on the products page there, just drop Paul an email at ultratumba@comcast.net and he'll hook you up. Or grab one on sale in the next 3 days at his Ebay store. You won't regret it.

*Trivia time: Did you know that "Invasion of the Saucer-Men" was later remade for TV as "Attack of the Eye Creatures"? The director, Larry Buchanan, also remade "It Conquered The World" as "Zontar, The Thing from Venus". I saw both of the remakes before I saw the originals. Both originals have monsters created by Paul Blaisdell and both of those monsters have now been released as statues by Paul Schiola. Larry Buchanan also remade "The Day The World Ended" as "In The Year 2889". "The Day The World Ended" has a monster made by Paul Blaisdell...

"Every man its prisoner... every woman its slave!"

Beulah hails from the 1956 low budget science fiction invasion film "It Conquered The World", directed by the legendary Roger Corman. In it, a scientist conjures a monster from the planet Venus, which then proceeds to try to take over the world, by way of controlling people's minds. The film was remade in the 1960s as "Zontar: The Thing From Venus".

Last year, Ultratumba Productions released this fixed-pose pre-painted resin statue of the monster from the film. It would be a welcome addition to most monster fans collections since there was not much else released based on this character.

I only know of two other three dimensional representations of Beulah, but both were unpainted and un-assembled model kits. While the piece here does require a small amount of assembly, it is essentially ready to display right out of the box. All you need to do is attach the arms to the body. The connection points might need a little bit of sanding, but basically you can just glue the arms right on. It's so simple, even I managed to do it. ;) There are six parts included in the box; the main torso, 2 arms, the base, a nameplate and a flying "mind control unit".

The completed piece is VERY impressive! The sculpt it beautiful and immensely intricate. I can't even imagine creating something like this. The individual bumps in the face, the eyes, the teeth, the tongue.. all beautifully crafted with no detail left unaccounted for.

When resting on her base (yes, Beulah is female), the statue is approximately 10.5" tall, but seems much bigger than that when you put it on your shelf. With the beet red coloring, outstretched arms and menacing glare, your eyes tend to get drawn right to this piece.

The base, name plate and mind control unit are all nicely made and welcome additions. If I had any gripe at all, it would be that there is an exclamation point after the word "It" in the title. Not sure why that is, but it reminds me of the advertising for the movie "It! The Terror From Beyond Space".

Beulah comes in a full color box with a clear window. The packaging somewhat mimics the original poster art for the movie, but the effect is diluted a bit by the presence of the styrofoam tray that the kit rests in. I wish the box was cut out around her body so you could only see the monster. No big deal, though.

Limited to only 200 pieces, the box is numbered and signed by the sculptor, Paul Schiola. At only $65, Beulah is a great value for monster fans and highly recommended. Incidentally, no QC issues here at all, like I had on my Tingler. In fact, I mentioned that to Paul and he totally offered to make it right, in case anyone was wondering. I'd have no reservations buying from him. In fact, his next project looks very enticing... a pre-painted monster from "Invasion Of The Saucermen"!!

DO NOT PANIC!

but...SCREAM! SCREAM FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!

"The Tingler" was a 1959 movie directed by the legendary William Castle and might be the best example of why I love good old gimmicky 1950s horror and sci-fi movies. They just don't make them like this anymore* and you certainly never see such an effort to get the audience involved like Castle did with "The Tingler".

In the movie, Vincent Price plays a scientist who discovers that the strange tingling sensation that you feel when you are frightened is actually caused by a parasite that grows at the base of your spine. The more frightened you are, the bigger it gets. Screaming relieves the fear and destroys the Tingler. But...what if you can't scream? A mute character in the film actually dies from fright and the Tingler is removed by Price and is shown to be a centipede-like monster.

Now, as if this isn't hokey and preposterous enough, William Castle had to make the movie even more entertaining by introducing "Percepto" to theater audiences. From Wikipedia:

"For "Percepto!" William Castle attached electrical "buzzers" to the underside of several seats in the auditorium. The buzzers were small surplus vibrators left over from World War II. They had been installed inside the wings of air craft and when activated would vibrate to help de-ice the wings by shaking and cracking the ice. The cost of this equipment added $250,000 to the film's budget. It was predominantly used in the larger theaters.

An alternate warning was recorded for Drive-in Theatres, this warning advised the audience the tingler was loose in the drive in. Vincent Price's voice was not used for the Drive-in version."

A friend of mine says that the drive-in version tells you to honk your horn or flash your lights in place of, or in addition to screaming. I have seen this movie at a drive-in, but it was the regular theatrical cut with Vincent Price's announcement.

So, now that you know something about the movie, we can move on to this release of the monster itself. The Tingler was originally released in 2004, but the version I have here is the 2007 second edition. Strangely, the "T" in Tingler is replaced with a "?" on the underside of the Tingler. It comes in a large box with a clear window on the front through which you can see the Tingler inside. The Tingler rests in styrofoam, which is fine, but I wish that there wasn't a large piece of styrofoam going right down the middle of the display.

The front of the box actually lifts up so that you don't have to slide the entire styrofoam tray out of the end to remove the creature. One end of the box shows Price along with a reproduction of the death certificate shown in the above trailer.

The Tingler itself is a fixed pose resin statue measuring about 21" long and about 6.5" wide. So it's a significant piece to add to your monster collection, in terms of size.

I'm not a big fan of resin statues, but I'm really glad to have a Tingler to display. The only gripe I have at all with it is that it appears that on mine the antennae were actually broken off and glued back on before the toy was packaged. I didn't bother to send it back since it's not a huge deal to me. You really can't tell without close inspection, but I think that sort of thing just doesn't reflect well on Ultratumba Productions, who made this. I don't ever plan to re-sell this, but I suspect that if I do, I'll have a hard time convincing my potential buyer that it came that way out of the box. C'est la vie.

* (Then again, maybe they do. There's been reports of, you guessed it, a remake being made.)