Interview: Monarch Model Kits

A new monster model kit maker is prowling the block! Picking up the legendary Aurora styrene kit-making torch, Monarch Models plans on bringing horror nostalgia and classic monsters back to rampage among the boring shelves of snap-together car, plane, and Star Wars vehicle kits. Monsterkids rejoice! Their first offering will be Nosferatu, a one-eight scale kit, packaged in the beautiful box-art and wrapping that Aurora fans know so well. I can smell that glue now! Scott Mckillop of London, Ontario, the founding father of Monarch Models, dropped by for a brief chat.

What is Monarch’s mission?

To give modelers like myself a choice beyond the ordinary cars and armour.

What makes you want to rekindle the legendary Aurora model kit mystique?

Aurora made modeling fun for me as a kid, and I miss that in the hobby today. Polar Lights did a great thing when they were here but with their disappearance, we are back to square one.

The design of your website is very retro. Who came up with the concept?

That’s all me.

Your logo follows the original striking image of Aurora, but how did the Monarch butterfly image come about?

Ahh, sort of by serendipity. It was a nice tie in to the Monarch name (Monarch Butterfly) and to lend a continuity to the Playing Mantis praying mantis mascot. Mostly I liked the whole innocent presentation of the icon for a toy industry. I plain ol’ like the look.

Who are the creative people behind Monarch?

Me, Gary Makatura, Jeff Yagher.

That Nosferatu box cover art has old Aurora fans drooling. It’s very reminiscent of James Bama’s work. What other model kits are you planning? Come on, spill the beans!

Well the next couple of kits are public domain. And that’s fine with me because for one, it’s free, and two, my favorite kits were always the public domain stuff like the Forgotten Prisoner, Dinosaurs, the Witch.

But we are in the process of creating the next two kits and until the tooling is ready to go, I have to play it close to the vest. I will say this; the next kit is monster related to fit in nicely with the original aurora monsters. And the third kit is for the Sci-Fi figure guys.

Both releases will occur simultaneously and in the next 8 months. These will be all new original kits, never seen in styrene before and likely never again because like all things we do at Monarch, these are limited runs. Licensed properties are next but probably not until 2008. Maybe sooner, it’s hard to know with these things.

Where can we find Monarch model kits? And when will you launch the first one, Nosferatu?

So far Stevens International has stepped up to the plate as the largest world wide distributor, and they reach pretty much everyone. But no dealer will go away empty handed. But they still need to contact me; the crystal ball cracked a few years ago. I am planning on world wide distribution through the help of Stevens International beginning in June.

What’s the Monarch Fan Club all about?

Free stuff! Well…for the nominal fee of two sawbucks! But believe me, this is a non profit club. It’s just my way of rewarding the loyal model builders with cool gratis promo booty. Clubs were always the fun part of models and toys in the 60’s and 70’s. Think of the GI Joe club from way back when. Great stuff!