Remco Mini Monsters

With Halloween tomorrow it's a good time to take a quick look at a few Remco action figures that are based on the Universal movie monsters. Remco produced both a 9" line and the 3 3/4" action figures known as the mini monsters. Although some sources say these released in 1980, Plaid Stallions has a catalog page that states they are new for '81, so I suspect the packaging has a 1980 copyright despite not hitting store shelves that year. The set includes Dracula, Frankenstein Monster, Wolfman, Phantom of the Opera, Mummy, and Creature From the Black Lagoon. In the photos I am missing Phantom of the Opera's cape and I don't own the Mummy. Also, some of the paint is little sloppy or scraped off, namely on Dracula's nose, but overall the detail on the faces of these figures is quite nice.

Initially the toys shipped without any special features but when the second version of the figures released they could now glow-in-the-dark. Most have small glow-in-the-dark sections, such as their face and/or hands, but the Creature From the Black Lagoon's whole body glows and Mummy might too. Aside from the figures, Remco made two accessories: one is a carrying case that acts as a play set and the other is the Monsterizer that has flashing lights and sound effects.

That glow-in-the-dark photo is fuzzy as I had a hard time with that one. For the individual characters I used a small flashlight and I think most of them look good. The figures themselves generate some nice silhouettes.

UPDATE 10/24/26: Eight years after I posted this I decided to remove the color from some photos to give them a classic monster movie look.