Latest Episode of COLLECTION COMPLETE: Monster Kid Micheline Pitt Gets Nostalgic with Mattel’s Vintage Fright Factory Toy
“This is the toy that started an entire movement of making really weird things that kids can stick on their faces,” says series guest Micheline Pitt of the 1966 Mattel toy Fright Factory.
Unearthed by the docu-show Collection Complete (which takes an in-depth look into the lives of artists and the collections that fuel their work, as presented by Gemr, an app for collectors worldwide), the series’ latest episode takes a look at Los Angeles-based designer and filmmaker Micheline Pitt’s collection of vintage horror board games and toys, including Fright Factory, considered to be one of the most dangerous children’s toys ever marketed.
Part of the THINGMAKER line of products, Fright Factory provided baby boomers with a professional grade hot plate that achieved temperatures of 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, in order to heat the game’s supplied ooze dubbed “Plasti-Goop.” The purpose? To allow kids to create plastic monster appliances, of course. From searing heat and toxic fumes to shrunkseriesen heads and monster fangs, Pitt muses of the progenitor of Mattel’s later and popular Creepy Crawlers toy, “What could possibly go wrong?”
What’s more, Pitt also takes viewers on a tour of her rare 1960’s Transogram board games Ka-Bala (equal parts Ouija board, Tarot card, and occult mysticism) and the glow-in-the-dark game Green Ghost (targeted at fans of then-popular television series The Addams Family, with a heaping dose of The Blob thrown in for good measure).
The series’ eighteenth episode (future installments are set to showcase other items in Pitt’s collection, including an exclusive first look at her upcoming directorial debut Grummy, as well as more with screen-used prop collector Sean Clark), past episodes of Collection Complete have ventured into the personal collections of filmmakers Mike Mendez of Tales of Halloween fame and The Hills Run Red producer Robert Meyer Burnett.
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Check out the trailer for Collection Complete‘s mid-season show below.
