Junior Printmakers: Tomy’s Mighty Men & Monster Maker
Does anyone else remember Tomy’s Mighty Men and Monster Maker? Talk about retro-printmaking fun! It was basically a low-tech press operation. It came with interchangeable plates that could be combined and recombined in an endless amount of variations to create… well… mighty men and monsters. There were three variables- the head, the torso, and the legs- once you placed an arrangement in the jig, you took a rubbing. Or multiple rubbings. Tomy: instilling a love of printmaking, one child at a time.
If Rubik’s Cube can make a come back, the Mighty Men and Monster Maker can’t be too far behind, right?
On a side note, Dave Stevens, famed creator of The Rocketeer, was the artist commissioned to design the templates back in 1978. And thanks to Andrew Barr/Leigh Young and Dave Mire for the pics that accompany this walk down memory lane.
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How could I forget?
My mom ran a day care center from our house, and she always scoured yard sales for second-hand toys. So my own childhood toy experience spanned generations. I remember many variations on this theme, including animals, robots, and licensed characters too.
The best thing was to combine the plates “for girls” with the plates “for boys.” Princess dress with a monster head? Classic Menu Matrix!
The girl’s version was called Fashion Plates.
Mary, That’s RIGHT! The girls got a better name.
I just found a “little van goes” at the thrift store. I actually almost cried…
[…] first toy to come to mind was the Mighty Men & Monster Maker. I’m not going to try to re-hash the information that is already available elsewhere on this […]
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