The Riddle of the Monster Sized Monsters

I came across the photo below on ebay about eight months ago, and I’ve been saving it up ever since then for Halloween month. It cleared up a riddle I’d stored in the back of my brain since I was about 7 or 8 years old, a mystery which had its origin in the ad you see above. Comic books had advertising sections in their back pages, and that unconscionable pitch was always among them. It was an early lesson in reading between the lines. I begged my father to send in the dollar on my behalf so that I could obtain what sounded to me like a real 7 foot tall monster. He assured me that it was a scam. That there’s no way a dollar could buy some sort of working automaton that any kid could buy. Though I understood what he was telling me, I didn’t quite WANT to believe him. And at any rate, I was very curious to see what it was (if not an actual monster) that you actually got when you sent in the dollar. But my dad wouldn’t hear of wasting the dough. (A dollar was more than it is now, but it still wasn’t THAT much). All these years I’ve wondered what the postman would bring to your door if you sent in the buck. And here is what it was: a 7 foot tall vinyl banner you hang on the wall of your room. It’s about what we figured. Someone was auctioning it off as a collector’s item. Frankly, now that I look at it, it doesn’t seem like such a swindle.