Merchandising
Such is the popularity of the series that merchandising has been collected by fans around the world for decades. However, when the films were originally released there was little in the way of merchandising other than lobby cards and posters. The 1931 Frankenstein 6-sheet movie poster is considered to be the most valuable poster in the world. There is only one copy of this poster known to exist.
Many years later, when the films had become popular once again after being regularly shown on American TV, toys and model kits began to be sold. Universal particularly held to the copyrighting of their depiction of Frankenstein's monster.
Out of the first wave of collectables, the most notable was the 1961 plastic model kit of Frankenstein's monster by the now-defunct Aurora Plastics Corporation. In the next few years there followed models of Dracula, the Wolf Man, the Mummy, the Phantom of the Opera, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon before the series switched to generic or characters from other firms, though there was a Bride of Frankenstein model in 1965. These hollow statues were quite popular among American boys.
After the popularity of the Aurora series, other companies eventually began using licenced caricatures of the Universal Monsters. Over the decades many collectables have appeared in one form or another; from Halloween masks and action figures, to coffee mugs, miniature die-cast cars, jigsaw puzzles, Pez dispensers, lunch boxes, postal stamps, and so on.
Other memorabilia include the products from Sideshow Collectibles with very accurate 12 inch (1/6 scale) "action figures" of many of the Universal Monsters, as well as museum quality 1/4 scale "Premium Format" figures usually cast from polystone with accurate cloth costumes and decoration.
NECA Toys released a series of bobble head caricatures of all the main Universal Monsters in 2006, including Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Wolfman, Bride of Frankenstein, The Phantom of the Opera and the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
In video and computer games, Universal Monsters have also made appearances in titles such as Monsterville and Darkstalkers.
The films themselves have seldom been out of print and have been widely collected in numerous formats, originally in Super 8mm, then VHS and laserdisc. In 1999, the movies first became available on DVD. Since then they have been remastered, re-released and re-packaged twice more: In 2004, as part of the Legacy Series and also under the 75th Anniversary banner in 2006.
The Legacy Series included The Wolf Man, Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy, The Invisible Man and Creature from the Black Lagoon.
To celebrate Universal Studios 100th Anniversary, Dracula, Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein have been remastered in High-definition and were released on Blu-ray Disc on October 2, 2012 in the set " Universal Classic Monsters- The Essential Collection"- along with The Mummy, The Invisible Man, The Wolf Man, Phantom of the Opera, and Creature from the Black Lagoon.
Bigpoint is developing a game called Universal Monsters Online, a Free to Play online multiplayer game, which lets players play as Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolf Man, The Bride of Frankenstein, Countess Zaleska, The Invisible Man, The Phantom of the Opera, Gill Man, The Mummy, a Metaluna Mutant, the Man Made Monster and the Mole Man.
Read more about this topic: Classic Horror