By Stephen Mezo
Way back in 2013 my wife and I had the honor of meeting one of our forever friends on a Facebook Monster Collectable group by the name of Daniel White. Now a lot of people I've met on here have awesome monster collections, but something about Dan's sets his apart.
He has quite a few Grail pieces, but he has a lot of really cool Western, Television and Sci-Fi hard to finds as well. And he has an incredible backstory to go with his vast collection of cool stuff. On top of that he is one of the absolute kindest people that you could ever know.
Dan "The Monster Man" White
So what make's him so special you ask? Well pull up a hassock and pour yourself a bowl of your favorite monster cereal as I warm up the trusty console TV that I keep here in the Storage Unit of Terror.
Daniel had a great Monster Kid childhood with his brother Alan and his cousins Susan and Linda while growing up in Illinois, because of their Dads having artistic talents and a love of classic monsters. Even Dan's nephew Rick Aspen carries on the family creativity by being a professional Captain Jack Sparrow performer.
Alan as Zorro and Daniel as The Wolfman.
Their dad Alfred had made Dan's Wolfman with a Frankenstein mask as a base.
Susan as Frankenstein and Linda as The Witch
Rick Aspen as Captain Jack Sparrow
Daniel's father Alfred did the screen printing on Bally Pinball machines while his uncle Richard had painted each design for the scoreboard glass and play decks. And it's even wilder seeing Uncle Richard and Alfred's work on TV shows like "Nip It" on Happy Days, "Big Show" on Good Times and "Vampire" in American Graffiti that had the machines on camera.
Dan's dad Alfred White
Alfred working on a Bally Pinball score plate screen print.
Not only was Richard White painting for Bally, he was making Indie Monster Movies at home. Where he would build full sets with the help of Dan and other members of the family who also acted in them.
Daniel White on set for one of two of Richard White's Dracula films.
Richard White
Richard White's work for Bally's VAMPIRE
Fun City on the Keansburg Boardwalk had this machine along with Nip It and quite a few more. and you'll see this one in the background in American Graffiti when Richard Dreyfuss was doing his inhiation for The Pharos. And Daniel's Uncle Richard loved that was able to play those machines. And raved about his artwork.
The main thing I really love about Daniel's collection is the family history that is tied to it. Because not only were his dad and his uncle so much of a part of it, his mother and grandfather contributed to it as well.
Daniel's photo that appeared in Famous Monsters issue #92
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Getting into Famous Monsters was the only thing that I didn't get to cross off my bucket list that I wrote when I was six years old.
And he had to appear in Famous Monsters again back in 1997!!!
This is just a small part of Daniel's vast collection.
Another thing that Daniel's collection connects all of us Monster Kids together is it was a big part of Daniel still being here. Daniel had told me that when he was younger - he was very ill to where he had to stay in his bed for a long time. And every day he woke up to wasn't guaranteed, so his dad and his uncle helped him collect 8mm monster movies where they would sync up the audio to the films. And I think this was before Super 8mm came out with an audio strip. And the classic monsters were a constant comfort.
Just like they were my escape as a Monster Kid (Weird Kid) then, and even today as a huge way to cope with a lot of adulthood stuff now...
Getting back to the main story, Daniel is one of the kindest people I know and is the link that I share with a lot of other Monster Collectors. He really lets you enjoy what you have and is beyond chill with it. He never ever has that attitude of "I have cooler, rare, mint in box, complete, I know the underwear size of the factory worker that was on shift in 1960 whatever that assembled it" He just post a photo and gives you his history behind it and who had given it to him, because that's his value of what he has.
Like if it weren't for him I would have never had the chance to keep in touch with Bill Lindsey from IMPALER and had the chance to thank him for bein g a driving influence in wanting to work on Indie Horror movies. Or get to comment on Daniel Roebuck's FB post and get to tell him how much I love Rob Zombie's MUNSTERS. And how a lot of us Monster Kids got to live vicariously through him as The Count/Grandpa.
Then there's the members of The Motor City Toy Mafia, consisting of Tesco Vee, Christopher Noble and Paul Seiler. They were a huge help in tracking down Monster figures that I was collecting and helped me with a lot of trading transactions. Or either buying stuff I was selling or helping me find buyers so I could use that money to buy something else.
Of course Paul Seiler had to one up me and went to see Dan The Monster Man's collection live! It's not enough that Paul trips over talking Herman Munsters growing out of his lawn, he had to make the drive to walk in Plastic Monster Paradise. But I did one up back by making Dan part of the Ghoul Crew at The Storage Unit of Terror. H A HA HA
Tesco Vee, Christopher Nobel and Paul Seiler
Daniel White and Paul Seiler in the Monster Man collection room.
I swear Paul has these growing out of his front lawn!
Dan wearing his Tattooed Steve's Storage Unit of Terror Ghoul Crew hoodie.
Daniel's hoodie in the Monster Man collection room.
You can see more of Daniel's awesome collection on Facebook,
as well as finding some awesome deals on The Motor City Mafia FB group.
