Fright Rags' nostalgic viewfinder best left to the past

Nostalgia alert! Fright Rags, our favorite monster t-shirt company, has released a Fright-Scope viewfinder—a custom version of what we nostalgia kids called a ViewMaster. While I had one, the ViewMaster was a bit before my time. I remember my first reels were The Flintstones. These weren't just cartoons, but vivid, almost 3D real-life representations that showed action and movement—a truly unique experience.

Unfortunately, the Fright-Scope is a big letdown. The best part, by far, is the artwork, which might make it worth it as a display piece. The box and accompanying reel packs are designed in vintage monster packaging, reminiscent of the artwork you'd see in the mail order section of an old comic book.

The device itself, however, is junk. Mine could barely turn the reel before it stopped working altogether. I had to manually turn the reel and position it to see what was on the screen. I can hear something rattling inside, so I assume the plastic piece meant to turn the reel broke off. This happened about five minutes after I opened it.

You get two reels included, featuring 14 pictures of mostly modern horror movies. Nothing stands out. I picked up The Monster Squad set, which had a few good screen grabs, but again, nothing that really took advantage of the scope like those old Flintstones ViewMasters did. The set includes 3 reels with 7 pictures each. The selection of reels packs was limited with only Creepshow 2 and a collection of Stephen King movie images to join The Monster Squad. This seemed like an opportunity to showcase near 3-D black and white versions of the Universal Monsters or even some of the more obscure 50's monster movies. I'd kill for a Teenage Frankenstein set!

The silver lining of this whole Fright-Scope initiative might not be the scope itself, but the fact that it produced some rare Monster Squad merchandise. Unless you're really into the box art for display purposes, the Fright-Scope itself is a pass.