Halloween Haunt 2025: A Wave of Universal Monsters Books in the 90s

Osbourn Draw
44 minutes ago
3 min read

Universal Monsters invaded ’90s pop culture through everything from VHS releases to children’s books, leaving behind a spooky legacy of unexpected merch. Our Halloween Haunt 2025 event continues with a look at the classic books for kids.

In the 1990s, a wave of Universal Monsters merchandise hit store shelves. Much of it was designed to promote the release of classic films on VHS, and later, DVD. From crossover action figures with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Halloween décor and even Pepsi cans, the monsters popped up in some unexpected places—perhaps none more surprising than children’s books.

Consider this: these iconic monsters—including a reanimated corpse with the brain of a criminal, a man who survives by drinking the blood of others, and a tormented soul who transforms into a homicidal maniac with each full moon—found their way into Little Golden Books. The marketing team at Universal in the '90s was nothing short of brilliant.

Here’s a look at a few of those books, along with some newer additions we’ve made to our collection.

The Novels: Released in 2001 and 2002, these books were modern takes on the classic monsters.

The Coloring Books: The unforgettable "Golden" logo that was prominent on almost every color or activity book in department stores (back when there was a kid's book section in with the toys) is here in each these books. Who doesn't remember the He-Man "Sticker Fun" books? The one non-Golden book here is the Monsters Giant Coloring book from PlayValue, released in 1986. The book is a light story about a boy who watches the monsters movies and then finds himself in them--all a dream at the end. Not unusual for the time, but what is a little strange is that these are clearly the Universal Monster movies and characters and even actor likenesses, but no licensing or mention of Universal is included in the credits.

The back covers of the Golden color and activty books.

More early 90s young adult reading and activity books. The Dracula one is an activity book about the Universal Monsters.

Interior artwork and story from the Frankenstein book follows the original movie.

More interior art and story from Frankenstein

Dracula story book.

Cardboard inserts from the activity book features the classic early 90s stock artwork for each of the monsters. You would see these poses in the logo artwork, as well as merchandising like that of the Pepsi products.

And finally some newer stuff. The Funko Little Golden Book introduces readers to the basics of the core monsters. The ending is strange as it implies Wolf Man, Frankestein, the Bride and Dracula have all bred and now have offspring. Eek!

Not Universal Monsters, but the book Poor Widdle Werewolf is a new pickup from Walmart adn features versions of the classic monsters in a kid's story. It's great to see these characters popping up even if they aren't officially licensed.

And finally, the most unusual book our collection is this Univesal Monsters branded book called A Sunny Day. It's toddler versions of the monsters at the beach. Dracula--shirtless and on a surfboard--on a sunny day at the beach. Clearly continuity was not a concern here. This was released in 2000.