Toy Stories: Shrunken Head Apple Sculpture Kit

In the wild and weird landscape of 1970s toy culture, where slime, monsters, and DIY kits reigned supreme, few products captured the spooky spirit of the era quite like the Shrunken Head Apple Sculpture Kit. Released in 1975 by Whiting (a division of Milton Bradley), this bizarrely brilliant craft set invited kids to carve faces into apples, dry them out, and turn them into grotesque little heads worthy of any haunted hut.

And who better to endorse such a ghoulish pastime than horror legend Vincent Price?

The box alone was a masterpiece of Halloween-season marketing. Vincent Price’s unmistakable face grinned from the packaging, beckoning kids to “create your own collection of delightful shrunken heads.” The kit came with everything needed, except the apples, to transform ordinary fruit into shriveled, spooky sculptures.

Inside, you’d find:

• A plastic heating cone (called the “Shrinker”) that attached to a standard table lamp
• Carving tools to sculpt eerie expressions into your apples
• Beads, hair, and accessories to decorate your finished heads
• Instructions and diagrams to guide your descent into fruity madness

The process was simple but strangely satisfying: carve a face into an apple, place it over the heating cone, and let time and heat do the rest. Over several hours, the apple would shrink and wrinkle, transforming into a miniature horror show. Kids could then add hair, eyes, and other decorations to complete their creepy creations.

Vincent Price wasn’t just a face on the box, he was the soul of the product. Known for his theatrical flair and love of the macabre, Price lent the kit a sense of spooky sophistication. His involvement turned what could have been a throwaway novelty into a cult classic. The promotional materials leaned into his persona, promising “delightful horrors” and “ghastly fun for the whole family.”

It was part Halloween, part folk art, and part science experiment, all wrapped in a layer of campy charm.

Though the kit didn’t become a long-running franchise, it left a lasting impression on the kids who owned it. Today, vintage sets are collector’s items, often found on auction sites or tucked away in retro toy forums. The combination of Vincent Price, hands-on creativity, and spooky aesthetics makes it a standout in the world of 1970s toy history.