New Classic Monsters Fabric at JoAnn!

 

Many of you may recall the Classic Monsters fabric that was released 20 years ago.  That fabric became a “must-have” for Halloween and Universal Monsters enthusiasts alike.  Well, there’s a brand new fabric in town featuring all of your favorites, a few surprises, and the scariest thing of all — an homage to a Celine Dion song-driven theatrical motion picture!  Yes, there’s a brand new Classic Monsters Fabric available this year at JoAnn featuring the Universal Monsters!  Check out all of the classic monsters of the movies and a few BIG surprises – from The Wolf Man to The Mask of Fu Manchu to Godzilla!  All your favorites are here!  Retailing at $16.99, the fabric is now discounted along with other Halloween styles.  Hurry in before it disappears forever!

Godzilla on the New Classic Monsters Fabric

Classic Monsters Fabric at JoAnn

Fu Manchu on Halloween Fabric at JoAnn

Talbot Castle on Classic Monsters Fabric

 

Creepy Kroger: Halloween Finds at Your Local Grocer

Kroger is the largest grocery chain in America and operates food stores under various names including Fred Meyer, Fry’s, King Soopers, Ralph’s, and Smith’s.  They usually carry a decent selection of Halloween-themed food products, and this year is no different.  Check out the great Halloween Tombstone Pizzas featuring Dracula and Frankenstein…

Tombstone Halloween Pizza

 

In addition to offering up frightful food offerings, they have a number of devilish decor items that are also quite unique.  Check out this miniature haunted house.  It is one of three illuminated haunted house designs available.

 

Kroger Lighted Haunted House Figure

 

And check out this awesome pumpkin carving kit.  Unlike the usual pumpkin carving kit that may offer only a saw and a scoop, this is a full-blow playset.  This Pumpkin Pro Carve-a-Scene pack includes a saw, strobe light, ghost picks, and a grave yard.  Instead of carving a face, you carve a window into your pumpkin and use the decorations to build a scene.  How cool is that?

 

Pumpkin Pro Carve-a-Scene Pumpkin Kit with Ghosts and Graveyard

Monsterville: Target’s Universal Monsters Line

For those of you who don’t know, Monsterville is Target’s new line of officially licensed Monster Movie merchandise featuring the Universal Monsters.

I have managed to get mostly every piece I can find, and I can’t tell you how awesome they are. These are the best Halloween decorations I have found in a big box store in years! Not only do they have movie-accurate likenesses, but they play dialog from the films and trailers… Plus the stuff is just genuinely well-designed. Here’s what I have found so far.

First up is the Boris Karloff Mummy Head, probably the best piece. It moves side to side, the eyes light up, and it plays phrases from the movie and trailer when you walk by..

Target Monsterville Universal Monsters Mummy Talking Head

 

Next are the Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein Cloches (globes) The burning windmill is one of the best Halloween decorations I’ve ever owned. Such amazing detail! And the sound effects are great. The LEDs in these are super bright. They light up the whole room!

Target Monsterville Universal Monsters Frankenstein Cloche Globe

Target Monsterville Universal Monsters Frankenstein Cloche Globe

Target Monsterville Universal Monsters Bride of Frankenstein Cloche Globe

 

The Frankenstein, Mummy, and Creature Screamers are really awesome and a great steal at 5 bucks each! They each play about three movie phrases, lasting about 10 seconds each. The Mummy and Creature are my favorites. Really awesome little shelf-sitters! Again, these are crazy bright!

Target Monsterville Universal Monsters Frankenstein Mummy Creature from the Black Lagoon Screamers

 

The Frankenstein Door Greeter moves its eyes and mouth, says spooky phrases, and lights up as it greets Trick-or-Treaters at the door!

Target Monsterville Universal Monsters Frankenstein Door Greeter

 

Finally is another great piece, the Frankenstein Head in Dome. This is a really beautiful piece. Fantastic sound and lights, but an even better Karloff Monster sculpt. Sooooo cool! I cannot recommend these enough!

Target Monsterville Universal Monsters Frankenstein Head in Dome

Target Monsterville Universal Monsters Frankenstein Head in Dome

Feel free to post your finds here!

 

 

The Greatest Halloween Packaging of All Time

In the history of mass-produced Halloween decorations, there have been many remarkable boxes and packages that have housed decorations both stellar and less-than-stellar.  However, there is no artwork that matches this beautifully macabre scene.

Behold the morbid and the macabre!  What sort of heinous decoration could be housed in such a gruesome box?  There are bats, skeletons, zombie hands, graves, mausoleums, and spider webs…  and this is only the bottom of the box!

Gruesome Ghoul Artwork

Gah!  Look at that drooling ghoul in his eternal shroud!  And what is that, a toppled cross below him?  This must really be some sort of sick and demented decoration.  But wait!  There’s more!

Gruesome Ghoul Artwork

This must be the grimmest of reapers!  Look at that snake protruding from his eye socket!   He’s even wearing another serpent as a scarf!  Could whatever is inside this box be as terrifying as this?  Could it ever live up to the utter fear that this image inspires?

Believe it or not, this packaging is from a company called Funny Toys.  Funny Toys.  There doesn’t seem to be anything funny about this box.  Perhaps they should’ve called themselves “Great Packaging” instead.  Okay.  Okay.  You have waited long enough.  Here’s the big reveal, the “funny toy” that was inside of this petrifying packaging…

1990 Funny Toys “Spooky Coffin” Animated Figure

 

Behold the Spooky Coffin, released in 1990!  For 1990, this probably was a pretty gruesome Halloween decoration: a miniature coffin, a vampire rising from it, creepy creaking sounds, menacing music playing, and evil laughter.  Taking all that into consideration, it was pretty advanced for its time.  One thing is for certain, they don’t make ’em like they used to…  And that includes the packaging!

 

Halloween Highlights: Vintage Vampires

There are few monsters more closely associated with Halloween than the Vampire.  Vampires have been haunting our nightmares even before Bram Stoker unleashed Dracula upon the world in 1897.  Since the first printing of the famous vampire novel, Dracula has been haunting our nightmares for over a century.  Most famously portrayed by Bela Lugosi in the 1931 screen adaptation, Dracula is the quintessential creature of the night.  Featured today are two vintage Halloween decorations featuring the undead count.

First is a vintage Halloween cutout of Bela Lugosi in his most famous role.  This Halloween decoration was released by the C.A. Reed Company in the early 1980s.

Bela Lugosi Dracula Cardboard Cutout

 

Next up is a large, jointed Dracula from Eureka, originally marketed as “The Count – 55″ Jointed Halloween Decoration.”  This cutout was released in the late 1970s.

Eureka “The Count” Jointed Cutout

 

Halloween Cardboard Die-Cut Gallery: Creatures of the Night

The Big Scare is proud to announce the final installment of this year’s Halloween Cardboard Die-Cut Gallery.  We hope you have enjoyed all of the frightening images you have seen here.  We will be back with even more images next year.  Until then, take in the terror-ific sights of these Halloween frights.  We’ll be back in two days with another post.

 

Beistle Vampire

Beistle Werewolf

Skeleton in Window

Eureka Vampier

Glow-in-the-Dark Skeleton

Owl and Moon

Beistle Grim Reaper

Jointed Skeleton

Beistle Flying Dracula

Dracula Returns to Theaters: Bela Lugosi’s Un-Dead

“Just a moment ago, I stumbled upon a most amazing phenomenon, something so incredible, I mistrust my own judgment…  Look!”

Bela Lugosi, the king of Terror, returns to cinemas for two nights only as Fathom Events presents Universal Studios’ Dracula: Double Feature.  The classic film, and its Spanish-language counterpart, will be playing in select cinemas on October 25 and October 28.  For a complete list of cinemas showcasing the Universal Monsters event, be sure to check out this link.  The terrifying trailer follows.

Spook Spotter: The Best Halloween Decorations of 2015 II

Welcome, foolish mortals, to The Big Scare’s 2015 Countdown to Halloween.  Every other day, from now through October 31, we will be posting preposterously posthumous ponderings of the Halloween season.  We begin October with another installment of the Spook Spotter.

The following does not constitute an endorsement of any product or retailer.   It is for information purposes only.

World of Gods and Monsters

Last year, Cost Plus World Market debuted a line of officially licensed Universal Monsters dinnerware featuring The Frankenstein Monster and his Bride.  This year, they are expanding the line with all new platters, ceramic plates, and mugs.  World Market also carries vintage soda bottles featuring the creature and his mate, lollipops with The Mummy and the Creature from the Black Lagoon, as well as Bride of Frankenstein tote bags.  What’s really creepily cool is the fact that the ceramic plate of Frankenstein’s monster features an image of Glenn Strange in the role as opposed to Boris Karloff.  Glenn Strange as Frankenstein is more iconic and recognizable to Monster kids, as it was Strange, not Karloff, who was featured on the Monster Craze merchandise of the 1960s.  Hopefully we will see more Universal Monsters at World Market next year.  Perhaps they can cut a deal with Bela Lugosi, Jr. next year and do a Dracula line of dinnerware.  “I never drink…” wine glasses, anyone?

Bride of Frankenstein Plate (World Market)

More of the Night He Came Home

HomeGoods (A TJX Company) has come through again this year with some amazingly haunting display pieces for your home of horrors.  Take a look at this skull pumpkin, very reminiscent of the jack-o’-lantern featured in the opening sequence of John Carpenter’s Halloween II.  This terrifying display piece features a dramatic display of color-changing illumination.  Perfect for any fan of Halloween or Halloween.  Other pieces for sale at the TJX stores include spooky busts, haunted miniature hearses, snow globes, and glass pumpkin candle holders (pictured in the gallery at the end of our post).

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Mind-Blowing Blow Molds

The final item featured in our Spook Spotter today is a mind-blowing find – a vintage blow mold cat and jack-o’-lantern being carried at…  Wait for it…  Walmart.

The king of big box stores is carrying mass-produced reproduction vintage blow molds.  The first of these is the famous Hobo Jack-O’-Lantern.  The next is the cat with the jack-o’-lantern on its back (pictured here).

Vintage Reproduction Blow Mold (Walmart)

These blow molds have not been seen in dime stores in years, but now they are back.  Granted, they aren’t 10 cents anymore, but they are better than 99% of the other Halloween decorations out there and definitely worth the $9.00 price tag.

Now, check out other great finds from this season in our ghastly gallery…

Glenn Strange Frankenstein Plate (World Market)

Vintage Blow Mold Reproduction (Walmart)

Bride of Frankenstein Plate (World Market)

Lighted Owl Statue (Ross Dress for Less)

Glass Pumpkin Candle Holder (TJ Maxx)

Glass Pumpkin Candle Holder (TJ Maxx)

Lighted Owl Statue (Ross Dress for Less)

Universal Monsters Week | Mezco, Trick or Treat, & WOWindows

The following does not constitute an endorsement of any product or retailer.   It is for information purposes only.

The only authentic Halloween decoration featuring the Universal Monsters this year is a pretty nifty WOWindows poster featuring Boris Karloff as the Frankenstein Monster.  But — have no fear — there are plenty of other Universal Monster items out there this season.  So, hold on to your electrodes, as we recap the shocking offerings.

Diamond Select Toys is supposedly wrapping up its Universal Monsters line of toys, ending on a disappointing note with a non-likeness, no-need-to-be-licensed Van Helsing figure.  Although Diamond is coming out with an amazing Creature from the Black Lagoon figure next year, as well as a nice Son of Frankenstein, without any signs of Dracula’s Daughter, Son of Dracula, Werewolf of London, Kharis, or any supporting characters, it’s time to turn to other toymakers for our fill of Monster goodness.  And it looks as if Mezco is slowly taking away Diamond’s luster with its expansive offerings: Universal Monsters Living Dead Dolls and stylized figures.  This October saw the release of the amazing Dracula Living Dead Doll.  The Mummy stylized figure, which follows the ghastly Monster and Creature figures released earlier this year, will come to life soon.

However, the grandest of this year’s Universal Monster items are not even officially licensed by Universal Studios.  Nope.  Instead, they are licensed through the estates of the individual actors.  Trick or Treat Studios, the up-and-coming leader of the Halloween mask-making world, has unleashed two great masks: The Bela Lugosi Mask (based upon Lugosi in the DRACULA play) and the Phantom of the Opera Mask featuring the likeness of the Man of a Thousand Faces, Lon Chaney, Sr.  These two incredible masks deserve to the be the first in a long line of masks based upon the actors who invented the monsters.  Unfortunately with Universal involved, one never knows if “what should be” will be, but we’ll see…

Universal Monsters Week | Monster Hot Wheels & New Stock Art

The following does not constitute an endorsement of any product or retailer.   It is for information purposes only.

The official Universal Studios Monsters are back from the grave, this time adorning some sweet rides from Hot Wheels.  These creepy cars are now available at select grocery stores, such as certain Kroger stores and Winco, and will probably be found in the Halloween aisles.  In total there are six vehicles: Creature from the Black Lagoon Low Flow, Dracula Neet Streeter, Bride of Frankenstein ’59 Cadillac Funny Car, Frankenstein Double Demon Delivery, The Wolf Man Volkswagen T1 Panel Bus (not pictured) and The Mummy 1934 Chrysler Airflow (not pictured).

And what is interesting about them is that they feature new artwork for our Monster friends.  Instead of the horrible CGI monstrosities created at the beginning of the last decade, these monster toys feature characters with a more “hand-illustrated” look.  And while none of them look much like the original characters (or, God forbid, actors), it is a step in the right direction, even if it means eliminating the Wolf Man’s dog snout (poor choice, indeed, Universal).  Perhaps these line-art versions of the Monsters will be seen on other products in the future.  Maybe the CGI-looking, computer-drawn abominations from 2002 will finally be gone forever…  Only time will tell.  All I know is that I’d give almost anything to have these 1997 versions back.  Or the 1991 Monsters…  Or the Aurora Monster Model art…  But anything is better than the ones we’ve had to endure for the past decade.  That is certain.  We’ll be back Friday with our final look at the Universal Monster products of 2013.