Trick or Treat

Two years ago I put up a photo of a slightly larger version of this bucket by A.J. Renzi Corp. I still think that this, and the larger version, are my favorites.

And speaking of favorites, I honestly believe that the Countdown to Halloween may be my all time favorite blogging event. I had a lot of fun this year digging through my piles of junk to find appropriate things to share, and as always, it was even more fun reading through the other participants blogs.

Sad or Happy Jack-o-lantern

Rubber Frankenstein

I've recently developed a kind of unofficial tradition, and it's that I try to pick up a cool rubber mask each year for Halloween. This time around my find is the "Monster" mask by Ben Cooper.



This guy dates to around '79 or '80, and is weird because it's obviously a Frankenstein mask, but it isn't called that on the label.

Transparent Gill-man

Many of the 9-inch Universal Monsters figures by Sideshow Collectibles ended up as peg warmers back in '99. It was sad seeing so many of them hanging around, because they were all very cool, and very well made.

Predictably, I do have a few favorites from the line, and one of them is the somewhat odd transparent "special edition" version of the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

The figure itself is actually very nice, but I can't understand why they needed to do a transparent version... as if the Gill-man was ever transparent... or even slightly transparent.

This toy does manage to meet two simple criteria for making my list of most awesome action figures though. Firstly, it's made from clear plastic. Secondly, it's the Creature from the Black Lagoon. That about does it.

Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E.

Over a month into the new DC Comics relaunch, and I've started to pick my favorites from "The New 52!" One of those favorites is Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E.



At first I wasn't exactly sure about this one, but the idea of Frankenstein and a team of fairly familiar monsters: a werewolf, a mummy, a vampire, and a gill-woman; fighting the forces of evil, has gotten me hooked.

Franken-badge

Hasbro - The Creature From the Black Lagoon

Rounding out my small collection of these Kenner/Hasbro Universal Monsters figures from 1999 and 2000, is the best of the bunch--I think so anyway--The Creature From the Black Lagoon.

As fond as I am of figures with real cloth clothing and all, the Gill-man is 100% plastic, which I find very appealing.

The design and detailing is pretty good with this one, but mostly it's a well built and fun toy. In this case, there's no mention of Kenner on the figure anymore, which means that it might have been released a bit later than the rest, and if I'm remembering correctly, he came packaged in one of those clear plastic tubes as well.

Kenner/Hasbro - The Mummy

When this figure of The Mummy came out in '99 or 2000, I remember being somewhat impressed by the facial sculpt, but more so because of the fact that someone had to wrap the thing in bandages.

It's a nice detail, but it's also the main reason why there's no way that you can get his arms and legs to bend, and just like the Wolf Man, it's extremely hard to get him to stand for more than a few seconds.

What was different about this toy, was that it didn't come boxed like the previous two Signature Series figures that I've shown. The Mummy came sealed in a plastic tube that made for a better packaged display. The other big change is that the Kenner name is now vanishing from these toys, and we're only seeing the name Hasbro on the packaging.

I've mixed feelings about that. One the one hand, I miss the simple fun that always seemed to come with Kenner toys. As silly as most of what they did was--at least during the '90s--you could really count on a Kenner toy to be entertaining.

On the other hand, I'm not sorry to see things like this painfully dull doll body that they used for most of their figures go. With Hasbro came a well needed revamp... or at least they gave it a try, not always succeeding I suppose.

Kenner - The Wolfman

Another member of the Signature Series 12-inch figure line is The Wolf Man.

Pretty standard stuff here. A good sculpt, with nice clothes, but there is one significant problem: the dog like feet make it nearly impossible to get this figure to stand on its own.

I admit, it took about a hundred tries and some serious balancing before I could get a photo of this figure standing. The problem is that they've go him up on the balls of his feet, and though it looks cool, you can tell that he was wasn't exactly designed to live outside the box.

Kenner - Frankenstein

1999 was a really good year for Universal Monsters collectors. Well... it was a great year for toy collectors in general I suppose, but there was a big increase in classic horror and sci-fi related items that I just couldn't resist.

One of the best examples of this was the Signature Series of 12-inch figures by Kenner. There were Planet of the Apes, Alien, and Universal Monsters toys being released, which meant that I was pretty much broke all year long.

The first figure that I picked up was Frankenstein. It's not as amazing as one of the Sideshow Frankenstein figures, but it retailed for around twenty dollars, and I find its simplicity and weird lack of articulation to be sort of nice.

Mini Monsters

I've put up photos of some of these before, but never the full set. Seeing as how there's a theme going, it seems appropriate to mention that I love all of the LEGO Minifigure monsters.

Glow-in-the-Dark Universal Monsters

I'm amazed by how many versions of the old Marx plastic monster figures you can find if you look. Though the originals are becoming more and more expensive, the various bootlegs and reissues are a little more affordable.

One of my favorite versions is the glow-in-the-dark set that I picked up around ten years ago. The figures are actually licensed by Universal, and they aren't terrible for copies.



My Hunchback figure has gone missing, and I suppose I'll need to find another to complete the set, but my favorite has always been the Gill-man.

Glow-in-the-Dark Skull

And speaking of all things spooky that glow in the dark, here's a simple plastic skull that I found at Target the other day.

Space Faces

Who doesn't love a good puffy sticker? And nothing could be better than a glow-in-the-dark monster sticker... except for an entire sheet full of them perhaps.

This is one of those great things that I was given by a friend who thought, "Oh, he'll love this weird old sticker display." and frankly I do love it. The header artwork is fantastic, and I've debated the possibility of getting that "wolfman" as a tattoo many times. (It's not going to happen.)

The whole thing is about twenty-one by ten inches, and will look very nice framed some day.

Jack-o-lantern and Cat

Jack-o-lantern