'Monster Heads' Toys.

This ad came from an issue of 2000ad (prog 498 29th November 1986), its the first time I have come across these before, certainly can't remember seeing them in the shops back then. They look great and more than likely influenced by the big major toy range of the 1980's TRANSFORMERS, although these Monster Heads look very basic in their transformation, but I think still quite cool and also remind me a little of the wonderful Mighty Max mini playset monster heads. As you can see from the above ad there are 4 monster heads in the set,these being Dracula, Frankenstein, Skull and Gorilla and all are friction powered too. Monster Head Metamorphs made by Matsushiro.

'SCREAM' Comic - Full page ad.

I have put a few comic book ads for the 80's 'Scream' comic but I came across this full page ad for #1 in an issue of 2000 ad [Prog 361 24th March 84]. Hope you like it.

'Horror Gripper free with Whoopee comic'

The times I have bought a load of British comics that I found in charity shops over the years hoping for at least one page advertising Smiths Horror Bags and being kind of disapointed that I never saw any, I know that issues of Buster and Whoopee have had adverts in them from various scans I have seen but its knowing what issues these came from. My search still continues. Anyway I mention all this because I came across a issue recently of 'Whoopee' (3rd April 1976) which is the same comic that had the free gift of a Horror Gripper from Smiths Horror Bags, I had never seen any of the Horror Grippers before and I was quite surprised how big they were, would love to come across the other 2 sometime. Also in this issue is the ad you see above, yes another Horror Bags ad,for the set of 3 Horror Grippers. Love the graphics on this one. Anyway I'll keep looking for any other different advertisements for Horror Bags and hopefully show you here.If anyone knows of any other ones then please do let us know or photos of other promotional items from the Horror Bag range, we would be most grateful.

'Frankenstein Monster' Greeting cards

2 nice cards featuring the Frankenstein Monster, both of which resemble Boris Karloff's frankenstein Monster. I really like the idea of the first card in which you can write whatever you like in the speech bubbles, the card is blank inside and is made by 'Courtier fine art limited'.The second card I really like a lot,just love the artwork on this and the monster licking his lips.This is 'Birthday Beauty' by Scott Wilson and is a card from the 'Athena' chain of card/gift shops. Also blank inside card.

Funny horror birthday cards

There seems to be a lack of greeting cards these days that feature images from horror films/monsters, spooky stuff etc.Even Halloween the shops don't seem to stock these sort of cards anymore, well there may be some but I haven't seen any. The 4 cards you see here I bought back in the 1980's from one of the 'Gift Tree' card shops, they were only 30p each. I really like these cards with their still from a classic horror movie and funny caption, they kind of remind me of what were in issues of the American spoof magazine 'For Monsters Only'. Inside of the Phantom of the Opera card it reads "After all those teeth probably cost you plenty!", the second card featuring a still from 'The Cat and the Canary'(1920) inside says "Goodbye Sincerity", The third card featuring 'The Devil Doll'(1936) inside reads "Make love to an Elephant" and the final card with a still from the silent classic 'The Lost World'(1925) inside reads "...particularly when they remind you about your age!". The cards are 4 from a series called 'Movie Mania' I wonder what other cards were featured too.

'FRANKENSTEIN' Iron-on transfer 1970's

This wonderful Frankenstein Iron-on transfer is from the 1970's and is possibly one of 4 designs that could also be bought already printed on a T-shirt. The pictures below show the front and back of the transfer and a advertisement from 'Legend Horror Classics'#2 (1974) showing 3 other designs [Dracula,Werewolf and King Kong] already printed on T-shirts that could be bought.

'SKELETON IN COFFIN' Novelty

I bought this back in the late 70's maybe early 80's from a local joke shop. The box and coffin are about 3 inches across, the coffin and skeleton are made of plastic and inside the coffin is a magnet, the skelton goes on top of the coffin and when you tap the coffin the skeleton turns over.For some strange reason mine doesn't work anymore but with such a cool box and the actual item it still makes a nice little display peice. I scanned the coffin and skeleton because I couldn't get a decent photo of them both.

'Crawling SPOOKIES'

I have had this Spookies insect and packaging for many many years, I have no idea what year but I would guess sometime during the 1980's. The Centipede isn't as flexible as it was originaly but it still glows in the dark. According to the packaging it says that when the spookies becomes less sticky you can wash it in warm soapy water, will have to try that.. Apart from the one you see here and the 2 pictures on the card of a skeleton hand and skeleton, I don't know if there were any other Crawling Spookies. Instructions state that you throw the Spookies against a window or other shiny surface and then the spookie will crawl down the surface. I just love what it says on the packaging - 'UNBELIEVABLE! Hold under a electric light for 15 seconds,switch off the light then throw against a wall and frighten your freinds'/Night toy for kids and adults/Must be seen to be believed. Would love to hear from you if you have any of these crawling Spookies especially any that haven't been mentioned here.

'DRAC'S BACK' - Novelty Record

I love a good novelty monster/horror tune, something to lift the spirits, raise the dead or just for a little ghoulish fun. Most of these type of records were made in the USA but here in the land of Cushing and Lee, we have 4 copies of the hit single 'Drac's Back', first by Andy Forray, then Red Lipstique, and last but not least The Bollock Brothers, really like the covers on these. I'll do some more digging for more tunes from the British Tomb.

SPOOKY SKULLS

I have had these for quite some time, either bought during the late 70's or early 80's. I think they were most likely for sale during Halloween or for sale at all times in joke shops. Can't remember where I got them now, all I know is that I really like them and that they make a nice decoration for that spooky tomb. They are made of hard rubber/vinyl [Something like that] and have a peice of elastic for them to be hung up. The second photo of the 3 light colour ones are glow-in-the-dark. Not sure who made these, used to see alot of this sort of thing back in the 1970's/80's as well as rubber skeletons, bats, figures such as Witches, Devils etc [These are known as Jigglers in America and made by a company called Ben Cooper known for their range of Halloween costumes for kids].

'FEINDISH FEET' Pots

I was talking a freind of mine the other day and looking through some comics he had from the 1980's and I came across one of the adverts for 'Feindish feet' Yogurts, I asked him if he remembered them and he said that he thought he had some of the pots in his green house. Anyway a few days later I went to see him and sure enough he had some, must of been in his greenhouse since the 80's, the pots were a little faded and covered in dirt and dead woodlice inside some of them. He used to have them for his kids to plant plants in, anyway I cleaned them up and here they are.

'BUBBLEBATH WOBBLERS'

These little retro looking bubble bath figural containers are just so cool and great fun with their wobbly heads. Consisting of BONEHEAD, VAMPIRE and WEREWOLF and made by Napa Products Ltd of South Cave. I think these were available at the time from 'Boots' chemists, sometime during the 1990's.

'FOAMY FIENDS' - Bubblebath containers

The 'Foamy Fiends' Frankenstein's Monster and Mummy were also made during the 1990's, not sure what particular year though. These were produced for Super Drug Stores. The 'Foamy Fiends' were made of quite thin plastic but I think look rather bubble-ly.

'HORRORBUBBLES' - Bubble Bath Bottle/containers

I really like to see all the different novelty bubble bath containers that come out each year, great fun and look nice displayed. Of course I like them even better when I come across a monster one like the examples I will be listing here.

The 2 'HORRORBUBBLES' that you see here of Frankenstein's Monster and Dracula were made in 1994 by Jackel International Ltd of Northumberland. I think the figures are quite cute although they do both have rather sinister eyes.

VAMPIRE 'SPOOKY DOOR KNOCKER'

Sometimes the coolest Halloween things can be found in places that every Halloween normally have cheap and tacky ghoulish goods, I am talking mainly of the Pound shops, but I guess you get what you pay for, but it's nice when you do see something that catches your eye. Something a little unusual or as nice graphics or nice design. I don't have anything against tacky items as such but sometimes they can have a bit of tacky class to them. Anyway one such item as you see pictured here is this fantastic looking Vampire spooky door knocker which I got a few years ago from a 99p shop. I wish I bought a few of these now as they are just wonderfully sculpted and a little sinister. Although it is only made of plastic, I think it would look great on an old spooky door all the time or just for Halloween. The 'Spooky Door knocker' was part of the Horror Zone range at 99p stores, this particular item was made by Rayland, not sure if they made all the Horror zone range. Hope to see more of this type of Halloween product at 99p and Pound shops.

'HORRORS 'N' HEROES' figures etc.

I have already shown pictures of the 'Horror Bags' Lucky bags that came out around 1997 but I wanted to mention them again because at one point during their run you could collect small plastic figures that came in the lucky bag, along with game cards [similar to Top Trumps], puzzle sheets and Battlefield game board. These were all part of 'Horrors 'N' Heroes', in which you had to try and collect the 16 plastic 2 inch figures which are all based on monsters and heroes of legend such as Minotaur, Hercules, Gorgon etc. In each of the Horror Bags you also got one of the cards and puzzle sheets plus small peices of card with Horror 'N' Heroes written on one side, these were for the figures to be glued onto to form a stable base for them to stand on. The Battlefield game board parts came in the giant sized Horror Bags [Never got any part of the game myself]. The only picture I have seen of the gameboard is from the advert you see in the photo. The advert was featured on the back of one of the horror themed colouring books you sometimes got too, these coluring books featured drawings of some of the Monsters and heroes from the game as well as other spooky images [will do a post on these sometime]. There were 8 puzzles to collect of which I managed to get 5 of them, as a bonus if you collected all 8 and then completed the puzzles you could send away for the Battlefield game board, although on the first puzzle it says you could send for a mystery gift.

I managed to collect 11 of the 16 figures which you can see above, would love to know what the other 5 figures were. Anyway I'll tell what the figures are that I have: Ist photo from left to right - Echidine, Neptune???, Boreas, not sure what this one is, and Cyclops. 2nd photo: Chimera, Heracles, and Scylla. 3rd photo: Gorgon, Minotaur, and Hydra. As you can see these are quite nicely detailed figures. Can anyone else remember these figures or even have any of the other 5 figures? Would also like to see a photo of the Battlefield gameboard too if anyone has one.

'GHOST STORIES' - Duke of York theatre, London.

Saturday just gone I went to London to see Andy Nyman's and Jeremy Dyson's 'Ghost Stories' at The Duke of York theatre. I love a good spooky play at the theatre and this one certainly is a top peice of theatre of fright. I won't go into the actual plot and story of 'Ghost Stories' [It seems a tradition that audience members don't reveal any of the plot]. I will say that if you enjoy theatre productions of plays like Susan Hill's classic 'The Woman in Black', you will love 'Ghost Stories' for its spookiness, eerieness, and creepyness, but you will also experiance the intense, the monstrous and also have a few laughs along the way. The production has amazing atmosphere and special effects that are Incredible, that sometimes makes you think "How the Hell was that done?". Andy Nyman's and Jeremy Dyson's love and understanding of all things ghostly and horrific certainly comes through this production with plenty of thrills and chills that will make many people jump, scream, or get the pulse pumping a little faster.

Ever since 'Ghost Stories' opened in Liverpool at the Liverpool Playhouse and at The Lyric Hammersmith, over 130,000 audience members have been thrilled and chilled. And now playing in the West end to still packed shows. So please don't just take my word for it, if you have the nerves and are 15years old and over then do see this wonderful creepy play which ends this year on June 19th.

Thanks Andy.

GHOST STORIES

'Horror Bag' stickers???

These stickers, I understand came free with a comic, not sure when or which comic. These stickers seem to me to be one of Horror Bags many promotional items, the only clue really is that some of the stickers have the titles of some of the horror bag range, those featured here are Bones, Claws, and Bats, which because of Bats being the last of the range must date these stickers from the late 70's/early 80's. Anyone know anymore about these?

'ESCAPE FROM FRANKENSTEIN' board game Ad.

Came across this cool advert from a comic which is advertising Waddington's 'Escape from Frankenstein' board game. I love the idea of the comicstrip and the wonderful artwork. I will at some point do a post on the 'Escape from Frankenstein game.

'The Palladium Cellars' - Recent figure photos

Ever wondered what happened to the figures from the Palladium Cellars? Well I certainly did, from what I heard last about them is that some of the figures were bought by a collector and then stored away, other figures went to other similar waxwork type exhibits. Well it looks like they were bought by a private collector but not here in the UK because the photos you see here were sent to me via email, there are a photos of a number of figures but I have picked out ones relevant to the Cobwebbed Room. It was so nice to see that the figures are still around even though they are looking a little worse for wear in parts. I wonder if the animatronics on these still work? Would love to see them all up and running again and the Palladium Cellars or similiar exhibit opened again with these original figures.

The photos show an original sign from the cellars, the back of The Phantom of the Opera, and 2 of The Curse of the Werewolf figure. I wonder what happended to the other horror/monster figures such as Dracula, Dr.Frankenstein and Monster, Jekyll and Hyde etc?

Palladium Cellars, London clip.

'CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN' Socks

Managed to find some of the 'Curse of Frankenstein' Hammer socks that I mentioned in my other post about the 'Hammer' Dracula socks. These are from 'Asdas' also.