Frankenstein Monster 'NERDS' comic ad

I really love this ad for 'Nerds' sweets with Frankenstein's Monster, a really stunning peice of art, full of atmosphere and great colours. Electrifying. From a 1988 Buster Comic.

Thanks to Peter at http://petergraycartoonsandcomics.blogspot.com/search/label/welcome

HORROR BAGS - 'BATS' Packet

Here at last is the 'Bats' packet from the Horror Bags range. These scans were from an ebay seller just recently. As usual a nice looking wrapper, not sure what year this will be from but Bats was the last of the range of Horror Bags. I would guess that it will be late 70's early 80's. I should think that this shade of gray used on the packet was probally the first time this colour was used on any crisp packets.

Thanks to darren

The post I did on the Horror Bags T-Shirt transfer and the Horror Bags offer in which I said that I wasn't sure where the pictures came from...well I came across a page I printed from ebay back in 2004 and the T-shirt transfer also came with the Horror Bags offer page, also the instructions on how to do the iron-on transfer. The seller explains that the transfer measures 9 inches by 7 inches and arrived folded from the suppliers.

'LEGEND HORROR CLASSICS' Poster magazine

The short lived and unusual title of 'Legend Horror Classics' (1974/75) only lasted for 13 issues was similar in format to the more well known title 'Monster Mag'. Legend Horror Classics contained a comic adaptation usually of a classic Horror story. The first issue would feature Dracula, the second issue Frankenstein...These comicstrip stories were drawn by Kevin O'Neil and were usually in 3 colours [see scan above]. The magazine of course contained a wonderful colour horror poster of a still from a British horror film. These posters were usually about 4 A4 page size. It was a little unusual to have a comic adaptation in a poster magazine format, which I suppose sets it apart from other similar formats. The Comics would be dropped from issue 11 when Legend Horror Classics format was revamped and now would contain colour features on a particular monster from films, issue 11 would concentrate on Vampires, issue 12 Werewolves, and issue 13 on Frankenstein. this change of format would now give it a closer feel to 'Monster Mag' although Legend Horror Classics's features and posters were not so gory and as big as those covered in Monster Mag. Legend would also contain a portrait of a classic film star such as Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Elsa Lanchecster, Peter Cushing etc in a famous characterisation. These wonderful peices of artwork were created using the dotting process, I forget what this process is called, but it is very effective [see scan above]. All in all Legend Horror Classics although short lived was a nice addition to British horror collectables and the posters sure would look great on the wall.

'NASTIES' Collecter's Sticker Album

Most sticker albums are usually published by Panini or Merlin, but the one featured here was published by a company called 'FKS Publishers Ltd' of London. At a guess judging by the cover price this sticker album most likely came out during the 1970's. Anybody heard of it before or know when it did come out?

The 'Nasties' stickers are colour cartoons of an assorted range of monster/creature characters such as The Murks, Beastlies, Grizzlies, Creepies, Hairies, etc. these Nasties are featured on there own page/s and show the Nasties in funny situations and with the one line joke underneath the sticker [see The Murks page above]. The stickers are basically a comic picture joke like what you used to get in comics such as Monster Fun, Shiver and shake, etc.

The Pictures above feature example page of stickers, the front cover, inside front cover, inside back cover, and back cover.

'HORROR BAGS OFFER ADVERTISEMENT'

This is the 3rd picture I found from my discs. I really have no idea where I got this picture originally but I'm pleased that I kept a copy of it. Looks to be from a comic or an issue of Look-in.

As you can see from the ad, there was an offer for the 70's game 'Scream Inn' which I believe was based on the comicstrip of the same name. I have never seen the game myself but from pictures I have seen of it, it looks great. The second offer we have a Horror Bags T-shirt which is a different and probally better design than the Iron on transfer as featured in the earlier post. Fangtastic image, I wonder if any of these T-shirts have survived. Its a shame that the ad isn't a lot more clearer as you can't read the small text, maybe another better pic will turn up sometime.

'HORROR BAGS T-SHIRT IRON ON TRANSFER"

Here is another picture that I came across while looking through my pictures on disc. This time its what looks to be the same transfer that you could send for from packs of Horror Bags [see pic of pack in an earlier post]. Looks great, this is probally another ebay item the picture came from.

'EAT HORROR BAGS' now there's a demand, I wouldn't advice it now though if you have any 30 plus year old packs of Bones etc. Urrgghh.

'ALPHABETTI SPAGETTI SPOOKY OLD HOUSE GAME'

I was having a look through some discs I have of pictures I have saved over the years from the internet and came across 3 pictures that I totally forgot I had. The first picture we have here is a photo of the Alphabetti Spagetti 'Spooky Old House' game and the original envelope that it came with. I've been wondering what this game looked like and all a long I had a picture already. Looks like it was probally an ebay item.

'PAPERMATE HAUNTED HOUSE PEN'

I remember buying the Papermate 'Haunted House' pen sometime during the 1980's, but somehow the actual pen was either lost or mis-placed somehow and I can't for the life of me remember what the pen looked like, not even sure if it had a graphics on it as such. I love the images on the box its just a shame that it got crushed over the years, empty boxes are not the easiest of items to keep. I have never seen one since, mind you if it is just a plain pen it wouldn't be really worth it. Anyone else remember these or still have one?

'ACTION SPOOKY'

I mentioned this briefly before to see if 'Action Spookys' would jog anyone else's memory, my mate Sean who does remember them and did the drawing above wrote a little about what he remembers about them:

Back in 1970/71, when I was 7 or 8 you could buy plastic Skulls called 'Action spooky' with chewing gum at the sweet counter of your local newsagents. they came in both red and black in a spookily illustrated cardboard box. The thing I remember most about them is that when you pressed a button, the eyes popped in and out of their sockets and the mouth opended and its tongue shot out. I have done a crude drawing from memory, but bare in mind I have not seen one for 37 years. Its strange but I have mentioned 'Action Spookys' to others the same age as myself but nobody can remember them.

Thanks to Sean

'TARGET' magazine for boys

The weekly 'Target' magazine began in the early 1970's and was aimed at boys with a varied range of interests. Published by New English Library, the issues would cover what you probally would expect of a boys magazine such as: Sport, the natural world, stories of war and bravery, cars etc. Other subjects included Pop music, boys fashion, profiles of film stars and films etc. Two regular comic strips were 'Bovver Boy' basically a boy skinhead, and Carrington- Crimebuster.

Dave Lee Travis hosted a regular colemn about pop music and would you belive the actor Christopher Lee also had a regular colemn called World of Cinema and TV, which was basically a platform to talk about his current activities in the film and TV world. Target would also do features on horror films and effects in horror films as well as profiles on their stars. An average issue would run to about 32 pages, a lot of which were in colour, sometimes a double spread poster was also included. I am not sure how many issues were published, certainly into the 50s.

As you can see above are 2 issues that have a horror themed cover and the Christopher lee colemn from those issues.

'WEETABIX' - Free Scary Sticker

These scary stickers, one of which you see here, came free in boxes of Weetabix, I believe in the late 1980's. There was I think about 5 or 6 in the set and they all glowed - in - the dark. I have another 2 somewhere which I'll try and dig out. The stickers came in a cardfold out which also showed the others in the set. The two pictures of the Vampire and The Werewolf short comicstrips were featured on the backs of the Weetabix boxes. There may of been others in these 'The Weetabix and the...' short comicstrips. You could get some really cool free gifts with packs of cereals, shame that is longer the case.

'CRACKER' comic

Here is a comic that is one that you don't often here about, I don't think I had heard of it untill I got these pictures, so I can't really tell you much about it and its contents. I would guess that it contained a varied range of comicstrip characters, but the cover and strip here is of course what the Cobwebbed room is interested in. I really love the artwork from the Little 'Orror strip and it also reminds me of Horror Bags Vampire, maybe the strip was inspired by this image of the vampire. 'Cracker' comic only lasted for about a year. The cover above is from the 21st Febuary 1976 issue.

Thanks to Rich

'HORROR BAGS' Fangs Iron-on T-Shirt transfer offer

Its a shame that the above picture is not an actual scan of the bag itself, but what we have here is a scan from a book called 1970's scrapbook, what is great about another picture of a Fangs bag is that as you can just make out is another item in the number of promotional items from Horror Bags. This time a cool looking Iron-on transfer, from what can be made out this would of made one of the must of items by sending those empty packets, I would love to have a T-shirt with the Horror bags/Vampire logo on. I wonder if any of these T-shirts exist still with that transfer still intact which kids would of probally got there mums to iron on. Maybe one will turn up in a charity shop/jumble sale or maybe some were passed down to the next generation, or just worn away as they tend to do.

Thanks to Darren

'BARRETT'S HOUSE OF HORROR' Sweet cigarette cards

Sweet cigarettes or candy sticks were and probally still a popular children's sweet, the white sugary sticks with a red tip were usually quite hard to bite into unless you left them out for awhile, they were quite tasty though. These sweet cigarettes came in little boxes illustrated with either cartoon characters, Marvel comic super heroes, TV characters, etc. One of interest to the Cobwebbed Room is the House of Horror set from Barretts which came out I think during the late 70's/early 80's, featured colour cartoon artwork of monsters and horror scenes and on the back a little about the picture on the front. There were 50 cards to collect in the set of which a few examples are shown above and also 4 empty packs which were being sold on ebay, first time I had seen a picture of the boxes. Nicely illustrated boxes and cards. Can you imagine how many boxes of House of Horror you would have to buy to try and get a complete set of cards, you only get one card per box.

'HELIX HORROR PENCIL CASES'

I wish I was still at school when these 'Horror Bag' pencil cases came out, these are wonderful and the sort of thing that never seems to get made anymore, well as far as I am aware. The first 4 you see here were made by Helix, the top one is made of plastic and the other 3 made of soft vinyl. The coffin shape one at the bottom I don't think was made by Helix, this is also vinyl. The vinyl Helix ones have a date of 1986 on them, not sure when they actually came out though. Helix also made other items in the 'Horror Bag' range such as a large black plastic spider pencil holder, exercise book, and pencils, there may of been others too.

'SMITH'S HORROR BAGS - 'BATS' TV ADVERT video

Well here at last is the video to the Horror Bags 'Bats' TV advert, enjoy.

'TREBOR MUMMIES' - Jackpot comic competition

Remember the post I did on the Trebor Mummies TV advert? Well here is a competition that was held in 'Jackpot' comic, in which you could win a Mummies T-shirt as shown on the cover of Jackpot above. I really love the look of these two T-shirt designs and certainly wish I saw this competition at the time. I wonder if any of the winners still have there T-shirts. Also as the last picture shows there was a free gift of a packet of Mummies with issues of 'Whizzer and Chips', 'Buster', and 'Jinty and Penny' - 'Try the taste of the Tomb'

The issue of Jackpot above is from 16th August 1980 issue 65.

Thanks to darren.

'TUDOR CRISPS' - Wear - Em Scare - Ems packet

Here we have is an original empty packet of Pickled Onion flavored Tudor Crisps, featuring the Wear-Em scare-Ems promotion, in which you could collect 8 superb badge medallions by sending in 6 different empty packs. Closing date on this pack says 30th June 1974.

Medallions to collect were:

Gorgon's head

Sphinx

Aztec Mask

Voodoo Mask

Scare Devil

Werewolf

Skull and Crossbones

Shrunken Head

'HORROR BAGS' - BATS TV Advert - more pics

Well here is 4 more screen captures from the Horror Bags 'Bats' advert. I am hoping to try and get the advert put onto Youtube as soon as I can. I shall post a link or have it here to play as soon as I get it done. In the mean time I hope you enjoy some more pictures from it.

'CURSE' Sweet wrappers

I remember buying these back in the 80's I think, but I just can't remember the name of the actual sweets. I think they were chews of some sort and the 3 wrappers above were possibly inside of the actual wrapper. Anyone else remember these?