MORE 'MONSTER MUNCH' Packets

Here we have another 6 different Smiths and Walkers Monster Munch packets, 5 of these are from the 1990's and the last from 2001.

First up is a packet from 1992 in which the front is promoting the 'Monsters Club' in which by sending a cheque or postal order for 1 pound 99p you got Whacky Monster badge and a Mega-Monster board game. The 2nd packet's (1993) promotion is for a Spooky Sound keyring that glows, these came in fluorescent colours and by a press of a button the keyring gives out a different spooky sound and eerie glow. There were 3 monster keyrings to collect - Pink Monster with spooky screech, Blue Monster with a haunting ghost sound and Green Monster with Naughty Giggle, there was also a Witch keyring to collect which was purple and the sound was a wicked cackle. The 3rd packet from 1994 as you can see is just a normal Roast Beef flavor packet. The 4th packet from 1995 has the promotion of the Grippa Clippa which were found in some packets if you were lucky. There were 3 to collect, a pink, a blue, and a orange monster which you gripped onto whatever you could. The 5th packet's 1997 promotion is for Spooky Tazos which were found in some packets, I think there were 10 to collect, also you could also be lucky and find a Tazo that on the back would be a lucky winning one in which you could either win 5 or 10 pounds. Lastly here we have a packet from 2001 for the New Blue pickled onion flavor in which although the snack looked normal, it wasn't untill you started eating it that it made your tongue blue, brilliant gimmick.

'THE DEMON HUNTER'S HANDBOOK'

I don't really know much about this superb book apart from as you can see from the pictures that it is printed in the style of a very old journal with handwritten text and accompanying drawings. From the sample scans that were sent to me, there are sections on a particular demon/monster of which the text describes what they look like, their characteristics, how to destroy them etc. It is a beautiful looking book, from the superb cover to the brilliant illustrations of the demons/monsters and the beautifully written text of which is written as though by a real demon hunter whom has seen them and experienced them first hand.

'Palladium Cellars' facebook page

Anyone interested in the Palladium Cellars that closed down during the 1980's [see my post on this] are invited to have a look at a new facebook page that will concentrate on this wonderful waxworks attraction, there are a pictures from the brochure and some rare black and white pictures of some of the exhibits. Gavin who began the page very recently will welcome any interesting contributions regarding the Palladium Cellars.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19093407609

'THE WITCH' - Treats Ice-Lolly

I came across this wrapper for 'The Witch' Ice-Lolly made by Treats, I have no idea though what year it came out and what other Ice-Lollies Treats made. All I know about 'The Witch' is what it says on the wrapper, Its a fruit flavored Ice Lolly and made by Treat products Ltd of Leeds and manufactured in Ireland. Anyone remember 'The Witch' ice-lolly or know what year it came out?

'DRACULA'S SPINECHILLERS ANNUAL'

This annual was published by World International Publishing in 1982, it contains short stories with illustrations, these are 'The Night Creatures', 'The Frightening tale of Jamie McGregor, and 'The Fiery Point Incidents', also the annual reprints the comic adaptations that first appeared in issues of the British horror magazine 'House of Hammer', the first is an adaptation of Hammer film's 'Dracula' a.k.a. Horror of Dracula which first appeared in issue 1 of House of Hammer, the second comic adaptation is of Hammer's 'Twins of Evil' from issue 7 . Rather than sticking to the original black and white originals, the comic adaptations half way through are printed in garish colour, not individual parts of a picture but the whole frame given it a kind of tinted look, which I think kind of spoils the flow. The annual is a slim 64 pages which also has a page about Vampire Lore, macabre miscellany, and a 2 page game called 'Dracula stalks his prey!'

As well as a picture of the cover above, the second picture shows the 1st page of the story 'The Night Creatures', 3rd is a sample picture from the story 'The Frightening tale of Jamie McGregor', next is a few frames from the Dracula comic adaptation, and finally frames from the Twins of evil adaptation.

'HORROR TOP TRUMPS'

Top Trumps was and still is I guess a very popular card game, essentially all they are is a set of cards of a certain subject [usually cars, planes, boats, ships, bikes etc] which has a picture of whatever car, plane etc, the name of the subject and a list of categories such as MPH [miles per hour], HP [horse power], etc for cars, then it gives those sums for that category. You deal the cards out among the players who keep just the top card facing up and the first player picks a category and says it out loud to the next player, who ever has the highest wins the other person's card and you just carry on until one person wins all the cards. Simple but addictive, plus you learn something that may or may not impress someone. Whenever we played Top trumps it was always the way you asked if you wanted to play 'Do you wanna game of Top Farts?' or a game of Top [followed by a raspberry noise].

The Horror Top Trumps were 2 sets [Dracula and Devil Priest], obviously the same format as other Top trumps but this time we had cool monsters such as The Fiend, The Beast, Thor, Creature from the Black lagoon, Lizard Man, Death, The Ghoul, Man eating Plant, Phantom of the Opera, Frankenstein, Headhunter, Circus of Death, The Risen dead, Maggot, Wolfman etc. Some of the monsters were made up, but others were familiar horror characters or monsters from horror films. Some of the images taken from horror films were sometimes called something else on the cards such as The Reptile from the Hammer film was called here The Freak, or there is an image of Lon Chaney snr as the Vampire from London after midnight, here he his called The Mad Magician, not that it really matters. The categories for the Horror top trumps are Physical strength, fear factor, Killing Power, and Horror Rating.

Above we see the 2 covers of both sets, examples from both sets and the back of a card.

'LYON'S MAID HAUNTED HOUSE' - Ice-Cream Lolly

I have a vague memory of these lollys from Lyon's Maid, I seem to remember the pictures that were printed on the actual lolly. The Lyons website [http://www.kzwp.com/lyons/group2.htm] is a wonderful site that covers all products made by the famous company and has some great pictures too. This is the only place that I could find anything on the Haunted House ice-Cream lolly, it says that Haunted House came out in 1973 and was priced 4 pence. The printed pictures on the lolly included Frankenstein's Monster, Spook, Skeleton, Spider and web, Bats, Witch, and A Creature. The pictures were printed in pink, orange, red, green, and blue and were edible. The Pictures above show the Haunted House wrapper and 7 promotional badges, not sure how many there were in a set, but I would guess at least 8 - 10.

'Black plastic coffin and badges'

Similiar in a way to the 'Bone Shakers' coffin and candy product that I featured not so long ago, these small black plastic coffins also contained candy/sweets of somekind, can't remember what they were like, all I know is that they were very hard sweets, maybe boneshape? Anyway in each little coffin along with the sweets was a plastic badge which could come either in black on red, black on white, blue on white, or blue on yellow. The examples above show one of the black coffins and the different variations of colours of the characters which include:

from top left to right

Slime monster?

Frankenstein's Monster

Witch

Ghost

Dracula

2 Headed monster

Troll?

Mummy

Viking Ogre?

Hunchback

Headless Skeleton

Not sure of the exact names of some of the characters, just going by what they look like. I have no idea how many different characters there were or how long the coffins/badges were on sale and what sort of packaging they came in. These were available in the shops sometime during the early 1980's.

'A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF HORROR FILMS' - Denis Gifford

One of the first horror film books I bought was this seminal classic from film critic and writer Denis Gifford, this book bought many entertaining hours either reading or just staring at the wonderful stills featured inside, this is one of the attractions of this 216 page large hardback book, it has 350 black and white stills with a further 16 in colour, even the index featured stills.

The text is easy to understand and to take in, none of your analyzing and picking apart;this is just a great book telling the history of the horror film, from the very early silents, classics from Universal Studios, Hammer films, A.I.P., and also covering horror films from around the world. Many rare and forgotten films are also mentioned and illustrated throughout the book.

One of the attractions of the book is the fantastic cover art [see pictures above of front and back] by artist Chantrell [anyone know anything about this artist?] Certainly I think one of the best illustrated covers I have seen for a horror film book, I always prefer this sort of cover compared to a photo cover. The Pictorial History of Horror Movies was first published by Hamlyn in 1973 and reprinted a number of times throughout the 70's and an updated softcover version was published too. As well as the index, there is also an Appendix which lists 'H' certificate films, a filmography listing a range of Super 8 films, and a bibliography covering books and magazines.

Every horror film fan should have this on their shelf [preferably with cover showing]. Sorry my review is the bare bones, I'm not very good at reviewing books basically.

'MONSTER MUNCH' - Pop and Tape

Normally you associate Smiths Crisps with...well crisps, but here we have a couple of unusal 'Monster Munch' merchandise from smiths Crisps. First up is a Monster Munch inspired drink called 'Monster Fizz' which was Odd Orangeade flavor, can't remember if there were any other flavors or what the Odd Orangeade tasted like. Monster Fizz came out sometime during the 1980's as far as I'm aware. Anyone else remember this short lived pop drink?

The next item from Smiths Monster munch is a cassette tape called 'Monster Munch Tall Stories'. There is no date on the tape or case but I think this also will be probally from the 1980's. It does say that it was copiled by Nabisco Brands Smiths Division and was produced by the 'V' team for Vinyltone Productions Ltd. Could this tape of been a item that you sent for from packs of Monster Munch or something sold in the shops?

Here is the track listing:

Side 1

[Theme]

The Monster's Bounce

Saving the day

Being Purple

A Song for Space

Missing on the Moon

The TV Film

Side 2

Tall Stories [Theme]

Bounce

Easier said than done

Purple Safari

La, La

Echo

TV Queen

'MONSTERS COLOURING BOOK' Pictures

Just like the pictures from the Horror colouring book that I featured on May 14th 2008, there are no pictures that are the same that are featured on the cover. The Monsters colouring book features a Lovecraftian type monster whereas the contents although does feature some weird and strange creatures they are nothing like compared to the monsters on the cover. There are however some nice pictures of strange looking monsters, grisly scenes and a few that represent a monster or scene from a film such as the Mummy one above. How often do you get a child's colouring book that has such pictures in?

'HORROR GRIPPER' Free Gift in Whoopee Comic ad

Anyone know if the Horror Gripper that came free with an issue of Whoopee (March 29th 1976) is the same one that Smiths Horror Bags promoted in the above pictures? The picture in the comic ad sure looks like the 'Claws' Horror Gripper featured on the Claws packet. I am hoping to get a photo of one of the Horror Grippers soon from someone who had sent for it from Horror Bags, as soon as I do I'll get it posted here. The whoopee ad was featured in 'Monster Fun' no.43.

'NESQUIK GHOST KITE' Competition ad

Here we have an ad that I saw in an issue of 'Monster Fun' no.44 (1976), it is a competition from Nesquick the milk shake people, I remember having these milkshakes when I was a kid and I really loved them, quite a distinctive taste to them, you can still buy them too. Anyway back to the ad, as you can see from the above picture the Ghost Kite looks quite cool and it has 3 special air vents to help the kite to climb higher and higher in the breeze. I'd love to see an actual colour picture of the kite if anyone still has one. Original retail price was 99p.

'Monsters' Junior Observer

I came across these while looking through some clippings which I forgot I had, These were featured in the Junior Observer section of The Observer magazine. I thought that they were interesting enough to put on The Cobwebbed Room, especially the artwork you see here on these small peices about monsters, anyone know how many of these there were or does anyone have anymore they could share here? These are from 1977.

'MONSTERS' Colouring Book

Here is the 'Monsters' colouring book that I promised to put on awhile ago. This came out the same time as the Horror colouring book that I featured on the post of 8th November 2007. Hoping to get some pictures scanned of some of the inside.

'SHREDDIES SPOOKY SPOONS'

It wasn't too long ago that you could collect all sorts of wonderful items from boxes of breakfast cereal, usually found amongst the cereal itself, these free toys etc were probably one of the selling points of which cereal to buy, it certainly was for me. Now there is very rarely anything much you get free except maybe a free book or an offer of some sort. Why did they stop doing these free toys etc? Probably something to do with health and safety.

Anyway here is the front and back of a Shreddies box which came out during the 1990's in which inside each box contained a free plastic spooky spoon which would change colour when put into a hot or cold drink. There was Ghoulish Green which when put into a hot drink would change into Molten Yellow. The Green spoons were Frankenstein and Cyclops. The last two to collect were the Blood-Curdling Blue spoons which turn Spine-Chilling Purple when put into a cold drink. The Blue spoons were Dracula and Skeleton. These were a nice novelty and nice artwork on the back of the box. I used to have all 4 of the Spooky Spoons but I lost one somehow, I'll put the 3 I have on sometime.

'SHOCKING LAFFS' Bubble Gum Cards

Similiar to the American 'You'll Die Laughing' bubble gum cards that came out during the 1960's/70's. 'Shocking Laffs' a.k.a.Shock Theatre was a set of 50 cards released in 1976 by Topps Chewing Gum Inc. and printed in the U.S.A. The set would feature wonderful colour photos from mainly Hammer Dracula films. The 'You'll Die Laughing' cards would feature black and white photos from mainly Universal Monster films, many of these photos were altered and would feature mystery faces in place of the non-monster characters featured in the photos. Films that were covered in the Shocking Laffs cards were 'Dracula a.d.1972', 'Frankenstein must be destroyed', 'The Satanic rites of Dracula', 'Dracula has risen from the grave', and 'Taste the Blood of Dracula'. Also Like the You'll die Laughing cards the photos would have a corny caption underneath and on the back an equally corny joke usually between 2 monsters, ghosts, witch doctors etc. Underneath these were a little description about the film scene featured on the front. The jokes and description were framed by cartoon monsters, the same on each card. Shocking Laffs background colour on the backs of the cards were either light red or dark red, strangely the set of 50 cards did not have a number 17 but instead had 2 number 47 cards, not sure the reason behind this. Apprently there is also 2 number 40 cards both have the same photo on the front but a different joke on the back, there is also a rare American test set that features some cards with different photos on the front.

The pictures above show an original box that the cards would of been sold in, this was featured on ebay a few years ago, I have no idea what it sold for, but I am pleased that I saved the picture as I have never seen another anywhere. The other pictures show examples of cards-No.5 showing a scene from 'Frankenstein must be Destroyed' and No.15 with a scene from 'Taste the Blood of Dracula', next is a the back of card No.45, and the last picture shows both No.47s.

St.Ivel's 'FIENDISH FEET'

Anyone remember these and still have any?

These Fiendish Feet Yogurt pots are great fun and featured 8 different designs of which you can see on the top picture on the left hand side of the comicstrip. These all came out during the early 1990's. As well as the comicstrip you see above, there is a Fiendish Feet competion in which you could win some Halloween goodies and also send for a wonderful Fiendish feet cup, the other picture shows an advertisement for Buster comic which contained The fiendish feet 101 Fiendish Facts as well as a poster.

Thanks to Peter