Lack of posts

I am really sorry for the lack of posts here, for some reason Blogger isn't letting me add any photos to my posts. Hopefully I'll work it out soon and get back on track again.

Ritz cinema, Lincoln - Live M.R.James Ghost stories performed by Robert Lloyd Parry

Award winning actor R M Lloyd Parry (who featured on the cover and in a 8 page feature on M.R.James in the September 2012 issue of Fortean Times magazine) returns to Lincoln (first time at The Ritz Cinema & Theatre) to perform his highly acclaimed one man show 'Oh, Whistle...' (part of his M R James Trilogy.) Here he will regale us with two ghostly tales by the master of the ghost story, M R James.'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad' - a tale of nocturnal horror on the Suffolk coast - is considered by many to be the author's masterpiece. It is beautifully complemented here by ' The Ash Tree,' a story of witchcraft and vengeance down the generations.

Montague Rhodes James (M R James) 1862-1936, was a medieval scholar, the Provost of King's College Cambridge, and the author of some of the best supernatural tales in the English language. He produced roughly one story a year between 1893 & 1930, many of them composed to be read aloud to friends at Christmas.

Victorian/Edwardian dress actively encouraged.

Tickets are £9 each & available from http://ohwhistle-estw.eventbrite.co.uk/

A sample video of Robert Lloyd Parry's wonderful performance telling the story of M.R.James 'The Mezzotint'

'HORROR BAGS' [90's Lucky bags] Packaging box

Greetings lovers of the weird and macabre.

I thought it was high time that I began another post and hopefully keep the posts coming more often, it has been ages now and I am sorry for those that keep checking for a new post. All I can say is I'm sorry and thanks for visiting the old Cobwebbed Room. Also I have several comments that I still need to answer too, I will try and do this as soon as I can. Sorry again.

 

 

 

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I featured the Horror Bags [Lucky Bags] awhile ago and I forgot all about showing a photo of one of the packaging boxes that they were sold in. Would love to find one of these boxes full of the actual Horror Bags. As I mentioned in my original post, these were certainly the best of the horror/Halloween themed lucky bags.

Ladybird Horror classics books and tapes

Enjoy these classics of horror from Ladybird books and Pickwick Tell-a-tale,these are wonderful dramatized adaptations with music and sound effects.Click on the links below.Enjoy. 

 

 

 

 

 

FRANKENSTEIN - Side 1    Side 2

DRACULA - Side 1    Side 2

Dr.JEKYLL & MR.HYDE - Side 1    Side 2

THE MUMMY - Side 1    Side 2

'Heinz Haunted House' - Haunted Theatre promotion

I am sure that this is only the second promotional item that I have seen from Heinz Haunted House,the other being the badge which is very easy to come across. If you know of any others please do let us know. I really like the Haunted theatre background which of course is the house and scenery featured on the actual tins. The basic idea of the set is that you can decorate the scene with the sheet of glow-in-the-dark stickers,not sure if the stickers would come off again easily. Also here we have an advert from a comic of the promotion.

'HORROR BAGS - Fiendish faces' game

Well here is another Smiths Horror Bags promotional item, never heard of this one before. I spotted this one on ebay and I really wanted it but it wasn't to be again. Still this is so nice to see,these Horror Bags promotional items just keep turning up.I wish I had a list of everything in the horror bag range.I think there were more goodies that you couls send for than the longer running Monster Munch.

For those familiar with items from Horror Bags will no doubt notice that the Fiendish faces game's box art is a blown up section from the Identi-kit game;I'm presuming that the Identi-kit came first.The Fiendish Faces game looks in great condition and the artwork is very nice and gruesome,ideal for making so many fiendish faces. It will be Interesting to see if any other new/old items from Horror Bags will turn up.I wouldn't if Smiths Crisps did any promotional catalogues to give to shops at the time,showing the range of horror bags as well as banners,posters,boxes,displays etc,would love to see something like that.

Horror Bags 'Fangs Toothbrush' offer

I spotted this on ebay a few weeks ago and really wanted to bid for it but as usual I got outbid,but at least I can share the photos of the Fangs wrapper for another Smiths horror Bags promotional item.I had never knew about the Fang toothbrush,you begin to think you now know about all the promotions from Horror Bags then something like this comes up, cool fangtastic item once again. I really wish I could find out for sure what all the promotions were.Anyone know for sure?

'MONSTER MUNCH' Blog

For those of you who fondly remember 'Monster Munch' check out this cool blog which shows some of the monsteriffic promotional items you could send for as well as lots of other Monster Munch ghoulness.

http://monstermunchcollection.blogspot.co.uk/

'HORROR BAGS' Dracula Puppet

As you may or not noticed it has been quite awile since I last posted here, sorry if you keep coming back and not seeing anything new;been quite busy lately and very tired.Anyway I'm going to try and post more regular from now on if I can.

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Well at long last I have at last seen a photo of the illusive Dracula hand puppet from Smiths Horror Bags [See pic] this one was on Ebay not so long ago.Never thought I would ever see an actual one,only ever seen the advertisement from a comic,looks quite nice and better quality than I thought;wasn't even sure what the puppet was made of. I did put a bid on for this but as usual I got outbid which is always the case when I can't be near the computer near the end of the auction,oh well it was just nice to see a photo.

Borley rectory article

Here is a request from Stegron who wanted to see this article that they remembered from childhood. The article is taken from the 'Ghost Special' annual #2.

'The Hamlyn book of Ghosts/Horror/Mysteries/Monsters

I have always loved these series of books from Hamlyn with their fantastic painted covers by Oliver Frey.The Horror and Ghost ones I especially like and I have had mine for many years now,later I came across the Monsters and Mysteries ones which I never knew about at all untill I saw them. The books are all hardback and large format and the first 2 came with dustcovers. These are just perfect books for the young horror/monster fan and nice companion peices to Denis Gifford's 'Pictorial history of Horror movies' and Alan Frank's 'Horror Movies' & 'Monsters and Vampires'. The Hamlyn books are nicely illustrated with paintings,drawings and photos on a variety of genre subjects in fact,fiction and film.

'The Hamlyn book of Ghosts in fact and fiction' (1978) by Daniel Farson.
Illustrated by Peter Archer,Mike Bell,Mike Codd,Mike Cole,Peter Kesterven,and Ivan Lapper.Special photographs by Terry Williams. The actual book is plain black with a Oliver Frey painted dustcover.

Contents:

Ghosts of history
Animal Ghosts
Secret Rooms
Haunted Houses
Apparitions & Foresight
Ghosts at Sea
Ghosts can be fun
Are there such things?
The Ghost Hunters
There are such things!

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The Hamlyn book of Horror' (1979) by Daniel Farson.
First published by Hamlyn as a Beavor paperback in (1977).

Contents:

Of Ghosts and Ghouls
Vampires
Werewolves
Horror stories
Horror on stage and screen
Almost Human
A geographical guide to horror
Real Horrors

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The Hamlyn book of Mysteries' (1983) by Bernard Brett.
Illustrated by Harry Bishop,Mike Codd,Brian Denington,Peter Dennis,Bill Donshoe,Oliver Frey,Ivan lapper,John Raynes,Dave Williams and Paul Wright.

Contents:

The Eilean Mor light
Unidentified flying objects
What happened to Buster Crabbe?
The Miracle Healer
The Gloucester Sea Serpent
Kidd's Treasure
The Abominable Snowman
The Derelict
Mysterious footprints
The search for gold
Anna or Anastasia?
Flight 19
Have we lived before?
The Loch Ness Monster
The Eighth Continent




The Hamlyn book of Monsters' (1984) by Daniel Farson.
Illustrated by Victor Ambrus,Oliver Frey,Douglas Hall,John James,Ivan Lapper,David Lewis artists [Robert Adams & Mike Codd],Tony Masero.

Contents:

What went wrong with the world?
Dragons and other Mythical Beasts
Monsters down below
Strange stories of Monstrous Creatures
Hairy Monsters and Hairy Men
People on show
Gentle Gorillas
Kong and Monsters of the Movies
Monsters for our time
Monsters and the future

'Horror Party'

I came across this peice from a 1979 copy of the girl's annual 'Blue Jeans' which is part of a feature on what to do for a themed party.I included this really because it was just nice to see 'Fangs' & 'Bones mentioned from the Smiths Horror bags range. It would be interesting to know if anyone tried this horror party out at the time.

'HORROR ERASERS'

Its quite amazing how many different sort of novelty erasers you could buy back in the 70's and 80's, remember the fruity smelling ones? Even though these erasers never really worked very well at rubbing out pencil,they were just cool to have. The ones you see pictured here I had almost forgotten about untill I saw these on ebay. Always wondered what the head is supposed to be, I think there were a few different sorts of heads available,one being a Dracula head which is one that I have had for quite some time. I like the hand and foot here too. The artwork on the pack reminds me a little of the Helix Horror stationary range.

'DRACULA ROCK'

Here is something for those with a sweet fang,sorry I mean sweet tooth.Dracula rock from Whitby,Yorkshire the place where part of Bram Stoker's dracula was set.

Thanks Marcus

'DINOSAURS' Colouring Book

'SPACE CREATURES' Colouring Book

Sometime ago I did a couple of posts on 2 Action colouring books Horror and Monsters, I bought these myself back in the 1980's and have always enjoyed the pictures in them to colour in,some of the pictures were a little unusual in that they featured drawings that were based on some old horror or monster film image and changed them a little giving the monster or human character a complete different look. Anyway not so long ago I was told that there were 2 more similar themed colouring books in the same Action colouring books series,these are now featured thanks to a kind contributer who scanned the covers and a few of the pages.It is so nice to see these,always wondered what they would be like and I think they are just as good as the Horror and Monster ones.

Thanks Guy

'ACTION SPOOKY'

Awhile ago I did a post regarding a toy a freind of mine remembered from the early 70's,in some ways even after talking to me about it that he wasn't 100% sure if what he told me was right.[He was a little drunk at the time].Anyway after many searches on the net and coming across nothing,a kind contributer to the Cobwebbed room sent me some photos of the toy and box, my freind spoke of- 'Action Spooky'.At long last the search and curiosity is over.I thought and I'm sure my mate will be that we would never see a photo of an actual one.I don't know if you can read what it says on the box but it says  "Empire Made" and sole distributors; Candex Ltd, 6 Kensington Court, London W8.Love the graphics on the box and the cool skull of course.

Thank you so much Mark.