'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.

'SCREECH' - game

A game that is played in the dark, how cool and spooky. 'Screech' is a great simple game that consists of a plastic owl which is battery operated, a number of cards that have glow-in-the-dark pictures on them, a number of rubber feely creatures and a feely sack for the creatures [This is beginning to sound quite rude, I'm just saying what they called from the box]. The object of the game is straight forward enough: The cards are layed face down and the feely creatures put into the sack. One player is chosen to start first, you turn the owl on by the switch at the back which lights up the owl's eyes. On top of the owl is a crest which you spin round and when it stops a pair of spooky creatures is lit up in the owl's eyes, the player then takes one of the cards face down and slides it into the slot just under the owl's head, the card is held there for 3 to 4 seconds and when taken out the image on the card will glow revealing which creature you have, if it is the same has those in the Owl's eyes then you take a feely creature from the sack, then its the next players turn. The first to win 3 feely creatures is the winner. However there are 2 cards that have a different meaning, if you get one with a foot on it then that player has another go and if you get a card with a Goblin on it then you have to return one of your feely creatures to the sack. I think it would add to the atmosphere of playing in the dark by playing some eerie music or playing nighttime sound effects such has owl's hooting and screeching, trees blowing in the wind, etc. Not sure when this game is from, looks to be sometime during the 1970's, although the game is made in America by 'Parker', it says on the box that Parker games is a division of 'Palitoy Ltd', Coalville, Leicester, England, so I would imagine the game was distributed in the UK too. Love the artwork on this box especially the pointing skeleton.

Appointment With Fear - 1990s intro

Wall's Dracula Advert (1981)

'YOU MAKE ME SCREAM' award

Just been awarded the 'You make me scream' blogger award from Cyberschizoid, which I am very pleased, Thank you Cyberschizoid. The 'You make me scream' award was created by Jenny of Memoirs of a scream queen.

The rules for receiving the award are that you have to thank the person who awarded you the 'You make me scream' with a link to their blog, then give this award to 10 other blogs that really make you scream with joy, scream with excitment everytime they update their blog and of course because you think their blog is most excellent.

I would like to award the 'You make me scream' award to the following fangtastic blogs:

Cyberschizoid

Secret Fun Spot

Drunken Severed Head

The Manchester Morgue

Wonderful Wonderblog

Plaid Stallions

The Haunted Gardens

Monster Magazine World

The Horrors of it all

Groovy Age of Horror

'MONSTER MAG' - Top Sellars Ltd

Now what teenage horror film fan could'nt resist a poster magazine containing gruesome and blood curdling photos, articles on horror films, stars, and real life horrors such as torture etc and of course a large full colour poster of a fiendish monster to put on their bedroom wall or to take to school and show their mates? That is if the newsagent would sell you one or an adult would buy you a copy, after all issues of 'Monster Mag' were For adults only, as it is written on the cover. This is forbidden fruit for the youngsters as is the girlie mags on the top shelf but this also makes it all the more reason for some of them to want to check them out, you know just for curiosity's sake. I should Imagine some of them that did manage to get copies of Monster Mag maybe weren't allowed to put their posters on the wall, not that they were too gruesome or gory but for the 1970's these were the sort of thing not usually covered in any of the genre magazines of the time, especially in full colour. 'Monster Mag' was possibly the first of its kind, many years before America's gory 'Fangoria' magazine came out during 1979. Now 'Monster Mag' is pretty tame to what we have these days, but during the 70's they were the horror/monster fans mag to have.

'Monster Mag' was published by Top Sellars Ltd of London between 1973 and 1976, a total of 17 issues were published. The first few issues were printed in Italy which brings me to issue #2 which has become the issue most talked about, why? Well because the issues were printed in Italy and shipped to the UK, they of course had to go through customs and checked, Issue 1 got through ok but for some reason #2 never made it and all issues were destroyed, although there are german and french editions of the first 4 issues that can on occasions still be found on places like ebay. So really the only way to see that 2nd issue is by buying one of the german or french issues, not much use if you can't read their language but who cares about that the language when you have the gory pictures to look at. Still its a shame that #2 never made it to these shores for us British fans to enjoy and to make our own minds up. Mind you I have heard that the issue in questions may see a reprint. Would be nice to see 'Monster Mag' return again with all new issues starting with that 2nd issue and then publishing the Double X issue which was due after #17, I guess many fans were waiting in anticipation for that issue, me included. I think eventually 'Monster Mag' was printed in the UK probally from issue 5 at a guess, as there are no german or french editions afterwards, and maybe Top Sellars thought it would be a lot easier to get it printed here rather than risk loseing issues through customs. Editor of the first 4 issues was Roger Cook, then from #5 to #14 editorial would be taken over by Rodgers wife Jan Cook. From issue 15 which became Vol.2#1, editorial duties were taken over by Dez Skinn, whom would bring a touch of ghoulish humour to his editorial. Dez would later on publish 'House of Hammer' magazine as well as many many more genre magazines, comics etc. A small advert hinting at the new 'House of Hammer' magazine was printed on the editorial page and a another issue featured the cover of the first issue in black and white on the back of 'Monster Mag'. To end I thought, well still do that 'Monster Mag' was a great publication with its interesting articles, stunning photos and surperb posters especially for Hammer horror fans as most of these posters were from some of the great Hammer films such as 'Curse of Frankenstein', 'Twins of Evil', 'Frankenstein and the monster from hell', 'Vampire Circus' etc. There was a nice one of the poster artwork from Amicus film's 'From beyond the grave' too. In issue Vol.2#2 the poster featured the 1958 Hammer 'Dracula' poster artwork and the other 2 issues had posters featuring 2 seperate photos split into the one poster. For those of you who would like to get your claws onto issues of 'Monster Mag' then like I say do check out Ebay, although it can be difficult at times to find a perfect issue of one as many do have pin holes or cellotape marks where they were obviously put on the wall. Or there is also a disc that is sometimes on ebay which has all pages, including posters of each issue nicely photographed and in PDF format, which also Includes issue #2 and a photocopy of a feature about issue #2 which was first published in a fanzine called 'Magazine of the movies'. Please check out the wonderful and Informative website of Dez Skinn where you can read about his other publications and enjoy rare pictures and artwork from 'House of Hammer' magazine etc.

http://dezskinn.com/