Nosferatu statue 1981

The Esco Company was famous for its chalk were statues of famous celebrities and movie characters. The height of their popularity was in the 1970s, and for monster fans their most famous chalkware statues were a Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Bride of Frankenstein. They are some of the best likenesses ever produced on any Universal monster Merchandise.

In the early 1980s, they extended the monster line with statues of Nosferatu, Phantom of the opera, and the invisible man, as well as some other characters.

For my money, this Nosferatu statue is the prize of the lot. He's just perfect. It contains everything that is needed in the sculpt., and nothing that isn't.

Pod Stallions: John Carpenter

Seeing as it's Halloween, what better time to discuss one of the most influential directors of our youth, John Carpenter.

We discuss how we discovered his work, chronologically going through the body of work, discussing the good, the bad and the seriously underrated pieces in his filmography.

We sidetracked a little bit but anyone who listens to us knows how we do.

We hope you enjoy and have a happy Halloween!

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AHI Monster Jigglers :Toy-Ventures

Toy-Ventures this week is all about the PVC rubbery goodness of the Azrak-Hamway 'World Famous Super Monster PVC Wigglies" or we call them Jigglers.

We'll get into their history and why they smell so much like childhood

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General Mills Cereal (Killer) School Supplies

(Matt brings us another amazing gem from his collection- BrAin)

Check out this wonderful pencil case set from the General Mills cereal monsters made in 1981.

At first glance, it just looks like a cute school supply set based on Frankenberry, Count Chocula, and Boo Berry.

But then look more closely, and see exactly what haunted house they are escaping from--

"Mother, Blood! -- oh God, mother, blood!"

The image of the Bates Mansion not only on the header card, but on the pencil case as well, just puts this one over the top.

Now we know why the three monsters look so frightened – they didn't realize that they were at the house of a -- ahem-- "cereal" killer.

Now, at last, we know what happened to poor old Froot Brute-- these three cowards obviously left him behind to face certain doom

Topstone Vampire Girl flashlight

(another amazing guest post from Matt!) This wonderful flashlight is based upon the iconic image of the vampire girl from the Topstone mask series, sold in the back pages of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine.

Almost as iconic as her Shock monster cousin, The vampire girl image appeared on all types of unlicensed monster and Halloween paraphernalia throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s.

This flashlight was sold at Walgreens drugstore during the 1970s. Although the flashlight is beautiful, what really puts this one over the top is the gorgeous box art. The box calls her a "witch", but we all know who this is.

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Universal, and not so Universal Halloween Die Cuts!

Please enjoy another guest post by my pal Matt, who will take us to school on vintage Halloween decorations- BrAin.

Greetings boils and ghouls! 

Today's post features some of the rarest, best, and most sought after and valuable Halloween die-cuts ever made based on the universal monsters. 

Some of them are solid cutouts, and others are jointed figures. All of them are from that wonderful period of the late 1970s and early 1980s when, in my humble opinion, the golden age of Halloween die-cuts was occurring.

This is not the full extent of my Halloween die-cut collection. But I decided to limit today to just the die cuts that have a universal monster connection. Enjoy!

1) Eureka die cuts Eureka was a company famous for its holiday decorations, they would make cardboard die cuts as well as tissue paper accordion decorations for Valentines, Thanksgiving, St. Patrick's Day, Christmas, and of course, Halloween. 

Halloween 1974

I know for sure as a kid I'd be torn between Planet of the Apes or Batman but Kwai Chang Caine would totally be my bronze that year.

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Kooky Spooks unmasked a winner in 1979

I have no personal memory of Kooky Spooks and I'd like to think I'd remember seeing a kid with a pool toy on his head. Any happy memories?

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The Plaid Stallions Halloween Shopping Guide

It's October, my favourite time of the year and it's not just because my best colour is brown. Nope, I love Halloween more than any other holiday and i don't even like Candy all that much.

I am however, a complete rube for the monster and horror-themed merchandise, so here are some of the things that put a twinkle in my eye and total stress on my bank account:


Something Weird Spook Show Spectacular A Go-Go: I love Something Weird Video, Vinyl Records and Spook Shows. This was made for me, I just hope it gets here in time for Halloween.

Frankenstein Tiki Mug I have a real fondness for Tiki bars although it's hindered by non-fondness for anything sweet that involves liquor. There is a whole series of Universal Monsters Tikis out there right now that are tasking me. It's just weird to drink beer out of these things...

GODZILLA: THE SHOWA-ERA FILMS, 1954–1975 The Criterion Collection: This is pretty much my childhood in one little package, a deluxe set of cleaned up Godzilla movies from the "Showa Era" (AKA the UHF years) with tons of extras and little perks. Even though this is a little pricy, it's also like the last Godzilla set I'll ever buy. 

Universal Monsters Paper People by Super 7- Seriously Super 7 is killing it this year with the Universal Monsters but of all the great stuff on their site (and you should check it out) I'm most in love with this tribute to the 1970s Our Ways Studios Jointed Giants.

Zombie Action Figure Fulci's Zombie is one of my favourite horror movies and this licensed figure coming out from Pallbearer Press and Distinctive Dummies is just all kinds of awesome. i was lucky enough to score their Coffin Joe figure before it sold out and let me tell you, it's glorious. Do not sit on the fence on this one because it will sell out and quick.

Mego Horror Wave 7 Figures: As most readers of PS would know, I'm a ginormous Mego nerd and they've really been knocking it out of the park with Horror stuff lately. I'm especially fond of Wave 7's Mummy and Phantom of the Opera which were created by some great people I know. There really is no bad figure in this series to be honest.

Battling Franken Mutants- Inspired by Toho's "War of the Gargantuas" these wonderful inaction figures by Stexe (who also makes this wonderful piece) actually do battle thanks to magnets.

Super 7 Creature Beach Towel- Yeah I want this too, although I'd also like a whole series of the monster surfing. I remember that "Frankenstein goes surfing" was a throwaway gag movie name on "Gilligan's Island"  and I was six and thought it was a real movie. 

Universal Monsters Bend Ems- Apparantly these throw back to the early 1990s Bend Ems are popping up at Walgreens, I don't live anywhere near of one those, so this photo and article links to Dinosaur Dracula's blog, they know more than i do on the subject.

I'd really like to know what other cool stuff you've found this year, leave me a comment here or on our facebook group Pod Stallions so i can hopefully do a part two this month.

Black Hole Masks!

These wonderful masks from Italy are from my friend John's collection, they're exactly like the Ben Cooper/Collegeville designs but there was never a smock to go with it.

Honestly, I am just awash in envy about that Humanoid mask, I have a weird affliction for the brain dead zombies of Dr. Reinhart and always will. I really want to thank John for sharing these amazing artifacts.

Small Wonder Indeed

This morning I discovered that there is a chance that a handful of children went out for Halloween as V.I.C.I from Small Wonder, which is also known as TV's most laughless sitcom.

Picture the Scenario:

Adult: "Oh, who are you supposed to be?"

Child: "The Homunculus from TV's lowest point, trick or treat!"

We should track these people down and make sure they're ok. 

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Hasbro Ghost Gun

I got to spend one afternoon with the Ghost gun's brother "the Moving Monster Gun" when I was ten and i remember how smitten i was with this toy.

Bonus shot: Here's the Ghost gun at retail way back in 1974.

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Vintage Halloween Pics Round up

At the beginning of October I put out the call for your vintage Halloween costume photos and brother, did you respond with your wood paneled goodness like this photo from Jason above.

To be honest, putting them all together became a daunting task, however, that's a good problem to have. An incredible vintage costume explosion awaits after the jump.

Monster Pillow Case Mystery

This pillow case was an awesome gift from my friend Corey at the last Mego Meet show. It's incredibly awesome but neither of us know it's origin.

It seriously looks like Fluffy from Creepshow but that's not possible right?

If anyone has any insight, I'd love to hear it! Until then, my daughter has taken posession of this and likely won't return it.

Da Grail! Da Grail!

I managed to track down a major Halloween costume grail this past weekend and while it's certainly not the most expensive or most desired suit on my want list, it sure is a personal  favourite. More on this after the jump!

1968 Collegville Costumes Catalog

It's Halloween season and that means a shiny new costume catalog from one of my favourite companies in the entire world, Collegeville!

This year we go waaaaay back to 1968 and check out what was hot for kid's costumes that year. Leading the charge is Doctor Doolittle but in his wake are such familiar characters such as Tarzan, The Phantom, Doctor Solar, Major Matt Mason, Flipper and a nobody named Mr Spock.

Check out the 1968 Collegeville Catalog here!

More Super 8 Monsters

This year my collection of Super 8 Monster movies has increased 300 fold (mainly cause i started with like one last year). While I planned to only buy these in the wild, some good deals on our vintage toys facebook group combined with Rodan coming from a generous friend makes me a happy boy.

I'm picky what monster movies I get on Super 8 but honestly Toho, Hammer and Harryhausen are everything right about the genre to me.

Official King Kong Water Gun by AHI

I haven't really added anything to my collection of Azrak-Hamway monster stuff in a long time. Mostly because the stuff I want is either a) extremely hard to find or b)insanely expensive or a combination of the two.

That's why I was excited to snag this open carded Kong squirt gun at the last Mego Meet for a decent price.

The AHI water guns are notoriously hard to find loose, so getting any on the card is a nice get. I don't know if I'll ever find a creature so it was nice to have at least one.

However, this display still gives me goosebumps and probably always will....

Collegeville's TV assortment

I love this assortment from 1969, the majority of these characters would end up on costumes for decades. Promotion for these was done on TV spots but not in the usual manner but through participation with the myriad of local kid's shows that peppered the landscape at the time. 

Here are a couple of photos:

We need to bring back cartoon show hosts...