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Halloween 2007: September finds |
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| Another month of mayhem! |
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September 1st - Dollar General |
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| -Newfangled Pumpkin-man- |
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A set of light-up bobbleheads from last year has returned to the shelves of Dollar General, but with an updated and definitely nicer-looking pumpkin-monster. The other two from last year's set have gone unchanged except that they're a couple inches shorter. |
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-Mini Inflatable Pumpkins- |
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Nothing to say except that these are ludicrously cute, small and easy to throw at people. |
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September 5th - Dollar Tree |
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-Multi-faced candy monsters- |
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Filled with generic sour Halloween candy, these guys' faces spin wildly at the touch of a button before landing on a random expression as you can see here and here. I got both for the sake of completeness, but we all know the spinning-faced-candy-filled Angel of Death is the winner of the two. |
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-Cyclops Candy Bag- |
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This goofy green cyclops comes as a mildly interesting surprise in an otherwise predictable selection of tote bags in the shape of pumpkins and witches. |
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September 8th - Wal-Mart |
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-Scary Clowns!!!- |
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A brand new set of ghastly, dangling monster heads for 2007 with a surprise theme to make every caulrophobe's eyes water! You've got your maniacally happy nightmare clown, your exposed-brain cadaver clown, trite heavy metal poster clown, and even nauseatingly old clown for just $2.22 a pop.
Now that I've bought them and shown them to you, I never have to look at them or touch them again. |
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September 12th - Toys R' Us |
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-Mummy Lantern- |
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These also come with a similarly snazzy little reaper or pumpkin-man inside, but I just picked up the vengeful Pharaoh for now. If you like either Halloween or mummies, you have probably noticed that very few Halloween mummies ever really acknowledge their Egyptian roots. |
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-Halloween Play-Doh characters- |
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I may not have any use for Play-doh at my age, but it is my favorite fragrance in the world and when you put that in a $1.99 set of kiddie Halloween monsters, you have yourself a sale. |
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September 12th - Target |
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-Bendy Latex Werewolf- |
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A series of large-headed latex monsters have been around since 2004, featuring a hydrocephalic vampire, warty green witch, Frankenstein's monster and a skeleton that I've owned since its debut, but only in 2007 has the line finally expanded with the addition of this GNARLY little wolf-man and the pirate skeleton in the above link.
With his grotesquely cartoonish style, this is actually the first werewolf item I've ever felt the need to own. A milestone! |
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| -MAGNIFICENT MAGGOT- |
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SWEET JESUS! It seems like every year that I call something the best find of my life, but rest assured that if I say it a thousand times more, this will always be the time I meant it. A bug-eyed rubber maggot creature is the sort of collectible I've dreamt of since the soft spot closed up on my skull, and something I'd have treasured in virtually any size or format, but this isn't just a bug-eyed rubber maggot.
This is a 13-inch, motion-sensing ANIMATED rubber maggot, and its behavior is exactly as magnificent as the name implies: |
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MAGNIFICENT Maggot video 1 |
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MAGNIFICENT Maggot video 2 |
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MAGNIFICENT Maggot video 3 |
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The lurching! The crawling! The ravenous slurping! This isn't just the coolest Halloween thingamabob I've ever discovered, but the coolest insect thingamabob I've ever discovered. It even waves its head like a wandering caterpillar!
Still not impressed? Try reading the tag. |
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September 13th - Factory Card Outlet |
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| -Squeeze Monsters ("Stretches Body")- |
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Another instant classic, these hideous freaks are super stretchy and slightly sticky, with rubber bean-bag heads that ingeniously incorporate free-floating eyeballs!
I love how the line offers three classic creatures (bottom row) as well as a trio of all-original weirdos (upper row) which I brought home immediately. The malformed zipper-mutant is the most imaginative and disturbing, but you gotta love the goofy ugliness of bug-eyed frogman and the delightful absurdity of cyclopean pumpkin mouse!
My only criticism is that these guys are somewhat stickier than other stretchy toys, leaving them highly vulnerable to dust particles. Back in the package with you, zipperman! |
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September 16th - Super Fresh Food Market |
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-Skeleton Candy Bowl- |
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This isn't really anything special - I buy these kinds of fundamental knick-knacks all the time without blabbing about them at all - but I'm trying to make my Halloween blogs thorough, and I think the photo of this turned out exceptional. I liked its rather striking face, and it was perfect to fill a particular spot on a particular shelf that's always bothered me. |
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September 19th - Wal-Mart |
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-Unsettling big-head goblin thing- |
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So I was totally wrong about there being just "a couple" new faces in the big-head latex monster series. In addition to the wolf-man and a skeleton pirate, I was recently informed of a MUMMY in the mix, which I searched for far and wide to find only this INCREDIBLY ugly hobgoblin lying around all alone in a Wal-Mart! If that's not enough, there was also this "sexy" new witch, just slightly too disturbing for me to purchase or photograph. Oddly, not only were both of these monsters found alone, but I haven't seen a single big-head wolfman since the one I purchased on the 12th. These new big-heads are terribly elusive.
The best thing about this malformed little freak - aside from looking like the lovechild of Gollum and Yoda - are the random, nasty tufts of hair on his scalp and forearms. |
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-MORE Scary Clowns!- |
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I thought four varieties were maniacal enough, but it turns out that old wally-world harbors no less than SIX of these ghastly goofballs! I like both of these guys more than the other four, so they were a pleasant surprise as far as eye-burning, soul-sucking, childhood-trauma-dredging CLOWNS tend to go.
The one on the left is interesting as the only member of the troupe with no hair and no nose, leaving his costume the sole indicator of clownishness. The other one is interesting because its head is ripped directly from a common Don Post Halloween mask. |
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September 19th - CVS Pharmacy |
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| -Squeezey-eye Ghost Keychains- |
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These delightfully tiny phantoms have sticky, gelatinous eyes that bulge hideously when their soft, rubber bodies are squeezed. The one on the left is especially cool, his freakier, more alien face offset by an "ey, wassup yo?" posture.
...But are these cute, tiny ghosts, or cute, tiny serial killers in Halloween costumes? Maybe they're just one of each...but WHICH IS WHICH!?! !!! !!!!!!!!!! !!!! !!!
!!!!!!! !!! !!!!! |
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| -Hand-mummy Pen- |
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NOT a mummy's hand, but a hand mummy. A mummy who is also a hand. What a world we live in! |
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Back to Halloween collections! |
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On to September Part II--> |
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<--Back to August 2007 |
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E-mail me! |
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