It's Halloween!!! :: Countdown to Halloween 2013

Countdown to Halloween 2013 is over - it's finally Halloween!

Kasu Quinn as Zombie Harley Quinn via http://www.cosplay.com/costume/370391/

I hope everyone had fun following along with us this month. I sure had a good time putting together a post for every day in October. I was able to take some time early to pre-schedule a lot of them, so I wasn't overwhelmed every night trying to come up with something fresh. That strategy helped me enjoy the process and prevented stress or missed days. I recommend that anyone who is interested in doing a month long theme should try and pre-write as many posts as possible!

I hope all readers old and new had fun too and enjoyed the countdown here and at all the Countdown to Halloween 2013 participant blogs.

Thanks for swinging by! Now bust out that Ben Cooper box and get ready to stuff your face full of Jolly Ranchers and Snickers bars!

But before you do, holler 'Trick or Treat!' and enjoy some Toyriffic Countdown to Halloween 2013 highlight treats:

Beetlejuice!
Bikini-clad Vampires!
Stephen King!
Zombies!
Legos!
Harley Quinn!

See you in November...IF YOU SURVIVE THE NIGHT!!!!!

Gremlins :: Countdown to Halloween 2013

I didn't see Gremlins when it first hit theatres. In fact, I only first saw it a couple years ago. My cousin had a couple of the Gizmo and Stripe pvc figurines back then, but I didn't own any Gremlin merchandise until I found this original Gizmo plush at the Goodwill a couple months back. He's pretty cute and Toyriffic's Intern enjoys hugging him and lugging him around the house. But to be honest, Gizmo never did anything for me. I've always felt the same way about E.T. While everyone else was swooning about how cute and sweet he was, I just thought he was a dumb looking lump.

I did always think the Gremlins-post-midnight-snack-mode looked pretty cool. And I did see Gremlins 2 in the theatre when it was released and thought it was ridiculous and fun. I remember having one pvc figure of Stripe at that time but don't recall having ever owned anything else 'Gremlin'.

But when Toys R Us released their exclusive electric Gremlin...piece of plastic...from Gremlins 2 I thought it was pretty clever and cool and even considered picking it up, but couldn't imagine spending money on what essentially amounted to a Gremlin shaped piece of plastic.

Fortunately I recently won a contest over at Pop Pop It's Trash Culture, and included in the prize was none other than electrical Gremlin!

I enjoy the unique nature of this thing. I also enjoy not having paid anything for it!

Happy Halloween eve!

Hubcat :: A Public Service Announcement :: Countdown to Halloween 2013

"Meow...what a nice Halloween night. I think I'll just roam into the street without looking both ways before crossing..."

HOOOOONK!!!
SSSCCCRREEEEEEECCCCHHHHH!!!

*splorch*

AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"One down, eight to go. But remember kids, YOU don't have nine lives, so be aware of cars this Halloween night!"

This is Hubcat, from Tyco's Crash Test Dummies toyline. He was originally released in 1991 and also came with a dog counterpart named bumper. I remember thinking this was a pretty morbid toy back then, but now I wish I had picked it up for exactly that reason. There was also a baby in a car seat released, which is debatably less morbid (at least the kid is safely stowed away in a car seat and doesn't have a 'roadkill' action feature!) and I wish I had picked that one up back in the nineties too!

Fortunately I found Hubcat recently at a thrift store for a quarter. No sign of Bumper though.

Lego Haunted Cemetery :: Countdown to Halloween 2013

Another Halloween themed Lego diorama! This one is less busy and more direct than my sincere pumpkin patch.

I might add some more monster elements, I considered a werewolf chasing someone across the cemetery, or maybe a vampire/coffin combo in the mausoleum, but for now I am happy with the ghost haunting the mausoleum and the zombie rising from the dead! I suppose part of the charm of this diorama is that I can alter it in a few different ways with relative ease. It's the diorama that keeps on giving!

The zombie came from last year's Halloween polybagged set that included a coffin car, with the hairpiece from the Highlander blind bagged minifigure.

The ghost is also from a Halloween polybagged set that came out last year and included a grandfather clock.

The rest of this stuff comes from our mishmash of Lego pieces collected from years of gathering them together from all sorts of sources.

In addition to, and probably moreso than the challenge of building stuff around here is the challenge of keeping it all in one piece, thanks to my intern!

Whoooooooooooo!

My intern, I said!

Pet Sematary :: Countdown to Halloween 2013

Pet Sematary. Another Stephen King classic which I have yet to read, but have very vivid memories of.

You see, contrary to whatever you may have read on the bathroom wall, I am not generally a fan of horror. I don't think I have ever seen a Freddy movie, nor have I seen more than one Jason flick. I don't like gore at all and have avoided everything from the Saw movies to all but  the first Scream movie (and I only saw that because of my then crush on Drew Barrymore and she died right away!) I like psychological horror like The Exorcist and Psycho, and smart takes on old cliches like A Cabin in the Woods, and I love The Walking Dead in both comic book and television form, and of course I am a fan of Stephen King, but I generally avoid the genre as a matter of course, and did even moreso when I was a kid. I'm an enigma, I know.

My older sister, however, could not get enough of this stuff! She read King voraciously, as well as any and every other scary or horror or true crime book she could find. She would also watch all the slasher flicks she could get her eyeballs in front of. Fortunately for her there was plenty of both back in the eighties - and often (quality of interpretation of source material notwithstanding) they would both have the name Stephen King attached to them.

So I don't remember if it was the book or the movie poster I first saw, but I remember my sister explaining to me that the word 'Sematary' was misspelled because it was written by kids who didn't know any better, and that the book involved their dead pets, and that those pets may very well come back to life, but EEVILLLL!

Being a sensitive pet loving horror non-fan then as much as now, I have successfully avoided the book and the movie for about thirty years. But when I found a pile of old Stephen King hardcovers at a flea market for a buck each recently I couldn't walk away from any of them, and this one was one of them.

I want to read it, I really do, but part of me still has reservations.

Happy Birthday Darla! :: Countdown to Halloween 2013

Toyriffic's resident intern turns 2 today! And in keeping with the Countdown to Halloween, here she is in (most of) this year's Halloween costume - Harley Quinn - as made by her mommy!

She also has red and black shoes and a Harley hat, and mommy might try drawing a simple domino mask on her on Halloween night, but personally I think Darla makes a perfect unmasked Harley and doesn't need the hat or mask at all.

Happy 2nd birthday, Darla! Daddy loves you!

11/22/63 :: Countdown to Halloween 2013

11/22/63 is another Stephen King book that isn't what you would generally expect from the shock master. As the book's title and cover attest, this novel is about the assassination of President Kennedy. The twist is that this novel is a 'time travel' story; the protagonist's goal being to stop the assassination from ever happening. A simple synopsis, there is of course ,much more to it than that, and plenty of twists that are indeed worthy of the name Stephen King being printed on the cover.

11/22/63 is excellent read and one of my all time Stephen King favorites. But of course I am a big fan of the concept of time travel and multiple universes (hence my enjoyment of the Dark Tower series).

I actually read this one last year, having borrowed it from the local library. I picked up this hardcover copy to give to my sister (the previously alluded to horror fan) as a birthday present.

Catwoman Purrrsday :: Catwoman in a Zombie Cage Cosplay :: Countdown to Halloween 2013

Despite all my rage I am still just Catwoman in a zombie cage!

Not exactly a Zombie Catwoman...yet! But with only one week until Halloween, one can't be too cautious.

Via Maikaleigh on deviantArt

Harley Qwednesday :: Zombie Harley Quinn Cosplay :: Countdown to Halloween 2013

There's only one week and one day left of our Countdown to Halloween 2013! And continuing with our zombified Harley themed Qwednesdays for the month of October, I bring you...another zombified Harley Quinn!

Via NuxieQuinn on deviantArt

Zombie Superman :: Countdown to Halloween 2013

'Lois Laaaaaaanes...'

Ok, so it's just Bizarro from the JLU toyline.

Still, Bizarro is a pretty Halloweeny Superman villain, whether he's an imperfect clone or an alien from a square planet.

Sincere Pumpkin Patch, Lego Style :: Countdown to Halloween 2013

Grandma sent us this 'giant' pumpkin, which after building I decided must be The Great Pumpkin himself! And what to do with a Lego Great Pumpkin but to try and build the most sincere Lego pumpkin patch around?

 Are these Trick-or-Treaters or horrific outcasts from Lego nightmares? YOU DECIDE!

 Fortunately my stepson also had an old Spongebob set that was made up of orange pieces, so I was able to put 'pumpkins' of all sizes in my sincere(ly haunted!) pumpkin patch.

 That butcher minifigure was boring until I gave him a skeleton head. Now he's horrorific!

And man, do I love these skeleton horses. We have a bunch - I've accumulated plenty from secondary sources, but don't know what actual sets they originally came with. Is it a dead horse from a western set, or a ghost horse from a Knight set? Whichever it is, I won't beat it, just in case.

Poisunday Ivy :: Zombie Poison Ivy Makeup Tutorial :: Countdown to Halloween 2013

Want to turn yourself into a zombie Poison Ivy this Halloween? Check out this makeup tutorial by Maria Grazia Mua:


I dig the vines sprouting from the wounds!

Eyes of the Dragon :: Countdown to Halloween 2013

I have yet to read this one, but I look forward to getting into it soon (once I finally finish the Dark Tower Book 8, which I have decided to just get from the library after all.) Written for his then 13 year old daughter, The Eyes of the Dragon was first published in 1987. More of a fairy tale than a horror story (at least as far as I understand, having not yet read it) I believe the story does have some connection to the world of The Dark Tower.

I think I paid three bucks for this at the goodwill, because it's a hardcover.

That's all I have to say about the book, since I haven't read it, except maybe 'Yay dragons!' because dragons are pretty nifty.

SLUG Zombie Invasion :: Countdown to Halloween 2013

It's a shame the S.L.U.G. Zombie toyline didn't survive to complete the intended full series of 100 figures - some of the final figures would have been the absolute best! I suppose I am as much to blame as anyone, I didn't get into them until their prices were drastically slashed at Target earlier this year, at which time I nabbed a ton of them because they were so darn cheap.

I got them all together for a Countdown to Halloween 2013 shoot - the ubiquitous 'circle the wagons' scene! Who will survive to re-up their contract next season...?

Probably no one. You see, I unfortunately chose a rather...difficult...Director to work with:

"CUT! CUT cut cut cutcutcut CUUUUT!
 You call that acting?!?! I've seen better acting in a Spiegel catalogue!"

"Didn't any of you idiots read the SCRIPT?! THIS zombie goes HERE and THAT zombie goes THERE! It's all written down in black and white RIGHT THERE IN THE SCRIPT, PEOPLE!
Geezaloo Christmastrees, whatta bunch of idiots. Now I know how Cecil B. must have felt."

"Okay, that's better. Now look alive...HAW HAW just kidding; you're Zombies, stupid!
Aaaaaaaaand ACTION!"

Catwoman Purrrsday :: Zombie Catwoman Cosplay :: Countdown to Halloween 2013

Via NicciFett on deviantArt.com

Harley Qwednesday :: Zombie Harley Quinn Cosplay :: Countdown to Halloween 2013

Via Enansi-V on deviantArt.com

Ferocious Frankie :: Countdown to Halloween 2013

Ferocious Frankie was one of the best SLUG Zombie figures released. Biting the hand that feeds him, and proving that the zombie epidemic doesn't only affect humans!

Ghost Clown x2 :: Countdown to Halloween 2013

What's scarier than a clown?

TWO clowns!

I ended up with two 'Ghost Clowns' during my random selection of Mystery Micro-Figures blind bagged series 1 figures by Character Builders. Ironically, this is the figure I originally wanted most (besides Velma.) Ghost Clown is a genuine classic tv show 'villain.' And I have to admit, having two of them isn't a disappointment. They make great goons for my Lego Harley Quinn, and are creepier in a pair!