I may or may not have made a trip to Michael's and Target.....

I'm a big fan of Target's design choices they make every year (I may have said that in posts previous...). My first sighting of this year's creations are on this Market Pantry brand box of mixed fruit snacks. Look at that little guy. LOOK AT HIM.

I'm also a fan of anything with even a vaguely Halloweenish theme

Butterfinger Cups are one of my favorite mass produced candies. It is one of the few things that if I see it on sale, I'll probably snag one. And now they are skull shaped. We're done folks. Everyone go home now.

Lego Monster MiniFigs

These Lego Monster Minifig Blind Boxes are going to ruin me.

Spoopy #Halloween #Lego #minifigures

A video posted by Brian Byrne-Soria (@tyrannosoria) on Sep 7, 2015 at 8:29pm PDT

Monsters of the Grid Iron

Do you guys remember Monsters of the Gridiron?

I was never a kid that was into sports, but I remember thinking these were super cool. I lost these somewhere, alongside my Goosebumps collection, but a good friend of mine had Ronnie "The Rattler" Lott's card and generously gave it to me!

They never really scared me, but I did get weirdly creeped out by some of the make up.  Apparently there was some sort of contest, but I don't remember that in the slightest.

There's even a BEHIND THE SCENES video over on the NFL site. This is the most enthusastic I've ever been about pro sports.

Creepy Content To Consume

I'm gonna assemble a fairly standard list of brain-melting creepy, gourd-centric, and Hallowhimsical movies and tv shows to watch throughout the season:

Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Hocus Pocus
Nightmare Before Christmas
Trick r’ Treat
Halloween Series
Nightmare on Elm Street Series
Friday The 13th Series
Ernest Scared Stupid
Halloween is Grinch Night
Trick Or Treat
Cabin In The Woods
Under Wraps
Tower of Terror
The Haunted Mansion
Child's Play Series
Halloweentown
3 Community Halloween Episodes
Addams Family

First Trip To Spirit 2015

Took my first trip of the 2015 Halloween season to my local Spirit Halloween... of which there only seem to be 2 so far. Check out a very short, unimportant video of stuff that I liked.

A Trip To Target (or 3 Targets, to be honest)

It's Heeeerrreeeee

I took a grocery trip to my local, friendly H.E.B. only to find these fellas on the shelves. School just started this week, so that means as soon as the binders and college rule notebooks are packed away, the best season of the year officially arrives.

Lookie, HEB knows what's up. Spinning candy bowls. #halloween #64Days

A video posted by Brian Byrne-Soria (@tyrannosoria) on Aug 28, 2015 at 6:36pm PDT

Getting Closer By The Day

Last year I discovered Dinosaur Dracula, and watched, like, EVERY video he put up about Halloween. When I need that little October feeling in my life, I can throw on one of his videos, and scratch that itch.  A few weeks ago a couple of friends and I decided to try and do a Halloween podcast. It didn't work out so hot, and we kind of dropped the whole thing, but Dino Drac had the same idea it seems. Him and a buddy have done two episodes of the "Purple Stuff Podcast", and so far it's gold. The second episode was about childhood fears, and it got me reallllly thinking about mine (aliens, dingus!). Maybe we'll give our podcast a second go and try and put her up. Maybe.

In the mean time, I made a little animation for you, as well as trying to get The Spook Troops up and going..... again. So much time, so little energy.

The 2015 Season Approaches

Ok, we've hit August. I've seen the Fall decor in craft stores since late May, but I didn't get my first peek of anything department store-ish until this week.

We've got our first seasonal beer on the shelves at HEB (Mueller for you locals).  Out Of Your Gourd Pumpkin Porter, eh? I'll have to give these fellas a shot here pretty shortly.

I also saw a pinball machine called "Monster Bash", which the classic horror icons are a rock band. Obvi.

Knightmare Factory

Doesn't it feel like this is the packaging on Halloween goodies at the dollar stores?

Mummy For My Mommy

PVC frame with fun noodle musculature.

Tore apart a dollar basket for a rib cage structure.

Old fabric used for the wraps.

Foam skull with sculpey musculature

Added a bottom lip.

Using paper towels + mod podge for flesh

Close up of adding the flesh.

Saran Wrap skin, with deck stain.

The stain is still sticky. I hope it dries. I may have to leave it outside in the direct light.

Getting That Itch

Sometime around May every year that feeling starts to set in.... When's Halloween? It's right around that six month mark, the exact time that's the furthest from my favorite holiday. I recently went to Portland/Seattle for a little trip and found myself in the EMP, a really nifty pop culture museum. They had an exhibit on Science Fiction, Fantasy, and (gasp) Horror genres. They feature a LOT of cool props from movies, books, and games (hand written Magic cards!), and it's super cool. The horror exhibit had a bunch of movie monster props, and coupled with the chilled northern air, my instinct to pull out the spooky decor kicked in.

It was cool to see such an iconic piece up close. It's painted using the same techniques I used in the haunt industry.

DAAAAA Zombie Costume that was in "Thriller"

The real deal. The costume from the movie.

Target and HEB

So as I was running errands and stuff, I went to HEB and Target last night. Bought me a cinnamon broom from HEB, which was next to a stack of Autumn beers. I'm currently taking a lil booze break, but may have to start sipping some of the fall flavors soon. Target had some more goodies out, as posted below.

HEB was stocked up on these.

It's the most wonderful time of the year.

Nifty lil caged raven

These talking skulls were a lot of fun.

World Market Trip

So there's a World Market around the corner from my apartment. This weekend, I decided to start getting some fall decor and swang on in. They have some neat stuff in there. My phone was almost dead, so I only grabbed a few pics:

Sugar cookie skull stamp

The body parts are paper cut outs on toothpicks.

I bought these two fellas. I'll let you know how they taste.

These skelington lights were pretty cute.

Target Trip

So I really appreciate Target's approach to Halloween. They come up with a lineup of original characters every year, and have tons of fun party and house decor. The vibe is much more my alley then the super gored out specialty of the other, holdiay-specific stores. Don't get me wrong, I like my flesh-eating cannibals as much as the next guy, but I'm a sucker for the cutesy spooksy stuff.

Note: It was barely the second week in September when I went in, so there was barely anything up. I'll be sure to go back in sometime next week to really check it out.

This year's new character is this Mask-Leafed Jack-O-Lantern, here adorned upon a kitchen towel.

This dude caught my eye as I was looking for the Halloween aisle. I dig him a bunch.

I have one of these from when I worked at a toy store, but I didn't know what it was. 10 bucks for a Frank shaped bucket of Chupa-Chups just may have to go on my desk this year.

Target's got some good original costume stuff too. These Skeleton riders were pretty nifty.

EYE BALL MASKS IS EYE BALLER.

You don't understand how much I appreciate the fact that they have a generic swamp monster creature. I like this so much.

I'm a sucker for themed drinks. The potion bottle mixers for martinis and stuff are always cool, but these glass(ish?) skulls caught my fancy this time around.

While it wasn't in the Halloween section, I found me a Pugsley Addams shirt. I even prefer the grey and white to the black and white.