Construction of the Haunted House

I teased you with this last time, and here it is: the MASSIVE and AMAZING Haunted House! At over 2000 pieces, this is far and away the biggest Lego set I've ever owned. Nearly all the ones I had when I was a kid were dinky little $5 sets; I couldn't even dream of getting something like this back then! Cindy wanted to help, so we put on a succession of classic horror movies and spent the next eight hours building!

Here are all the parts! I didn't count exactly how many bags of parts the box contained, but it was around twenty.

The three instruction books...

... and the decals.

First floor done!

Some interior rooms. Note the ship in the bottle.

Two floors down!

Completed! A couple of days later, I modified the top so that it can spin, based on a suggestion I saw somewhere on the web. I had actually been looking for ideas for a weathervane, but came across that and liked the idea.

One side of the attic. I friggin' love that it has a Victrola!

Yeah, it's a pretty nice house, but can it really be called a home with no coffins? (Note the mid-day snack in the jar next to the bed.)

Make sure you squeeze all the flavor out of that spice serpent! (The organ is an original creation I whipped up a few weeks earlier.)

The entry room and staircase.

A little office area, complete with desk and stationary!

"Here's a little number I tossed off recently in the Caribbean..."

Here's the hearse. As a potential future project, I want to build a garage for it in a matching style.

Brick-Ho-Tep swings by for a visit.

Gill Man and Scarecrow hanging out next to the tree, in which dwells...

... the Wolf Man! The tree is significantly modified from its normal version, and I'll mod it further as I acquire more branch and "leaf" pieces.

"I bid you welco-- RARRRGH! FIRE BAAAAAADD!!!!"

Cindy was sold as soon as she saw that it had this widow's walk! Love the zombie faces carved into the columns.

Full shot of the house, with Man-Bat stopping by to hang out.

Yeti in the ice cave I whipped up for him. If you look closely, you may be able to see the dismembered Lego body parts he's been snacking on in the cave behind him.

The spire, post-modding. It's pretty cool to spin it and watch the ghosts swirl around the witch.

The mad scientist hanging out by the porch, possibly drinking a urine sample.

Sweet liquor eases the Frankenstein Monster's pain.

Full shot, with all minifgs added.

These are the minifigs that actually came with the house(there were two ghosts). Cindy is holding them; my nails are not that fabulous.

Circa 1931

I can say without a shred of doubt that, of all the Lego sets I've lusted after over the years, this one is my favorite. I'm very glad that I got back into the Lego addiction in time to get it before it's discontinued and the price skyrockets. (Seriously, if you wanna invest some money with no risk, buy some of these. They'll be going for 2 or 3 times the retail price in a couple of years. Lego sets are never worth less than you pay for them, provided you get them at or below retail.)

The Haunted House occupies a place of honor in the house, and will be the centerpiece of my Halloween decorations in the years to come. I'd still like to get the castle that is part of the Monster Fighters line, but if and when I do, it won't displace the Haunted House. This thing is simply amazing.

Falling Back into Lego: A Tale of Addiction

Those of you who follow me on Twitter or Facebook have surely noticed that I've become hooked on Lego again the past few months. The movie apparently recaptured many people, but I had actually become ensnared a few months earlier. Like most people, I had been bitten by the Lego bug when I was a kid. Even when I started buying stuff like action figures again as an adult, I resisted buying Lego stuff because I was well aware that it's a bottomless pit of hellish addiction. The very nature of Lego means that every little thing you can get integrates with everything you already have, so even sets you may not be interested in are still tempting simply because of all the parts you can add to your existing collection. So, for years, I stayed strong. I even resisted the Lego Batman line, reasoning that I already had so much Batman stuff that I simply didn't need Lego-fied versions of it all. My will grew shaky when I saw things like this, but I managed to stay strong and resist temptation.

Then, last year in Target, I saw this.

Just an innocuous, innocent little thing. And only $7, which made it ever so easy to impulse buy. I let out a deep sigh when I saw it. I knew then and there that I was back in, because there was no way I was walking out of there without it. And this thing isn't a one-off deal, it's part of an entire line of classic monster-themed sets.

So, over the next few months, I wound up getting this.

Then this.

And this, which I simply adore.

Then this thing, which I got for a very nice price on ebay since it only included the train itself(which was all I wanted, I already had all the minifigs from other sets, and could do without the plane).

Then the  topper, the king of them all, THIS. (Cindy included for scale.)

It deserves its own post. You'll get it in a few days.

My art: Gill Man... and Friend

Jill Thompson is having a little contest on Twitter today. The challenge is simple: draw the Creature from the Black Lagoon! I drew from memory, preferring to let my imagination fill in any gaps. I embellished a few areas where it felt right; for instance, the "spines" branching off from his brow. I couldn't for the life of me remember what the hell the palms of his hands looked like, but it made sense that he might have suckers there. Once he grabs his prey, it ain't gettin' away!

Mad Monster Party, baby!

We watched Mad Monster Party last night, a kid-friendly monster movie from the '60s that tends to be overlooked most of the time. Cindy had somehow managed to know me for five years without seeing it. It's a stop-motion animated movie starring Boris Karloff himself, and it's great fun. I featured it here a couple of years ago. It's available on DVD, and it's cheap, so check it out!

31 Days of Halloween: The Creature from the Black Lagoon figure

One year ago: Bride of Frankenstein

It's time to look at another really cool monster figure! Today, it's the Creature from the Black Lagoon figure Diamond Select released last year. Aside from a rubbery stretch toy, this is the first Gill Man figure I've ever gotten. For whatever reason, I have always had the worst luck when it comes to action figure representations of this guy. I won't bore you with the details; suffice to say, every time one has been made, events seem to conspire to prevent me from getting it. That finally changed last year.

Like the Mummy figure that was part of the same line, Gill Man doesn't have much in the way of articulation. Aside from a couple of joints on the arms, he's nearly immobile from the neck down. There are swivels on his ankles, but they don't move much, and are no help in posing him to where he can actually stand up. He really has to be put in front of something that can help prop him up a bit, or else he'll be falling constantly. The way his feet and legs are molded, there's just no way to put him in a stable pose on his own with the meager articulation he has. That's really my only gripe with him.

The sculpting is excellent, with some great detail. Julia Adams looks pretty spiffy, too! The likeness is very good, ans she has a joint at the head to get it in just the right pose relative to where you put the Gill Man. The figures are the base are clearly based on this photo from the film, and they pulled off the recreation pretty damn well.

That does it for today. Enjoy the rest of your day, everyone, and don't forget to creep back by tomorrow!

31 Days of Halloween: The Monster Squad

One year ago: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man

For a monster-loving kid in the 1980s, director Fred Dekker's The Monster Squad came along at just the right time. There just weren't many movies made that decade in the classic horror mold; most horror movies of the '80s featured alien creatures such as the aptly-named Aliens, or else they were more generic slasher fare such as the seemingly endless sequels to Friday the 13th, Halloween, and Nightmare on Elm Street. There's nothing inherently wrong with those films, but they simply didn't appeal to a lover of the classic monsters such as me on anywhere near the same level. So, in 1987, The Monster Squad seemed like a godsend.

The movie revolves around a group of children who belong to a club based on love of classic monsters, called the Monster Squad. The group includes Sean(Andre Gower), Patrick(Robby Kiger), Horace(Brent Chalem), Rudy(Ryan Lambert), Eugene(Michael Faustino), and, after she helps recruit a very important new member, Sean's adorable little sister Phoebe(Ashley Bank). The kids discover that many of these monsters are actually real, and pursuing some nefarious purpose right in their hometown. With the help of an elderly friend(Leonardo Cimino), the Monster Squad sets out to stop the monsters, and destroy them if possible. They'll have to face Dracula(Duncan Regehr), the Frankenstein Monster(Tom Noonan), the Wolf Man(Carl Thibault, played in human form by Jonathan Gries), the Gill Man(Tom Woodruff Jr.), and the Mummy(Michael McKay) before it's all over.

This movie is a delight from start to finish, and even more so for anyone who grew up in the '80s. It is truly a product of its time, despite its reverence toward the classic Universal monster movies. The cast does a good job in their roles overall, with a couple of the children standing out. A couple of the monsters get short shrift, which was probably inevitable with such a large cast. The Mummy, in particular, doesn't really get a chance to shine. From a design standpoint, however, I'd name this Mummy second only to the Karloff version.

The Gill Man also impresses, with a wonderful design that comes off extremely well onscreen. The Frankenstein Monster design is evocative of the Universal version, yet remains different enough to retain its own identity. The Wolf Man is one of the better film werewolves we've gotten over the years. Dracula is clearly modeled on the iconic Lugosi version, and Regehr does a pretty good job in the role. He maintains an air of cordiality much of the time, but he unleashes a brutal nastiness at times that gives us a glimpse of what the Count is truly like.

The Monster Squad is a wonderful blend of monsters and comedy, and like the classic Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein, it remains respectful of the monsters. That is one of the main reasons why it works so well. Some aspects are rather dated, but those don't harm the movie; in fact, they'll only enhance the experience for any child of the '80s. There haven't been many great monster movies made in the past three decades, but The Monster Squad is one of them.