Rant Review: Monster Mansion 500 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Mudpuppy/Galison, art by Stephanie Birdsong)

I picked this up on sale early this year and put it on the pile with my other Halloween-friendly puzzles. I did Welcome to Spooky Town by the same artist last year, and I enjoyed this one even more. It's a bit tougher than that one, but still well on the easy side. I focused on the rooms of the house first, treating each as a mini-puzzle. They went together pretty quickly, then I filled in the gaps between them. The tree and sky were left for last, and while tougher than the rest of the puzzle, the striations on the tree and different colored sections of the sky kept these areas from being tedious. 

My favorite little vignettes are the cats holding a seance, legally-distinct Wednesday Addams feeding treats to the ginger cousin the Kong family doesn't talk about, and the demonic cat/squirrel/Chupacabra creature barfing up slime on the front steps.   

The pieces don't have the nice matte texture I enjoyed on my last two Galisons. These are the more standard slightly glossy pieces, which are still okay. The fit was good, I experienced no false fits, and there was very little puzzle dust. I have a busy week ahead, but I'm hoping to find time to knock out two more Halloween puzzles before the 31st rolls around. 

Rant Review: Puzzle Within a Puzzle: Seeing Double 100 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Great American Puzzle Factory, art by John Speirs, 1991)

This was a thrift store find during the seemingly endless summer, which I dutifully saved for a more appropriate time. At a mere hundred pieces, it went together quickly. I remember seeing this art style quite a lot back in the late '80s and early '90s, and I enjoyed taking it all in as I put it together. Once the puzzle is done, there are fourteen differences to find between the two halves. Can you find them all? The solution is included in case you need a bit of help. 

The pieces are thin, sturdy cardboard, and have withstood the past few decades without damage apart from a minor crease in one piece. The pieces snap together well, and the completed puzzle easily passes the pickup test. The price sticker reveals that it originally cost $3.99 at K&B, so I got quite a bargain getting it for a dollar!

 

Rant Review: Spooky Portraits 500 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Galison, art by Anne Bentley)

I never got around to grabbing this one last year, and now it's risen from the grave and staggered across my puzzle board! It's a simple, fun piece of art with clearly delineated sections that made it a breeze to assemble. The toughest part was the edge, and it was still quite easy. My favorite portraits are the Bride primping her epic coif, the friendly reaper, the very Margaret Hamiltonian witch, and the Gill Man showing off his new manicure. Happily, the  pieces have the matte soft touch texture I liked so much on my last Galison. The foil adds some nice extra visual flair, but it's difficult to capture in a photo. There was more dust than usual, but the fit is as good as usual, and the completed puzzle can be picked up without crumbling.

 

Rant Review: Ye Olde Spooky Shoppe 500 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Galison, art by Anne Bentley)

This new puzzle from Galison's fall lineup is a perfect kickoff to my Halloween puzzling! A vampire emerges from his coffin, presumably to begin his shift as store manager, as a ghost stocks and a skeleton serves as cashier. Candy corn is distributed liberally around the store to show that they know what true horror is all about. There are plenty of fun details scattered about; the severed finger in the tip jar is a particularly nice touch. This is the sort of cool little shop I'd like to have in my town. The slight risk of having my neck bitten or soul stolen while shopping would be a fair trade-off for not having yet another Dollar General or Starbucks in town.

The pieces have a different feel from other Galisons I've done, with a matte soft-touch finish that I quite like. This is a rare case where I didn't even bother to sort out the edge pieces, and just started putting it together right out of the box. The small piece count and colorful art made this a viable way to do the puzzle without any sudden realizations that I'd screwed up and needed to stop and sort. I dislike sorting, so this was a nice change of pace. Expect to see more Galisons soon as I delve further into my stockpile of Halloween puzzles!

Rant Review: Thriller Movie Classics 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Seesaw, Art by Lewis Johnson)

I always enjoy a good collage, and this one is right up my alley! I've seen all but a few of these movies, many of them courtesy of MST3K. There are some bonafide classics here, and even the schlocky flicks represented here are generally a fun watch. In case anyone is looking over these movies and feeling inspired to watch some, my picks for the five best are The Mummy, The Body Snatcher, The Haunting, Bride of Frankenstein, and The Invisible Man. (King Kong and The Birds get honorable mentions because everyone knows damn well that those are all-timers!) 

I quite like most of the poster art, but I'm not thrilled by the Kong art used here. The actual art is not the issue, but it's odd that this is the only movie represented for which new art was created. Why not use any of the numerous movie posters? Licensing issue, perhaps? The poster used for The Black Cat is for the 1966 version from Hemisphere, not the 1935 all-timer that first teamed Lugosi and Karloff, or even the tepid 1940 version, both of which had far more interesting posters. Just FYI in case anyone is looking at this and wondering why they chose to feature that poster! 

I've had a pair of Seesaws in my pile for a while, and selected this one as my first foray into the brand. The pieces are on the thin side, but sturdy, and have a pretty nice feel. The fit is a bit loose, and while the art generally made it easy to avoid false fits, they were certainly possible. There wasn't a whole lot of dust to deal with. Overall, this is a decent quality puzzle, about in line with what I expect for $12. My other Seesaw is Xmas themed, so I'll (presumably) be tackling it once we've made it to the end of the year.

Rant Review: Spooky Mansion 500 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Galison, Art by Katherina Castano)

After completing one of the worst (from a QC standpoint) puzzles I've ever done, I wanted to do something quick and easy as a palette cleanser, and this cute little Halloween-themed puzzle I picked for $8 at TJ Maxx fit the bill. Apparently Galison releases a bunch of these cute, cheap Halloween and Autumn-themed puzzles every year, but as I almost never go to TJM, I had never seen any until this year. Wish I'd known sooner! I was thinking this was my first Galison, but after checking, it turns out that one of the puzzles I got at Ollie's last year was also one of theirs. Unlike that one, this puzzle has a standard grid cut. I don't have a strong preference either way, so that was fine with me, since it was at a similar level of quality. The pieces are thin and sturdy, with white paper backing. Dust was practically non-existent. The pieces have a pretty snug fit, and I had no false fits. Assembling this puzzle was easy and breezy, and exactly what I needed after dealing with a puzzle that seemed to hate me. I'll have to keep an eye out for Galison puzzles in the future, and I will most certainly make a point to swing by TJM more often to check their seasonal section! Hopefully some Xmas and winter-themed Galisons will show up there soon, or if I'm very lucky, a restock of some of the Halloween ones I missed. 

Halloween month kickoff!

To kick off October, I thought I'd share a couple of photos of some of the new Halloween decorations I've picked up in the last couple of months. (Just to clarify, I won't have time to do a Halloween-related post every day of the month like I used to, but you can absolutely expect plenty of Halloween and horror-related content, as ever.)

First up, courtesy of Dollar Tree, we have the Grotesque Garden Gazebo!

They're not as detailed or as well-painted as the Halloween miniature's you'll see at other places, but the price was right!

When I visited the Spirit Store a couple of days after they opened back up, I found this fella priced at $4.97! No idea why he was the only one marked down while the others were all still full price, but I didn't care. I snatched him up in a blur.

Pretty awesome, eh? Probably my favorite of all the fucked-up horror babies they had up there. (And if the Spirit Halloween store wants to use that line as an endorsement, they're welcome to do so!)

The new series of Lego minifigures has also been showing up the last couple of weeks, ahead of the official release date. I stopped by Walgreen's last week and happened to find the one I wanted most, the one they call Spooky Girl, who is totally not Wednesday Addams. She went right into the centerpiece Haunted House display, of course!

We'll close things out with  few pics of things I saw in stores that I was too cheap-- er, that is, too budget-conscious to buy.
Remember when I mentioned how you can find better Halloween miniatures than my Dollar Tree discoveries? Michael's always has plenty, and this was the most impressive.

This food truck was pretty awesome, too.

Note the prices, however. That lighthouse is pretty badass, but it's not $100 badass.
Back at the Spirit store, we have this apparently bewildered ghost lady who is cursed with man hands.

Then there is this pleasant scene. I think I can see why your toilet's clogged, lady.

That's it for today. Lately, I'm knee-deep in Forza Horizon 2 when I'm not ogling Halloween stuff and working on my next book, so give me a holler if you happen to see me on the open road!

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.

31 Days of Halloween: Garfield's Halloween Adventure

One year ago: The Wolf Man

Let's face facts: Garfield pretty much sucks. That's a harsh reality for a child of the '80s to deal with. The comic strip has become a soulless exercise in mind-numbing routine, utterly devoid of any laughs, and on top of that, we've had to endure some truly horrific cinematic abortions.

But things weren't always this way. Back in the '80s, Garfield was king. The comic strip was still funny. We got to watch the animated Garfield & Friends every Saturday morning. And we got this Halloween special.

A cavalcade of gluttony, greed, laziness, and annoyingly catchy songs, Garfield's Halloween Adventure is a delightful throwback to the days when the networks actually paid attention to the holiday, instead of merely paying some half-assed lip service to Halloween as they do now. This animated special aired in prime time, and in those days before DVRs, the whole family gathered around the TV to watch it. (Or most of it, anyway; my dad always had the infuriating habit of channel-surfing during commercials, so we'd always miss a couple of minutes when we returned to the show.)

Garfield's hopeless owner Jon and his canine compatriot Odie are filled with the Halloween spirit, while Garfield is excited purely by the potential for some truly epic gluttony(which I guess is actually a big part of the Halloween spirit, actually). After some singing, Garfield and Odie go out on the prowl, where they meet a pint-sized Gargamel. I'm not kidding, check this out:

Various hijinks ensue-- sadly, none of them involved crashing Smurf village-- and the two housepets eventually find themselves on a mysterious island. Reluctantly entering the forbidding, run-down house, they encounter one seriously creepy old man who tells them the tale of pirates whose ghosts haunt the island.

Watching this special for the first time in years is rather an eye-opening experience. I'm always surprised these days to watch an old animated special like this; the pace is so slow, and the show spends so much time goofing around and singing songs that there's barely any time left for the main plot! Speaking of which, faded memories had convinced me that the creepy old man/ghosts on the island plot took up a good portion of the show's time, but they don't even get to the island until the show only has about five minutes left! I'm not pointing these out as if they were flaws, mind you; it's just surprising to revisit an old favorite like this and find how misleading your memories can be.

Garfield's Halloween Adventure cannot be be found on DVD currently, unless you want to go for the often-expensive out-of-"print" disc. That release includes the Thanksgiving and Xmas specials as well. Neither of those are as much fun as the Halloween special, but it's a good buy for any child of the '80s. Hopefully, they'll get off their asses and reissue it soon.