Monster Mania 22 : Merch Haul!

A shit ton of cool shit to buy and not enough money makes John a dull boy.

I was operating on just about the smallest budget I've ever had for a convention at this past weekend's Monster Mania, which was definitely a bummer.  A lot of looking, not a whole lot of buying.  But hey, I came away with some cool shit regardless, even if the haul wasn't exactly a big one.  

 

Check out my Monster Mania 22 swag!!

 

 

Pretty much as soon as I walked into the dealer room, I was approached by independent filmmaker Chris Seaver, who ran Low Budget Pictures and now runs Warlock Home Video, a retro shot on VHS throwback label.  Seaver and I have many mutual friends and though we've been at the same events before, this was really the first time we ever actually met.  He bestowed upon me Warlock titles such as Die-B-Que, Death O'Lantern, Happy Helladays, Sexquatch and even a VHS copy of The Dingleberrys.  Gotta respect anybody who releases a new movie on VHS.  And for that matter, anybody who makes a film called Sexquatch!

 

 

Ah, at long last ... DeConte Collectibles' Leslie Vernon figure is mine!!  This figure, which debuted at the con, was the one thing I was absolutely sure I would be returning home with.   And boy is it sexy.  Kinda wishing I had bought another one to take out of the package, because Leslie is looking like he wants to be held and loved!

You can see more pictures of the figure and find out how to snag your own by giving this post a read!

 

 

Weird old trading cards always get me.  These ones were put out by Topps in 1992, and a dude was selling packs for a single dollar.  I had never heard of these prior to this past weekend, but these things are pretty cool, and they certainly live up to their gruesome name.  Let's crack the pack open and examine its contents!

 

 

Each pack comes with three cards, which look like normal trading cards, with normal friendly sentiments on front, but then open up like greeting cards to reveal gruesome twist endings.  One of the three cards in each pack is a 'Scratch 'N Stink' card, allowing you to smell the grossness being shown.  The only problem with the cards, as you can tell up above, is that time hasn't exactly been kind to them.  For whatever reason each card was glued shut, and trying to open them nowadays pretty much guarantees damaging glue rippage.  At least, that was the case with the pack I got.

Check out images of each of the 44 Gruesome Greetings cards, opened and unopened, over at Mr. Potter's Funtime Blog!

As a thank you for me recently mentioning this film on the Freddy In Space Facebook page, star Michael Welch ran into me at the show and gifted me with a DVD copy.  I've yet to see Hometown, a throwback style anthology flick, but the reason I posted about it on Facebook recently was because I was inspired by the story of the director, Jay Byrne, and his long quest to get the movie made.  Thanks for the exchange of kindness, Michael, and I look forward to checking this one out!

About a month or so back, on Facebook, London 1888 artist Christopher Ott half seriously threw out the idea for this print, which I told him he absolutely had to go ahead and draw up.  Up until I headed over to his booth at the show, I had no idea he had actually done it, so I was pretty happy to see it hanging up there with his other art and of course, couldn't resist grabbing one for myself.  Chris doesn't have any of these available for sale in his shop (London 1888) yet, but I'll let ya know if they make it in there!

Trick 'r Treat Madballs!!!  These were my absolute favorite find at the convention, purchased from one of my favorite Monster Mania vendors; artist Brian Dunn.  You may recall the amazing Trick 'r Treat bust I picked up from Brian at Mania last year.  Well Dunn came to the show with a brand new Sam mini bust (below) this time around.  I didn't have the money to purchase it, but Dunn did something pretty brilliant that allowed cheap fucks like me the chance to own a piece of the piece, if you will.

 

Using the Sam head he sculpted for the mini bust, Dunn made replica head molds out of foam, essentially creating a line of different colored Sam Madballs.  I love everything about these things (the smell! the feel!), and Jen and I couldn't stop buying them.  In fact, just about 5 minutes after I bought my first one, she fell so in love with it that she stole it, and I had to go back and buy another.  The only reason we don't have more is because Brian was sold out when we went back over to his table to grab another!

I think Dunn has tapped into something incredibly brilliant here and I hope that he's inspired by this to whip up a whole line of Madballs style foam heads of different horror icons.  Love that dude's style!

Jen picked up this hand painted wood cat mask from Little Punk People, an art company that it has become Monster Mania tradition for her to buy a little something something from.  Hell, I even had Little Punk People owner Daniela Fullam whip up a custom painting of our two cats, Buddha & Mothman, for Jen for Christmas last year, which proudly hangs in our bedroom along with all of her Monster Mania Punk People swag!

And finally, Jen's other big splurge.  Not sure what the hell this nervous twisty bacon candy cane thing even is, but it was 5 bucks and Jen fell in love with it.  And who am I to judge?  The company is called Klaydom, and they had a table absolutely filled with equally precious little clay oddities.  Mmm, bacon candy canes.

If I had more money, this post would not be ending right now.  But I don't.  So it is.  Sad face.

Now excuse me while I go squeeze my Sam Madballs, and get my happy face back!