It's almost Halloween time again & you know what that means: Retro Halloween Decorations! :-D
6:34pm- So, it's September 24th & this time next week it will be exactly October 1st, the official start of one of my favorite months & holidays: Halloween. So, as I usually do every year I head out to old card stores in the hopes of find some of their old-store stock still put on the shelf every year in hopes that someone (i.e. ME WHAHAHA!) nutty will buy it from them.
What still amazes me is the sheer number of card stores that used to be Hallmark stores years ago. It's mind boggling...just about 99% of the stores I've found stuff at have a huge stock of Hallmark Halloween products & even merchandise for other holidays too.
The formula remains the same though, as all these "new" owners kept the stock of the previous owner's & sell as much as they can each year. As each year I seem to tap out my nearby sources, I'm forced to journey further outwards to find stuff. Today I found another old card store in Holbrook that had some cool old Hallmark Halloween Boo Bazaar stuff yet again.
At first I saw some Halloween bean bag toys which I walked closer to inspect further. Found LOTS of old napkins (1 variety that I already found, bought & use every year from a card store up the block from my house), some old Honey comb decorations that I have & a retro Boo Bazaar gorilla mask (at least...i think it's a gorilla?) for $8.95. Having only $4.26 on me, limited my purchases but as the stuff is priced from the 80's I got 2 napkins (1.49 for a lunchen & 1.09 for a tea sized one), two .75 cent cookie cutters & a Snoopy figurine dressed like a mummy for my mom (no pun intended LoL).
As I was about to leave, I turned towards the card section & my jaw dropped- TONS of Boo Bazaar decorations!!! O_O!!
(see below picture of the jaw-dropping Halloween section) Misc. stuff from various years is there but some cool stuff is located in the middle-right area of the picture (right under that picture of the Owl perched on a branch). It's a white skeleton cut-out but it's lounging on it's side & looks very funny LoL. Hooray for ancient stuff! :-D I'm going to jet back over there before they close so I can snag a few items until I get more money.
Picture of Halloween Section:
7:55pm- Okay, JUST got back from that card store & took some pics of the stuff I bought. Still has the gorilla mask (the tag says it's "Pongo" so I'm going out on a ledge to assume it's a gorilla/simian of some kind), & this other decoration that folds out to go on a wall or table.
So, without further ado, here's pictures of my first real Retro-Halloween Decoration Haul of the season:
Left to Right: a package of 16 Luncheon Napkins ($1.49), a "Decoration" depicting a spooky Halloween scene in silhouette ($5.95), a Jack O'Lantern decoration that can be made to stick out some how ($0.99 I think? The perforated price-tag portion of it is no longer attached), the 2 cookie cutters I mentioned above ($0.75 each), a Halloween Jack O'Lanturn Wind Sock ($14.50- yeeeouch! A little pricey, BUT seeing as it's from the late 80's/early 90's, it's a small price to pay) & a Black cat on a jack o'lantern cardboard decoration ($0.99) for Beth.
Decoration: I really love how they just call it "Decoration". It doesn't get a cool spooky name, or something a bit more...creative? No, it just calls it "Decoration" LOL. Awesome. "For tables, windows and walls--or anywhere at all!" is the blurb on the top, along with the skematics of it underneath that ("ONE 29" X 13 1/2" DECORATION PER PACKAGE"). I was immediately attracted to this one as I love spooky scenes & the like. Just really really nostalgically cool. :-D
Jack O'Lanturn thing: Not sure what it was originally called, as something that was perforated on it has been detached (if you look towards the bottom right of the decoration, you can see the little white dots- signs that there WAS once something there not too long ago). So, we may never know what it's called, but I instantly recognized it as being from the mid to late 80's on the art style alone. Upon closer inspection I saw that I was right; it's from 1982. Holy crap. This decoration has been in that cardstore for a veeeeery long time. The decoration opens up sort of like a card & what your'e supposed to do (according to the instructions on the back) is punch out the yellow spaces on the front so that the yellow on the inside can give it a carved look. A pic will follow once I set it up
Halloween Wind Sock- Jack O'Lanturn: Apparently Hallmark made many different Windsocks, as I have one from them with orange packaging instead of black that's a red imp/devil. VERY psyched to see this one as these things tend to be a bit more durable then say cardboard decorations.
Well, that's it for right now, but more stuff is sure to be found between now & Halloween so be sure to check here again!