Mockingbird Lane

Okay, I admit it, it was good...

God help me it was good, it wasn't the old Munsters, but it was still good

Give us the series NBC

Countdown to Halloween - New Munsters Merchandise

Hey all you lovers of the classic Munsters, you're in for some real treats coming our way real soon...

First up is the Munsters Mini Mates set

There are two variations on the set coming, the first is the Toys R Us exclusive set of Herman in his standard outfit and a color version of the Munsters Koach, the classic modified Model A

Pretty sweet hunh?

The second is a comic and specialty store exclusive black and white version of the Koach with Herman dressed in his "Punk Rods" Hotrod Herman gear. This one is gonna be super tough to get and it's a shame because I'd like to have the figure but I really don't need two Koaches. 

Interestingly while the Koach is designed to hold multiple figures, only Herman is being released. Perhaps the rest of the first family of fright will be issued if this sells well...maybe we'll get a Mini Mates Dragula to go with the Koach? One can only hope. Both sets are due to be released in the next few weeks so keep yer bloodshot eyes peeled...

Next up comes word via the fabulous site CultTVMan of two new Munster figural model kits from Moebius Models. The two kits, scuplted by Jeff Yegher depict Grandpa and Herman working in Grandpa's Lab on an experiment and can be combined together to make one large scene like the old Aurora Prehistoric Scenes kits.

Also on the Munsters model front is an HO Scale Model of the infamous house at 1313 Mockingbird Lane

This will look awesome displayed next to the old Polar Lights Addams Family House model kit from a few years back.

And of course we can't forget the Marilyn and Eddie two pack due out any day

Ahhhh its a good time to be a fan of monsters....

Countdown to Halloween - Universal Monster Mystery Board Games

Growing up with Famous Monsters Magazine as a kid I remember the ads in the back for all the great stuff you could mail away for and I can remember these beauties quite well...
Dracula Mystery Game 1963 Bela Lugosi as Dracula himself chases you across the board. "Will the vampire catch you"?

Frankenstein Mystery Game 1963 from the artwork that is probably Glenn Strange playing Frankenstein's monster. It is definitely not the Boris Karloff version. "Find The Lurking Monster."

The Wolfman Mystery Game 1963 Lon Chaney Jr. as the Wolfman. "When will the werewolf strike"?

The Mummy Mystery Game 1963 that could be Christopher Lee playing Kharis, the Mummy or possibly Lon Chaney Jr. from the Mummy's Ghost. "Explore The Ancient Crypts Of Egypt."

The Creature From the Black Lagoon Mystery Game 1963 Ben Chapman and Ricou Browning as the Gill Man "Enter the depths of the Black Lagoon".

The Phantom of the Opera Mystery Game 1963 James Cagney modeled after Lon Chaney Sr. as the Erik the Phantom. "Can You Escape From The Phantom's Dungeon?"

Countdown to Halloween - Board Game Night - The Many Faces of Which Witch

Which Witch was a board game released in 1970. The game had you play as children trying to make your way through the Broom Room, Witchin Kitchen, Spell Cell, Bat's Ballroom and up the stairs to the chimney roof. Along the way there are safe spots and trap spots. Traps like a swinging broom in the broom room sweeps you away, the shaky floor in the Witchin Kitchen knocks you off your feet, the whammy ball can fall to crush you in the spell cell. The whammy ball also opens a panel in the Bat's Ballroom when you are in front of it. The whammy ball is what activates the traps, when placed into the chimney it randomly falls out to spring a trap or roll down the stairwell knocking players from out of it's way. If a player is hit by the trap or ball they start again at the beginning of the room they are in. Players select cards with three witches on them. Wanda the Wicked casts a spell to turn children into mice and freezes them in their tracks. Ghoulish Gerty drops the whammy ball down the chimney to get children unlucky enough to be standing on trap spaces. Glenda the Good breaks the spell and changes the mice back into children.

in 1971 the game was repackaged as Haunted House...

The game was then released again as NEW Haunted House with some modifications to the traps to now make them more ghost or haunted house oriented, like falling statues instead of the sweeping broom.

In 1985 the game was redesigned for the European market and released as Ghost Castle The Haunted House of Horrors. Playing as children entering into the Ghost Castle a haunted house of horrors you start on the blue footprint and roll the die to move. The children then spin the spider spinner to see if they roll the die again, get scared stiff, regain their courage to move, or drop the glow-in-the-dark skull with red eyes (this replaced the whammy ball from the original game) into the open coffin lid (replacing the chimney chute) to randomly activate traps along the way. Beware to those standing on the trap spots (red footprints) while the green footprints show the way to a secret passage.

In 1986 the game went through another redesign, this time to capitalize on the popularity of a certain team of ghost hunters...

Play your favorite ghostbuster Winston Zeddemore, Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler or Peter Venkman. Players that  land on a slimed spot and are stuck for one round while a thunder cloud alows the player to spin the spinner where they can catch a ghost card, lose a ghost, or be slimed. At the end of each turn the glow-in-the-dark skull with red eyes is dropped down the open ecto ghost trap (replacing the coffin) to randomly activate booby-traps along the way. The first to climb the stairs and close the trap wins.

which brings us to this year and the newly released Ghost Castle

Starting again in the haunted forest this time it's the tree itself that is the trap, instead of the original broom. There is also a falling portcullis trap before entering into the castle. Inside the great hall there is a haunted bear rug replacing the original's tiger trap to sweep you off your feet like the shaky floor. The secret passage has changed rooms as well now behind a bookcase weapons rack and leading into the armory. In the armory is a chute to drop the falling skull on you just inside the door and the suit of armor is in a new locations but still swings his axe. Inside the dungeon there is now a giant bear trap then up the stairs to the coffin. The skull can still knock players off the stairs to their doom.

Countdown to Halloween - King Kong vs Reptilicus

Long have I sought out the stop motion movies of Micheal Aguilar, since I believe 2004 when I saw pics of his Godzilla vs the Colossal Man and King Kong vs Reptilicus shorts in an issue of Scary Monsters Magazine. Well my friends the search is over, thanks to the glory of You Tube I am happy to bring you some of his work. While the audio is iffy and the commentary cheesy, the stop motion is quite spectacular especially when you consider the models are made of paper and he's doing this all in his house. So my friends I present to you King Kong vs Reptilicus...

Pegged as a Strange Kid

Read it at The Strange Kid Club here

Munster's Fans Aren't Safe Yet

As Munsters fans we must force this evil back into He'll

Report: NBC to Air Mockingbird Lane Pilot as Standalone Halloween Special

Mockingbird Lane, the pilot which was to be the premiere of NBC’s rebooted Munsters series, instead will air as a Halloween special on Friday, Oct. 26 at 8/7 before Grimm, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Rumors about the potential series’ demise have been around for weeks; as recently as Wednesday, writer/producer Bryan Fuller took to Twitter to say the project still had a pulse.

But THR reports that Fuller and director Bryan Singer had different visions for the $10 million pilot, and in the end, the network didn’t love the finished product. Complicating matters, Fuller is now committed to stewarding NBC’s midseason drama Hannibal, as well.

However, according to an insider, if the special does well in the ratings NBC may go ahead and order it to series.

NBC has billed Mockingbird Lane as “a visually spectacular one-hour drama” based on the 1960s sitcom. It stars Jerry O’Connell as Herman Munster, Portia de Rossi as his wife Lily and Eddie Izzard as Grandpa.<\i>

Countdown to Halloween - Nightmare before Christmas Original Poem

As Narrated by Christopher Lee






and since I'm on the subject, how about a lil' Vincent

 

Countdown to Halloween - Lego Monster Museum

My uncle had always loved creating monster museums, he'd build elaborate dioramas for his monster figures so that each character had their own little environment that evoked the movie or story the character came from. He had done it with his custom 3 3/4 monsters and had hoped to one day build a dollhouse style museum to house them all in. Unfortunately that dream never happened.

Moving to today and the monster toys we have now some recent purchases have given me an idea... Lego Monster Minifigs plus Minifigs display case equals Monster Museum.... Not that easy though...

Ya see, the Minifigs display cases come in red, yellow and black. Now black was the obvious choice for the subject matter however once getting it home and putting the monsters inside I realized that the relatively dark figures virtually disappear against the black background of the case, but how to fix this? I thought about it and it hit me. When I had the pleasure to visit the Frank Frazetta Monster Museum in Pennsylvania few years back I was amazed at the elaborate scenes they had for each display and I thought, backdrops. So I've started the work on monster specific backdrops - castle and graveyard for Frankenstein's Monster, full moon and gypsy wagon for the Wolf Man, rainforest river for the Swamp Creature. Their still in the prototype stage but as these pics show they ain't too shabby.