Saturday — June 23rd, 2007

   I just received my copy of Mark Ledenbach's new book, the long awaited second edition of "Vintage Halloween Collectibles". After spending hours pouring through it, I cannot find enough adjectives to describe how totally fantastic this book is! Mark has clearly put a tremendous amount of time and effort into this project and it shows. The book contains a vast array of new items, many of which I have never seen before. The text is clear, concise and well researched as are the captions that accompany each item. Plus Mark's own voice really comes through in this edition...his sense of humor and enthusiasm for these wonderful Halloween items adds that much more charm. This new book surpasses the first edition and is destined to become the new "bible" for Halloween collectors.

   There are many items that have been excellently re-photographed for the new edition providing readers with an even better detailed view of the collectibles. Most notably the photos in the "Candy Containers/Nodders/Figurals" section have been greatly improved. The reader gets a chance to really see how beautifully these items were made.

   Another major high point is Mark's decision to included a number of more common "lower-tier" items, opening the book up to a larger spectrum of collectors. While the high-end rare items remain for those in pursuit of them, I was delighted to see some very nice common pieces listed at values under $15. I especially like the addition of the Empire blow mold lights on page 94. As Mark has pointed out on his website, there are a few pictures which are slightly blurred — mainly the fault of Krause's poor scanning in these cases. However these few instances are so minor they do not detract at all from the overwhelming excellence of this book. A must have for anyone interested in vintage Halloween, Mark's new book deserves three hearty cheers! Congratulations, Mark, on your magnum opus!

Sunday — June 17th, 2007

   RANT: Annoying eBay sellers!

   Originally I had a “rant” here about some of the things that ebay sellers do that annoy me. It was meant to be funny, but in the interest of Halloween good will, I decided that maybe it was too harsh. Therefore, I have chosen to remove it from this site. I want this blog and Halloween website to be a place people can come to enjoy the fun aspects of Halloween...I don’t want it to be a source of negativity. For the most part eBay is a wonderful resource that has allowed people from all over the country to connect who otherwise would have never been able to. That said, I really do wish every eBay seller would take Pay Pal. :)  — 10/05/2007

Wednesday — June 6th, 2007

   Site update-While recently paging through “The Halloween Catalog Collection” by Ben Truwe, I discovered that the Jack-O-Lantern die cut shown on the Silver Age page was made by Beistle, not Dennison as I had thought for years. At least I was able to confirm that it is indeed from the mid-1960s. It's always fascinating to learn the history of a piece that you didn't know about before. Ben Truwe's book is a great resource to have. It shows a collection of reprinted Halloween wholesale catalogs from 1919 through 1970. It's a great way to see when an item was offered for sale and be able to roughly date a piece.

Thursday — May 24th, 2007

   Earlier this evening I was watching TV and I saw a preview for the upcoming movie “Hostel II”. I never saw the first one...I don't like movies like this that are violent and disturbing. However it reminded me that last October, I unwittingly rented a DVD called “House of 1000 Corpses”, a movie by Rob Zombie. Although I disliked the movie because it was too bizarre and gory, imagine my utter surprise that the montage during the opening credits shows a bunch of different vintage Halloween decorations! Some of which are shown on this very site. Obviously Mr. Zombie must have knowledge of Halloween collectibles in order to have chosen to show them as part of the movie. I wonder if he collects too?

Tuesday — May 22nd, 2007

   I just received this reproduction candy container in the mail from Jamieson Studios. I ordered it last week and it's really very cool! It's copied after an old German candy container. The original is shown in Mark Ledenbach's book. This reproduction is about twice the size of the original, and is made of a similar composition/paper mache like material. It has a bottom plug. Jamieson Studios makes neat stuff. I ordered a couple of their turkey candy containers last year to put out at Thanksgiving. Each of these items are hand made.