Luminous Fish

Shades of the Sugar Puffs Luminous Deep-Sea Fish

These detailed semi-flat glow-in-the-dark fish bring to mind a Sugar Puffs promotion of 1964, although in this case there seems to be just one, the angler fish, that is actually a denizen of the deep.

From ebay seller xsmall2012 in China.

Heinz Haunted House, 1986

Shades of the Luminous Spooks

Picture from ebay seller
 the-ideal-life-company.

There was a terrifically spooky promotion in 1986 for Heinz Haunted House pasta shapes, complete with TV commercial (including a suit of armour and ghostly portrait!),  glow-in-the-dark stickers (more comical than scary), a haunted house 'theatre' for the stickers and a comic advert ('Scare your friends silly with Heinz Haunted House'). Pictures here and here.

Not sure how I managed to miss this promotion until now - it really was quite good. The stickers show a good range of Halloween subjects, plus mice (not rats!), and unusually, toadstools and a pixie!  Naturally, I'm comparing it with the 'gold standard' of the Luminous Spooks and it would have been even better IMO if the interior of the haunted house had been depicted as well in the 'theatre', along with some stickers for said suit of armour and portrait (and clock and Tudor lady, of course). Still, I was pleased to see owls there, owls being noticeable by their absence from the Luminous Spooks!

I'm including the badge shown at the top, as it has a nicely atmospheric haunted house/castle exterior, even though it wasn't associated with the 1986 promotion, as far as I can tell.  (It was however a freebie in at least two comics (Battle Action Force; Eagle and Tiger) in May 1985).

Thinking ahead to Halloween 2017 - 2

Glow in the Dark Halloween fabric

Very spooky this! From ebay seller youbidyouwin.

Glow in the Dark windows stickers

Great spooky house silhouette! From ebay seller stinkyfaceltd.

More stickers!

Nice spooked cat! From ebay seller paperthings2012.

Glow in the dark ghost - Scooby Doo figure

This is a recent secondhand purchase. Its plastic is darker than other GitD figures I have (e.g. the Universal Studios Monsters). It looks good but  disappointingly its glow is very faint compared with those other figures and it is outshone by them.

Thinking ahead to Halloween 2017

- Glow in the Dark Room Decorations by Scream Machine:

- Glow-in-the-Dark Halloween figures by Safari:

- 11 Spooky Glow-in-the-Dark Paper Decorations by Archie McPhee:

Glamorous Witch

Here's a lovely witch who's welcome to hang around my Haunted Manor any time! eBay seller glowingoccasion.

 

More glow-in-the-dark vampires!

There were 2 sets of these on eBay, from seller cookinsupper, a couple of days ago at the very reasonable buy-it-now price of $12. Unfortunately for me, I was too slow off the mark. It would be great to see these glowing in the dark - can anyone provide pictures?

Haunted House Glow In The Dark Refrigerator Cover

Very similar to the dishwasher cover in the previous post, this item is larger.  There's no witch, but there is a skull in the foreground. The cats' and bats' eyes glow nicely. Great spooky atmosphere!

 This picture is taken from a listing by eBay seller ethelcole40.

Haunted House Halloween Magnetic Dishwasher Cover

Here's a terrific Haunted House scene, full of atmosphere, on sale from eBay seller ethelcole40 (item 251426109781) and others.

It's possibly a bit too big for a standard-sized European dishwasher though, so over here it may have to go on a wall instead.

Update on glow-in-the-dark vampire figures

I posted a while ago about these figures. Now I have just seen a set for sale on eBay, from seller nosferat4real.  They were made by (or perhaps for) Happiness Express Inc in 1992 and sold for $1 in Wal Mart. The picture is a smaller version of one from the auction listing (number 221360864895).

A quick search uncovered more information and pictures on this blog.

Frosted Flakes Ghost Monsters

Here's a GR-R-REAT promotion from Kellogg's Frosted Flakes (what we on this side of the pond call 'Frosties') for glow in the dark 'ghost monsters' iron-on transfers for T-shirts etc presumably. There's a gr-r-reat haunted house picture at the back - curved staircase, longcase clock & panelling (like a certain Sugar Puffs promotion from 1965) with kids exploring by lantern light. Image was 'borrowed' from site Mr. Breakfast. See here for the full-sized picture. Does anyone know when this dates from?

More spooky glow-in-the-dark shapes

It's always good to see new spooky glow-in-the-dark shapes, even if, as in this case, they are on the cheerful side.

The skull, ghosts and bat look fine. That cat really should have its back arched, though, and the house doesn't look spooky at all.

Even so, they look to be a bargain at £1.29 including post from eBay seller bestvalue988 in China.

3D Haunted House Picture

I've just come across this excellent picture on the Hawkin's Bazaar website (looking for something else entirely). It's nicely Gothic with 4 of the Luminous Spook elements (apparitions, bats, pictures of skulls and suits of armour).  It comes as part of a 3D Shooting Game . Go to the link for a higher resolution picture, get hold of some red and blue 3D glasses and enjoy the spooky scene!

Waddington's Ghostly Galleon game

Glowing ghostly pirate figures are almost as rare as spooks (Playmobil doesn't count!), so I was very pleased to see that this board game from the early 90s came with a luminous figure of Blackbeard's ghost. And what a splendid figure it is too!

This site has full details of the game and lots of high-resolution pictures, including Blackbeard's ghost from various angles and in both glowing and non-glowing mode: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3846/ghostly-galleon .

I've nabbed this low-resolution image as a taster:

The game looks fun enough too. One more for the wish list!

They're tiny..they're silly...they're friendly all right...They're fun in the day, they glow in the night!

Here's a website I came across recently. It's about a set of ghostly glow-in-the-dark figures, from the 1960s. The owner of the site is appealing for pictures and information. It may sound familiar, but , no it's not retromat enthusing about the Luminous Spooks.

The Kooky Spookys (sic) were a family of luminous plastic finger puppets with names such as Baby Spook'Em and Daddy Booregard. They even had their own cardboard house that they could be displayed in.

They're fun, 'cute' even, not scary. What is slightly chilling, though, is the hard-nosed sales campaign behind them:  Morning, Noon and Nite - Kids are going to be sold by Hasbro's multi-million dollar 1st quarter advertising campaign !

Oddly, they too seem to be very rare these days.

The TV ad has survived, but you have to buy it through the website. I promise that if ever I come across the Luminous Spooks TV ad, I will never resort to that!

Spooky 'Cereal Box' Record

What a terrific idea - a record (the old-fashioned sort played on a turntable) printed on a cereal box. These seem to have been quite common in the US, but although here in the UK it was possible to get novelty records printed on postcards, for example, I don't recall ever seeing these as cereal give-aways.

This one is surprisingly good. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow given away with a cereal in the 1970s.  Just over 3 minutes of spooky thrills best enjoyed while eating a bowl of cereal just before bedtime on a dark stormy night!

As marvelous as the Luminous Spook promotion was, if only Quaker had somehow managed to fit a recording (perhaps the soundtrack from the TV ad) onto the cereal packet (along with the 3D Haunted Manor), it would have been perfect.

Frankie and Rhona at the Fair

It was Spring or Summer 1967, I think. I would have been 9 years old and was visiting a travelling funfair with a friend in my home town of Taunton in England. There were two attractions that have pretty much eclipsed any other memories* I may have had of the fair. The first depicted Frankenstein's monster. To anyone observing from outside, every 5 minutes or so, there was a roar from within the tent, followed by the sight and sound of screaming kids as they ran out as fast as they could. My friend and I paid our money and went in, determined to resist the urge to run. The 'monster' was sitting in an electric chair (was this scene in any of the Frankenstein films, I wonder?) staring impassively ahead. Then after some time, when the tent had filled up and we had relaxed a little, he suddenly stood up, possibly to the accompaniment of flashing lights and a buzzing electric sound, and emitted a loud roar as he advanced toward the audience. He must have stopped after a few paces, but we didn't stay to find out as we turned and fled. What fun!

As with the first attraction, we also knew what to expect from the second, through word of mouth. This was in spite of the painted 'pulp' style artwork outside. It showed 'Rhona the Rat Girl', in a bathing costume, in a dungeon setting, IIRC, being terrorized by giant rats. She had her head turned away from them as far as possible while just being able to watch them in fearful fascination from the corner of her eyes. What was the story, I wonder? Was this picture lifted from some comic or pulp magazine? Inside, the reality was somewhat different. 'Rhona' was seated inside a pen and with her inside another cage were a few very tame-looking rats. She had a bamboo cane in her hand and tapped the cage lightly now and again (the artwork had her holding a whip, for some reason). She clearly wasn't in any danger or state of fear, but just looked bored. However, the big difference was in what she was wearing, or rather wasn't wearing. She was 'topless', to use that rather contradictory term. This being (hippy-ish) 1967, or possibly to meet legal requirements, or perhaps just to (lightly) preserve her modesty, her boobs had been painted with concentric circles. Other than that, she had on a large pair of slightly moth-eaten regulation navy knickers and possibly a pair of boots. We walked around her pen towards the exit, not too quickly, trying not to stare too much. This was a novel experience and I think we got our money's worth even if we were there for only a couple of minutes!

(* not quite 'eclipsed': at one of the stalls, I won a terrific skull ring with eyes made from coloured plastic or glass. For some reason, my father did not share my good taste and I was sadly forced to throw it away.)

Alfred Hithcock's Ghostly Gallery

Following on from my earlier post about Alfred Hithcock's Haunted Houseful anthology, here is the front cover of another anthology of his published in paperback by Puffin Books in the late 60s. The picture is courtesy of Amazon UK.

I first saw this book advertised in the Puffin Post magazine and was reminded of 'Alf' of the Luminous Spooks. I had to have it! There was one terrific story - 'The Upper Berth' by F. Marion Crawford, written in 1885. This was no story of an intangible spectre, but rather of something un-dead and murderous, having the strength of 'ten men living'. It was a gripping and chilling tale. Unfortunately, I found the other stories quite tame, not in the least bit scary; some just had a supernatural theme and were ghost-free.

The American hardback edition has some entertaining illustrations, which can be seen here.

Spooky Tesla Spirit Radio

Here are some terrific spooky noises pulled from the air, using  a mix of old and new technology. The 'voices' from around 1 minute and 14 seconds make my hair stand on end. Enjoy!

Here's some information about how to re-create these sounds.

Another Vollmer Ghost Train video - with new sound effects!

Just as I was thinking how great it would be to hear new sound effects for the Vollmer ghost train, I came across this video of one with creepy sounds taken from a ghost train made by another manufacturer (Faller):