Well, it’s the beginning of the second week of the Countdown to Halloween and I’ve been having a blast so far. Not only are there almost 25% more sites participating in the 2011 blogging event, but this is the first year in a while where I haven’t had some other project hanging over my head keeping me from fully embracing the holiday. This past weekend the wife and I took a stroll though the Oakland Cemetary for their annual Sunday in the Park festival, which was sufficiently creepy and moody (even during the day.) We’ve also been on top of watching a bunch of horror movies and Halloween specials, which has been extra awesome!
Getting to the meat of the post today though, is this 1982 Special Merchandise International monster mask ad from the pages of Fangoria magazine…
I’ve collected these ads into a rough approximation of a chronological timeline, and this is the one entry that gives me pause and backpedals a bit in terms of mask quality. Don’t get me wrong, these are plenty fun (and quite hairy), but the overall molds and paint reminds me a lot of the unfortunate quality of the mail-away Topstone masks from the 50s (from the very first ads I shared back at the end of September.) At least the prospective buyer was seeing what they got in this case, but man is there a lot too be desired here. I suppose if they had anything going for them they’re relatively cheap for full head masks complete with hair (though it’s totally only available in a teased metal fashion.) There’s a part of me that wouldn’t mind getting my hands on that Prickle Puss mask now that I think about it though…
Anyway, come back tomorrow for more mask tomfoolery, and if you’re looking for a ton of Halloween content all through the month of October, make sure to stop on by the official Countdown to Halloween site and check out the list of participating blogs for 2011. You’ll be glad you did!
