Halloween Decorations Post #8

Okay, folks. This is it! It's Halloween today, so this is the last one. In today's post, I'm sharing the Halloween decorations I have that don't readily fit into a category.

We'll start with Pez. I have this group:

They're up there with another one of those foam pumpkins. So cute, amiright?

Every year or so, they add more dispensers to their holiday choices while dropping the older ones off. Here's another set of them:

I'm always adding a few every year or so. I even have one bat dispenser that I had to leave off the shelves this year, because I had nowhere for it to go. Maybe next year I'll have a friend to go along with it, and it'll work better.

The last group of Pez is this one:

What better group to put up at Halloween could there be than the Mystery Gang. Next to them is a werewolf figure that I picked up this year. It's from a video game that I don't think I ever played called Altered Beast. I bought it just because it's a werewolf, not because of any appreciation of the game it comes from. I considered getting a few of them, and giving them custom paint jobs so that there could be a whole pack, but I didn't go that far.

Okay, now, we move on.

About ten years ago, my friend gave me this zombie viking statue for my birthday. He got himself the Green Bay Packers version of it and liked it enough to get another for me. It stays up all year round, though it may get supplanted soon. I'm full up on the space, so soon, whenever I get new stuff, I'll have to take old stuff off. Then this guy will go in the box and only come out for Halloween. I gotta be careful, though. He's kind of fragile.

Next is my Knight of Asperity.

That skeleton faced guy is a Vitruvian H.A.C.K.S. figure. I was really into these guys for a while, and considered buying tons of them. However, I only ever picked up this single one. It's really cool, and I love it. Also, the bad guy from my book The Gauntlet is based off the look of this guy. Fun, right? Hopefully, this year, I'll get that published so that you can read it if you'd like (he says, knowing that no one will).

Next is Carrot Chomper.

This is an Imaginext guy. They had these Imaginext blind bag figures for sale at the local grocery store by my house, and for a while, Little and I had a good time collecting them. Little was the one who gave him the name Carrot Chomper. I guess seeing all the teeth on the skull face made him think of chomping down on carrots, hence the name.

But wait, there's more. Here's another Imaginext guy names Pumpkin Stealer.

He's a ghost pirate with a pumpkin on his head. You can take the pumpkin off, and he has a translucent green face underneath. Altogether a pretty fun character. Not sure if Pumpkin Stealer is the best name for him, but it's hard to convince a three-year-old to pick something different, so I just let it stand.

Pumpking Stealer has another one of the plastic jack o'lanterns there beside him. It has a light in it, but I don't think the thing has worked for years.

Now, the final Imaginext guy...who doesn't have a name.

This grim reaper came out years later than the other two, and by that time, Little was old enough that he didn't care to bother giving it a name. He does have the cool feature like the old jawa figures from Star Wars back in the nineties. He has that spot on top of his head, and if light shines into it, it makes his eyes glow.

After that, we have the bone spider.

Yes, spiders don't have bones. They're arachnids, and have exoskeletons. That didn't stop people from making creepy Halloween decorations depicting bone spiders. I complained about this once on a blog post many years ago, and Rish thought it would be fun to mess with me, get one of those spiders, and even give it a custom paint job for me before sending it out.

Ever since then, I hang it on my books every Halloween. It's silly, but fun too, I guess.

Now, to the pièce de résistance. Years ago, not long after getting into the Vitruvian H.A.C.K.S. figures mentioned above, I discovered Mythic Legions. They were these really well-made, detailed and beautiful figures set in their own little fantasy realm. They were super expensive to buy second-hand on eBay, but if you paid attention and waited for one of their waves to launch, you could buy the figures for a normal price.

Well, one day, they had a special sale of their All-Star figures, the most popular ones, and I was paying attention, so I grabbed some. Particularly, I grabbed skeletons, a demon, and a vampire knight. I made a graveyard for the skeletons to be rising out of, and some spooky trees to be in that graveyard.

This year, I added a couple more skeletons to the group, but I think I've probably taken it as far as I can. I don't think any more figures can fit on this shelf without making it look bad. Here it is, this year's Mythic Legions graveyard scene:

So, there it is, the 2024 decorations. I hope you enjoyed it. I'll see you next month with a whole new exhaustive set of posts detailing my Christmas decorations. They may well be more extensive than the Halloween ones. Sorry.

Christmas Pez

It's no secret that I collect Pez dispensers, although, to be truthful, I've pretty much given up on that now. I don't get new ones very often. I figure I've got more than enough. I can't even find a place for most of them on my shelves anymore, so why get more? 

The other day I came across Loony Tunes Pez dispensers, and almost bought them, because that's a property that I like but don't have Pez for, but then I decided to put them back and leave them behind, because I had no place to put them. I have Loony Tunes Lego minifigures, and that was going to have to be the extent of my Loony Tunes collection.

I did however get one new Pez dispenser this past week. It was this reindeer. 

That's because it's a Christmas Pez dispenser, and each and every year, I put those up. I find a place for them and put them all up, so there's no problem getting more, and each and every year, they usually put out one or two new ones that I can add.

So, let's see what we've got.

Most of them are not available anymore, but that polar bear in the green and red hat was at the store next to the reindeer the other day. The penguins and snowglobes were not however. The world has moved on from them. It's kind of sad that I got two of each of those just because they had slight variations...a blue penguin to a green penguin, or a different picture on the snowglobe.

Mickey and Minnie here are new from last year. I'd never seen them before that. Throw a Santa hat on them and bam! Christmas decorations. That's something I'd love to do with all of my toys at Christmas time. Getting hats for them all is the hard part though. I tried to make a few of them last year, but it was more work than I was willing to put in to make enough to give out to all the toys.

I did see some for sale on Amazon, but I couldn't tell if they would be the right size, so I never bothered to buy them. Maybe I ought to revisit that...

Oops. I got off topic. When I got that reindeer I showed you before, it displaced a third snowglobe that I have...you know, different picture—and a different colored base this time too...so, since Mickey and Minnie had some extra space, I added it to the middle of them.

It's kinda weird though. Maybe I need to rearrange things. Maybe I ought to put all the snowglobes together, and put other stuff elsewhere. I'll have to look into that...or possibly leave it until next year.

I have these two snowmen.

The one with the red hat is the current one, the black hat is the old version. With all of these Christmas things, they tend to update them every few years. I guess it's to get collector chumps like me that will buy the new versions. They don't need to do it for the people who buy one for the kids to put in their stocking or something, those people will get whatever one is available, even if it's the same one that's been there on the store shelves since 2003. Sooner or later, there'll be another new snowman, and I'll add it to my group. I'll have to get them a new spot though, this one will only fit the two.

The other big group is these random ones.

They don't go together except for the fact that they are all things associated with Christmas...oh, maybe you can't tell, but that isn't just a sleeping blond girl, it's an angel. It has wings coming off its back. You can see just a hint of the white wings behind the hair on the left side.

Then there's Santa and his elves and reindeer.

Those elves are all the same dispenser, except that they colored them differentlly, so it looks like I've got three different elves. I would have kept buying more and more if they'd come up with other color schemes year after year.

Of course, as I said before, they're always updating them, and they just recently did that with Santa and his elves. Here's the new style.

It's just dot eyes now on Santa and the reindeer, although the elves had already converted over to that before. They made a new rounder-headed version of the elf, though. I wonder if there are other color versions out there...I ought to start watching for that.

As I showed you at the start, they already made a new version of the reindeer. So this group has two. Sadly, they don't quite fit in the spot made for them, due to those antlers. I may need to move them to a new larger spot next year, especially if there are more elves in different colors or something.

I wonder how many years it will take before I get enough reindeer to have eight...I've got three already. Come on, Pez. You can do it.

The Pez-alorean

This has happened to me a few times over the years, but not for quite a while now. Today, Little Anklevich had his friend over to play. The kid showed up with a present...not for Little, but for me. What? That's weird. Did you ever get your friend's dad a random present before?

Well, there's reason behind it. The present was a set of Pez dispensers. Yes, for many years I've had a collection of Pez dispensers that I display portions of on my toy shelves.

One of the sets I usually have displayed are my Star Wars Pez.

So, Little's friend could see that I had Star Wars Pez dispensers and which ones I had (this isn't all of them, by the way, just the bad guys).

So, when he was out with his dad, they must have been shopping at a store like Ross, and saw the box with the Mandalorian and Baby Yoda Pez dispensers. He knew I didn't have, and that I'd like it, so he convinced his dad to buy it for me, and since it was at Ross, his dad had no reason to say no, because it was super cheap.

I thought it was pretty cute to be getting a present from my 11-year-old son's friend. I put it up in a slot on my shelves.

Because he was right. I did want it. I think I almost bought it one time before when I saw the set at Ross, but, as often happens at Ross, the line was way too long to wait in for such a simple purchase. When the line gets that long, it has to be something I want so bad I'm willing to wait a half hour just for the honor of buying...and I guess this Pez dispenser set didn't quite rise to that level.

However, thanks to the thoughtfulness of a little boy, I managed to end up with it anyway. I guess this friend is a keeper. I'll have to let my son keep hanging out with him.

Easter Is Coming

Peeps are a weirdly popular and polarizing bit of food. Those that hate them, really really hate them. And those that love them? They love them so much that all sorts of weird ancillary merchandise gets created for them. Case in point:

Those are Peeps Pez dispensers. I've been known to collect Pez dispensers. I've also been known to display them in my study as decorations for various holidays like Easter. However, my days of Pez collecting are mostly over. I just don't have space for all of them anymore. On top of that, I'm not much of a lover of Peeps. I don't hate them, but I sure don't care about them enough to buy merch.

Then again, I really really enjoy putting up decorations at holiday times...so I reserve the right to change my mind.

Venomized

Got these guys at the grocery store that I used to go to when I lived near Rish Outfield. I kept up on the Pez dispensers much better when I frequented that place, because they were always getting new ones, and they sold them for a reasonable price too. Check 'em out.

Of course, I've had a Spider-man forever, but Venom is new. I got a new Spider-man, so I could keep it next to Venom. Of course, I don't have a place to put them yet. Gotta make a spot on the Wall of Voodoo for them. Get to work, ya bum.

The Christmas Pez

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Hap-Pez Easter!

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Happy Easter this weekend everyone. Here’s some bunnies for ya. #toys #whiterabbit #pezdispenser #toycollector #toycollection #easterbunnies #easterbunny #holidaydecorations #holidaydecor #pez #easter

A post shared by Bigg Anklevich (@biganklevich) on Apr 10, 2020 at 8:21pm PDT

Happy Presidents Day Again

I think they did a set of every single president over the years, but I stopped at the first five. Might be fun to go back and try to collect some of the most well-known and well-regarded presidents. I bet I could find them on eBay.

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Happy Presidents Day. #toys #jamesmonroe #georgewashington #presidentsday #presidentsdayweekend #jamesmadison #thomasjefferson #pez #toycollector #toycollection #toycollectors #actionfigures #actionfigure #actionfigurecollection #actionfigurephotography #actionfigurecollection #johnadams #1stpresident #holidaydecorations #holidaydecor #america #godblessamerica

A post shared by Bigg Anklevich (@biganklevich) on Feb 17, 2020 at 9:45am PST

Holiday Decorations For Easter

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A little late to switch over the Pez dispensers for the season, but at least Easter is late this year. Happy Easter. . . . . . #pez #pezdispenser #pezdispensers #toycollector #toycollector #Easter #toycollector #toys #toylife

A post shared by Bigg Anklevich (@biganklevich) on Mar 31, 2019 at 12:11pm PDT

Missing A Few Things

Valentine's Day and Presidents Day has passed us by...for a while actually, so it was time to change out my Pez dispensers. I have a couple of Easter Bunnies, and I put them in one of my dividers, but what to put in the other spot? No other holidays coming along. What else could I do?

Oh yeah, there's what might as well be a holiday coming up, the release day for the next Avengers movie. I could get out some of my Avengers Pez and put them up. I grabbed my bag, and sifted through it for a while, and had a real hard time finding most of my Avengers Pez dispensers. In the end I just put up these four:

I know I have some others in there, but I have so many in the big bag where I keep them, it's just hard to find them. Besides, my hands were getting all dirty from sifting around in there. Somehow a bunch of dust or sand or something got in the bag, and it was getting all over me. Weird.

Anyway, this is my Avengers Endgame display. I'm excited to see how this all turns out. I know Marvel Studios will keep churning along, but for some reason this film feels like this generation's Return of the Jedi. Like the culmination and ending of it all. Maybe it's because everybody keeps talking like Cap and Iron Man are gonna be dead by the end of this movie. I dunno.

Seasonal Decorations

I've been doing big crazy displays for the major holidays in fall/winter. You can see my blog post about my Halloween and Christmas displays here on the blog.

After what they refer to as "the holiday season" passes, however, there's not a lot to do for decoration. I don't really have anything for January's holiday, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. February has Presidents Day, and I do have something that I could put up for that, surprisingly. A few years ago they were producing Pez dispensers of all the US presidents. I only ever saw the box that had the first five presidents, but I happened to be a Pez addict at the time, so I bought them. Perfect Presidents Day decorations...not that many people will even notice them hiding on the shelf.

Also, as soon as the Christmas stuff was clearanced out, they immediately put up Valentine's Day stuff at the store. It's usually not a big holiday for decorations though. I'm not a Valentine's hater like Rish Outfield, but I'm also not going to deck my study out in hearts and crap. I do have two Pez dispensers that are Valentine's themed though--a little monkey and a little bear, each holding hearts. I needed more, though. There was room on the shelf for four of them. What to do? maybe I could put up a couple that's known for having a loving relationship or a great love story? I have Cinderella and Snow White and Sleeping Beauty and so on...but who am I kidding. They are never in a million years going to make a Pez dispenser of any of those girls' princes. Those guys are just arm candy, good for showing off at the ball, but barely even in the movies that their future brides headline.

Then I had it! Behold, the most loving couple that I have...flanked by their cute Valentine monkey and teddy bear:

Decorating For The Season

Had a few minutes this afternoon, and I thought that since the fall is approaching, maybe I ought to redecorate a little bit. Of course, my idea of decorating is a little different than some. So, I give you, Halloween decorations.

I also had this Imaginext figure. He was too small to fit anywhere on his own, so I figured he could join with the other sword guys.

And lastly, I switched out my Lego guys to some more Halloween style ones. A witch, a spider, and a spider witch. Plus three little trick-or-treaters.

That's good right? Or do I need some more traditional decorations?

Thought I Was Pretty Much Done With Pez, But Maybe Not

Ooh, nice find at the grocery store this morning. Haven’t bought Pez dispensers in a long time, but I couldn’t pass these ones up.

Merry Christmas!

Traded my Pez Dispensers that I display on my shelf to reflect the season.

So, this is my Christmas card to y'all. Merry Christmas.

Xenomorph

 Everybody is sharing this with me over on Facebook. This is probably the ultimate Pez dispenser.

It would be pretty awesome to have. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure it doesn't actually exist. Somebody took the time to make this thing by hand. The mechanism couldn't even work, but who cares, right? It's frickin' awesome.

May The Pez Be With You!

Merry Fourth of May!

 

Opti-Pez Prime

Look what I just discovered exists! I gotta get myself these.

 

 

What Luck!

Stoked that I finally found both Wall-E and Eve. I thought I was too late to get ahold of these ones, but they're apparently still hanging around at Toys R Us.

Catty

I'm pretty stoked. I'm sure Rish will say I'm lame, but I don't listen to the haters. I found this awesome Catwoman Pez dispenser at the grocery store. I was sure I'd never see this one in a store. I thought if I ever did get it, it would have to come from eBay or something.

Weird that I can get excited about something like a Pez dispenser, but I do.

 

Collecting Something New

As if I wasn't a nerd enough before, now I'm developing an obsession for collecting Pez dispensers.

Ah well, at least they're cheaper by far than the other toys I've collected.