Welcome to the first day of the Halloween countdown 2016! Over the next thirteen days I will be taking a deathly delve into all things Halloweenish, some repulsive retro toys, vicious video games and some creepy candy. But just as a warm up for today, I will be showing off some pound shop pickups of the spooky variety.

 

 

 

I am sure that most countries have their equivalent of  £1 shops. In the UK we have Poundland and Poundworld. I know America has Dollar Tree, and I think Australia has Dollar King (though looking at their website they seem to sell stuff that costs more than a dollar). The idea for these stores is generally everything inside is a pound or a dollar and though they have become synonymous with poor quality toys, they do sell some stuff that isn’t too bad at all. If you want  chocolate, crisps or soft drinks and don’t want to spend much then these shops are definitely worth a look in.

Like the rest of the year, Halloween time is kind of a mixed bag in pound shops. You get some genuinely good stuff and a lot of tacky looking shit that is just going to get thrown away after Halloween is over. Which is what most people would do with their decorations after Halloween is over I guess. I would much rather spend a bit extra and get some stuff that doesn’t look like shit that we could bring down from the attic every year like Christmas decorations. Though pound shops are definitely not the place to go for this,  I still found some good spooky stuff after a recent shopping trip.

 

Skeletal Ribs Jelly Moulds!

 

I am not a fan of jelly as a whole but I find I am far more accepting of the concept when it’s served in the shape of a Skeletons upper torso. Last Halloween we purchased some brain shaped ones and they were a bitch to try and actually remove the jelly from, and I think the mould ended up breaking in the process. But for a pound, we are clearly suckers for punishment. When we get around to actually using these and making jellies, I may show put a picture up but this probably won’t be anytime near Halloween as we have a lot of spooky food planned. I am happy with skeletal rib shaped desserts any time of the year though.

 

Assorted Spooky Glasses and cups!

 

 

We already have a few spooky glasses and cups at home already, but I honestly don’t think anyone can have enough opportunities to slurp out of the head of Frankenstein’s monster, or to pretend they are Indiana Jones and are being made to forcibly drink out of a skull  like when he has to swallow the blood of Kali-Ma in the Temple of Doom. For £1 each, I think they were well worth picking up.

 

Swirly pumpkin candle holder!

 

 

This was one of my girlfriends choices. It’s basically a pumpkin shaped candle holder with little star shaped holes in it to let light out, with a  black swirl painted on it that reminds me of The Nightmare Before Christmas. It’s not the most exciting but for £1 it wasn’t bad.

 

 

 Creepy Crew creepy napkins!

 

 

Again, not the moooost exciting of pickups, but a practical one. They are napkins in somewhat Haloweenish colours. There isn’t much more to say about that than that really!

 

Ghostbusters candy sticks and Slimer Marshmallows !

 

 

There is sooooo much Ghostbusters candy out this year. I saw a fair bit last year, but this year it is ridiculous. I have a bit of a collection of it all this year so will save it all for another post.

 

 

 

Chocolate  Easter Bunny   Halloween Witch

 

 

I bought this because I just could not leave it. This witch looks suspiciously shaped like an Easter Bunny. Her hat is exactly the same shape as the ears you find on a chocolate bunny you can find in pound shops around Easter.

 

Although it doesn’t have a bunny face when you open it, that is the shape of an Easter Bunny. Kudos to them re-using  the moulds I guess. The chocolate tasted like the really cheap shitty chocolate you might find in an advent calendar. It was worth a pound just to fulfill my curiosity as to whether  a rabbit lurked under her witchy attire.

 

 

Scary Bat Decorations!

 

 

Not too exciting and they do look a bit cheap. But my girlfriend likes bats and she decided that we needed these. I should have probably taken them out of the packaging before I took a picture as you can’t see anything but there isn’t much to see really. Imagine a bat silhouette. There you go, I didn’t need to take a better picture. On to more interesting stuff!

 

 

Assorted DVD’s!

 

 

Halloween always ensures that there is a wealth of horror DVD’s at the pound shops in the UK. Most are just awful B-movies, which are the best kind in my opinion but you do get some actual well produced movies. I had wanted a copy of ‘The Exorcist’ for a while so  for a £1 it was a steal  as it comes with ‘The Rite’ (starring Anthony Hopkins) on the same disc, which is a film I have yet to see. A few days later I saw The Exorcist in another store for £7.00 so I’m glad I picked up this one.  There is also an animated movie called ‘The Haunted Pumpkin of Sleepy Hollow’ which I doubt is scary but looks like it could be fun to chomp cereal to on Halloween morning. The movie I have the highest hopes for is definitely ‘Goal of the Dead’ a football (soccer) take on a zombie movie. It has the tagline “The only thing worse than a hooligan…is an undead hooligan.”

I have probably seen the other movies but like most modern horror movies they have failed to remain firmly planted in my head. I am pretty good at remembering things like the names of all 151 original Pokemon, what an obscure creature that has 3 seconds of screen time in a Star Wars movie is called and their life story, and the history of food items. But I cannot remember the plot of modern horror movies, even if I have watched them 10 times already.  I dunno if that is just my getting older or if it speaks volumes of the horror movie industry today. I seem to remember movies far better that are thirty years old  and are more suspenseful than throwing ‘jump scares’ out every few minutes. I would say perhaps I am just old fashioned, and seeing that most of the topics  I talk about on here are about video games or toys that are about twenty years out of production, I doubt many would argue otherwise.

 

Spooky lighter four pack!

 

The final pick up and I really dig these. Have you ever lit a bunch of candles so that your place has the eerie ambience of Castle Dracula, but felt the actual act of lighting those candles just wasn’t spooky enough? Well that is no longer a problem with these in your possession. I think the mad axe wielding  one is my favourite. They’re all pretty rad though.

 

 

 

So that was the first day of the Halloween Countdown 2016! It really was just a taster and I will be taking a look at some more interesting things in the coming days.

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Until the morrow! Mwahahahahaha!!