Over the weekend, we received our first Hallowe'en catalogue of the 2009 season!The Oriental Trading Co. is always good for at least $39 worth of fun in the form of treats, knick-knacks, and some very interesting new items.
Such as:
See, those masks on the cover page double as lollipops, which is a pretty great idea... unless they taste lousy, in which case, the blurb ought to read:
Helpfully, the catalogue notes that:
It helps if you say it the way Homer says 'Moe is their leader' to himself while watching the Three Stooges.How can you not be excited and inspired when you ogle pages filled to overflowing with Hallowe'en stuff?:
One of the coolest things I've seen in a Hallowe'en catalogue in years:
Seriously,we'll have them on our livingroom lamps year 'round! I will rate this higher in coolness and applicability than almost every $5,000 prop in existence. Simple, elegant, and says 'Hallowe'en' more clearly than anything else in the catalogue.I thought this next bit was kind of odd:
I assume they're supposed to be reacting to the big fake spider, but every time I look at this image, I think the kids are screaming about the big cardboard dock, as if it just appeared out of the mist. "Aaaghh! A dooooock! Save yourself little screaming girl, I'll distract it with my mincing hands and mock-terrified expression!"Another weird idea:
Why does it have to be 'fangs', especially? You can't see that they're fangs, as used. I guess, though, that some kids wouldn't buy just a flashing mouthlight if it didn't have some kind of monsterish association.But what kid wouldn't want this?:
What do you suppose a Jack O'Lantern whoopee cushion should sound like?
I love this type of thing... nothing says 'I'm a vampire' like a sticker of a cartoon vampire on your cheek. Other than the green teeth and the whole Little Ricky vibe, that is. Hallowee'en makes it all work out right.Another questionable costume choice:
Zombie Convict. That's the name of the costume. How did it happen? I mean... he was in jail, away from the big scary outside world, but turned into a zombie anyway. And was apparently able, as a mindless flesheater, to escape, where the non-zombified convict could not. So, downside, you're undead. Upside, you're out of the pokey. But a strange mix of themes.Can Ballerina Pirate be far behind?
You know, if they did make a Ballerina Pirate costume, they'd have to use this girl to model it:
'Sshhhyah! What-EVUH!'And say 'what-EVUH' to this:
Wow. Why is it that not-very-old people pretending to be old suddenly become this? Finger to chin, head cocked daintily... if this were video, we'd surely be seeing the batting eyelashes and eyes rolling skyward.Also, 'styled with a bun' is unnecessary... we all know there's a big Sybil's Mother-styled bun behind that grey do, no need to mention it.
A very cute game, I love it! But really, it's not a spider, it's an octopus. Come on. It screams OCTOPUS, big goofy cartoon octopus.But it's still cool because OCTOpus and OCTOber are both OCTO's.
Plus, you put anything in orange and black and you know I'm going to love it.
Finally, for my classic monster-lovin' pals:
Sweeeet! Frank, Bride & Drac, in convenient, delicious 'jelly sucker' form.I imagine many of you have gotten this catalogue, or will soon. It's a blast, as always; I just wanted to highlight some of the things that stood out when I first leafed through it.
DUMDUMSHREKPOP!
Well, there is just so much, really. In no particular order:
ReplyDelete1. We've been getting catalogues for about 3 weeks- either you don't get the fab assortment of awesomeness we do, or the Ozarks are more backward than I thought.
2. Yes, it is an octopus.
3. Is the girl on the cover eating the ear of the mask? I'm confused.
4. The screaming kids pic is disturbing. That little girl is terrified.
5. "Sybil's Mom" bwahhaahhahhaaaa!
6. Face paint/tattooed Little Ricky reminds me of how upset my kids always were when we'd find the beautiful Belle costume, but the damn thing had a picture of Belle on it! AS IF!
7.DUMDUMSHREKPOP!
As far as the catalogues go, we (mostly) stopped ordering from paper catalogues long ago, so we don't get many anymore. Pyramid, Oriental Trading, and of course all the endless, whether-you-want-them-or-not Christmas cat's.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, she's eating the ear because it's a lollipop AND a mask. Cleverrrr...
Man, I love Oriental Trading Company. At my workplace, we are always decorating for some holiday or another, and the assistant manager and I get to order the stuff. We have begun a tradition of sorts. Oriental Trading sells rubber ducks decorated for almost every holiday. I particularly like the monster ducks and the pirate ducks. We buy several dozen and use them as giveaways.
ReplyDeleteNext holiday for us: Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19)! We do a week-long Pirate Week with costumes, movie giveaways, chocolate gold coins and so forth.
DUMDUMSHREKPOP!
Dave
FUN! Sounds like a VERY cool place to work, Dave! I take it everyone at your work is generally on board with this sort of holiday fun? Sometimes one or two Scrooges can really kill the fun!
ReplyDeleteI'd say about 95% are. There are always one or two that don't get into it, but they generally ignore the rest of us. It helps that the manager, both assistant managers, and all the center supervisors are among the first to get dressed up and participate.
ReplyDeleteDave
Are you saying that the MASK LOLLIPOP is actually edible and FACE-SIZED? So is the idea that you can wear a costume but don't need to go out for Trick-or -Treating? If you lick the inside, will it just stick to your face? Most importantly of all, what kids needs a lollipop the size of her head? No wonder so many kids are obese. Wow.
ReplyDeleteWell, it's not ME saying it so much as Oriental Trading Co. saying it. To be fair, there have been a lot of big round rainbow suckers that are a lot larger than a child's head, and larger than these 'masks'... but yes I find the idea not a little disturbing, haha!
ReplyDelete