Smart Shopper?

Oh boy... lots to get to!

I have been working on Hallowe'en... sculpting, painting, etc. Sadly, my Uncle Forry animatron is needing higher torque (read $$$) servos, otherwise I'll need to scrap him for this year (time's far too short now for the complete rebuild which is probably the only solution). REALLY bothers me. I thought I'd figured up the weights and angles correctly.

*sigh...*

BUT, on a lighter note, I have made more Haunted Mansion-ey things, and they'll get their own posts soon.

This post concerns a long day of running errands which turned into a

Hallowe'en Display Comparison Shopping Day!

It began at

Walgreens:

Not a DUMDUMSHREKPOP in sight, but I kind of expected that; such magic is a fleeting thing.

Ah, PEZ... tradition and simplicity.

The guy was putting things out and laughing at me taking pictures for my blog. Good-natured laughter, but still... you're Walgreens! Where's your uppity coming from? Attain the size of CVS (let alone K-Mart) and then you can be uppity.

Family: do these remind you of our nightlight?

Looks like Klaus Kinski (yet, ironically, nothing like Nosferatu).

This is one of the strangest, coolest, most "I'd never never ever ever eat this ever in my life ever!" Hallowe'en candy ideas I've ever seen. Still, it looks so inviting...

*Hellooo Helllooo Helllooooo Helllloooooo...*
or
*Isn't it cozy? Isn't it cozy? Isn't it cozy heeeerrrre?*
or
*Bats in the Belfry -hiccup!- *

This is a very cool upside down bat-thing.

I think Walgreens is trying hard, and they're doing very well (laughter/uppity-ness notwithstanding).

On the other hand...

WalMart:

Other than the candy aisle, this one aisle is it. Nothing but make-up, kids costumes and baking accessories.

Yes, I know they're not done putting things out, but the unopened stock all read 'make-up'. So this year, at this WalMart anyway, the whole prop/decoration thing is dead.

And they've got this slogan:

What? I don't get it. Sure, this year Hallowe'en's on a Saturday. But the idea is vague. Is this a command (On Saturday night, please come alive)? Is it the name of some concept event, 'WalMart's big Saturday Night Come-Alive!'? Was I dead before? Without punctuation or em-pha-sis, I'm lost. Either way, why wouldn't they have written 'Hallowe'en Night' or even 'October 31st' instead of the nebulous 'Saturday Night'? Very lame.

Between the discovery of Uncle Forry's servo problems and this WalMart trip, I was feeling a little despondent... so it's a good thing I had business on the other end of town.

K-Mart:

Are those Skulls and Pumpkins I see? Much better...

The second and third Dead films on DVD for $5 each? Yeah, K-Mart's ready for Hallowe'en. Feel much shame, WalMart.

And not far from K-Mart, is our fairly-new friend...

Target:

From this end cap to the women in the background, ALL Hallowe'en aisles. THAT'S the ticket! (Okay, that one side is cleaning supplies but they were in the middle of moving those to another aisle to make room for more Hallowe'en goodies... so this is the store not done yet!)

Finally picked up the new Mad Monster Party DVD for $9.99. WalMart, K-Mart, Walgreens, even Best Buy all failed miserably on this DVD. So thank you Target.

Can they do that? Where's the Disney lawsuit?

Beautiful tombstones; love the Celtic cross... though the one that reads 'Spells' is a little baffling. What does it mean? Spells died? The death of spells? Here lie spells? Weird.

(I had some video of the K-Mart and Target displays, just to give an idea of scale, but Blogger is acting up and isn't processing videos very well today).

You know, I don't buy an awful lot of Hallowe'en stuff each year. I have amassed so much over these long years, that I only buy little things, or big things only if they scream 'take me home!'... it doesn't happen often.

But I love walking among all the crazy, fun, sometimes stupid but always wonderful Hallowe'en aisles. It's tradition, it's required, and it's always a nice reminder of what's important, and more significantly what isn't important, about the greatest night of the year.


Decisions and prop posts soon-


DumdumshrekPROPS!