10 Things I Would Have In A Monster Squad Style Tree House Horror Hangout

         

          The master of horror blogs (John Squires) came up with this awesome idea yesterday. The title pretty much says it all and I'm a bit too excited to write out a proper header (I can't image setting this post up better than him so be sure to check his blog at Freddy in Space).

 1) MTC Nightmare Warriors

I've had a deep love for skeletons ever since the first time I saw my dad watching "Army of Darkness". The Nightmare Warriors aren't exactly the Ray Harryhausen-esk ones from AoD but I still would have been in bliss, Plus the He-man style figure was more up my ally anyway. The Nightmare Warriors came out a couple years before I born (1983) and most likely weren't around anymore when I was old enough to care. Still, now that I have the power to set up my virtual tree house how ever I want, these are my number 1 pick. 

(Thank you The Gallery of Monster Toys for the picture!)

2) Stay Puft Marshmallow Man 

Most of my earliest memories are of running around with this guy by my side. The cool thing about this plushie was he could double for a more to size scale Stay Puft than the actual figure they had made. He would totally be a valued member of any horror hangout and I'd love to see some kid tell me otherwise!

3) Monster in my Pocket with Mountain display

I to this day wish there was something out there like these little guys. Monsters in my pocket are by far one of the coolest toys of the 90's, I was like an addict begging my mom for money to buy a blind box. Plus if you found the one with the star on his back you would be king.... I mean they made 1 for every 10,000 made so I'm sure no one I knew got one but we all talked like it was a doable thing.

4) Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Before Goosebumps was a twinkle in R.L. Stein's eye, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark was published. I had the pleasure of owning these 3 books and man did I read them a lot. In all honesty the stories really did fall second to Stephen Gammell's art, to this day I can recall pictures that have stuck with me through the years (My all time favorite being the spiders crawling out of the little girls face). I've seen these reprinted through the years and I'm sure its because the art had such a strong impact. 

5) Goosebumps

And then there were Goosebumps, I cannot believe this book series turned my sleepovers into book reading marathons, what kind of messed up kids were we? Looking back on them now I feel like it was time well spent, I even might dig mine up and read through "Go Eat Worms" again (For some reason that was my favorite). It's funny but writing this reminded me of the last R.L. Stein book I read, it was part of his teen series. All I really remember about "The Snowman" was it either hinted at or involved rape...

6) The OH Lantern Family

I remember throwing these things all over the place, not to mention smashing them with every Halloween weapon I've ever owned. Now I deeply regret ever mistreating the OH family as these bad boys have become pretty rare. Still these guys could take a beating and I have to admit I remember it being a ton of fun and a definite must for the hangout. 

For more details on the Oh Lantern Family you gotta check out The Gallery of Monster Toys.

8) Horror Spitballs

A young me would have love to spray water at my enemies with water shooting out of Jason's victims mouth. These are an awesome example of cool stuff from the 80's that leave you scratching your head in wonder, in wonder at why cool shit like this isn't still made today! I for one would totally buy and use a Victor Crowley spitball and pare that with a split headed victim... Someone please make that a reality!

9) The Thing: Infected Plasma

I used to love playing with this, I would totally pretend me and my friends had come across a wrecked alien vessel and had been infiltrated by The Thing! Okay so maybe I didn't do anything remotely like that and maybe this isn't even a real toy... But thanks to Tyler Ham of HamFX  I get to throw this in my horror hangout and no one (including reality!) can stop me! Ha! 

10) 13 Ghosts VHS art poster

Now this may exist and if it doesn't I'm going to Kinko's. When I was little I used to watch this movie over and over and over... But I don't think I really liked it all that much, I mean this movie was original marketed as a gimmick with this ghost vision glasses and that was for in theater viewing. I was watching it on VHS, though I did get to have this awesome totally misleading art work on the front! Man if this scratchy crazy drawing hadn't been so cool I bet I never would have watched it.

          If you have any ideas as to what you would put in your horror hangout, please share in the comments or if your blog savvy send the link John's way. Man this was fun to think about and I suggest you all do it!