X-Entertainment.com X-Entertainment.com A Proud UGO Affiliate
My dying wish is for an owl/camel hybrid, which I call camowl.
« [Main Index] »

Hangin’ With Mr. Krueger.

I got a couple of e-mails this week from readers wanting to know if I'd be doing a "traditional" Halloween Countdown this year. While my sanity would certainly benefit from doing a bunch of shorter blog entries, I've come to realize that the holidays are all about suffering for my bullshit art. YES, there will be a very traditional and very what-you're-used-to X-E Halloween Countdown this year. Very soon, in fact. Don't want to marry myself to a launch date just yet...but very soon.

And, now that I think about it, this will be the fifth annual Countdown. The fifth! Thanks to everyone who e-mailed in with suggestions and donation offers. If anyone else thinks they have something I can cover this year, drop me a line.


Hit the town last night on the hunt for spooky goodness, and among other things to be reported on in due time, I came across the beauty seen above: A Freddy Krueger hanging decoration. Only slightly expensive with its thirteen dollar price tag, I believe this a new-for-2007 item. I love the shit out of it. It's perfect for Halloween, but Freddy's reach is jusssst broad enough to make this one a genuine perennial.

The quality is terrific -- Freddy's head and hands are made of some kind of awesome rubbery material that's both realistic and fun to touch, while his trademark sweater is real wool, or at least, such a good facsimile that I don't feel the need to fact check.

Look close at Freddy's glove. I sure wish I did when I was at the store. Apparently, some hooligan saw fit to rip off three of Freddy's four glove blades, leaving him both a less effective killer and a constant middle finger-giver. I'm gonna head back to return it for not-wrecked version, and it'll be interesting to see how the conversation with the store manager goes.

I don't feel like measuring the hanging Freddy decoration, but if you're looking for some sense of size, he'd make a great hand puppet. Once I improve my ventriloquism skills, I'll be available for Bar Mitzvahs.

Happy SNT!

Posted by Matt on 09/08/2007. E-mail me!



Discussion Thread: 235 comments
1 … 3 4 5 6 7 … 10

Weird. First thing I thought when I saw Freddy’s pic was “man, I want to touch his skin”.

Matt I’m not sure if you’re into 50s-60s Mexican masked wrestler horror flicks but there are several that might make an entertaining review, depending on your interest in whichever film(s) you might decide to write about.

Any of you Okies make it out to Oktoberfest? It was a good one this year. I went Friday night. A few buddies of mine were running one of the beer booths and yesterday morning I sure was regretting taking them up on the free beer offers.

I have a question for everybody here. I’ve been toying with the idea of opening my own business the past couple of years and I want some opinions/input. I haven’t told this to anybody but 2 of my closest friends… last night. Both of them honestly thought it’s a great idea and the part of town I’d want to put it in would be perfect. But what do you guys think about opening my own pinball bar? There are a few scattered around the US, but nothing close to here. Just a place with a stage for live music on weekends, tons of pinball machines, a few skee-ball tables, pool tables, and a kick ass juke. There would be a full bar and maybe a small kitchen (for sandwiches, fries, just small quick meals and snacks).

The area I had in mind is very popular and frequented mostly by those born in the 70s and 80s, and they’re the type of people that I could definitely see loving the idea.

Obviously there are a lot more specifics about it, but just judging off the basic info I’ve given, what do you guys think? Have you ever been to a pinball bar? Have any suggestions? Be as honest as you can please, if you think it’s the worst idea since the birth of mankind, then tell me.

Chestnuts roasted by fistpittingnork @ 09/09/2007 8:01 PM

I think my Target is the only one left in the country that has yet to start stocking the Halloween stuff. Hopefully next time I’m in Erie or Butler they’ll have some stuff out.

Chestnuts roasted by jjwspider @ 09/09/2007 8:04 PM

fistpittingnork I think it sounds like a pretty cool idea. I’d hang out there for sure if there was something like that around here. I say go for it. If I find myself in your neck of the woods after you get this going and you need a DJ just let me know.

Chestnuts roasted by DJ D @ 09/09/2007 8:20 PM

fistpittingnork: I think the idea sounds pretty interesting. In Pittsburgh, one of the dining attractions is a grown up Chuckie Cheese that is essentially a Hard Rock Cafe with arcade games. I could easily see this being a big hang out spot for college aged kids. Are you close to a campus?

Chestnuts roasted by jjwspider @ 09/09/2007 8:47 PM

fistpittingnork u might talk to some of the folks on the http://www.klov.com message boards some of whom have done similar things. basically i’m guessing you probably wouldn’t make money off the pinballs but they could serve as a good attraction to bring people in so that you could make money off other things – most likely being the beer and food.

Chestnuts roasted by nogood @ 09/09/2007 8:48 PM

My Target had the candy out, but the back section was still school supplies. I picked up a bag of candy pumpkins and the Dexter DVDs (finally!). Also hit the Halloween Adventure store and Dollar Tree, but they didn’t have anything too cool, though they did have cute grow-a-Dracula/Ghost/Witch/Severed Hand doodads.

Chestnuts roasted by squee4242 @ 09/09/2007 9:05 PM

I saw those licorice Jones last time I was at Target.
I really hope that’s not gonna be the only flavor.
I loved the shit out of Creep Cranberry. I hope they bring that back. Speaking of cranberry soda, while I was at said Target I got a fountain drink from the snack bar and wouldn’t you know they had cranberry Sierra Mist. I really hope they’re bringing that back too, and it just wasn’t a situation where they needed a 6th soda flavor and all they had left was a year-old bag of Cranberry Splash syrup.

Chestnuts roasted by Somethin' Funny @ 09/09/2007 9:07 PM

fistpittingnork-

I know a guy who did a similar thing out near my house, the reason most arcades are no more is that home video game technology has basically eclipsed what you see in the arcades these days. Pinball machines are outrageously expensive (new models cost anywhere from $3000-$10000), very difficult and expensive to maintain (often parts must be ordered from obscure suppliers, ebay, etc and you will need a professional to do almost any repair beyond a light bulb change with a newer model machine). Plus people will abuse your machines, increasing the cost. Ultimately it is VERY difficult to turn a profit. One of the few plus sides of such a business is that the machines tend to hold onto a lot of their value if maintained well, there is an enormous home collector’s market. It can also be very difficult to get approval from a city to open up an “arcade”, generally most cities don’t really like the idea of a place where lots of young people will hang out loitering and drinking/smoking/etc.

Don’t get me wrong, i LOVE the idea, just want to give you some bits of personal advice from my years as an arcade game/pinball machine collector. The only arcades that do well financially tend to be the big shot places like Gameworks, Dave & Busters, I think Sega owns and operates a few major arcade places as well. Sadly most arcades haven’t really been profitable since the mid 80′s, thats why lots of places like showbiz pizza and chuck e cheese started getting away from video games and moving towards the redemption machines and such.

The pinball/arcade place by my house was even vintage-themed, all 70′s and 80′s games, cool place to hang out but ultimately there was never really anyone there when I went.

I really like the arcade at Cedar Point for pinball games – they have tons and tons of the old electro-mechanical machines and other gun games in the back of the main arcade. We also have Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum by my house (metro detroit area), its a huge museum of coin-op equipment from the 1800′s-present, and EVERYTHING has been restored to working condition – they even have a full chuck e. cheese animatronic stage show up on the walls.

Chestnuts roasted by djspaceace @ 09/09/2007 9:39 PM

DJD: I actually just stopped watching it due to the fact it was just so BORING (and also a pain in the butt to watch, crappy downloads). I was a fan of it when I was young, but that was mostly because I was a Freddy fan. It’s interesting to watch as a “Before they were famous” type of thing (Brad Pitt, John Cameron Mitchell, Eva LaRue). But out of all of the horror anthology series from the 80s/early 90s, this was definately the worst.

Chestnuts roasted by JLAJRC @ 09/09/2007 10:01 PM

fistpittingnork: If you decide to attempt your business venture I wish you the best of luck. I don’t have much else to add and it sounds like you are already getting some good, level-headed advice.

As a kid I sure did love to spend time in the arcade. I was very disappointed to watch their decline in the late ’80s/early ’90s and now we find ourselves at a point where the only arcades around are the huge, corporate owned places like Gameworks and Dave & Busters. I guess it is my fault as much as anyone’s though as I spent less and less time in the arcades and eventually became a near exclusive “at home” gamer.

Maybe I’ll take the lady to Gameworks later this week when she is feeling better. Actually there is a Dave & Busters around here too.

Chestnuts roasted by Magic Toy @ 09/09/2007 10:21 PM

Went to Target today, expecting to see the Halloween section in all it’s black-and-orange splendor. So far they have the stages up and two props and an assload of candy. No problem for me! I bought a bag of Halloween Oreos and a package of candy necklaces with skulls on them and a tin of Icebreakers in pumpkin shapes but they’re not pumpkin-flavored… :( So that’s one Target down, four more to go…

Chestnuts roasted by Special K @ 09/09/2007 10:48 PM

JLAJRC They’ve been rerunning it on ChillerTV, the new cable horror channel, but I’ve heard they’ve actually edited a lot of the content they show. But, I am jazzed that they’re also rerunning Werewolf, one of my favorite horror series of the 80′s that I thought I would never get the chance to see again.

Yeah, man those were good times in the arcades back in the day. I remember there was one called Jolly Time at the mall near here and our parents used to drop us off there and we would sneak into the R rated movies at the mall, and then head over to Jolly Time for some gaming fun. Man, those were good times.

I gotta try to make it to Target sometime this week and see all this stuff you guys are talking about. I gotta start buying some decorations soon.

Chestnuts roasted by DJ D @ 09/09/2007 11:02 PM

Nork: You should try and finding the old 80′s arcade classic Dragons Lair. I always wanted to play that as a kid because I firmly believed it was a cartoon animation you were controlling rather than just movie shots based on decisions you had to make. Still cool though.

Chestnuts roasted by Bill @ 09/09/2007 11:44 PM

I wish I had Chiller/Scream Network/Monster channel or whatever horror channels are out there.

I was at a comic convention a while back and my dad bought a Bootleg DVD of the Werewolf series. It had a pic of someone in a cheesy werewolf costume on the cover. We also got the monstrosity that was the “Star Wars Holiday Special.” Now that was a legitimate nightmare to watch.

Chestnuts roasted by JLAJRC @ 09/09/2007 11:45 PM

Yeah, Werewolf’s pretty interesting. The guy who played the main character honestly couldn’t act his way out of a paper bag, but it’s worth it to sit through the whole half hour of each episode to wait for the obligitory wolf-out. The costume was hilarious because the mouth never moved. It just stayed open all the time and he kind of had a big hunch back, but it was still really good for TV at the time.

Wow, what a cool dad you must have there that he would not only go to a comic convention with you but then spend his own money to buy a Werewolf DVD. I miss holiday specials…well good ones anyway…not dodgy “Star Wars” ones. I also miss the primetime specials that used to come on right before the new fall season of Sat. morning cartoons. Everyone else remember that? They would premier all the upcoming cartoons for the fall….back when it was actually possible to get excited about upcoming Sat. morning cartoons.

Chestnuts roasted by DJ D @ 09/09/2007 11:59 PM

Well, I’m the comic book guy in the family, so someone has to take me. He’ll browse and buy something occaisionally, like that werewolf thing. He liked the show when it was on, I’ve never watched it.

Those Saturday Morning Preview things were fun. They still do it, but it’s for their primetime shows instead of cartoons.

Chestnuts roasted by JLAJRC @ 09/10/2007 12:08 AM

So, I’m assuming the JLA part of your name actually stands for THE JLA. If that’s true, then what’s the JRC? Right now I’m going back and catching up on all my Batman stuff. I’m a hardcore Batman fan and I stopped collecting all together a couple of years ago. Now I’m going back and buying up loads of trades to catch up. I’ve been buying my regular weekly books as well for months now but I’m only reading the old Batman stuff, so I’ve actually got 2 whole long boxes full of crap that’s just building up and building up that I’ll eventually get around to reading. I’m kind of anal about the order I read everything, so I’ve gotta catch up on old stuff before I can read anything new. Just the way I do things, I guess.

So, what are you picking up these days?

Chestnuts roasted by DJ D @ 09/10/2007 12:22 AM

JLAJRC: you got the Star Wars Holiday Special, huh? This is what I think of that special…

http://youtube.com/watch?v=pBiLAy7mDbw

Chestnuts roasted by Bill @ 09/10/2007 12:29 AM

Bill…

Dear lord, what the hell did I just watch?

Chestnuts roasted by DJ D @ 09/10/2007 12:33 AM

I remember the prime time preview specials most of the channels used to air. For some reason the Fox one where they premiered the second or third season of X-Men was the one that I got completely psyched for.

Has anyone else noticed that children these days just aren’t allowed to enjoy their childhood anymore? It seems like Saturday morning toons are on the decline, fewer and fewer holiday specials are being aired and stuff like the Prostitots (Bratz!) lines are considered to be mainstream. I remember always looking forward to the Charlie Brown and Garfield Thanksgiving and Christmas (not Winter Holiday) specials.

Damn PC culture – we train our kids to be pimps and hoes yet completely ignore all the fun that went with being a kid.

Chestnuts roasted by jjwspider @ 09/10/2007 12:38 AM

A little bit of awesomeness, my friend….a little bit of awesomeness.

You should hear him rock out some Iron Maiden, The Trooper.

Chestnuts roasted by Bill @ 09/10/2007 12:39 AM

Well Bill I must say that was uh……interesting to say the least.

Chestnuts roasted by Dan @ 09/10/2007 12:42 AM

DJ: The JRC part are the initials of my name. I’m beginning to think that you and I were separated at birth since I’m also a huge Batman fan. I got a ton of toys (some in packages, some loose that you pick up at garage sales.) posters, various trinkets, empty food packages that had a Batman connection. I even watch the current Batman cartoon. I’ve also stopped collecting these things mostly due to space and $$$$.

I got alot of comic boxes myself (About 10, I believe).

My current comic pull-list
Batman
Detective Comics
Batman Confidential
Batman Strikes
Birds of Prey
Flash
Green Lantern
Catwoman
Blue Beetle
Shadowpact
Checkmate
Outsiders
Brave and the Bold
JLA
JSA
JSA Classified
JLU
Green Arrow
She-Hulk
Ms. Marvel
Captain America
Ultimate F4
Ultimate Spidey
Ghost Rider
All three Avengers titles
All 3 Spidey titles.
Shrugged
Fear Agent

I also pickup whatever miniseries looks interesting at the moment.

Chestnuts roasted by JLAJRC @ 09/10/2007 1:04 AM

jjwspider Yeah, I totally agree. The Charile Brown and Garfield specials were (and still are) just amazing and I still get as excited about them as I did then. It really is a shame that it’s more about being a tween or teen now than just enjoying being a kid. What’s next? Saturday morning birth control ads aimed at 11 year olds? I mean back in the day, it was all about defeating the tyranny of Cobra, wishing you could hang out with a giant transforming semi, and building forts. Oh yeah, that and convincing myself that one day, when I was a little bigger it was COMPLETLY plausible that with enough practice with a grappling hook, a costume, and a few karate lessons, and I could (no, WOULD) become Batman.

Um, I still haven’t completely given up on that last one.

Chestnuts roasted by DJ D @ 09/10/2007 1:09 AM

yea i see some of these lil kids these days and wonder if i was just really naive as a child or if society’s just really crazy now.

these lil 4 & 5 year olds runnin around like they run shit talkin like they’re grown with a chip on their shoulder.. using machiavellian tactics in a power play to watch their favorite nick jr shows, wtf is goin on?!

Chestnuts roasted by nogood @ 09/10/2007 1:28 AM

1 … 3 4 5 6 7 … 10

Add A New Comment!


This entry was posted on Saturday, September 8th, 2007 at 9:51 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.