X-Entertainment's Christmas Season & Advent Calendar, 2008.

09/19/2007: Talking & Bleeding Skulls.

Happiness is walking through a department store and uncovering a skull-shaped “Bleeding Brains” candle…

Unhappiness is getting home, taking it out of the bag, and seeing a zombie version of said “Bleeding Brains” candle on the back of the box, which is approximately seven trillion times cooler than some everyday skull.

Happiest Possible Level of Happiness is finding out that you bought the zombie version and just didn’t know it.

Can’t wait to light him up. Even unused, it’s one of the prettiest items gracing our living room. But, when lit, he’s supposed to dribble out tons of bloody wax from his mouth, ears and eye sockets. I’d start the process now, but it seems like something I should hold off on until company comes over.

While I’m oh so happy to have lucked into my bleeding demon candle, I don’t mean to infer that skulls are bad news. In fact, today’s Countdown entry takes a look at one very nice skull, who talks and has blinking red eyes. Meet Talking Boris, a skull head who will say anything you tell it to say, even if it’s some obscenity-laced tirade about gasoline prices.

Oh. My. God. Where did you make that incredible find? I need one of those like nobody’s business. The missus would freak out if presented with a melting zombie head, and so would I. Needless to say that they would be two different kinds of freaks, but that’s what Halloween is all about.

the zombie candle = cool
boris the “talking skull” = lame
what really interests me is the old disney channel magazine that boris was resting on. That was from when disney channel was good, when you had to pay extra for it! (or wait for the blessed free preview weekend)

I have a somewhat earlier version of the talking skull that I’ve completely given up trying to scare trick-or-treaters with. Kids wouldn’t even take the slightest notice of the thing, let alone attempt to decipher the garbled mess intended to be threats of death and dismemberment spewing from its clanking jaws.

Monte: Might be a good thing, nowadays a parent would sue you for scaring their child too badly.

About 15 years ago I got the Hand of Glory version of these candles, and the smell when it was burning was bizarre. It was ultimately so off-putting I had to toss the candle. It was sort of sweet, waxy and oily all together, with a strange chemical over lay. I really want to get another candle like it, but that smell is something I can still remember a decade and a half later.

Hands Down, the coolest candle ive ever seen, hope they have them in my neck of the woods.
Awesome find Matt!

I own a Pirates of the Caribbean talking skull that I have on my door. I always wanted to scare people with it by saying my own phrases. So I ask you, Matt: Where did you find Boris? That things was tailor-made for me.

I am so going to Wal-Mart to get one of those candles, be it the zombi-fied or skull-tacular version. I checked out the Hallo-selection at Target tonight, for the first time, and was pleasantly surprised. I didn’t pick up anything but plan on loading up the next time I hit up the store to grocery shop.

BTW, is anyone else sort of annoyed with the Taco Bell commercial that tries to sell us New Cheesy Beef Melts all to the tune of Modern English’s “I Melt With You”? Seeing people with eight inches of rubbery-looking strings hanging out of their mouths, representing “cheese”, is not appetizing. Yech.

I got the skull candle last year for Halloween and kept that bitch in the bathroom till there was nothing left of it. That was love on first sight, that was. My roommie at the time kept reminding me how weird she thought it was that I insisted on keeping Halloween decorations hanging around all year round, but since they were pretty much confined to my bedroom and “my” bathroom (the hall bath, since she had her own private one), she didn’t complain too much. She just refused to use the hall bath as long as “that stupid skull thing” was in there. I actually went to Wal Mart earlier tonight, held the skull candle in my hand and decided to wait till I moved in 3 weeks to buy any decoartions. But, this shit’s starting to get uncanny. Why?

A couple of weekends ago I went to Target, went ga-ga over some new hanging Freddy puppet looking thing and talked myself out of buying it. Came home. Matt wrote an article about it.

Tonight–Went to Wal Mart. Saw the skull candle. Thought about it. Talked myself out of it. Came home. We all see what happened.

Ok, universe. I’m listening. But, I’m moving in 3 weeks. I gotta skrimp and save. As soon as I’m settled in, I’ll go nuts–have a MAJOR shopping spree. Swear to X-E. But, this is starting to get weird.

As for Boris the talking skull, I just can’t see myself shelling out 25 bucks for that. But, I’m really glad Matt did.

That candle…is amazing. The expression makes me think of a zombie gangsta rapper. I guess tupac is (un)dead after all.

Also, I think I need to get boris, if only to have him send laserbeak to spy on the autobots in his robotic voice.

hell yeah. we actually have that zombie one in our living room right now. you want to watch the candle when it drops from his skull to the mouth, because it might tilt over and get messed up. but other than that it’s awesome.

ps and sorry to double post, but we got it at walgreens. just in case yall arent finding it at walmart. its at the other ‘wal’.

I saw the skeleton candle at Walmart, but not the zombie. Maybe I just saw the wrong side of the box. I’m kind of glad to hear that Boris is flawed, it makes it easier to resist running out and buying him. What a great addition to Talk Like a Pirate Day he would be, though.

It’s scary as hell in the video but I can’t understand a word coming out of it’s mouth, maybe that makes it scarier.

Its funny, but last year I got the finger puppets and skull candle at Walmart, and about 5 years earlier I got the bag of creepy crawlies I used as monsters in D&D games from Ames when they still existed.
Dammit Matt! You are supposed to show stuff I want to waste money on for no good reason, not remind me of doing it in years past!

I’m loving the Halloween Jukebox Matt. Of all the outstanding songs, and the memories each are associated with, the highlight so far has been Dokken’s Dream Warriors. I owned Dokken’s “Back for the Attack” album (on cassette!) when I was a kid, maybe ten years old?

Ah, the memories that song brings back. I was thankfully “that kid” on the block that was able to get his hands on R-rated movies and show them to his underage friends. One of those films was A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. Hence my love for that album and that song. Among classics like Predator, Aliens, Commando, Gremlins, The Goonies, The Terminator, Conan The Barbarian, Lethal Weapon, Star Wars, and other movies that I could tape off of HBO during their “free preview weekends”, or convince my movie-loving Dad to rent. Horror films held a special place in our hearts.

After all, these were the sick, depraved movies that my friends and I darn well knew that we had no right to view. As kids we felt like we were practically breaking the law when we watched R-rated flicks that featured stabbings, shootings, cyborg-on-human violence, chest-burstings, pipe-impalements, eyeball-gougings, limbs being severed, comet dust-guided big rigs running amok at truck stops, suicidal hero cops who weren’t faking it for their psych. pension, scary toy clowns hiding under beds, leather-clad bikers in a post-apocalyptic world searching for juice, high schoolers fighting off Russkies, Richard Dawson telling the hero he’d only be back in a “re-run”, Cody telling the knife-wielding punk to ‘try it again’, hearing the song Mr. Sandman after Laurie survived… again, wondered “what’s wrong with her eyes!” when we watched ED for the first time, saw Wolfman get kicked in the nards, learned that it was DEFINITELY wrong to feed them after midnight, were afraid at just how little gas was left in the chopper after Peter and Fran took off, and we found more than just a little in common with the character of Brad in Critters.

I’ll admit it. In 1987-88 I was the “president” of a small group of friends, a club if you will, that loved all of this stuff. Dokken’s Dream Warriors was sort of our theme song, if you could call it that. We didn’t really hold official meetings. We mostly just blew things up with fireworks, read Fangoria on the bus going to school, drew ghastly pictures and wrote short stories that would now get any kid expelled from school, and committed, in the post-Columbine world we live in. It was a simpler time I suppose. Instead of being afraid of what I wrote my teachers would smile at me, put on a brave face, and tell me that this might be a bit too violent for school, could I please re-write it without all the blood and guts. Again, the memories… sing tear sliding down the right cheek.

Thanks to this site I know I’m not the only kid who, by late September, was drawing up diagrams of how I could decorate my yard/porch during Halloween in order to freak out the highest number of kids.

Don’t even get me started on how cool Chainsaw and Dave were in Summer School.

Matt…the talking skull has potential…i would fiddle around with the sound levels and speak at a lower volume or hold the mic a little farther from your mouth, or it will be muffled…i learned that by playing nintendogs on my DS…you have to annunciate, and not like inhale the microphone

Hey Matt, you should be able to fire him up, and then when done, just put him in the freezer, this should let you take all the old wax off of him easily after about an hour in there. Then just pick up a new red candle to entertain friends…. thats how we do those wax pots…

Lemonwitch I’ve bought a few of these exact candles over the past couple of Halloweens and they really have no smell besides the slight scent of ordinary wax.

Was that a Planescape: Torment reference? If so, I believe I am contractually obligated to begin hunting down and killing those I loosely perceive as your enemies. And/or having your man-babies.

This is what I get for going to bed early… I completely miss another great entry about bleeding heads and a talking skull. *sigh*

Make sure you put the zombie on something that’s easily cleaned or disposable!

Man, if we had those zombie and skull candle for the biology club Halloween party, it would been a hit. Also, too bad that Boris is total let down. Speaking of Halloween, Matt is two Ghosts in your comic going to me back.

I live in an apartment building…next to the landlord and an old man. So, it kind of kills my crazy decorating desires for Halloween….but I DO want one of those zombie candles!!

That candle reminds me one we got in college for our Halloween party of this big ghoulish hand that when lit, it’s skin would melt off and you’d see “bones” underneath…I remember we lit it in the middle of the afternoon,nobody was going to class or was done for the day and we were in awe of it just staring at it for a good half hour…

Gotta admit. As soon as i read ‘Boris the talking skull’ i figured it was another cheap prop that spewed the same corny 5 lines at the push of a button or motion sensor.

But the fact the company trusted us with our own creativity. What where they thinking, i can only imagine the stuff i’ll have Boris saying.

I want to publicly declare my gratitude for the existence of X-E. I haven’t been this motivated to celebrate Halloween in years! Love it!!

Boris is one of those things that sound cool in theory, but never quite works out. I used to have a voice-changing megaphone when I was younger. I would play with it for about 5 minutes, get bored, and toss it back into the toybox until the next time I was really bored.

JLAJRC was it one of the megaphones with 3 or 4 voices? Alien, Robot, something else, and then normal voice modes?

Oh and AWESOME candle, I’m going to every walmart in a 100 km radius to find one.

Magic Toy: That was my song with the fiance… until that stupid, stupid commercial came out! Now I can hardly stand to listen to it. Now our song is “Love Song” by the Cure. How melodramatic is that?! haha

Bill: You remind me of the bumblebee girl from Blind Melon’s “No Rain.” It’s a good look for you!

Matt: So what the hell was Boris actually saying? Singing? I’m going to guess it was Grim Grinning Ghosts from the Haunted Mansion or something? I don’t hear well enough to understand Boris skulls when they’re singing.

Special K: Matt was singing the Garfield Halloween “What Should I Be” song. Not that you can tell from listening to Boris. If you listen closely, Matt’s voice can be heard occaisionally by itself. Also, the soundtrack is playing in the background.

I wasn’t singing — that was all Boris. I just held the microphone (bone) to the comp speakers.

Bill: That picture nearly made me pee my pants. For a moment I wanted to set it as my desktop wallpaper… but thought that might be kind of weird. It’s definitely priceless though.

Out of sheer curiosity, when you hold the “microbone” to Boris’s mouth, does it squawk at you? I’m not sure why I need to know that so badly right now.

By the way, listening to the jukebox is SO much more fun at work when you can quiz your co-workers while the boss is at lunch.

41 days ’til Halloween, Halloween, Halloween
41 days ’til Halloween
Sil-ver Sham-rock

I’m gonna break down and watch Garfield’s Halloween Adventure pretty soon…

I’ve had one of those before. Be careful where you stick it because the wax ran out of the tray it was in, got all over the carpet and stained it (we got the wax itself up but that blood-red color wouldn’t come out).

Would it be possible to get some banners made for the countdown that are direct links to the newest entry?
That way we could link to your site for others to enjoy the majesty that is the countdown.

Oh man, I would have so much fun with that talking skull. But no kids ever come to our house, so I guess I’d just end up trying to freak out my family. Scratch that, I’d probably just end up amusing myself by making it say inappropriate things or singing either theme or children’s songs in the robot voice.

Since it’s TLAPD, I’d probably go for the LazyTown song “You are a Pirate.” [i]Do what you want ’cause a pirate is free…YOU ARE A PIRATE![/i]

Frakkyfire: You should check out “The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything” by Relient K. It’s an awesomely goofy song! You’ll love it.

Score for Ice Pirates, damn that is a funny movie. Love those afros. I’m breaking out the pumpkin set and going to a pumpkin patch in the next couple weeks. now if it would cool down a little might feel like fall. Are we still only posting Wii codes on the one back in december?

there is something wonky with the text in the boris article. when i mouse-over, it gets all bold and big, which sucked when i was trying to play the imbedded video (the text got all big, so i had to page down to find the video, and when i moused-over the video, the text turned back to small, so the video was then further up on the page… it was an endless cycle until i somehow outsmarted it). anyway, not sure why no one else has mentioned it. i am using safari v. 2.0.4.

I’ve had a different sort of talking skull for a few years now. I think he’s called Jibber Jabber the Talking Skull. He’s motion activated and has a microphone built in so when you say something near him, he repeats it back a few seconds later. His yes glow red and his jaw mives as well.
He’s the star of our Halloween display. We put him on a stool outside the door for Halloween night. The kids come up, and are chattering away, and suddenly hear Jibber Jabber repeat the sounds back. So then they start saying stuff to hear it repeated.
The funniest thing is the kids who get excited and start to see what words they can get away with before their embarrassed parents take them away. Little five year olds love to hear a talking skull repeat the word “poopy!”

Mary: I’ll try to figure out why that is, but historically, this site has not worked well with Safari.

I would just like to say that this year’s countdown is all kinds of awesome. It has made this sick day bearable and I look longly out the window, desperately wanting a bleeding skull.
Mary: Yeah, all the countdown articles are jacked up in safari, but work in Firefox. Oh well.

Did we ever find out where Matt got that hawsome jason Vorhees/winnie the pooh figureine? I neeeed it!

Yes Bill you do look quite smashing in that bee costume… Unfortunately that image is now replaced by you in Kinko’s running off training manuals and I can’t find the best way to put Mr. Clean in my brain fast enough lmao.. Had I a mouthful of liquid, you would owe me a new monitor.

I am trying out a new text code that arguably makes it look a little better on PCs…but apparently not on Macs…so I will fix.

I just put up my general fall decorations today. I won’t put up my out-and-out Halloween stuff for a week or two. I’m not THAT big of a Halloween fan and I don’t like to jump the gun.

While I don’t deny the talking skull and skull and especially zombie candles are cool, I won’t be buying them any time soon. I hate horror movies; zombies give me nightmares. I enjoy reading about them at X-Entertainment, but not having them around the house.

If anyone can tell me what movies/shows all the clips came from on the Halloween Megamix, I would be eternally grateful.

I’m guessing it’s a homemade thing b/c I can’t find reference to it anywhere else.

Where is Kneg at? I feel like we are missing a lot of people since the kick off of the countdown. I feel like a cult recruiter. “You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.”

OK, just cause we’re missing folks. And I don’t wanna do a paper thats due tonight. Wait, tonight? Why am I here? Doh!

yeah,i miss Knegative’s comments too!
i’m an X-E addict but have never posted a comment before…
guess i’m Kneg’s biggest fan…hope that doesn’t freak him out…

What we need is some kind of virtual leg bracelet thingy with which to track people when they go MIA.

Glad other people are noticing the incredible nuclear growing text in Safari, I was afraid it was just my computer… all the Halloween articles have been that way. Took some crafty mouse maneuvering to get into the blog.

I shall fix that shortly on all of the articles. Sorry! Definitely let me know if you encounter bugs like that, because whenever I touch code, it turns to ruin.

Great Candle! And that voice changing skull sounds like he has had too much to drink!

And don’t you hate it when they have those cheap boxes with pictures on all sides of the products of that line and it has one of those small black and white check boxes in the bottom corner telling you which one you have? I hate those. I have the lost boys downloaded on this computer I just haven’t gotten around to watching it. I wanted that to be my kickoff of the Halloween season this year but too many other things to do and when I can sit still for a while I have tv shows to watch. I can watch the lost boys anytime but the shows on tv are only on at a certain time so lost boys shall wait. We got a bag of Hershey’s miniatures last night at walmart for some reason those remind me of old people. I think those are the only people I see with a candy dish full of them. And out of the random handful I got I didn’t get any mr goodbars so I had to trade that piece with a special dark piece with my best friend. I told him well you could just give me a mr goodbar piece instead of trading and he said no in a very serious voice. It’s just one more tiny piece geez

Matt will probably not comment or say no but I could totally do a Halloween countdown banner. It should link to the countdown’s main page. I have been photoshoppin’ lately and I enjoy it. I don’t kick major ass at it but I think it’s not tacky looking like some people.

Thanks for thinking of us little ol’e Mac-Heads, Matt! It’s much appreciated…

Just a little interjection: I have terrifying claws, and am a Mac-head. More adjectives for my appendages to come later.

Hey Special K! That “Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything” song was pretty awesome! ‘I’ve never tried to kiss a squirrel’ - whaaaaat???? Anyway, just wanted to say thanks!

Frakkyfire actually “Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything” is originally from Veggie Tales and has been covered by Relient K for the upcoming Veggie Tales about the pirates… or something like that.

Avast! Glad to know I wasn’t the only one having troubles with the site in Safari.

On a piratical note, Has anyone noticed that Pirates are ALL you can find this halloween? I have been looking for a brown fake beard (I’m playing Hagrid in a church thing) for two weeks with NO Luck at all….and for some stupid reason our Spirit Halloween store isn’t open yet.

Also, I’m jealous of all you people feeling chill air…It’s still in the 90s here.

Went to Wal-Mart today and didn’t even walk to the Halloween section. That will be fixed tomorrow.

OH, I forgot to say. I was at Target today and I saw and entire aisle of Christmas Cards! It’s September! I was not upset.

Has anyone else besides me put their cursor over that blinking Slimer at the top of the page expecting it to send you to some super-secret X-E Halloween goodness, only to sigh when the arrow doesn’t change to a “hand”?

Blowing the dust off of the ole’ blog name to join the Halloween goodness. Greetings to everyone, old and new.

I still have no idea as to what I’m going to be for Halloween. A friend of mine went out and hit a few seasonal Halloween stores that have popped up within the last week or so, and getting NO help or ideas from the little excursion, I ended up leaving with a only a bottle of liquid latex and some blood gel (by Cinema Secrets. Love their line). If I never do come up with anything, I can easily fall back on the makeup and go as a dead something-or-other.

Bill wondering where I am? Par for the course.
Not-So-Secret Admirers? Has actually happened before.

Matt joining in? I feel loved

I did post in Monday’s thread, ftr. And, I’m surprised Ktulu hasn’t sold me out: “He’s been at Shrine EVERYDAY”

ha,ha,knegative makes me smile.
i’m in a land far away,so forgive my cluelessness…but what’s Shrine ?
…on second thoughts,this makes me sound like a stalker, so feel free not to clue me in.

Shrine is a forum site that Ktulu and I are members of, diamonds. It’s called Final Fantasy Shrine, but we don’t really talk about Final Fantasy. We talk about Pokemon. Tons of other stuff as well, but I mainly talk about Pokemon.

He’s been a member there much much much longer than me, but he’s been honoring us with his presence here recently

I had to be at the school where I will student teach in the spring, for the past two weeks and go to class at night, so I wasn’t around as much. That is sorted out now, though. So, back to business as usual. I do appreciate the fandom

I saw the talking Boris at Goodwill the other day, but it looked pretty beat up and crusty, so I decided to pass on it. But if I saw a new one, I might buy it.

Countdown’s looking great so far Matt. I’m so happy Halloween is coming, YEAH!

Thanks for honouring me with such a polite and informative reply,Knegative.
Coincidently, i love Final Fantasy and Pokemon,so i’m glad i asked.
I’ve heard you and Ktulu mention ‘Shrine’ before but didn’t want to make my first post on here a stupid question.
I figured that to pay my respects first, then ask stupid questions next,would be slightly more dignified.
ha,ha

Here’s a site that teaches you how to re-wire Boris to work off a stereo and synch without that bone of his. The ‘microbone’ is not as clear as hooking him up directly.

I’m with starwenn, Halloween stuff isn’t really my bag, but I have a lot of fun watching everyone else enjoy it!

I hit the Halloween Adventure store today, saw the most kickass plastic gargoyle. It’s huge.
If I had 40 bucks to spare I would consider going back to buy it.

I love the skull, but the microbone is a total letdown. It doesn’t even LOOK like a bone. Is it supposed to be a tibia? Did Boris suffer from dwarfism?

Evilizabeth: I’m not technically inclined enough to truly appreciate that sight, but I still think it is absolutely awesome that someone came up with all that! Thanks for sharing!!!

Dude, you so got ripped off. I couldn’t even tell what Boris was saying.
The look was nice. Performance? not so good…E for effort on the choice of song though.

Okay, I gotta admit that Boris certainly LOOKS cool, but he sounds like crap. Stuff like that is best used just to make unearthly groaning noises and stuff that doesn’t necessarily have to be understandable.

Matt- You should get a kickback from Wal-Mart for advertising for them. Because of you, I went out to Wally World and me my own Bleeding Zombie Head.

for fucks sake. a reason to go to walmart?! un-fucking-believable. I cant believe I’m gonna go to walmart. damn it.

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