The 2010 Halloween Special

The 2010 Halloween Special!

In this special, Brian and Tim review everything they can get their hands on in terms of Halloween goodies including, but not limited to, Pop Tarts, gobs of candy, more Halloween baking with Tim, reviews of old VBOX video games, and the first ever Halloween "Bag of Crap", a fun skit that date's back to the original form of Brian's website Review the World. Hope everyone enjoys the video!

The 2008 Halloween Special

The 2008 Halloween Special!

Today let's head back to 2008 for the second Halloween special that my friends and I did. As with all the specials, they're hosted by my friends Tim and Brian (since I'm most decidedly camera shy). On this special we looked at a lot of decorations, candy, and a pretty awesome electronic face ripping statue. This special also contains of the best intros we ever shot. Enjoy the video!

The 2007 Halloween Special

I mentioned back in my introduction to Project Halloween that my friends and I used to make hour long videos to celebrate Halloween every year. Beginning today and running through Oct 9th, I'll have a new post up each day with a link to each special, all the way up to the last special we did in 2014.

First up is our original Halloween special from 2007. It stars my friends Tim and Brian (with me popping up occasionally throughout the video). I'll be honest, it's not my favorite as we popped in some sophomoric and shock humor on occasion, something I'm not very proud of now. However, for 2007 I think it's pretty good. 

A few of my favorite segments in this are the intro with the fog machine, the Creepy Crawlers segment, and the fake Rap Snacks commercial. Enjoy the video!

PS: If it doesn't work let me know.

Five Cheap Trick Or Treat Bags

I'll come right out and say it, these bags are really cool, even cooler considering they were nearly a steal at 20 cents each. Yes, you read that right, they were 20 cents each from the local grocery store. Cheap Halloween goods like this were what the original Halloween videos my friends and I did were based upon (side note: those will be posted up come October) so this will be like going back to my roots as I review these. Quick aside, there were actually six different designs to choose from, however the sixth one contained a giant spider on the front of the bag. Since I want nothing to do with spiders in any form, be it cartoonish or otherwise, I opted to leave that one at the store.

Bag #1 - Jack O'Lantern: Here's the first bag, pretty simple if you ask me. Just nothing more than a jack-o-latern pattern with a generic orange background and a black bottom. These bags have the same feel and are about the same size of a small popcorn bag that you would pay about six dollars for at the movie theater with no refills. To be honest, there's not much else here to talk about aside from this bag serving as a good model to use when carving your pumpkin this fall.

Bag #2 - Haunted House: Someone really put some effort into this one. On the front alone, you've got a mummy, a giant jack-o-lantern, a ghost, a super creepy mansion, a dark sky, the outline of a creepy old tree and presumably bats flying above the mansion. Now if just looking at this bag doesn't get you in the Halloween spirit, I don't know what will. After I took the picture, I noticed the side of the bag has pumpkins running all along the side of it. I definitely give this one a top score for creativity.

Bag #3 - Happy Monsters: I have no idea on if "Happy Monsters" is the official title of this design or not, I'm simply calling it that because these creatures seem incredibly thrilled to be plastered on the front of this bag. It's just got this fun, happy, Monsters Inc. feel to it and I'm sure any elementary school kid would be proud to carry this around during trick or treat.

Bag #4: Party Favors: Need some cheap, generic Halloween party wallpaper or something funky to decorate your work cube with? Then go grab yourself some of these! This one definitely gives a vibe of a Halloween party with jack-o-lanterns, evil looking suckers, tiny bats, and generic candy in the form of Tootsie Pops. I'd say this one is probably my second favorite behind the haunted house bag.

Bag #5: Squiggles: Here's the last bag, a simple Happy Halloween graphic centered on top of some black, white, and orange squiggles. While not exactly the most inspiring design, it definitely has more character than it's cousin, the plain orange jack-o-latern bag we started things off with. Heck, even the pumpkin looks thrilled to be part of the proceedings.

Overall, I'd say for 20 cents a piece, you definitely can't go wrong here. I'm hoping I can find some other cheap goods to pick up during the season as these were great!

Michaels Spooky Town Gas N' Ghoul

Holy crap!

It's not often that I make a visit to Michaels as I'm not exactly an arts and crafts type person. However, when I heard they were early to the Halloween party, I knew I had to make a quick stop in. I walked in expecting lots of arts and crafts type stuff but I expected NOTHING like this! Like a Christmas village gone awry, this was a crazy Halloween village that attracted me like a moth to a flame. And wait, what? Everything featured in the display is 30% off? To quote wrestling announcer Joey Styles "Oh my God!"

This haunted town was made up of literally everything you could think of, haunted belfrys, a trick or treat house, a crazy costume shop, and a ZOMBIE CAROUSEL!! I wanted literally everything on the display but I had to control myself as my budget only allowed me to consider certain things. As much as I loved the zombie carousel, I couldn't justify blowing my whole entire Halloween budget on one item, so I carefully scanned the display and came across two really cool pieces ... a trick or treat house (which was basically a standard house decorated with all kinds of Halloween craziness) and a ghostly gas station complete with zombie attendant. In the end, the only one they had in stock was the gas station so obviously I had to get it, complete with the great price tag of 30% off.

Behold the Spookytown Gas N' Ghoul. After looking at the pieces that were in my budget, this was the one that spoke to me and it was the last one they had in stock at the time and yes, as I mentioned, it was 30% off the price tag. There's so much going on here so lets bust into the box to check it out.

Here it is in all it's out of the box glory. The detail is downright remarkable, right to the facial features on the two figures and the design of the car. There's even an attachable wind vane that goes on top. The only real minor flaw in the packaging was that the electrical cord was literally hidden. It was hidden so well that I thought it was missing and called the store to confirm. They said that there was a little pocket in the styrofoam where the plug was. I found it and it was not clearly labeled at all. 

Now some closeups ...

Here's the proprietor of the Gas N Ghoul, one Barry D. Hatchet (I just made that up by the way). Old Mr. Hatchet has been running this gas station since cars were invented one could assume, and as you can see, to get in the Halloween spirit, he's put jack-o-laterns on top of the pumps. He knows the reason that Spooky Town became so spooky, but if he told you, he'd have to kill you.

Here's the poor sap, John Howard (another made up name), pulling in to refuel. Something tells me that he made a wrong turn somewhere.

This doesn't look promising. It sort of reminds me of the time I went camping with a friend of mine and his dad on the old man's property in the middle of nowhere. The only lavatory was an outhouse that probably hadn't been used in five years and apparently had a tarantula living in the bottom of the toilet. I didn't care to find out if that was true or not.

I must say, this was about $40 well spent. This thing will definitely be the centerpiece of the Halloween mood display this year! Speaking of the mood display, check back this weekend for the unveiling!

Project Halloween Begins .... NOW!!

Welcome to Project Halloween 2016!

Let's do this.

Project Halloween is born out of a love of the fall and Halloween season that I discovered about ten years ago. Back in 2007, a few friends and I came up with the idea to do a video reviewing Halloween candy, decorations, and the like and put it online the Friday before Halloween. While we were doing that, I was the main person going out to stores getting goofy candies, rubber masks, cheap props, etc that we could all review and talk about during the special. During that time, I discovered a love for the holiday and the season that I never knew I had. Those specials continued yearly and eventually made it onto YouTube until our last one in 2014. There wasn't one last year as everyone's schedules made it incredibly difficult to get together and film.

I know most, if not all, of you come here for the trading card content. Between now and November, that will be on the back burner in favor of Project Halloween. Come November, once we're all suffering from a Halloween hangover and I've blown through at least 100 cans of Mountain Dew and untold boxes of pumpkin flavored junk food, cards will be back in full force. Trading cards are around and available all year, while fall and Halloween only comes around once, so why not embrace it while I can. It is my favorite time of year after all.

So what is in store for Project Halloween? Anything and everything! The "Hallo-Switch" is in full effect where stores have started clearing out their beach chairs, grills, and school supplies and are replacing them with masks, candy, plastic weaponry, shrunken heads, costumes, etc. That, along with the amount of seasonal food already available (and judging by what's out there, it's going to be a very heavy year on the pumpkin spice), should make for a fun Halloween season. I can't guarantee a new post every day but there will be plenty to go around, don't worry.

Besides the Halloween standards like candy and decor, there will be all kinds of other stuff ... fall festivals, farm markets, horror films, trick-or-treat night, seasonal beers, and lots of other random junk that I'm sure hasn't even shown up yet but probably will between now and October 31st. Oh yeah, the blog got a little Halloween makeover just to make sure the spooky season is done right.

Since this is a kick-off to Halloween and in order to get you into the Halloween spirit there are a number of things you could do right now, but the biggest one of all is to get out and do some shopping! Call it a Halloween treasure hunt if you will. Sure most stores may not have a full-fledged display out yet but if you just look at little closer or go out of your way to look, you never know what you might find. Now is the time where each evening walk, each trip to the store, and a million, trillion mundane, routine items we do on a daily basis are now all out adventures and I encourage you to take advantage of it.

So come on in, boys and girls, sit down, and stay for a while, there's nothing to be scared of. My only hope is that you have as much fun reading my two month ode to this time of year as I do writing it. If it helps you embrace and rediscover the best time of the year, then I've done my job and far as making it fun. I hope you as readers enjoy it and I encourage you to leave comments and spread the word if you do.

For the next two months, we're going to go crazy folks. Enjoy it, savor it, make it your own. Halloween only comes around once a year, it's our duty to do it right. Now, do yourself a favor and kick back with some popcorn, your favorite drink, and Friday the 13th: Part 3.

We're gonna party until we're dead.