Halloween Shennanigans Abound! Spooky Month 2026!

 

With time quickly running out, and the Witching Hour approaching, here then is an offering of 2026 Halloween..."goodness."  I have barely heard any of this as I offer it up to you, so there may be a razor blade in the candy this year....but we will partake together, my friends.

First up is KIDS 50 BESTEST HALLOWEEN SONGS, a grammatial and punctuation nightmare worthy of the holiday......and a disc that contains.....20 songs!  So, there is that.  Also, very few have anything to do with Halloween whatsoever, BUT, if it's any consolation, what I've heard briefly so far was indeed terrifying, so strap in!

Next we have a Wal-Mart special from 2003, entitled SCARY SOUNDS:

This is (mostly) a sound effects disc, and they were kind enough to split them up into individual tracks, making 70 in all.  After that, 16 "spooky musical orchestrations" are included to fill out the disc. I am not even sure if they all came from the same source...some are definitely some guy's keyboard.  Anyway, we can find out together!

The back artwork doesn't give us much clue as to the contents, and the insides are blank, so....is it a trick, or a treat? I think I know, but hey, 'tis the season.  Enjoy!

LINK:  KIDS 50 BESTEST HALLOWEEN SONGS / SCARY SOUNDS

Universal Mini-Monsters Glow-In-The-Dark Figures (Remco, 1980)

A few years back, we took an in-depth look at the line of Remco Universal Monsters 3.75-inch action figures that were released in 1980.  In fact, you can see the whole bloody story at this post!

If you don't have time to revisit that deep dive: they look like this!

They are super-cool figures with lots of personality (somebody please tell me you put the Wolfman in your Star Wars Cantina)! What lots of folks don't know, though, is that there were actually GLOW-IN-THE-DARK variants of all six! Some people say these were produced the following year, and some say they were concurrent with the original line...both may be true.  What's interesting is, many sellers don't even seem to know of their existence, or even check to see which version they have--so if you are looking for one, never assume! Sometimes an innocuous Dracula figure on Ebay turns out to be the glow version!

This verisimiltude has two important exceptions, which you can see below (the glow variants are in front of their non-glow counterparts):

As you can see, both The Mummy and The Creature From The Black Lagoon are obviously different in appearance, and this is because their bodies are made purely of glow-in-the-dark-infused plastic, rather than simply topically painted.  You will see what I mean in a moment! With the other four, though, you literally have to "charge them up" and get into the bathroom to close the door, to see which version you have!

And not only do they glow, but for 46-year-old action figures, they shine pretty brightly! I left the display case lights on for a few minutes the other night, then saw this when I turned them off:

You can really see the difference in the ones treated with glow-in-the-dark paint, and how it tends to rub off a bit from play.  Also, the poor Wolfman only even had it applied to his face, which isn't that much real estate!  Too bad. The non-painted ones, though, are basically radioactive! It lasts a long time, too.  I know as a kid I used to charge up the 9-inch, Mego-type monsters that Remco made (which you can see glowing in the background), then go to bed and play with them in the dark! It was pretty awesome.

Also, as a word of warning, there's one professional collecting tip I can give you.  Do NOT decide, in the month of October, that you need to complete your Universal Monsters action figure collection.  Wait until about....April.

Happy Halloween!