Thread: Is it me or have halloween props and items become too generic?

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Hello all...I have been a horror/Halloween enthusiast for many years..Is it my imagination or are Halloween stores selling more and more generic and uninteresting items? I know it is a bit early in the season.. However, I was in a few places and there were like a ton of skull reapers with rags drapped over them, or fake rats and just incredibly mass produced, no imagination items. I was wondering if it might be because I have been into Halloween for so long or if it is because I make a lot of my own Horror/Halloween art.

I have noticed that going to stores that have nothing to do with Halloween and purchasing something that was never intended to be scary, can yield the the most scary and shocking results.

Also, the home made art projects I have seen on this site blow away almost anything that I have seen in the stores...Some of the on line stores seem to still yield some original items though.

Rob

Too Generic indeed!-Spirit has a set of string lights shaped like Jason's hockey mask that play the theme to "Halloween". That bugs me.
I left Target liking only the old-fashioned decorations, and left Spirit feeling too poor, but I only went in to get ideas to make anyway.

Originally Posted by theworstwitch

Too Generic indeed!-Spirit has a set of string lights shaped like Jason's hockey mask that play the theme to "Halloween". That bugs me.

No way! That's exactly what I said to my wife when she pointed out those exact lights. She really wanted them, but it was almost sacrilegious to buy them.

Exactly...... I also use it for new ideas.. However, it has seemingly become so generic, that it is not yielding any new ideas that would make good home made projects.

I hear ya...

I stopped by Halloween City and the Spirit store two days ago. I wasn't impressed with anything new or original.

So I went home and got out all my halloween decorations and started decorating

For me, not really. They are always coming up with something new to buy. Now, at Spirit they have the Scream guy animatronics, Frankenstein, a Harvester, and a jumping spider. I don't know what else they could really have as in Halloween decoration. People want skulls, people want skeletons, people want fake pumpkins that are "carved", people want animatronic figures of famous horror people, etc.

I think the reason you are feeling this way is because you might be celebrating Halloween for so long, and you already created so much stuff, or bought so much stuff so you are searching for anything really, really different.

I have animatronics from Walgreens (previous to this year) that deal with a skeleton in the guilotine, and a guy taking off his head, and a guy with a saw in his head. They also had animatronics about a person buried alive trying to get out of the grave.

I guess the 2 things they don't have much about are the Universal monsters. There isn't much about a wolfman, there isn't much about Creature from the Black Lagoon, and there isn't much of Mummies. They have no blowmolds of these, and yes Universal did have animatronics of 2 of those, but that was 90's maybe, but there isn't a lot about those monsters.

Originally Posted by undead_october

Hello all...I have been a horror/Halloween enthusiast for many years..Is it my imagination or are Halloween stores selling more and more generic and uninteresting items? I know it is a bit early in the season.. However, I was in a few places and there were like a ton of skull reapers with rags drapped over them, or fake rats and just incredibly mass produced, no imagination items. I was wondering if it might be because I have been into Halloween for so long or if it is because I make a lot of my own Horror/Halloween art.

I have noticed that going to stores that have nothing to do with Halloween and purchasing something that was never intended to be scary, can yield the the most scary and shocking results.

Also, the home made art projects I have seen on this site blow away almost anything that I have seen in the stores...Some of the on line stores seem to still yield some original items though.

Rob

I am in agreement. I am finding its harder to find choice unique pieces to use. Many stores recycle the same ideas now, or just recreate the same prop. Even Michaels, they are reusing some of the same items from the last several years, nothing totally new. The black and silver stuff is the same, their fall stuff is the same. Target the last few years is also repeating colors, redoing the same thing, glittering everything in sight. Rewind Target to about 6-8 years ago, they had creepy stuff. Light up fences, animated light up owls, some really great tombstones. Now I feel like they are getting more into "indoor home decor" and abandoning yard haunt and scary stuff.

I love spirit, but they DO need to lower their prices slightly. Some of the stuff is just too over priced. Not everyone can go in their store and spend $500 bucks on what they want and I feel like I have to do that to buy all the stuff I want. I feel like if I just buy ONE expensive item, that I didn't drastically change or add anything to my yard haunt. Does that make sense? I think what I end up doing in the end is purchasing more and smaller items instead of the larger $150+ on one item.

I think that being on this site also raises the bar on what should/could be carried in stores. I mean look at all the paper mache, clay, monster mud etc projects you see on this site..I mean, corpses so well done, you cannot tell whats real..lol.. I guess I am expecting to see that in stores.. However, maybe I shouldn't expect mass produced factory items to stack up against a home made artist's creation.

You know what would be a great idea and possibly be a money maker for all involved... Hire individual and local artists to sell their stuff in the Halloween stores along with the store manufactured items. Basicall.. like a halloween spirit but with many items made by horror and Halloween enthusiasts. The store could take a percentage of all individual artist sales made at that location.

I think this years animatronic props from Spirit are more unique than in years past. Just a few that I think will make a splash are, the Jumping Spider, the Flesh Eating Zombie, the Grave Digger and perhaps the Harvester. Although Demonica was a engineering flop last year it was inventive and a pretty original concept for mass produced props.
I agree that there may not be alot new in the decorative side. There is only so much you can do with mass produced skulls, skeletons and lights. I say mass produced becasue BeaconSamurai does great things with Bluckies and many of the forum members do a terrific job with their decorations. All things considered I am looking forward to many of the new animatronics this year.

I actually like when stuff is more generic... it makes better building blocks for the props I end up making. I don't buy much ready-made pro props any more.

It's kind of like when an artist sees a blank canvas and a bunch of paints... that gives them the room to be creative and stamp their own personality into the painting - it's light years away from buying a painting already completed and without any personal touches. Sure, it's pretty and may have better artistic technique, but it's not YOURS.