Thread: First Halloween sighting in stores...

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Went to a different Walgreens today and got the bat....FINALLY!!

Originally Posted by dippedstix

Went to a different Walgreens today and got the bat....FINALLY!!

Congrats Dippedstix !!! The bat is really awesome and at a great price.

I never realized that not all of the Walgreens carried the same merchandise. I talked with a store manager and they can order different items for their area.

Stopped in 3 different ROSS DRESS FOR LESS stores today in the San Jose, CA area and found in each at least one of the Gemmy White Haired Guy Spirit Balls with the coveted "microphone in" option. I was kind of stunned actually since I thought they were probably all gone from the stores. Three of them made it to my car to be transformed next year into my Band of Ghouls. A body, a new latex face and or some makeup and clothing and a hack of the mic to add mp3 capability and for $19.99 per guy, a really well executed talking prop. Even if you bought 5 of these at $20 a piece you'd end up with 5 totally cool props for less than the cost of one of the larger animated full-body guy (course there's still some expense to modify involved). Any way just didn't want anyone to think all was lost if you saw the original post about these guys in the ROSS stores back in August and didn't find any left in the stores when you looked for them. (BTW if you live in the area--it's the San Jose store in Westgate that has the 2 remaining white haired guys and the swami left on the shelves when I left--the ones I bought were from the Almaden and Campbell locations so unless they restock they're now out of them). And of interesting note I ended up with one box for the White Hair guy that was in English printing as opposed to the Spanish version (both speak in English however), but all of the other boxes I have seen over the last month have been in Spanish.

Also to my surprise on the shelves was another Frankenstein head ($10-11) and two of the Gemmy Combo Pack graveyards (2 pc--nice quality resin tombstone and glowing ghoul, either reaper skeleton or zombie, $19.99 each) Note: The Frankenstein head was at the Campbell store on Bascom for those in the area.

One ROSS store (Westgate) had the inflatables pictured below. Turkey $14.99, Hunchback $19.99. The Dept. 56 lit acrylic pumpkin was $11.49 I think. The signage all wood and metal was reasonably priced too. I picked up the dungeon sign and might change the wording on it ($4.99) but basically liked the shape of it.

Here's some pictures I took.

Has anyone in the San Jose, CA area been to a store called "Boo-tique" located on Hamilton near Bascom? I was in that neighborhood today and drove past it but unfortunately was on the wrong side of the road and trying to get somewhere before they closed. It looked like a pretty nice size building and had tons of Halloween items in the windows. Just wondering if it was worth making another trip to check them out.

My shot at Spirits

Does anybody knows how an I make some dead oak trees like those in Spirit Halloween store?

Originally Posted by GhostHost999

Does anybody knows how an I make some dead oak trees like those in Spirit Halloween store?

They look as if they are made out of cardboard with mossy stuff for leaves

I just went on our Canadian Kijiji site for Hamilton, Ontario and saw the ad Spirits is open in Burlington, ON. Guess where I am going!!

Ghosthost999-somewhere on Better Homes and Gardens website there are instructions to make similiar trees. They are really neat and made from plywood. They are 2 pieces that slide into one another and store flat. They are painted black in the mag but you could do them however you like!! It's also in the magazine either this year or last. I plan on making them myself. Hope this helped.

I think it was two years ago that Martha Stewart was selling decent size table top 2 piece trees on her website and maybe featured in her magazine (before going to prison). I think she showed them on one of her Halloween TV shows too. Anyway after they closed the website I haven't seen them anywhere until Grandin Road picked up the Martha Stewart line and now is selling a version that is 51 inches in diameter and 65 inches high made of high density board. It's called a 3D Tree, 26 pounds and is $149. I just got my Grandin Road catalog today and it's on Page 46. It's Item No. 53503. Here's a picture of it on the Grandin Road website. Her tabletop version look very much like this only scaled down.

The GR website also has a Tree Lawn Silhouette which is almost 8 feet tall, also made from high density engineered wood, on sale in the Halloween Haven Outlet area of the website. They started carrying that last year I think. Being a silhoutte, the tree's only one piece and has support legs.

Hope these give you some ideas.


UPDATE: Found a picture of her tabletop tree. I still seem to recall it being featured in a magazine and there was a template for the tree in it. Anyway, she made these tuile cookies to hang on the tree for partygoers to snack on. Halloween Party Center Recipes The cookie recipe is also on that page if you click her link.