Halloween Set-up for 2016

I've been wanting to do some kind of Halloween set-up, or layout, or whatever, for years now. Long time readers of the blog have followed my projects on building several spooky houses from paper over the years. Also, during the past few years I've been acquiring Halloween themed toys. Well, this year I decided to do something with all these things. It's not gonna be super special, just something for me to keep my mind active and play a little as time permits - and there's precious little of it any more.

Ya know, it's funny but I'm not really a Halloween person. Nope, just not that much into it at all, yet there's still something fascinating about it and I still like a lot of the imagery and toys but I'm generally not into the macabre, gruesome, or slash-&-hack type of films that have caught the public's attention over the past several decades. I grew up during a time when Dracula with Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff's Frankenstein or Lon Chaney's The Wolfman were about as nasty as it got. My favorite films tend to run along the lines of Abbot & Costello Meet...Frankenstein, The Wolfman, The Invisible Man, etc., Hold That Ghost, old Vincent Price thrillers, Halloween Town (lord knows why - it's goofy as heck, but it has Debbie Reynolds and I like it). I was also okay with the Christopher Lee/Peter Cushing series of Dracula and Doctor Van Helsing series of films as well. Keeping all that in mind, the set-up I've been working on has a little of the spooky, a little of the macabre, and a little fun and mirth. Let's get started - Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

Two of my very best favorite sites for Halloween themed paper models is Ravensblight and Haunted Dimensions by Ray Keim. Here are the projects I've built and blogged over the years:

We'll start this year's Halloween fest with a few toys I bought at Michael's Craft Store last year. These spooky little boogers are only about 1 1/2" (3.81cm) H but when placed in water grow to be BIG. I like their small size and am not gonna mess with gettin' 'em wet so you'll see them on the display in their original small format.

Here's a sneak preview of the set-up being laid out

What a mess!