Masked

Continuing from yesterday's blog about disguises, here are some rubber/vinyl masks I found this summer at various garage and estate sales.  When I was a kid, rubber masks were for the wealthy.

First up is this vampire mask with "lifelike" hair.  The odd thing is, he had sculpted hair already.  I guess it didn't do well, so they thought adding additional hair might help.  I'm not sure of the maker of this.

Disguised

When I was deciding on a Halloween costume as a kid, it was always my goal to not be recognized, whether it was through the use of mask or makeup.  I generally didn't have the scratch for a costume, so many times, it was makeup.  I've written previously about some of my failed attempts at using makeup to disguise myself.

Imagineering and other companies sold kits aimed at making kids think they could successfully disguise themselves without the need for makeup.  I recently found the remnants of some of those kits.

Stirring the Pot

We're not done with die cuts yet, not by a long shot.

Here's another witch die cut made by Beistle.  It's another unusual one I've not seen before and was bought at the same sale as yesterday's witch.  I believe it's a bit older and probably dates to the 1940's or before.

Perched on her stool, she stirs the post of her ghoulish goo with a dead branch.  When's dinner?

 

Beistle Little Witch

 Normally each season I try to limit the same kind of object to one per week, particularly die cuts.  But this year, I've come into a goodly number of them, many from the same sale, so I thought I'd start posting these a little more frequently.

First up is this Beistle Witch.  I'm not sure if she's supposed to be a child witch or just a short witch, but I like her and her frightened Jack O' Lantern.  It's one I've never seen before, and I found 2 at the same sale.

Not only is she small, the die cut is as well, measure 5 1/2".  If I had to hazard a guess, I would say she's from the 1950's to 1960's.

The Blue Baron

Now, I know some of you may argue that today's entry may not qualify as Halloween or horror related.  I would counter, first of all, that Snoopy is very Halloween related, given "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" in which he makes a memorable appearance as a World War I flying ace battling the Red Baron.  I would then add, that not only is today's entry Snoopy, it's a Hitler-mustachioed, Iron cross-bearing, masked, alternate universe Snoopy in which he was born in Germany under the Kaiser's watch and now fights for the other side. How's that for horror?

The Shadow Man

I found this original pen and ink drawing at a garage sale over the summer.  No context other than I believe it's an illustration for a newspaper, specifically, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. I have no idea what's going on here. I probably don't want to know.  The stains add a level of disturbance.

Wax On, Wax Off

I'm not sure of the age of this Glenn Confections Fun Gum.  It has a 9-digit zip code.  Zip+4 was introduced in 1983 in the United States.  Glenn confections went out of business in 1994.  At any rate, it's a survivor.  The original recipient resisted the urge to chew it.