Monday 20 December 2010

Creepy Christmas: 10 Strange Stocking Stuffers

Original by Thana Thaweeskulchai
Sometimes, the little things can make the best presents. But sometimes, it's the little spooky things that do! With that thought in mind, here's our list of 20 wonderfully weird stocking fillers, all priced under £5...

Friday 17 December 2010

Giveaways: Abomination Nursery Giveaway!

As part of Creepy Christmas, we thought we'd get in the giving mood and have a delightfully scary contest! Armgardt Richter Rose, artist of Abomination Nursery, has very kindly provided us with the prizes, which you can see below.

 
To enter:
Easy!
The winner will be chosen at random from those who enter. Entries limited to one per person.

 
Closing date: December 25th, 2010

 
The Prizes:

 
Winner

 
 

  • 1x Baby Skull ornament
  • 7x pins
  • 1x 5inch x 7inch art print of Vanda
  • 1x 8inch x 10inch art print of Saint Zayle
  • 2x Abomination Nursery magnets
  • 3x Abomination Nursery stickers
Runner Up Set A

 

 
  • 3x Abomination Nursery stickers
  • 3x pins
  • 1x Abomination Nursery magnet
  • 1x 8inch x 10inch art print of Riker Hanoch

 

 
Runner Up Set B

 

 
  • 3x Abomination Nursery stickers
  • 3x pins
  • 1x Abomination Nursery magnet
  • 1x 8inch x 10inch art print of Bialas Dai
NOTE: Prints are actually very high quality. Photos above are illustrative images only.

 
Many thanks to Armgardt Richter Rose for sending us these great prizes!

Monday 13 December 2010

Toys: Living Dead Dolls - Series 21


Marking 13 years of Living Dead Dolls, Series 21 will be released in May 2011. The set is 'Things With Wings' themed and features angels, demons, pixies and fairies. The individual names of the new group are:
  • Pixie
  • Sunday
  • Desmodus
  • Tenebre
  • Absynth

 Information via: Entertainment Earth and Ikon Collectables
 
More pictures after the cut below↓

Sunday 12 December 2010

Toys: Living Dead Dolls Little Red Riding Hood & The Big Bad Wolf



Mezco will release the their Scary Tales: Little Red Riding Hood pair of dolls in 2011, coinciding with the debut of a film of the same story.

"Living Dead Dolls Presents Scary Tales: Red Riding Hood and The Big Bad Wolf

"What big teeth you have"

Inspired by one of the most famous of the Grimm Brothers stories, Mezcos popular Living Dead Dolls reimagines the little girl who dared venture into the dark woods, as well as the legendary wolf with whom she crossed paths.
Red Riding Hood is dressed in her namesake hooded cape and comes complete with her picnic basket: all the better for bringing goodies to Grandma.

The Big Bad Wolf comes dressed in Grandmas nightgown, sleeping cap, and wears her glasses.


This timeless tale has been capturing readers imaginations for hundreds of years and is set to be released as a big budget film from Warner Bros. in March 2011. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke and staring Amanda Seyfried, Shiloh Fernandez, Max Irons, Julie Christie, and Gary Oldman.

Each is shipped in their own coffin."




The variant, to be released in March 2011, has also been announced, and features Red Riding Hood wearing the wolf's pelt as a cape. All three are available for preorder now.


Saturday 11 December 2010

Creepy Christmas: Killing Floor Twisted Christmas


Originally released in 2009, first person co-op survival horror game 'Killing Floor' is having a Twisted Christmas event from December 14th 2010 - January 4th 2011. The event consists of a new map - Santa's Evil Lair - and they've also doubled the number of achievements available to almost 130, including 13 Christmas ones. By completing all 13, you can also unlock the playable character, Baddest Santa.

Baddest Santa

Jack Frost
Just to make it extra festively bizarre, they've changed all the enemy characters into not-so-jolly Christmas-themed attackers. Gorefasts, become Gingerfast, Fleshpounds become Nutpound (complete with Nutcracker Suite theme music), Crawlers become Rudolph the Red-Nosed Crawlers and there's Mrs. Claws, Jack Frost, Elves and Santa's Little Helper amongst other holiday horrors too!


Gingerfast
As a special bonus, those of you own both Team Fortress 2 and Killing Floor, will get a playable red or blue Pyro character, done in the art style of Killing Floor. Also, everyone that owns Team Fortress 2 and either already owns or purchases Killing Floor before the end of the event will recieve Mr Foster's Gas Mask and Tie, which is equippable on the Pyro character.
 
 

For more information, visit the following website:
Killing Floor Twisted Christmas
 
Video after the cut below:
 

Friday 10 December 2010

Creepy Christmas: 10 Spooky Christmas Items

If you want to create a stunning Christmas display this year, but have a taste for spookier setups, why not try mixing Christmas decor with Halloween props to create some festive fun. We'll be posting guides showing how to do that over the next few weeks, but if you decide you already have enough stress to deal with this season, you could always take the pressure off and let someone else handle it! Below are 10 great, creepy Christmas items that will help you create a scary holiday scene!



Click the cut below for the list:

Thursday 9 December 2010

Art & Toys: New Custom from Bob Conge




The artist/customiser behind Plaseebo, Bob Conge, has recently finished a new custom piece, called 'Make Love Not War', for the 'Love Movement' exhibition at the SUPERFROG Gallery in San Francisco. The show starts on December 11th and will feature numerous items from creators from all over the world, as well as appearences by some of the artists themselves.


For more information, please visit: http://www.jeremyriad.com/

More images after the cut below↓

Wednesday 8 December 2010

Fashion: MANIC PANIC


The original MANIC PANIC boutique
Started as a punk-style boutique by sisters Tish and Snooky in New York City in 1977, MANIC PANIC have been making the world more colourful and fascinating for over thirty years! The original store was frequented by musicians such as David Bowie, The Ramones and Cindy Lauper, drag queens and other subculture trend-setters, and its popularity grew in leaps and bounds. By the 90's, all kinds of celebrities, high fashion models, magazines and even movie makers wanted the MANIC PANIC look. 

Although the original shop on St. Marks Place closed some time ago, MANIC PANIC now offer a large range of products online through their webstores. One, St. Marks Place,  sells special sale and discontinued products, meaning that you might just be able to find that amazing colour you thought you'd never see again! 


Long Island City boutique
Long Island City boutique











As well as the webstores, MANIC PANIC also have recently opened boutiques in Long Island City and Venice Beach, along with a salon, which is also located in Venice Beach, giving a whole new generation the opportunity to visit their retail stores. Naturally, the brand's popularity and success has not been limited to the US and the millenium saw mass distribution begin in the UK, Australia, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Poland, Austria, Czech Republic, Japan, Canada, and the Netherlands too.

Some of MANIC PANIC's beautifully bold hair dyes

Unlike some labels, MANIC PANIC's products are generally not over-hyped and work as well as claimed. For example, in my own experience, the semi-permenant dye colour, Vampire Red, came out really vividly even on mid to dark hair. The colour does fade a little after a week or so of washes, but it's only semi-permenant and so I would expect that from a bright colour. However, if you're blonde or pre-lighten your hair as recommended, the colour is likely to be highly visible for much longer.

Casket Basket
The cosmetics, too, have strong pigments, which means that they last longer as you don't need to use much. I particularly like their Casket Basket gift sets and the kits in their Creature of the Night collection. The Casket Basket contains: 1 Virgin white pressed powder compact, 1 Goth White creme foundation, Raven lipstick, 1 Black Magic glitter jewels eyeshadow, 2 nail polish, 4 eye/lip pencils, 1 black rose & 2 spider rings.


Casket Basket contents minus the rose, plus a pot of Scare Crow fangs

Everything is beautifully presented and well-protected in its packaging, so whether you buy it from one of the boutiques or online, you can be sure that it will arrive safely with whoever it's intended for (even if that happens to be you). The face make-up is definitely not meant for full coverage and is obviously not stage make-up, but it's great for everyday wear and subtle, yet noticable, paleness. The Goth White can dry out a little if you store it somewhere warm or leave it open a lot, but mixing a dab of moisturiser with it makes it as good as new.

Final Curtain
Knock 'Em Dead















The Creature of the Night collection total look kits in Knock 'Em Dead (red) and Final Curtain (purple) are not only great products, but great value too, at just $20 for an eyeshadow, creme liner, face powder, lipsticks, lashes, application tools, plus instruction guides on how to achieve three different looks with each kit. In addition to the value for money, all MANIC PANIC products are animal cruelty free and vegan. They were even given an award by animal rights activists PETA because of that, so you can feel good about looking good too!

To buy the above or any other MANIC PANIC products, or to find out more, please visit the following websites:

MANIC PANIC Creature of the Night Collection

Thank you to MANIC PANIC for permission to use images from their websites.

Games: Zombie Mosh


Zombie Mosh is a new game on Facebook, in which you create a zombie character go up levels by moshing with other zombies. When making your little undead darling, you have quite a lot of choice as to what they look like, and you can change their appearence any time you like, which is great considering the game is still only in beta testing. It would be better if you could change the colours of the items too though, because not all of the accessories go together in their default state.














The game takes place within your club and the clubs created by your friends. You can customise your club by buying items from the store with money you get from moshing. Other zombies enter your club and you can interact with them, or you can travel to your friends' clubs and mosh with the zombies there instead. When you mosh in your friends' clubs, you also gain fame, in addition to money and experience. There's also a third option; you can 'grow' your own zombies by planting the humans that wander in from time to time in graves. As you go up levels, you unlock new types of graves, that in turn produce new kinds of zombies.


The one annoying thing about the game, and most games of this kind on Facebook, is that for every action you do, you have to use a certain amount of energy. Once that energy is gone, you have to wait nearly 4 minutes to get 1 energy back, unless you want to pay a silly amount of money for bones, which you can buy special and energy-replenishing items with. So for that reason, it's not really a game you can play for more than about 5 minutes at a time. However, when you go up a level, you recieve bonus energy (how much depends on what level you're at) and you do regain a full energy bar at the beginning of each day.


Whilst it's obviously not the best game ever made, overall, Zombie Mosh is quite entertaining, has a charming look to it and the creators seem to be adding new features regularly. It's worth checking out if you have a Facebook account, some time to kill and a love of zombies!




Zombie Mosh Twitter Page

Tuesday 7 December 2010

Creepy Christmas: Bud Rubber Ducks

After seeing the title of this post, I know you must be thinking "but rubber ducks have absolutely nothing to do with horror and spookiness," right? Wrong! The clever people at Bud Ducks are known for making unusual and quirky bath toys and have even made some cute horror/spooky companions.

Horror Duck
Their collection includes such eerie quackers as the blood-splattered Horror Duck, the bony X-Ray Duck, the creepy cute Spooky Duck and the piratey Skull Duck amongst other aquatic oddities. The ducks come in sizes ranging from tiny 4cm avians on keychains to large 15cm bath toys and decorations.


Spooky Duck

X-Ray Duck
















They make ideal and unique Christmas gifts for anyone who has a darker sense of humor or just likes cute and comical horror and, even if you don't celebrate Christmas, they're still great and fun items to buy for your friends or even for yourself!

Official Website

↓More photos after the cut below


Thursday 2 December 2010

Art: Abomination Nursery

Every so often, in the sea of the internet, you find something absolutely amazing, and Abomination Nursery is one such thing. Or rather, a collection of beautifully dark, horror-inspired "things".

'Hermes'
Hard as it is to believe looking at his work, Armgardt Richter Rose, the imagination and talented artist behind the creations of Abomination Nursery, only started making such detailed, realistic and unusual-looking custom dolls four years ago! Although he had been involved with art and always loved styles influenced by horror and the macabre, it wasn't until 2006 that he found this new outlet for his abilities and, in November 2008, Abomination Nursery was born.

'Castor Valario'
Whilst the heavy amounts of gore featured may put some people off, if you can get past that and view these extraodinary pieces for what they are - remarkably well-done horror art toys - you'll be in for a grotesque treat. After all, horror, by definition should make you somewhat uncomfortable or scared and if it doesn't it's not doing its job properly!

'Cabin Doll'
Although the main focuses of Abomination Nursery are the vinyl and porcelain dolls, Armgardt Richter Rose also makes things such as displays, sculptures, ornaments and decorative homeware pieces. He also sells prints of the dolls and some other items, including great holiday ornaments that are currently available, through Etsy.

'FaceBox' with light-up eyes
The current Abomination Nursery project is a set of movie monster dolls, and it's sure to be equally as stunning as all the previous works! To keep up to date with further news about that project, and any others to come, you can visit the following websites:

Thank you to Armgardt Richter Rose for the images and information.

Additional images after the cut below↓

Creepy Christmas: Creepy Chocolate Apples

It is now December and the month of Christmas has begun. The holiday jingles that are stuck in my head, the ridiculous family movies being launched at me like a horde of zombies at every turn and weather that is freezing cold but not polite enough to produce snow that settles have already started. Okay, so I haven't actually been subjected to any Christmas movies so far, due to playing 'Left 4 Dead 2' too much, and I really do like cold weather, but that's not the point.

The point is that for those of us that don't want to sing carols and hear about all the deals on useless things that "MUST END SOON!!" but have been advertised - with snow and Santa Claus - since July, there should be an alternative. So for that reason, on this blog at least, we'll be having a Creepy Christmas instead! This will consist of a series of posts about spooky food, creepy (but not scary) movies, alternatives to traditional decorations, macabre music, unusual presents and everything else in between. Of course, since it's Christmas, we'll try to keep these posts largely 'family friendly', but don't worry, we'll include posts for grown-ups too, in addition to our usual content as well!

So, first up, just to reinforce the fact that "Creepy Christmas" is in no way just a thinly veiled excuse for us to participate in Halloween activities again, creepy chocolate apples (ignore that it says Halloween on the kit box...heh).


 Dr. Oetker's Halloween Apple Decorating Kit is insanely easy and quick to use and is also highly customisable. The kit itself includes:
  • Chocolate buttons
  • 4 edible paper faces
  • Black & white sugar strands
  • 4 lolly sticks


The apples you use should probably be small to medim sized, as I used four large apples and there was only enough chocolate included for three of them. However, I did make four by adding extra chocolate, but only took photographs of the ones I made with the kit. If you don't have the kit, just use as much chocolate as you need for the apples you have and use candy, slices of fruit/dried fruit or icing to make the faces.

Step 1
Melt the chocolate by placing it in a heat-proof bowl over a saucepan of hot, but not boiling, water. Using a more open, shallow bowl will be easier when you come to dip the apples in it.

Step 2
Remove the stalks of the apples and push a lolly stick through each of them (through the stalk end)

Step 3
When the chocolate is melted and smooth, roll each apple in it and decorate them with the sugar strands and faces. Make sure the chocolate is smooth and not getting to hot (it will start to cook) or too cold (it will start to set) as it's much easier to get a good finish on the apples that way. The chocolate I used on the apple in the first picture had begun to set. 

Then all you need to do it put the finished apples in the fridge to set and you're done. Simple! For a more Christmas feel, you could use red and green sugar strands instead.






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