Attack of the 6 3/8th inches 31 Days of Toy Terror: Richard "Crystal Ball" King from G.I. Joe: Classified Series by Hasbro

 

   Happy Halloween! We've made through another 31 Days of Toy Terror and I've got something special lined up: Richard "Crystal Ball" King from Hasbro's G.I. Joe: Classified Series. So, you're probably asking "Why a G.I. Joe on Halloween?" 

   Allow me to explain. First, look at this guy: Crystal Ball is really freaking creepy. He's creepy on his own, sure, but Hasbro really went and made Crystal Ball even more frightening with a variety of extra parts that are either conjured by Crystal Ball or a result of some sort of arcane science. Second, Crystal Ball is a character created by horror master Stephen King and his son, Owen King, back in the 1980s when Owen was nine years old. Crystal Ball was name dropped in Stephen King's 1987 novel The Tommyknockers Owen King's name and hometown was used for the G.I. Joe character Sneak Peak. Heck, his new file name, Richard King, is a blend of Stephen King's name and his pseudonym Richard Bachman. Crystal Ball has always been an odd character as he is the seventh son of a seventh son, a hypnotist, and something of a mind reader, delving into the supernatural side of the G.I. Joe property that hasn't always been the most popular. The vintage figure was also inspired by the appearance of Vincent Price, so there's a lot of horror star power here. Over the years, I think many fans have come around to the odder characters, enjoying that fact that Cobra Commander certainly find and hires some unusual talent. For the Classified Series Hasbro went all out for this Walmart exclusive figure, taking the vintage figure and just massively improving and updating him with new concepts. Ready for an updated take on Crystal Ball? If all signs point to yes then join me after the break...

The Incredible Shrinking 31 Days of Toy Terror: Assortment #2 from Dr. Malgam's Body Bags by ToadFrog

 

   Halloween is almost here so let's take a look at something pretty spooky and new: Assortment #2 of body parts from Dr. Malgam's Body Bags! Dr. Malgam's Body Bags was launched as a Kickstarter project on May 1 of 2024 and funded within 8 hours. With a cool product of swappable monster parts solid in fabric body bags, a well implemented campaign, and some good stretch goals, the campaign ended with $62,565 dollars. While the past year has been a rather topsy-turvy time for manufacturing and launching a business, ToadFrog kept backers well updated and delivered the quality goods early this fall. Mine arrived right at the end of September. I've been wanting to do a couple video reviews of these as something fun and different so I just jumped in and did one earlier this week while looking at Assortment #3. The general idea of these figures is that each set is sold in a fabric body bag that includes a variety of parts for different monsters. You can build a random monster from a hodgepodge of the parts but you'll need multiple sets to create a full monster. Oddly enough few of the monsters have all of their parts available, though ToadFrog has hinted that the future needed parts will be part of a possible series 2. I'm looking at assortment #1 which contains the Frankenstein (monster) head and a variety of other random parts. Huh. Now, oddly enough, when I look at the campaign page and other folks' pictures, this seems to actually be Assortment #1. Huh. I wonder if mine just got mislabeled? So, this is likely Assortment #2 but my Body Bag says #2. Well, these are meant to be swapped but I haven't done any real swapping yet. So this review might just be a confused mess. Anyways, let's unzip this body bag and join me after the break...

The Incredible Shrinking 31 Days of Toy Terror: Dr. Beargrave from Deddy Bears Minifigures by Innov8 Creative Academy

 

   Halloween is almost here and we've got another visit from the Deddy Bears! I've reviewed a couple of these fun little guys and this time I'm looking at another Series 2 mini: Dr. Beargrave! He's a great companion for the Frankenbear figure, wouldn't you agree? While he's not based on any particular pre-existing character, Dr. Beargrave is obviously inspired by Victor Frankenstein from Mary Shelley's classic novel Frankenstein and all of the mad scientists who have come after him. These are some nifty little terrifying bears and while I like collecting them, I do have to keep them away from Zoey as she'd probably try to eat them. You know how much she loves bears! These aren't blind boxed, so you know what figure you're buying. I've been finding these at Five Below and seem to restock them quite frequently. I haven't noticed any figures being particularly hard to find but Dr. Beargrave is listed as 1:24, so presumably he's rarer than most others. Let's step inside Dr. Beargrave's laboratory and see what's cooking...

The Incredible Shrinking 31 Days of Toy Terror: Creature from the Black Lagoon from Tiny Nightmares by Just Play

 

   Last year I didn't feel like Phantom, the Creature or the Bride got enough love so they've been showing up more frequently on this year's countdown. I reviewed the Bride of Frankenstein from this series of smaller horror figures last week so this week I'm checking out the Creature from the Black Lagoon, the other classic Universal Monster in the set. A few months ago I saw these Target (and recently Walmart) sold in little blind boxes. Tiny Nightmares from Just Play offers the Bride of Frankenstein, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Michael Myers, Pennywise, Chucky and Tiffany, M3GAN, and the Nun. They seemed a bit pricy at around $8 to $11 dollars and I was really only interested in the Universal Monsters, Michael Myers, and maybe M3GAN, so I passed. In September I was at Five Below and stumbled upon these little guys again, though now for $5 bucks. Instead of being sold in boxes, Five Below's offerings come in foil bags with fewer figures (Michael Myers, Tiffany, and Pennywise are absent) with a different set of cheat codes. To find the Creature from the Black Lagoon in the bagged set you'll look for a code "E" on the bag (it's the last letter in a series of numbers); for the boxed set you'll look for "F" for the Creature. So far as I am aware, the blind bagged and blind boxed figures are supposedly the same figures, just with an adjustment to the assortment and codes. I'm glad that Just Play added this as I probably wouldn't have purchased them without knowing who I was grabbing. Ready to swim with the creature again? Then join me after the break...

Halloween 2025 Horror Toy Haul from Toy Federation in Greer, SC and More...

The Incredible Shrinking 31 Days of Toy Terror: The Phantom of the Opera (Masque of the Red Death) from Universal Studios Monsters Little Big Heads by Sideshow Toys

 

   This year's 31 Days of Toy Terror was not intended to be so heavily focused on the Universal Monsters crew but, hey, that's what I like and I have a pretty decent collection of them. Today I'm checking out the first figure I've ever reviewed from Sideshow Toys' 1999 Universal Studios Monsters Little Big Heads: The Phantom of the Opera in his Masque of the Red Death guise. The standard version of the Phantom was released in the first series of Little Big Heads in 1999 while this figure was released as part of the second series in 2000. Sideshow Toys really went all in on the Universal Monsters around the turn of the millennium and released a lot of really high quality product. These guys are 4-inch figures with the aesthetics of a bobblehead (though their heads don't bobble!) and Sideshow released a decent cast of characters in multiple color variants (full color, greyscale, bronze, glow-in-the-dark, etc.). I love the Phantom in this outfit! Ready for the terrifying Phantom to get even creepier? Than join me after the break...

The Incredible Shrinking 31 Days of Toy Terror: Hunchback of Notre Dame from Universal Studios Monsters by Uncle Milton

 

   Today I have an interesting offering for 31 Days of Toy Terror with a look at a figure from Uncle Milton's 1991 Monster Studio set, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, which itself is a recast of the original Louis Marx & Company figure from 1963 or 1964. The original plastic figures were sold loose by Marx in 1964 in both bright blue and orange color schemes. Marx made toys from 1919 until 1980 and was the first company to license the Universal Monsters for toys. Louis Marx sold his company to Quaker Oats in 1972 who then sold it to the British company Dunbee-Combex-Marx in 1976, closing up shop on the last Marx factory in West Virginia in 1980. Eventually, the Marx molds were licensed to toy company Uncle Milton who produced both glow-in-the-dark versions of these vintage toys and a Monster Studio set with six cream colored figures, a set of paints, and a brush. I've seen 1990 or 1991 listed as the year of release for the glow-in-the-dark figures and 1991 or 1992 for the Monster Studio set. The seller I acquired these from had them in bulk and claimed that Uncle Milton produced these in 1990 and was offering the figures in bulk in this color a year or so before they packaged them together in the Monster Studio set. It sounds like these were available individually, though not at standard retail. Maybe mom and pop shops and hobby shops? Can anyone shed any more light on these? I know hobbyists have recast these figures in different colors over the years beginning around the year 2000, so there are lots of these out there. For now, let's enjoy this cool recast of a vintage Marx Quasimodo that's older now than the Marx figures were when Uncle Milton recast them. Join me after the break...