Archive for vintage

Uncle Fester’s Mystery Light Bulb

Posted in monsters, toys, TV, vintage with tags , , , on May 24, 2012 by shewalkssoftly

Today I give you Uncle Fester’s Mystery Light Bulb, released in 1967.

This plastic light bulb was powered by one AA size battery. The actual flashlight bulb is a 1.5 volt elongated, frosted bulb. The instructions say to replace the lamp with a standard 1.5 volt flashlight bulb once the original burns out. The flashlight bulb is contained within a non-breakable plastic full-sized light bulb. You can tell it’s authentic if the top of the bulb is stamped “ML” and surrounding these letters are the words “Mystery Light Bulb.”

The trick in lighting the bulb was to make an electrical connection between the bottom of the metal lamp base and the side of the lamp base. You could do this by wearing the special ring included in the box, by using aluminum foil concealed in your hand, or in your mouth if you want to practice the conventional Uncle Fester method.

One of the great dangers of this toy is that the bulb base was not reverse threaded. This allowed the 1.5 volt battery operated bulb to be easily screwed into any 110-115 Volt lamp socket! Knowing this toy might cause a possible fire or electrocution would most certainly evoke a sly smile on the faces of the entire Addams clan.

Did anyone have one of these? Or any other old spooky products you might like to share?

Source

Bride of Frankenstein

Posted in monsters, retro, vintage with tags , , on May 19, 2012 by shewalkssoftly

And Everything Else Too posted this great Bride of Frankenstein paper doll set, made in 1964.

See many more lovely outfits here.

Donn P. Crane

Posted in art, illustration, vintage with tags , , on April 26, 2012 by shewalkssoftly

Donn P. Crane is one of my favorite 20th Century illustrators. Unfortunately, there are not many resources I’ve found that share his wonderful work. Here are a few spooky/lovely pieces.

If anyone has seen extensive collections of Donn P. Crane’s work online, please let me know!

Desktop Goodies 4/23

Posted in art, fashion, food, humor, japan, monsters, photography, potions, street art, vintage with tags , , , , , , , , , , , on April 23, 2012 by shewalkssoftly

I was taken aback upon looking at this because it feels like someone did a high-contrast caricature of me without my knowledge (if you doubt it, see photo on upper right). Got the hair and my spindly little limbs down…

Hanging: you’re doing it wrong.

Files, not piles.

Has anyone been to the Heinz Haunted House? If so, I want to hear everything about it. Ketchup blood everywhere?

Chocolate Covered Strychnine! I wonder if fierce convulsions and eventual asphyxiation due to paralysis of neural pathways would be enough to deter me from something covered in chocolate.

Ten Realms Within the Body (1885). So THIS is what goes on in there. I knew it.

Ma’am, you have a…oh…nevermind.

If he were mine, I’d name him “Fluffy.”

Ah, this piece of street art reminds me of my many evenings spent in the subversive act of reading…my Wild(e) Nights.

YES!

How rare to see a cute piece of street art (this one is by MORA):

A monster I’d like to meet…providing it agrees to stand still long enough for me to read its heads.

You too, sir? What a coincidence.

Yikes. It’s about to get violent.

I seriously hope this is a “brain fog” typo.

“Let go. Be afraid. You all taste so much better when you’re afraid.”

Some pretty sweet skills (no artist credited):

Mmmmm…

I believe this actually comes from a company that makes theatrical hats. Brilliant.

Now, I don’t mean to undermine someone’s “art,” but if this scrap of paper sold for $500, I picked the wrong field when I decided to study medicine.

Radiation and Man

Posted in comics, retro, science, vintage with tags , , , on April 12, 2012 by shewalkssoftly

Here is a lovely pro-nuclear comic book from 1972. Though it predates The Watchmen by more than a decade, check out the Doctor Manhattan-ish figure on the cover.

Description from the source:

Produced by The Canadian Nuclear Association and given away by the local Hydro-Electric company. Discusses what nuclear radiation is and how it affects humans, plants and animals. Radiation poisoning and alternatively it’s uses in medicine are shown, the anatomy of an atom, Albert Einstein, fission, the nuclear industry and why it is safe, the positive effects of radiation on the growing of vegetables etc., etc. A two-page centerfold discusses how the nuclear industry is helping to protect Canadians.

I admit I went through every page of this retro-licious science gem.

Love the maple leaf nucleus!

You can see all the pages here.

Easter Desktop Goodies Part 2

Posted in absurd, art, candy coated nightmares, craft, creatures, easter, food, humor, installations, kitsch, plush, sculpture, steampunk, vintage, you can't handle the cute with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 8, 2012 by shewalkssoftly

Just a small dose of pure evil here.

By Albrecht Dürer:

Another public display:

Now THIS is a rabbit installation (there was no source so I don’t know where it’s located):

Love this girl’s work (link on photo):

Bunny-ish?

By the wonderful Femke Hiemstra:

Yes!

Ghost Girl inspired eggs, done by Lauren Nemchik (thanks to the talented Tonya Hurley for sharing these!):

Steampunk egg:

Wow…this one has a little “stage” too!

Rather pretty…

Not the most elaborate Peeps diorama I’ve seen, but it gets major bonus points for the subject and wordplay:

Kitschy chickadees:

Fabulous vintage Easter hat featuring what seems to be…a colorful Shih Tzu:

Classic Easter parade gear:

This makes me sad. I highly doubt this feline felt “deprived of a proper Easter egg hunt” before being forced into this hideous torture hat.

And for the Alien fans out there:

Happy Easter to those who celebrate. If you feel like some blast from the past posts, check these out:

Sketchy Bunnies
Eggshell Sculptures
Easter Dekstop Goodies of the Past
Portrait Eggs

Easter Desktop Goodies Part 1

Posted in absurd, anatomy, anthropomorphic, art, candy coated nightmares, craft, easter, food, humor, jewelry, kitsch, monsters, photography, plush, products, vintage, you can't handle the cute with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 6, 2012 by shewalkssoftly

Just a few pre=Easter treats sitting on my desktop at the moment…

Ah, some evil bunny soap for the guest bathroom:

By Felipe Bedoya (I’ve never seen bunnies look this…high…but they appear to be enjoying their little party):

Aww…

So deadly…

Just tiptoe away.

Bunny is dressing up his taxidermy human again.

Clock-bellied…but kind of neat:

While we’re on the topic of bellies, why not fashion this bread bowl and let your guests scoop the creamy innards from a poor eviscerated rabbit?

Um…I guess that’s better than human innards adorned with some kind of rabbit bride ensemble.

I’m not sure if I’ve posted this…but it’s amazing.

I would love to see the creature casting this shadow.

Show offs:

As far as kitschy holiday jewelry goes, this may be the finest thing that plastic can offer:

No amount of novelty could make this a good cake idea. One of the best things about cake is that you never have to peel it or bite into bits of shell.

Speaking of cake, here’s one for all of your sheep-rabbit needs:

Now this I could use as a centerpiece:

Perfect felted Easter eggs! Does anyone know the artist?

Adorable black bunny from Violetpie who also does some sweet Halloween creations.

More to come…

Le Squelette Joyeux

Posted in anatomy, antiques, film, video, vintage with tags , , , , on April 5, 2012 by shewalkssoftly

I seem to have a love of dancing skeletons, as evidenced here and here.

I just revisited on of my favorite antique film clips: Le Squelette Joyeux, by Auguste & Louis Lumière (1895).

He’s got some nice moves.

Desktop Goodies 4/1

Posted in absurd, advertising, art, dolls, food, lighting, medicine, photography, vintage with tags , , , , , , , , , , on April 1, 2012 by shewalkssoftly

Well, Spring is upon us here in the US. Though if Spring came to my door looking like this, you can bet I wouldn’t let it in.

Here’s a motivational poster for you fine folks:

What are the chances I could still get this T-shirt if I fill out the order form?

I believe I got this from A Wren’s Life’s Pinterest. Why aren’t there more images of people wrestling Death on medical packaging these days?

I’ve never seen a raven-haired man with a stark white beard, but now I know there’s a solution of such a man wishes to coordinate his whiskers.

One thing any man of mine will not have to worry about (if he doesn’t getting me going about art or science):

Quite possibly the best tombstone epitaph I’ve ever seen:

What happens when acorns are laced with cocaine…

No idea what these are (maybe one of you will know), but I think I like them.

The only way to travel…

This gets major points for being two things: 1) zombie nesting dolls 2) A CAKE.

And speaking of food, I shouldn’t have seen these…because now I will undoubtedly surprise unsuspecting guests with them one day (I’d carry them out facing backwards so the faces are extra shocking).

Though I don’t use much glitter in my projects these days, I very much relate to this (from Para Abnormal):

I’ve been quite under the weather lately, and this piece fairly accurately describes how I feel.

My very favorite closet light:

And lastly…we knew someone would jump on the chance to do this.

Skeleton Frolics

Posted in animation, video, vintage with tags , , on March 22, 2012 by shewalkssoftly

Although this 1937 cartoon is a blatant ripoff of the original Skeleton Dance made in 1929…I don’t care. I still love it. Go ahead…try not to find it adorable!

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