The Headless Bat (STL)

Hey, do you like pizza? What about loud music, pinball, horror movies, and art? Yes! Good! Because the next time you're in STL MO, and get a hankerin' for a slice o'pie with a side order of heavy metal and monsters, you must visit The Headless Bat at 3128 Morganford Rd., just one block south of beautiful Tower Park Grove Park. Great food 'n games, and lots of awesome stuff on every wall to look at --yes, even in the blasphemous bathrooms! This is absolutely the best place to spend Halloween in this town too, with your mouth full of their amazin' beer cheese pretzel bite appetizers, and your ears bleeding from an over amplification of Venom and non-stop arcade game racket. And while I'm not a boozer, they appear to have one of the best stocked bars in STL too. CLICK HERE for more info, and also check out their Facebook page for actual pix of the food (which I unfortunately failed on here, derrr), --plus updates about current and upcoming events, specials, etc. Four horns up, double fist pump pizza, drinks, black light posters, and more! What else could you possibly want? I know, I know... if you're a Danzig fan like me and The Headless Bat owner, you want skulls. You can't ever have too many skulls...

Zombies! Cats! & Ghosts-- oh my!

Just a small sampling for you all today of creepy cool things I spotted throughout the month of October 2025, starting with another great vintage Halco costume in the original box, this time it's good 'ol Felix the Cat highlighted by an interesting "riding a shark while dressed as a cowboy" frock smock design. Plus, a fun Frankenstein rubber jiggler (looks like he reeeeally needs to stop biting his fingernails!) But the most odd and perplexing thing I saw was a grave bustin' zombie model kit scene. Does anyone know anything about this? I love that there's a vulture already waitin' to take a bite out of grime! I imagine that this was actually someone's very own, homemade from scratch creation, as I'm not finding anything online anywhere about it. So yeah, a true one-of-a-kind horror find, I'd say! Despite all of this neato stuff, the only thing here that I actually bought was a Kooky Spooky's glow-in-the-dark Daddy Booregard from 1968 Hasbro. These are getting exceedingly hard to find anymore, and with him missing his clock necklace accessories, the price was actually in my affordable range for a change! What about you now? What've you found lately?

Cannibal Holocostume

This entire post will likely offend a few people for a number of various reasons, but here it comes anyway-- it's yet another vintage boxed-up Halloween find from the Karswell Collection, and this time around being a very old Super Halco Brand Cannibal Masquerade Costume. Bright pink box, with a neato die-cut clown face lid, those giant pink lips poking through the gaping mouth hole almost seem to fit perfectly, that is, until you actually lift the lid and see what jungle jitter terrors await inside. So yeah, what we have here is a rather poor, cartoonish mask representation of an African headhunter, aka a cannibal, (actually two versions of the mask presented here, if you scroll towards the bottom you'll see another even older, gauze example from possibly the 30's or early 40's.) Annnnd on an even poorer note, --this time in regards to color contrast and design-- the smock frock concept features the rest of the cannibal's body from the shoulders down, and holding a decapitated human skull. It would all pop a bit better if not rendered in blue fuzzy flocking on gold cloth material, so a big thumbs down on whoever thought that was a good idea, --unless the intention was to give someone a migraine while trying to decipher the image. The ageless wrinkles don't help matters much either. And rounding things out, and making this post even more loathe worthy, we have the notorious poster art for Ruggero Deodato's 1980 Italian drive-in "classic", Cannibal Holocaust (post title makes sense now, eh?) And oh yes you have too seen it, --don't even act like that, ya big freakin' liar. One other thing I want to add to further leave you all with a really bad taste in your mouths: Though the side of the box says 807 degrees is the proper temperature for cooking a large child, in actuality what you want to do is..........

RIP Ace Frehley (1951 - 2025)

It's difficult to put into words when one of your heroes passes away. KISS has always been such a huge freakin' part of my life that you somehow just assume they're indestructible and will always be around. And of course they will be, in the album loads of great music and concert footage, and miles upon miles of classic photos and other assorted, magnificent merchandise and memories. But Ace Frehley was truly a guitar player like no other, and this is the thing that planet Earth has truly just lost. His distinctive style and image added so much to the overall KISS concept, --it's impossible to imagine what the greatest band in the land / world would've sounded (and looked) like without him, especially during the most important, and most formative, early band eras. I've been a KISS fan since the mid 70's, still listen to them constantly, and absolutely follow all of the awesome social media groups devoted to them even to this day. We've already lost a few other major rock 'n roll icons this year like Brian Wilson and Ozzy, so to lose Space Ace now is just ::SHOCK ME:: unfathomable. May he eternally rest --though still rock out and rocket ride through the stars-- in peace. 

[Mr. Karswell notes: second photo below is actually me as Paul Stanley with my friends on Halloween '78 (I guess we didn't need 3 Aces!) And the very last photo is part of my vintage Halloween mask collection where you can see my 70's Collegeville Ace Frehley mask proudly displayed, of course!]

Labubu Trick or Treater

Before everyone dies of shock that Mr. Karswell is a major Labubu fan, please note that yes, I do quite enjoy some things considered "trendy" from time to time. And truth be told, I've actually been a fan of "The Monsters" brilliant creator, Kasing Lung and his fabulous cartoon artwork for well over a decade now (his IG page is freakin' amazing, fyi!), so you can all rest assured that I'm not just jumping on some hype driven designer band wagon, okay? Annnnd so, it was also only natural that when "The Monsters" toys finally started to become easier to acquire here in the states in these last few years (thank you Pop Mart), that I would absolutely pick up some as well. The blind box pendant plushes, the massive winged Zimomos, all of the Wacky Mart / Almost Hidden / Ma. K. robos / Mokoko / Coca Cola series etc... all of these monstery things are just beyond cute, and definitely fit into my love of fabulously conceived, high quality, and uniquely pleasurable / collectible toys. And of course being October, we're going to look at one toy in particular now that equally fits the Halloween theme here perfectly too! The Labubu Trick or Treater, presented on a nice, easy slide blister card designed for impossible-to-damage packaging, highlighted with a colorfully festive 'n spooky graveyard scene backing card! The figure itself is a blue fur Labubu, dressed as a trick or treatin' witch, (dig that sheet cape held together in back by a hair clip, haha), and we're already luggin' a treat basket full of delicious candy! Even better, the amazingly designed jack o'lantern mask actually magnetizes right onto the face, --hold it close, and it will literally jump from your fingertips and attach right onto Labubu's fanged face with a click-- so there's no need for clips or strings! I have more Labubu Halloween to share with you later this month, so stay labu-tombed for more. And be sure to let me know if you're a fan of Kasing's "The Monsters" too!