Haunt the Halls: Peanuts Halloween Sound Clock

   Today I'm checking out the newest item in my Halloween collection: A Peanuts Halloween clock! I'm not really sure when this was released but similar clocks in similar packaging have a special logo for the 50th anniversary of Peanuts, so that would put this as possibly being released sometime around 2000. My parents were in town visit this past week and they brought this to me and the little one. It was a yard sale found and I think they paid less than a dollar for it. Even if the clock hadn't worked, I kind of feel that would have been a bargain thanks to the colorful artwork that depicts Lucy as a princess, Charlie Brown as a pirate, Linus in a wizards hat (it's definitely not a full costume, so maybe Linus wasn't planning on coming along originally), Lucy as a fairy, Woodstock as a bat, and Snoopy as a vampire. I love vampire Snoopy! We live near Carrowind's theme park and Vampire Snoopy shows up during their Great Pumpkin Festival every October! Of course, throwing some batteries in the clock revealed to us that it still works. It turns out, this clock has some spooky surprises in store...

A Short Tribute to Monster Party

  Today I want to spend a few minutes paying tribute to one of my favorite Nintendo games of all time: Monster Party! Released by Bandai for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1989, Monster Party is one of the strangest, and possibly one of the best, NES games released. I've recently hooked up my original NES again and had the chance to play the game for an hour or so which reconfirmed my nostalgia that Monster Party is indeed a pretty decent video game. It plays a lot like Castlevania due to its theme, use of a life bar, and reliance on fighting bosses and some mild exploration, but instead of a whip swinging vampire hunter you play as Mark, a baseball bat toting average kid who is tasked with helping a winged alien named Bert rid his home world of monsters. It's a side scrolling platformer with a few unique twists as Mark can use his baseball bat to knock most enemy projectiles back at them and a magic pill of some sort allows you to play as the flying alien Bert who can fly over most of the level and shoot energy projectiles. The game is legitimately fun to play and has a password system so you can actually finish it.

Toy Review: Mercedes-Benz Unimog U 5020 from Matchbox: Jurassic World by Mattel

    Today I'm serving up another review of a vehicle from the Matchbox: Jurassic World line of miniature vehicles from the Jurassic Park film series. Today I'm checking out the Mercedes-Benz Unimog U 5020, a vehicle that appears in some way in both Jurassic World and Fallen Kingdom and has one of the longest names for a toy car I've ever heard. Mercedes-Benz Unimog trucks appeared in Jurassic World but this specific model seems to be from Fallen Kingdom as it is the truck that Claire, Owen, and Franklin use to drive onboard the mercenary boat. This is part of the second series of vehicles that began showing up after the film's release at the end of June. I'm really impressed with how many vehicles Mattel has offered up in this line and I hope we get some more Legacy Collection vehicles in the future. For now, let's check out this cool, covered truck after the break...

Halloween Decorations I Keep Up All Year Long!

    Every year on August 1st when I officially declare that the 99 Days of Halloween have begun (the Reel Brad Bell called me yesterday to wish me a Happy Halloween, so you know that means the 99 Days of Halloween is totally a real thing) my wife always acts like she has never heard of this tradition and begins to comment that it's too early to put up Halloween decorations. While we do have an understanding that outside decorations cannot go up until after my birthday in mid-late September, I absolutely begin to sneak some inside decorations up during August. Of course, there are a few decorations that I leave up all year long! Now my famed hobby room certainly has some stuff up all the time, but that's a toy collection and museum so it is more acceptable to have weird stuff in there. The rest of the stuff, though? Somehow I've managed to convince my wife that these are perfectly acceptable year round. First up is a felt image of me, your old pal Barbecue17! He hangs on the door of my study that is right off of our main entryway and greets people year round while simultaneously guarding my study from Halloween Haters. Of course, that's just the tip of the eerie iceburg...

A New Batgirl Review: Unmasked Batgirl from DC Super Friends by Fisher-Price

    It's been quite some time since I last reviewed a Batgirl action figure but I was traveling last weekend and on a stop at a Target looking for the Star Wars: The Black Series Gamorrean Guard (no luck yet) I did manage to find the Unmasked Batgirl from the Imaginext: DC Super Friends series 5 blind bags. I haven't picked any of the blind bagged figures up before as I don't really collect these but you just know I had to track down Babs. Fortunately, some person with no patience came along before me and opened all of the bags, meaning that I didn't have to feel around for which bag Batgirl was in; it was easily visible! I don't advocate opening toys before you buy them but I certainly can sympathize with the frustration blind bags and blind boxes cause. They are downright evil and need a champion to stop them in their tracks. A champion like...Batgirl! By the way, if you're looking for this figure look for the stamped #67 on the back top left of the package. More after the break...

Toy Review: Armored Action Transporter from Matchbox: Jurassic World by Mattel

   While it's not spooky or anything, I still am going to be reviewing another Jurassic World vehicle today as I have a few left that I hadn't checked out yet. Today I'm looking at the Armored Action Transporter, a vehicle Mattel has apparently made up for the Matchbox toyline. While it is based on the Armored Action Truck/ BAE Systems Land & Armaments Caiman, this particular design seems to be just a creation that looks like it could have been "just off screen" during the scenes on the island in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Let's take a look at this cool transport truck after the break...

The 99 Days of Hokey Halloween Starts Today!

Happy August 1st!

You know what that means, right?

It's time for the 99 Days of Halloween to begin!

That's right... we celebrate Halloween for 99 days here at Action Figure Barbecue. That's all of August, all of September, all of October, and the 7 days of Re-Halloween!

We're going to start things off slow this year as the main influx of toy reviews won't start until October (This year: The Revenge of 31 Days of Toy Terror!)

The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting cooler, and things are about to start getting a whole lot spookier...