MonsterMania: One of the Best Experiences Ever!

So I got back from MonsterMania Convention on Saturday morning. Let me just tell you guys, if you're a horror fan and you've never been to a horror convention...you need to go. MonsterMania is the perfect example of a place where first-timers can go, and where seasoned con-goers can go, and everyone is harmonious and lovey and everyone talks about gore and creepy things. It's the most magical experience.
I wish I would have went for the entire weekend, but I only went on Friday. I went to Bizarre AC last year, and I was exhausted after just one day, so I told myself I would go to MonsterMania, do what I went there to do (meet John Carroll Lynch, aka Twisty the Clown from American Horror Story: Freakshow!) and then head home.
Well, I regret that completely. It was one of the most fun days of my life, full of adrenaline, creepy things, and lots of laughs, smiles, and amazing people.

First of all, let me just tell you, the vendors there were amazing. I told myself I would grab a quick few things to add to my collection (and walking into the first room of vendors, I found Full Moon Features and ended up going crazy with Puppet Master stuff...) but that didn't work out so well. I got some of the COOLEST stuff to add to my collection:

Don't mind the Arnold Palmer and keys in the background...
I grabbed a Captain Spaulding Funko Pop! vinyl figure; I'd had my eye on him for a while because I collect the horror Pops, but at my comic book store they usually sell them for around $12, and this vendor was selling him for $10...I decided I was never going to find him for a better price unless he was damaged, so I went for it.
Full Moon Features was where I really went crazy. My other half bought those babies for me, but I'm so grateful! Puppet Master is how our relationship started 2 years ago; our third or fourth date was him at my house watching B-horror films, and Puppet Master was on one of the compilation DVDs I had bought at my friend's house in New Hampshire, so we watched it...and now we have a collection of all of the figures of the puppets! The two large boxes in the middle are resin statues of two of our favorite puppets: Six Shooter and Tunneler. They're beautiful figures, and they fit perfectly on my Puppet Master shelf!
Skinless Julia from Hellraiser is all the way at the right. She's another figure I had been searching for at a good price, but she's kind of rare around me, so I was going to resort to buying her on Ebay until the vendor gave her to me at a MUCH better price than I expected! I am elated about this one!
The Twisty the Clown print on the far left above Captain Spaulding is 1 of 8 made, if I'm not mistaken. I saw him and fell in love and nabbed him before all of them were gone. He's all hand-painted!
I also got a Hellraiser hoodie (IT SAYS "WE'LL TEAR YOUR SOUL APART" ON THE SLEEVE. HOW SWEET IS THAT?!?!) and a poster of Sam from Trick 'r Treat that's currently still in the plastic so it doesn't get damaged. I have to go out and get a frame!

But what made the weekend so incredible for me?
Oh, I don't know...THIS:

That's John Carroll Lynch, the actor behind Twisty the Clown! I panicked when I met him...I was trying to tell him all about you guys and my little horror family and I totally blanked and got nervous and couldn't do much but stare at him. Talk about starstruck...oops!
He's the sweetest man in the world. It was his first convention so I talked to him a little bit about that. I was telling him about Bizarre AC and how if he ever needed some recommendations of good conventions to go to, I could help him. -facepalm- I walked away kicking myself for sounding like an idiot, but I was so grateful that he signed my Twisty doll.

I spent a lot of time walking around and looking at peoples' costumes throughout the day, and there were some awesome Freddy Krueger costumes, Jason costumes, and there were some great replicas of Victor Crowley there to see Adam Green!
I sadly didn't stay to get to see the live performance of Rocky Horror (where Naomi Grossman got on stage and danced to The Name Game from AHS: Asylum!), and I didn't stay to see any of the movies screening. I was a big baby and went to bed.

But I have to say, it was one of the best experiences I've ever had. The people I got to know there were so wonderful, like Mary who sold me Freddy Kreuger soap! I'm a big soap/skincare junkie when I'm not doing my horror stuff, and I told her that I work for a soap company and she loves the company I work for, so I figured how could I not try out her soap too?!
The networking was awesome, and hopefully, soon, there will be more members of the horror family and we'll expand!

Were any of you at MonsterMania?! Let me know if you saw me there!!

MonsterMania Convention: I'm So Excited!

In true Taylor fashion, I waited until the last minute to book my tickets to MonsterMania Con in New Jersey. About a week ago, my other half snagged us tickets, and I was so thrilled to check the list of guests going!
Daveigh Chase, who I'm super excited about, is going to be there, and you guys probably know her as Samara from The Ring.
You have like half of the people from the Saw franchise.
Adam Green will be there (just weeks after I watched Digging Up the Marrow!) and he'll be supporting charities supporting Yorkie rescues! For those of you that know me well, you know that I work with LUSH Cosmetics and I'm obsessed with all things cruelty-free.
Kane Hodder will be there, who is not only one of the actors that played Jason in the Friday the 13th franchise...he's also a fellow paranormal investigator!

But then...
We continue scrolling and...what is this? Wait, repeat that?
JOHN CARROLL LYNCH. TWISTY THE CLOWN. WHAT?! I almost cried and died and threw up all at the same time. That's where my excitement really kicked in.
I'm totally going to have him sign my stuffed Twisty that I had made for me.

I attended Bizarre AC last year, and I plan on going back this year (when they release a date), but until then, I'm beyond thrilled to be going to this con! I'm just trying to decide if I want to dress up...the plan would be a female Pennywise the Clown.

This was a super short post, but I'm trying to get everything together for the 13th! I hope to see some of you horror ghoulies there, after all, it will be Friday the 13th...

American Horror Story: Freakshow

Man, there are so many things I can say about this season of American Horror Story. Let me start by saying this: Murder House is absolutely still my favorite season. But where does Freakshow fall? Let's have a chat about this.

There were a few reasons that this season of AHS was awesome.

Reason 1: The characters.

This guy. Twisty the Clown. He had the ability to terrify people, then make them cry with intense amounts of sympathy in the matter of one episode. His back-story was amazing. His mannerisms were totally awesome. His reasoning behind what he did, fabulous.

I loved him so much that I actually decided to dress up as him for Halloween.

I had way too much fun with this.

Dandy Mott; have you ever met someone so horrifyingly perfect on the outside, but disgustingly twisted on the inside? If you have, I applaud you for surviving, and I also want to give you a hug while you weep into my shoulder. What a messed up person. Watching his character develop and become more and more maniacal and awful was probably the most entertaining part of the show. 

Many of the other characters, ie. Elsa Mars, Jimmy Darling, and Desiree Dupree were definitely note-worthy. The performances of their respective actors were incredible. Elsa was developed beautifully. Strongman (Dell Toledo) was one of my favorite characters, and so fun to watch. He was a mess. It was great.

But there were plenty of things in the show that needed improvement.

Reason 2: The circus concept.

It sounded like it was going to be such an incredible idea. I mean, after a haunted house, an asylum, and a bunch of witches, what's the next scariest thing you can think of? (Take Coven out of there because it definitely was not scary by any means) I think of clowns and a circus. Now, I'm not afraid of clowns. Pennywise is my man. Art the Clown is a big favorite. Twisty made the list of my top 3 favorite clowns of all time (hell, I even had a doll, Christmas ornament and figure made of him to put in my collection) but the way this was done was pretty cool.

Based loosely on the 1932 film Freaks, you saw Pinheads, two-headed twins, "Lobster Boy", and more. The correlation was great. The original film is classic, so if you have never seen it, I suggest that you do. The full thing is on Youtube. It's pretty creepy.

But there were a few things that ruined it for me:

The season dragged. I only really enjoyed 4 or 5 episodes, most of which involved Twisty. For those of you that watched this season, you know why I say it like that. If you're planning on watching Freakshow, either stop reading, or expect subtle spoilers. I'll try to be good. I truly believe that the downfall of the season were those awful musical numbers. Jessica Lange is incredible, by all means, I bow down to her, but I think that the awkward songs (that were strangely out of the time period) threw off entire episodes. They were just...bleh.

What really ruined it for me was the season finale. While most of the season was just mediocre, saved only by really screwed up characters, the finale was so half-assed. I'm sorry, I don't know how else to say it. It seems like the writers didn't know how to wrap it up, so they just killed everyone, and left the rest to what we all already knew would happen.

Murder House left me guessing the whole time.

I haven't seen Asylum so I can't judge it, but I hear it's pretty great.

Coven didn't really fit into the series so much, but it was entertaining and the characters were wonderful.

This one...honestly? Honestly.

I don't mean to be totally down on it, but I don't really have much good to say. I mean, they put NPH in and got rid of him without wrapping up his character. All the other ones got an awful sendoff. 

I feel like this post isn't even completely cohesive. I'm just so disappointed that it's all of my thoughts smooshed into a post. 

Let me know what you thought about this, guys. I'm so sad, I expected it to be awesome because it started off strong, but I learned about 3 episodes in that I was going to be disappointed. -sigh-

...I still love Twisty though.

My Prized Horror Possessions

For those of you that follow me on Instagram, you've seen what I call my "horror shelf", which started out like this:

On the Hellraiser side, I had a few Hellraiser comic books, and a puzzle box, a picture of Elliot Spencer (Pinhead before he's Pinhead) and what looks like a bookmark with a film cell from the film, which I had received as a gift.
On the "everything else" side, I had plushie Blade, 12" scale Blade, a Blade bobblehead signed by Charles Band from when I met him at ComicCon, a DVD of Puppet Master 1-9, and a few miscellaneous figures from the movie. It looks like I had Blade, Jester, Leech Woman, and Mephisto.
That was the beginning of the end...the horror shelf now looks like this:

I would say the collection has gotten completely out-of-hand. I'm going to have to break up my full collection over the span of a few posts, but that'll come later. For now, I'll just let you in on a few of my favorites.

First of all, let's just talk about that Pinhead bust on the far left. He's one-of-a-few, made from a mold of Doug Bradley's head. For those of you who don't know Doug Bradley, he's the guy that plays Pinhead, but he's also a total sweetheart. Yes, I've met him. I'll explain that in a later post as well...I've met all 4 Cenobites, and even shared coffee with one of them!
Anyway, my Pinhead bust: he's hand-painted, hand-constructed. He was a birthday gift. I don't know where he came from, I don't know how much he costed. All I know is I have someone amazing in my life who found him for me.

Next, we have my Cenobite lair box-set...that's that big box that you can see to the left of my puzzle box, and it looks a little like this now:

Yes, it is signed by all 4 of them. My next plan is to track down Mr. Clive Barker himself and have him sign this bad boy. It's my pride and joy, and I love it so, so, SO much. This one came from a comic book shop not too far from me.
My puzzle box under that glass dome is also signed by all 4 of them, plus Ashley Lawrence, who plays Kirsty Cotton. What can I say...it was an awesome weekend.

Next on the list: my collection of horror plushies! I've had Blade since ComicCon of 2013, his tag is signed by the creator of Puppet Master, Mr. Charles Band.
But then...I have these babies:

I call them the Three Amigos, but they're also my three favorite villains (although for those of you that watch Freakshow, you know the deal with Twisty). Far left: Pinhead (duh), middle is Twisty the Clown from American Horror Story: Freakshow (see previous post about how much I love creepy clowns) and far right: Pennywise the Clown from Stephen King's IT. Because you all know how much I love IT. No, they don't all float.
...No, I don't want a balloon.
Now, these little loves- I can tell you where they came from! I encourage all of you to go check out the AMAZING Etsy shop Moodyvoodies. They are so sweet and incredible and helpful, and they made all 3 of these for me! They're handmade, and you get to be involved in the process of being made. I got to pick who was sitting and who was standing, and I got little updates like "hey, Taylor, do you like him like this? Or should I change -insert revision here-?" I love working with them. My entire paycheck goes into buying more of these. Hi, my name is Taylor, and I am a MoodyVoodies addict.

Like I said, I will absolutely show all of you the entire collection of babies I have up there. Yes, I call them "the babies", and it really freaks people out.
But for now, this is your little glimpse into the explosion that is my horror collection. These are the ones that are most special to me (but don't tell the others I said that, because I have to sleep in the same room as them, and I don't want anyone getting angry or jealous). I have everything from action figures to lunchboxes to Christmas ornaments, so it's going to span a week, probably.
Leave a comment and let me know if you'd like to see that as the topic of next week's posts, or if you want me to do some more reviews and/or chats before getting into that!

Next up: a talk about my current guilty pleasure...Ghost Adventures.