October 09, 2007

SPOOKY ACTION CUT-OUTS

Remember book orders? In grade school about once a month our teacher handed out a brochure that was basically a two page catalog full of kids books. Because my folks had this funny idea that reading was good for me they were more willing to shell out cash for this particular cause as opposed to another stack of Wacky Packages.
(For the record, there were two companies in the book order biz that I know of.. Troll, who's pamphlets were printed in full color, and Scholastic who always used an inferior two-color process although I tended to prefer their offerings.)

Naturally, Halloween always elevated book orders to another plateau of excitement. Once a year the themes took a spooky turn and included topics such as monster make-up and "the unexplained" ala Bigfoot and Nessie. Also popular were anthologies of ghost stories that were a blast to read during class however, the tales never failed to resurface late in the night, leaving me in a state of frozen agony, regretting my decision to subject myself to such horrors. Spooky Action Cut-Outs appeared among the listings when I was in second grade. The synopsis promised "13 spooky action toys to make yourself. All you need is a pair of scissors." This concept paired with the subject matter awakened even more anticipation than usual. I could tell that this was going to be a new favorite and so I ordered two copies: one for cutting and one for keeping. Collectors are born, not made.

Unlike so many childhood mail order experiments this one did not end in disappointment. I got the book and I loved it and gleefully chopped it up. And thanks to my nerdy decision to purchase a duplicate, I'm able to enhance this post with some examples that when clicked, grow big enough to print out and cut into some spooky action...

UPDATE: This book is available and super cheap here on Amazon.





7 comments:

John Rozum said...

I remember that book, only because of the Jekyll/Hyde cutout.

Anonymous said...

I love the Troll book club. I've been looking for a bath of old flyers on eBay forever.

You know, I always pictured Franky as more of a of a Fez wearer myself...

Sparkle Plenty said...

I REMEMBER THESE!!! I am off to recreate The Ug. First:
1) I also remember that each year around Halloween we got the Unicef milk cartons and took them 'round door to door.
2) I remember staring at Mr. Kennedy blankly when he responded, "Trick" to my classic "Trick or Treat" pitch.
3) You Halloween-Theme folks are so much fun. Today, I posted a Halloween memory AND my two-pronged approach for dealing with monsters and maniacs. Remember the movie "Death Valley"?

Max the drunken severed head said...

Thanks SO much for this! Made me feel like a kid again! (Lonely and picked on.) (Just kidding about that last part.)

Steven Altis said...

I have had that small square picture of Frankenstein and the old woman (sans Frank's arm) in a box of other various Halloween odds & ends since this time last year, wanting to scan it and post it, but not really knowing what I could possibly say about it since I couldn't even remember where it came from... then that cover pops up at the top of this post and it all comes flooding back to me! How could I possibly have forgotten this book!?! This was a wonderful, blast-from-the-forgotten-past... now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to the used-book stores!

Dex said...

We'd love to see more of this book if you can get it for us!

Kirk D. said...

I'm happy to see this one brought back fond memories for you folks. I wasn't sure how obscure this was although I guess Scholastic stuff was just about everywhere.

sparkle- I'll bet Mr. Kennedy also said "poof, oh, it didn't work" when someone asked him to "Make me a sandwich."

ed- Glad you dig it. I'll see what I can do. Though, given my schedule at the moment (most of this countdown was done weeks ago) you could probably see more sooner if you grab a copy on amazon :)
http://tinyurl.com/yse9dg