Blockbuster Video Kids

Mascots are fun, so it was only natural that Blockbuster Video would have a crew for their kids section. All those family friendly movies and episodes of old cartoons just hit different with a gang of animated children to represent it. In all reality, the much lauded kids section wasn't much different than other video stores (aside from huge selection) and a little table with some coloring pages. I guess it was a great way to keep the little ones busy while parents perused the giant wall of new and not so new releases.

The Devil's Video, Blockbusters Video

If it's one this I particularly miss about the bygone days of video stores, it's the horror section at the local video store. Nothing could beat those Mom and Pop stores with their cardboard standees of Nightmare of Elm Street faded from the sun next to the wall of VHS horror. When Blockbuster came on the scene, they outdid everybody. Bigger stores with bigger selections. Even their horror selection spanned a few aisles.

Blockbuster even outdid Mom and Pop stores with the holidays. Instead of a generic decoration or two, they'd generally have some sort of promotion. For a while you could get Blockbuster branded tapes of classic horror at Halloween time. You've probably guessed by now that I loved it. I still remember fall of 1995 and their specific release of Halloween. Truly a magical time.

Later they added more movies to the Halloween display, which didn't always have the branding, but had the sweet sale price. Friday the 13th for a few bucks, heck yeah! I wish pictures of their Michael Myers display were easier to find. You could see him peeking at you through the windows into the parking lot. Damn creeper.

Crestwood House Monsters: The Blob

Friday Nights mean Frights here on the base! Continuing on our excursion into the Crestwood House Monsters books, I thought another fitting for the summer season story would be The Blob. Honestly it's because I associate the 80's remake with summer more than anything, but hey... work with me a little here. Between seeing the various commercials on TV one summer, and then the following summer regularly seeing the cardboard standee at the local video store, it's just a summer time movie in my head.

The Blob is the story of a weird slime from space consuming every person in it's way. The blob gets bigger the more people it eats and before you know it, things get really out of hand. Even with the classic movie represented above in it's Crestwood House form, all I can think of is the standee at the video store. I was a horror fan from a very early age, but usually was instructed to pick from the kids section on our visits. While picking out a collection of cartoon episodes of Centurions or Peanuts, I'd eye the boxes of the horror stuff that was literally in the same aisle.

I don't know if the shop staff were being jerks, or it just somehow worked out that way, but I can still see other kids bawling their eyes out at the various cardboard standees of Freddy Kruger and company staring at them. Me, I liked looking over the boxes as much as I could. I still miss the horror section of the video store. Preferably in the VHS era when those boxes had so much character. Ironically I don't know if the remake Blob still exists. The movie is probably in a discount bin at Walmart somewhere. But the blob substance used in the original movie, it never dried out and is still kept in a bucket. Weird.

The preview above shows the full book, but if you want to download it to a tablet or phone, you can do so for free by following it's links.

Ghosts At The Video Store

Summer is a Spooky Season. I've said it a million times because it's true. It's also the prelude to Halloween, the whole world wants a little pumpkin spice mayhem right now. Just search up summer urban legends, or remember those weekends you watched some random Nightmare on Elm St. after grilling out dinner. Sometimes you want the most Halloween you can get despite what time of the year it is. Fortunately some stores last year started their Halloween stocking in summer, and not just craft stores! That's what makes this little commercial for Video Biz so great.

Video Biz is a video store in Arkansas that I've never been in and possibly might not be open anymore. It's 2020 after all. As other video stores would advertise, they have the newest movies in stock! Like Ghostbusters! Without actually saying Halloween, they made the most Halloween commercial possible. It's got all the charm of an old local business commercial with some great special effects. I swear I've heard that same announcer on old commercials for haunted houses. It's like, they knew you wanted some spooky shit... we all do.