Don't spook till you're spooken to

GodzillaGirl challenged me to dig out some more Fimo modeling compound and try making Shirley Shriek, an early Patti Peticolas "Kooky Spooky" design, who was morphed into the more commercial Mama Kaskit. (My housemate reckons Shirley looks a little too Ku Klux Klan.)



Bulbous-nosed General Gilghouly - note the newly-added bluebird perched on the more-suitable gun, as featured on Patti's sketches - and Shirley Shriek, with her skull necklace, using a length of silver neckchain I accidentally broke a few years ago. Waste not, want not.


Early Shirley Shriek sketch by Patti Peticolas, 1968.


Custom Kooky Spookys by Ian McLean.

Welcome to the family!

This morning, I tracked down my several-hairs brush and some suitable highlighting paint - and finished off my two "mash-up" Kooky Spookys, based on unused Patti Peticolas designs from 1968.


Cousin Cadava & General Gilghouly.

Cousin Cadava's fencing foil is made out of a barbeque skewer, painted with chrome nail polish. I've also used that silver on his "hero" medal. His moustache is said to be reminiscent of David Niven's. The General's nose was described as being red and bulbous, like WC Fields'. His (temporary) gun is actually an uzi, borrowed from an "Austin Powers" fembot. (The original "General Booregard" design had a bluebird perched on the gun, so I guess I need to find my blue Fimo.)



With a little spare bit of the yellow/glow mixture of Fimo, I also made a little skull on a stick (above) to create a "death rattle" for signless Baby Spook'em. (When I saw a reference on the original "Baby Boo" model sheet, I just had to create one! Also love the skeletal rocking horse, which Patti seems to have crossed out as too gross for little kids? Eventually, I'll make that, too.)

My PhotoPeach slideshow about Kooky Spookys is HERE!

Customising Kooky Spookys!

General Gilghouly & Cousin Cadava

I'm halfway finished!

Based on two actual, unused, early designs of Patti Peticolas' "Kooky Spookys" (1968), I created these two new ghosts today by combining equal parts "lemon" and "nightglow luminescent" Staedtler brand Fimo Soft modelling compounds - and baking them in the oven for 30 minutes each.

Next I have to add painted facial features, again working from the original designs. Gilghouly (who originally name-swapped with Daddy Booregard, and was also described as a cousin) will carry a shotgun(!), and the one I'm calling Cousin Cadava (originally Gaston Ghost and then Daddy Cadava on paper) already has a "Hero" medal pinned to his chest and will hold a fencing foil. These two designs (of eight) were dropped when Hasbro committed to producing the family of six final Kooky Spookys (below).


Kooky Spooky (1968) retailers ad.

With thanks to the gang at the Universal Monster Army BBS.

UPDATE: The completed customs are HERE, HERE and HERE!

My PhotoPeach slideshow about Kooky Spookys is HERE!

To boldly glow...

A rarity from the collectibles vault:

The Penetrator. A glow-in-the-dark novelty condom featuring the USS Enterprise of "Star Trek".

"... to boldly glow where no one's gone before."

Back - and down it all comes

Well, it's Epiphany - the 12th day of Christmas - the day when we are supposed to strip the house of Christmas cheer, beating the chain stores as they prepare to put out chocolate Easter eggs, and commiserate over all the broken New Year's Resolutions. More on those later?

Before I disassemble the tree, here are my two ornaments - dated, as per usual - for Christmas 2007:



Christmas ornaments for 2007: a snowman in a light bulb - literally, a "snow globe" - came from Penrith's Target store in the January sales of 2007, and kept hidden away till Christmas, and a Hallmark "Shrek 3" figurine. He swings from a string of Christmas lights, with his pal Donkey under his arm. This ornament came from a Perth Target store during my vacation last October.

A bonus this year were 25 little glow-in-the-dark cherubs. I originally saw this in a Penny Miller catalogue, but they were about $19.95 for 50 cherubs, and no indication of just how tiny they were. When I was in Perth last year, I saw packets of them in a $2 shop ... for just $2 for 25. A bargain! Except that: when do you ever have all the lights out in a room with a Christmas tree? The cherubs can't glow in the daytime, of course, so I got to see them glow for about 30 seconds each night when I turned off the lights and headed to bed. Way to glow, cherubs!



I have lots of news from my recent holiday to Brisbane but, as each day creeps/flies by, the anecdotes seem to become a little less compelling, or less essential to tell when there are so many new things to talk about. Suffice to say that I must mention that I owe Virgin Blue a big thank you for letting my new (extra) bag onto my flight when I was running late. After seeing all those poor, angry, frustrated easyJet customers and workers on the UK TV show, "Airline", I was expecting a similar embarrassing scene, but all was calm and cool!

Sunday's magic number: 91.9 - Drat. Creeping up, even though I thought I was being fairly ruthless. Ah well, this week last year was like the beginning of the end, so tougher rules will have to apply from now on. There's still so much Christmas food around the house, though, and people gave chocolate, too. Sigh.

Purple and gold in 1975

Okay, so I was searching through my old photograph albums and this Polaroid fell out from its position on a page marked "At home - 1975".



It's the bedroom of my teenage years, when we lived in Highclere Avenue, Rockdale. Thankfully, you can't see the purple chenille bedspread or the gold net nylon continuous curtains. But you can see: my then-newly-purchased b/w portable television set (for watching "Number 96" and all-night Saturday movies); flocked creature from the Sydney Royal Easter Show; a souvenir temperature gauge from Canberra; Mickey Mouse poster (also featuring much purple and gold); a little flocked purple cow; a larger flocked gold bull money box; matching flocked purple bull money box; and (barely visible at the bottom) a glow-in-the-dark Kooky Spooky finger puppet from Christmas 1969. Her name was Grandma Macreak! (Grandma is still with me, and worth a small fortune on eBay, I understand.)


"Grandma Macreak"


Kooky Spooky (1968) retailers ad

With thanks to the gang at the Universal Monster Army BBS.