Spirit Halloween Post-Season Clearance: 2022

Yes, you read that date in the title right. Last year, after the Halloween season was over, I went to Spirit Halloween and picked up a few keychains during their post-season clearance sale. But I kept misplacing the shopping bag with the keychains in it before I could get them photographed. I finally did get the pictures taken, and now I can share my finds with all of you, almost a year late. But hey, better late than never.

This keychain is shaped like one of those old hotel or motel key tags. Except the ‘hotel’ in this case is The Haunted Mansion attraction at the Disney parks. Longtime readers of this blog will already know about my fondness for Disney in general, and for the Disney theme parks in particular. I’m especially drawn to keychains promoting ‘classic’ Disney parks attractions, and The Haunted Mansion certainly qualifies there. According to the tag, this keychain was produced by Open Roads Brands LLC., for Spirit Halloween stores.

Speaking of The Haunted Mansion, pictured above are two Disney Haunted Mansion Figural Bag Clips. These bag clips were produced by Monogram International Inc and were sold in blind bags. I have here Hitchhiker #3, one of The Haunted Mansion’s famous “hitchhiking ghosts”. The character is also known as Phineas or The Traveler. The second blind bag contained the Foolish Mortal Badge bag clip, which is shaped like a Haunted Mansion candle sconce.

And that’s it for this post. I know that this wasn’t a large keychain haul by any means. But there really weren’t that many keychains left by the time the post-season discounts at Spirit Halloween kicked in. You have to be fast to nab the good deals at Spirit Halloween after the holiday is over, but before the stores shut down for the year. So, that’s your keychain shopping tip for the day.

Signed, Treesa

Season Of The Witch (Harry Potter Keychains)

 In popular culture, witches often get lumped into the same 'paranormal' category as vampires, werewolves, and other, frequently sinister mythological beings. Although Wicca and various 'modern-day pagan' groups have, in more recent years, made efforts to combat the age-old stereotype of equating witchcraft with devil-worship.

The seven book Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, set primarily at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, is statistically the best-selling book series in history. Add to this a blockbuster film franchise based on the books, as well as "The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter" at Universal Orlando theme park, and it could be argued that Rowling's characters rank among some of the most famous magic practitioners in fiction, right up there with Gandalf from J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth or even Shakespeare's 'Three Witches'.

With Halloween fast approaching, I thought that now would be a good time to show off some Harry Potter themed keychains. I already shared a couple of 'wizarding' keychains in my "Buy What You Like" post, under the header "Pop Culture Touchstones". Also, in another previous post, I wrote about a blind bag Ron Weasley wand keychain made by Paladone Products Ltd. that I found at Dollar Tree. In that post, I mentioned how another company had released several blind box wand keychains made from metal, rather than plastic. I also hinted that I would be sharing more information in a successive post. Unfortunately, that follow-up got buried in my list of future post ideas, where I eventually forgot about it. I will attempt to make amends to my readers here, and I apologize for keeping you waiting.

The metal wand pictured above is from the "Harry Potter Collectible Keychains: Series 1" line by Se7en20. It's meant to be Ron Weasley's broken wand from the second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. If you look closely at the photo, you might be able to see the molded 'Spellotape' wrapping on the wand.

This "Wingardium Leviosa" keychain is also from the same line. I actually bought this one in its original blind box, at an actual retail store. I more often buy 'blind' items used rather than at retail, so that they're pre-opened and I know exactly what I'm getting. However, this was on clearance at the time.

The Triwizard Cup keychain pictured above is from a similar collectible keychain series by Monogram International Inc., the "Harry Potter Collectors Keyring: Series 1" line. This keychain would've been a blind bag item originally. However, I bought mine secondhand.

This Hogwarts crest, labeled as a "Harry Potter Soft Touch Keyring" on the tag, is another Monogram International Inc. product. However, this item wasn't blind-packed.

Speaking of crests, here's the official emblem of Hogwarts' Hufflepuff house. Each Hogwarts house features a different animal on its crest, with Hufflepuff represented by an animal that some refer to as 'the badger of mediocrity'. However, judging by the number of times that I've walked into a Build A Bear Workshop store and found all of the Hufflepuff merchandise sold out, while merchandise for every other Hogwarts house was still in stock, I think a lot of Harry Potter fans must have a soft spot for this particular house. And in my mind, this actually makes a lot of sense. While many of us may aspire to be Gryffindors or Ravenclaws or even Slytherins, I think that deep down, most of us identify more with Hufflepuffs. Incidentally, this Hufflepuff house keychain was put out by ATA-BOY Inc.

This Lego keychain also features the Hufflepuff house emblem.

When I told my online keychain collecting friend, Heathersmoo, that I'd acquired a secondhand time turner souvenir keychain with identifying markings from Universal Orlando theme park's "The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter", Heather seemed very interested in seeing it. There's also a story behind my managing to snag this keychain from an online auction site that I think could be useful to other shoppers who buy from secondhand sites. I first stumbled across the auction listing for this time turner keychain by accident, when I typed in a search for, I believe, "hourglass keychains". The auction details stated that this keychain was an estate sale find, and I have a strong suspicion that the seller didn't know what it was actually called because neither the auction header nor the item description included the words "time turner". This may have worked in my favor, as it might partially explain why I was the only one who put in a bid. My guess is that because those crucial keywords were missing from the listing, no rival bidders were able to find the auction, despite the fact that the name Harry Potter was included in the title by the seller.

Let's shift our attention to Paladone Products Ltd., the company responsible for that "Harry Potter Backpack Buddies" blind bag wand keychain I picked up from Dollar Tree. This "Harry Potter Light Up Key Ring" is another Paladone Products item. Coincidentally, I bought this keychain from Dollar Tree as well.

I don't really know a lot about this Harry Potter name/logo keychain, since I bought it secondhand from an outdoor flea market. An online seller who also had one listed for sale stated that it originally came from Hot Topic, a store specializing in pop culture related items. But so far, I've been unable to verify this.

I hope that you enjoyed this 'seasonal' post, and Happy Fall to you all.

Signed, Treesa

This Is Halloween: 2021

 I originally intended to do a series of posts as a lead-up to Halloween this year. However, with the amount of rain and overcast weather my area has been getting lately, I kept putting off trying to take photos, so the time ended up getting away from me. Still, I did sort of promise Heathersmoo, my keychain collecting email pen-pal, that I would show off the tarot card 'Death' keychain I bought at Spencer's a while back in my 2021 Halloween post. So, here's a quick post wishing my readers a Happy Halloween.

As I said before, this keychain was bought at a store called Spencer's, which specializes in 'edgy' and 'irreverent' novelty items. The original backing card for this keychain stated that it was "distributed by Kalan LP".

As a bonus Halloween 'treat', here's a set of keychains based on that late 90s trend-setting horror film, The Blair Witch Project, a film credited with popularizing the 'found-footage' genre. These keychains were manufactured by Hot Properties! Inc., though I can't remember now what retail store I actually bought them from. I do recall that I got all four of them on clearance, after the initial hype for the film had run its course. I'm pretty sure I hadn't actually seen the movie at the time I bought these, since horror isn't one of my preferred genres, and generally I don't like going to movie theaters anyway. I'd rather wait and borrow films from the public library, so that I can watch them from the comfort of my own home with the volume adjusted to a level I'm more comfortable with and with the ability to pause the action for bathroom breaks.

I think the reason that I picked up these keychains originally was because The Blair Witch Project qualified as what I call a 'pop culture touchstone', to reuse a phrase from one of my previous posts. I like having keychains in my collection that serve as artifacts from a particular time, representing the trends and fads that helped define that point in time. Either that, or I just thought these Blair Witch Project keychains looked cool.

Signed, Treesa

Halloween Keychain Giveaway Results

 As promised, I'm announcing the winner of my Halloween Basic Fun Keychain Giveaway. I only received one actual entry for the giveaway. But given the small reach of this blog, one entry is a lot better than no entries. As it happens, the entry provided an email address but no screen name. I have sent a message to the email provided and will let you know when I receive a reply. Thank you to everyone who checked out the blog, and a big shout out to Heathersmoo for promoting the giveaway on her Livejournal site. I hope everyone enjoyed their Halloween.

Signed, Treesa 

(Update: I have been contacted by the giveaway winner and will be mailing out their prize soon.)

Halloween Basic Fun Keychain Giveaway

 I've mentioned here, multiple times I think, that keychain collecting as a hobby is underrepresented online. Consequently, it's been difficult for me to find places and ways to promote my keychain blog. I'm sure there must be other keychain collectors out there, it's just a matter of finding them. However, I'd also like to believe that even non-collectors would still find my blog entertaining, maybe even informative. So the question is, what can I do to draw attention to the blog and attract a wider audience? How about hosting a Halloween themed giveaway?

The prize for this giveaway is a small Ouija board keychain manufactured in the 1990s by Basic Fun Inc.

The keychain even comes with a small planchette, inside a hidden drawer that's built into the board.

Basic Fun keychains were highly collectable back in the day, and I believe they still have a following. These keychains were also favorites with doll collectors, who used them as props in their doll dioramas. I bought this particular keychain secondhand, and at some point in its history the keychain 'findings' were removed, most likely to serve as a doll prop. The chain and split ring that are on there now are replacements that I had on hand.

And now, on to the giveaway rules.

This giveaway is open to anyone with a United States mailing address. Sorry, but the way postage keeps going up I can't afford international shipping.

To enter the giveaway, leave a comment on this blog post with your name or screen name, as well as an email address where I can contact you if you win. I have Blogger set up so that all comments are sent to me for approval. This way, the giveaway entries will not be published on the blog and no one but me will see your contact information.

Because this blog has very few followers and a relatively small number of views, I want to give readers plenty of time to spread the word to their friends about the giveaway. Therefore, I will be accepting entries for the entire month of October. However, because the last day of October falls on a Saturday this year, and because I'm usually busy on the weekends, the actual final day to enter the giveaway will be Sunday, November 1st. On November 2nd I will choose a winner at random. Then, I will contact the winner using the email address they provided with their entry. I will also announce the winner's name on the blog. (Keep this in mind when entering. If you would prefer that your real name not be published if you win, then use a screen name when entering.)

The winner will be given 2 weeks to contact me, so that I can obtain a mailing address from them. If I don't hear from the winner by then, a new winner will be chosen. Even if the prize doesn't appeal to you personally, feel free to tell others about the giveaway if you think they might be interested. Good luck to all.

Signed, Treesa