Spooky Town Collector

Thinking about your Lemax Spooky Town 2007 Display?

2006-10-28T08:41:00.000-04:00

Our 2007 trophies have arrived. There was some pretty tough competition in the Lemax Spooky Town 2006 display contest. Will you be ready for 2007? We have upped the anty just a little to make things interesting. We will be working on our Spooky Town display all year long.

We want to experiment with some more Woodland Scenic materials to achieve photorealistic photos of our display. Follow along with us as we build out 2007 display. Check the blog and our Spooky Town Collectors' Lair for more tutorials.

I can't think of a better way to spend the upcoming winter season!

The Crypt Keeper

Meet our 2006 Lemax Spooky Town Contest First Place Winner!

2006-10-24T08:02:00.000-04:00

Greeting Ghouls!

This is our first place winner, Phil from Iowa! Check out Phil's awesome Spooky Town display! Isn't Phil's pumpkin awesome! We hope to hear more from Phil in the Lemax Spooky Town Collectors' Lair. Phil has some great tutorials. If you haven't seen Phil's Spooky Town village, check it out. It may give your some inspiration for the 2007 contest. Our new trophies are here and we will be posting the photos soon.

Congratulations again Phil on doing a spooktacular job on your village!

*Our contests are judged by persons independent of Spooky Town Collector.com. We welcome all our members to share their tips and ideas to the Spooky Town Collectors' Lair.

Happy Haunting!

The Crypt Keeper

Congratulations to Our 2006 Lemax Spooky Town Contest Winners!

2006-10-13T12:44:00.000-04:00

Greetings Golden Ghouls!

We can't believe how creative our customers are!

You all have fantastic displays. But, we had to painstakingly choose the top 3. Even that was to difficult. We ended up with a tie for third place. If you are reading this post now, I hope you are considering entering in our 2007 contest.

Congratulations Winners!!

1st Place Winner: Phil Vernon, IA
2nd Place Winner: Sandy Pezley, IA
3rd Place (TIE): Jenny Rowe, TX and Sarah and Billy Boynton, MA

View these Lemax Spooky Town Collectors' award-winning haunts in our Spooky Town Collector Haunts gallery.

If you didn't get to enter this year, you can always start planning for next year. We start building in April. Check out new Lemax Spooky Town Collectors' Lair for tips on building your Spooky Town village. We will be adding more tips and tutorials as we build our display. If you have a tutorial you would like to share, please let us know and we will post it in the Lair.

If there is a tutorial you would like to see, let us know. We love hearing for our customers because we love Lemax Spooky Town as much as you do!

Thanks your Lemax Spooky Town Village Entries!

2006-10-10T07:59:00.000-04:00

We'll this is going to be a really tough process. There are so many
great Spooky Town villages out there. What is most rewarding about this
process is learning how much people really love their Spooky Towns. We
have Golden Ghoul members from all over the county and they all speak
fondly of their Spooky Towns.

It is really nice when Spooky Town collecting becomes a family project.
There are a number of members and customers who enjoy this hobby with
their children. We're already planning out 2007 village. I have big
ideas and we are going to really take our time with this one. I will
have to start building in January to make it happen.

I hope that all our members will be inspired to enter our contest again
next year with bigger and better ideas that are drawn from our
community. In the end you are all winners! You have great displays
that I hope you enjoy them as much as we did.

The Latest Spooky Town News

2006-09-29T11:13:00.000-04:00

You many see duplicate information here on the website. That would be due to building the new Spooky Town Collectors' Lair. We are in the process of moving our tips from the Blog to the Lair.

I know it may be soon, but we are already thinking about ideas for our 2007 Spooky Town Village. We are looking foward to receiving the 2007 catalog which should be here in the late winter.

Congratulations to Kent Ragan who was out latest Golden Ghoul Club winner! Kent won tombstones for his Spooky Town Village.

We have extended our first Annual Spooky Town Collector Contest out to October 7th. We hope that gives all you Golden Ghouls out there more time to creep out your village. There is some tough competition!

Spooky Town Contest Extended

2006-09-26T07:05:00.000-04:00

We at spookytowncollector.com realize that everyone has demanding schedules and may not put their Spooky Town out as early as some of us other Golden Ghouls. We have decide to extend the contest deadline one week. The final date for entries will be October 7th, 2006: midnight. The winner will be announced on Friday, October 13th!

Is the 13th lucky for you?

We hope so!

The Crypt Keeper

Spooky Town Display Contest Rapidly Approaches

2006-08-27T09:31:00.000-04:00

Holy Crap! A whole month went by and I can't believe I didn't post to the blog!

Anyway, we were so busy building our Spooky Town village that time just slipped way.

As of today, there are only 36 building days to get your Spooky Town Village up and get your entries sent in to us. You could be a winner! Who wouldn't want a great trophy to display along side their village this year?

Check out the contest rules and get going. If you need inspiration, check out our Spooky Town Haunts Gallery.

Time's a tickin'and your days really ARE NUMBERED. Check out the Boo-letin Board to get some great Spooky Town Village building tips like how to make stairs and how to turn on your village with just the flick of a switch!

Happy Haunting!
The Crypt Keeper

Spooky Town Building Goes Much Faster with a Hot Wire Foam Cutter!

2006-07-31T17:25:00.000-04:00

Well, I just got an Electric Hot Wire Foam Cutter. What a relief! I made this base in less than 30 minutes (Not included drying time). I just picked up an inexpensive one on EBAY, but you can buy a Woodland Scenics Hot Foam Cutter from us, which is less expensive than the pricy Hot Wire Foam Factory Model and very well made.

Step 1: I glued together several pieces of 2in polystyrene, which can be found at any home builders supply like Home Depot or Lowes. I used tacky glue. It drys pretty quick and holds well.

Step 2: I took my trusty Hot Wire Foam cutter and trimmed all the square edges off then added some texture by moving the cutter back and forth against the grain. Practice cutting on a spare scrap of foam. If you bend the wire into different shapes, you will get different textures.

DO NOT BREATH IN THESE FUMES!! WORK IN A WELL-VENELATED AREA!!

Step 3: I painted the entire base a medium gray using water-based acrylic paint. Let dry completely.

Step 4: I took a dry brush dipped in lightly in white acrylic paint and lightly brushed it all over the base to achieve the stone look.

Now you are ready to add your own touchs. If you are looking for ideas, try using Woodland Scenics turf to add grass or fall ground cover. You can every dirty it up a bit with some soil cover.

Spooky Town Pillager Sets Sail

2006-07-09T11:04:00.000-04:00

Hey all,

We have been working real hard getting my village ready. As many of you know the "Michael's Exclusive" piece for this year's Spooky Town is "The Pillager". Since this piece if off limits to Spooky Town Collector.com we had to take a road trip to check it out!

Bring a huge pirate buff, this piece was a must have. I am happy to say that this year's village theme is a seaside Spooky Town.

We found a great acrylic water product that makes realistic looking water and spreads like icing.

Check it out...

Good Luck with your village! Join us on the Spooky Town Boo-letin Board - lots of village building discussion going on!

Spooky Town Comes Alive to the Undead

2006-05-13T10:27:00.000-04:00

Greetings Ghouls,

Now we are getting somewhere. But, I feel good about it. It amazes me that I just didn't throw this base out when I started it, but I think it's a keeper.I am not much of an artist in this aspect, but I can not stand those Lemax Spooky Town display sets. I want a Spooky Town original. Be sure to click on the photo to see a larger picture.

After much cursing, and not evil cursing the verbal kind, I finally have my first base for my cherished Mausoleum. How did I do it you say? Well, with the help of my friends at Dedicated to Lemax, this is what I came up with:

Go buy some polystrene, a wood burner, lots of paint and a glue gun.

Glue the foam together to create the base.

Burn your designs into the styrofoam with the wood burner in a well-ventalated area. It's not like sniffing glue, so you will not benefit from breathing the fumes.

I painted the base black, the a darken gray, and then a lighter gray. Dabbed some moss green and some mustard yellow with a sponge all over the place. Swore at this point because it wasn't coming out right. Put a wash of watered down black paint all over the wall. Then I painted the top green where I was going to put grass cover. I used Woodland Scenics cover.

Take all your Spooky Town collectibles and put them on the DAMN display! Looks pretty good, huh?

What Lemax Spooky Town pieces did I use:

The Mausoleum

Gravestones

Crypt - Beloved

Crypt - Rise all Ye Dead

Crypt -Buried

Gargoyle FencingTomb Sir Edgar Goodbody

What do you think about my display? Why don't you give it a try and see what you come up with?

The Crypt Keeper

Spooky Town Collector.com

It takes a Spooky Town Village

2006-05-04T16:46:00.000-04:00

Greetings Ghouls!

Well, the activity is picking up on our Spooky Town Collector Boo-letin Board. If you haven't been there, I hope that you join the rest of us creepy collectors and decide to haunt is with your Spooky Town collector comments.

It is has been very challenging to get time to build out our Spooky Town display, but with the help of my friends at Dedicated to Lemax, I have been slowly plugging along. Making weekly trips to Michael's for paint, clay, hot wires, moss you name it we have it.

Our major achievement was to build a base our of polystyrene. I still don't know if I am happy with it. I think it will be ok when I get my prized piece, The Mausoleum, and other figures displayed on it.

The Big Challenges:

Using up batteries like crazy with the hot wire foam cutter. Better of buying a high quailty one from Hot Wire Foam Factory.

Getting my stairs straight.

Getting my cats to realize that the polystyrene it not a scratch toy for them!!

That's it for now. Photos to come soon.

Happy Haunting!

The Crypt Keeper

Spooky Town Village Plan

2006-04-23T07:22:00.000-04:00

Greetings Ghouls!

It's time to start planning that prize-winning Spooky Town village. Our first shipment shipment of Spooky Town 2006 is in and new pieces have been flying off the crypt slabs.

I don't know about you, but we are really taking a new direction in Spooky Town village building this year. There are so many fabulously talented and creative people out there that have truly been inspired. It's time to move away from the traditional Spooky Town platforms and get creative!

It is a good idea to draw out a plan for your village. It doesn't mean that you will stick to it as I have recently found out, but it is a jumping off point.

Here is a simple sketch of our Spooky Town village plan.(Adobe PDF) We are keeping it small and not overwhelming. I have had to restrain myself many times in pulling out all the Spooky Town pieces!

Good luck with your planning and we hope to see some spook-tacular village entries in our Spooky Town display contest!

Happy Haunting!

The Crypt Keeper

Tools for Building your Spooky Town Village

2006-04-10T08:13:00.000-04:00

Greetings Ghouls,

I have scoured the Internet trying to learn more about the techniques that avid Halloween villagers use to build such spectacular scenes. These techniques are similar in many ways, but everyone puts there spins on them. Hey, whatever works for you.

As we begin to build our village, we have decided to take the least expensive route as our skills improve we may consider other alternatives. We just gathered all the tools we need to begin.

A Styro Wonder Cutter - to cut through foam (Michael's or other craft type store)

Sheets of Polystyrene - to build the platform (Home Depot)

Woodburner - to add detail to the platform (Michael's or other craft type store)

Hot Glue Gun - with temperature control to create shapes and height with the polystyrene. (Michael's or other craft type store)

There is a myriad of other tools that Halloween village builders use such as a Hot Wire Foam Kit that was created just for this purchase, which sells for about $80.00. It will certainly do the job, but we are just not quite ready for such a purchase. Other references have been made to using Dremel tools and all kinds of handy home made tools for the creative master builder.

Avid Spooky Town Display builders also have their own preference as to what glue they prefer. I will stick with hot glue since that is my favorite medium. Some use just plain Elmer's to the newer high-glues like Gorilla Glue. Just be care not to melt your foam! No Crazy Glue or anything that resembles it.

How creative are you? Is there something that you use that I haven't mentioned here?

Happy Haunting!
The Crypt Keeper

Next Week: We create the plan.

Spooky Town Village Building E-Book

2006-04-02T11:52:00.000-04:00

Greetings Ghouls,

Well, we finally acquired all our supplies to start putting building our Spooky Town village. We are putting together an e-book for our Golden Ghoul members to help inspire and provide instruction on how to get started with your village.

We did not go all out on purchasing expensive tools. As I write this blog, I will be gathering information for the e-book, so if you miss a post, don't worry you will have the opportunity to download all the instructions.

We've decided that smaller is better in this case. My goal is to not get overwhelmed with this project. So, I would rather have a smaller detailed Halloween village than a large mass of collectibles that has no appeal.

So, follow only with us as we move on to the introductory phase of building a Spooky Town Halloween village.

What's your ideal Halloween village going to look like?

The Crypt Keeper

Spooky Town Contest Trophies are Here!

2006-03-25T17:25:00.000-05:00

Greetings Ghouls!

Our new trophies have arrived for our 2006 Spooky Town Display contest. They are really cool. The photos are a a little hard to see because of the glare of the shine of being a winner! Photographer I am not. Here they are in all their glory.To see a larger photo, just click on the image. So, tell all your creepy friends that it's time to get serious about getting that village display up. Not only will there be a trophy for 1st, 2nd or 3rd place, but you can also win a great collectible for your Spooky Town village too.

For more information about how to enter our contest, check our Web site.Just click here for contest information.

Dedicated to Lemax You Burst My Bubble!

2006-03-19T15:32:00.000-05:00

Well, I was pretty impressed with myself last week after we got our new cemetery all built. However, my bubble was quickly burst by this fantastic, creative tutorial on how to build landscapes for your Spooky Town village that I found on the "Dedicated to Lemax" BBS. If you haven't been there, I suggest you definately get "on board". I would post the link to the tutorial, but it doesn't appear to be working at the moment. Plus. they're a great bunch of people who love village building. Did I mention how talented they were too?

So, again, I am off to Michael's to buy more styrofoam and a wood burner. If you are considering entering our Lemax Spookytown Display Contest, I highly recommend reviewing the "Tips and Tricks section of "Dedicated to Lemax".

What until you see the really cool trophies we bought! You will be dying to get your hands on one!

The Crypt Keeper

Movin' in to Spooky Town Cemetery

2006-03-11T07:11:00.000-05:00

We'll, I'm all moved in for now or at least until the rest of the village starts to come together. It never fails that once you start a project, you need to go out and buy something else. We were a little short on fencing, but we will fix that very soon. We have new products coming in and plenty of fencing will be available for our expansion.

Here's a closeup of me in my new digs. It very spacious now, but there alway room for one more lost soul. As you well know, everyone is DYING TO GET IN!

Happy Haunting!
The Cryptkeeper

Spooky Town Cemetery Renovation Complete

2006-03-04T09:30:00.000-05:00

Greetings Ghouls!

Well the ground cover has been laid out, the cobblestone road built and next week the crypt keeper will be able to move into his new digs.

I know you all love Michael's. That is probably where most of us began our love affair with Lemax collectibles. So, I headed down to the local store and bought a few things.

Deer Moss

Decoration Moss

Craft Paint

Mosaic Tile Adhesive

River Stones

Gray Grout

First, I painted the plaster so with a color called "Rice". This way the stark white would not show through if I missed a spot with the moss.

I glued the river rock into a "U" shape for a cobble stone look road using the mosaic tile adhesive. I am not sure if I am happy with the way this turned out yet. Once the tile dried. I filled the stones in with grout. I was not very patient with this process, but I was going for an old nasty cemetery road look. It didn't have to be perfect. I really had to fight to get the grout off the stones; at least until I got tired of wiping. Live and learn. I may put some type of glaze or stain over the rocks to darken them up a bit.

I glued the moss all over the platform with a hot glue gun. That was the fun part!

Here is the final product. I can't wait to put my cemetery pieces on the platform. It may not look like much now, but it will soon!

Next Week: Movin' in Day

Happy Haunting!
Crypt Keeper

Spooky Town Cemetary Part II

2006-02-26T10:40:00.000-05:00

Greetings Ghouls,

Well, construction on the new Spooky Town cemetery went very well. I have to tell you that their was very little mess! Our terrain was complete in less than an hour.

I took an old cutting board and covered it with foil so I would have a flat surface to work on. Crinkled newspaper has a mind of its own so I figured it was easier to tape each wade separately to keep the paper from moving all over. I wanted a good stable surface for Sir Edward Goodbody's tomb so I used Styrofoam as a base in some areas. I just love the new larger crypts like Beloved, Buried, and Rise all ye Dead. I wanted to be sure I put enough height in the model to display these pieces.

I then cut the plaster cloth into about ten 12-inch pieces according to the instructions and smoothed it all over the newspaper. It doesn't have to be a work of art because it will be covered with landscaping once it dries.

I am pretty happy with the outcome. The "U" shape in the front of the image will be cobblestone road, however I have yet to find appropriate materials. I was thinking along the lines of using pebbles with some sort of grout like building a mosaic.

For now, our platform has to dry over night. Well I am off to find some ground cover. I hope that I have given you some ideas for your own Spooky Town cemetary. It's never too early to start planning.

Next Post: Adding Ground Cover

Spooky Town Cemetary Under Construction

2006-02-20T13:47:00.000-05:00

Greetings Ghouls,

Construction has started on my new cemetery. We are getting ready for expansion. This year's display is going to be the best display in the history of our Spooky Town displays.

Presently, we are constructing a rolling hill cemetery. This is going to be a simple, and hopefully not too messy project. We will wad up bunches of newspaper to construct a hilly terrain and tape it into place with masking tape. Then cover the newspaper with plaster cloth and let dry.

I'll let you know how we make out!

The Crypt Keeper

Next Post: Photos

Building Materials for Spooky Town Villages

2006-02-02T13:38:00.000-05:00

Greetings Ghouls,

While lurking around the local train and model shop. I found a great product for renovating our Lemax Spooky Town cemetery.

Plaster Cloth is great for molding landscapes. It is gauze fused with plaster of paris. This was a great find. They also had all types of ground cover and cobblestone roads.

You can check out the company who manufactures train landscape supplies by visiting their Web site called Woodland Scenics. It makes for great inspiration for your Spooky Town villages.

I love to haunt a cemetery with rolling hills and windy roads. Just because we're dead doesn't mean we have to live in dungeon. My new digs will have Sir Edgar Goodbody rolling in his crypt.

The Crypt Keeper

Gearing Up for Lemax Spooky Town 2006

2006-01-30T06:53:00.000-05:00

Greetings Ghouls,

I hope you are as excited as I am about the new 2006 Lemax Spooky Town pieces. If you haven't seen or heard about them, here is a list of the new collectible due to arrive sometime in April or May.

2006 Lemax Spooky Town Houses

Watch for our preorder shopping cart soon!

Be sure to sign up for our Golden Ghoul Club and get your halloween villages ready for our inaugural 2006 display contest.

Happy Haunting!

The Crypt Keeper