A few weeks ago, we made our annual trip to PA for the Monster Bash Conference, which we started attending way back in 2015. I can’t believe it’s been over a decade now, but we still continue to have so much fun there.

One of the reasons is some of the great items we find in the dealer room, most of which aren’t even something we’re looking for, but just happen to come across! For this show, since money has been a little tight as of late, my main goal was to try and not spend much at the show. I guess the key word there is “try”, because by Saturday, that was completely out the window.

One of the regular guests at the Bash is author, scholar, and Lord of the Interviews, Tom Weaver. He has signed many of his books for me in the last 10 years we’ve been coming to this event (and charges nothing, by the way). This year, I had brought my copy of his Scripts from the Crypt: The Ghost of Frankenstein volume that I picked up since last year to have him sign it. But as I went to his table, I discovered that he was selling a bunch of these Script books, priced about $10 off the cover price! I have quite a few of these titles and have always found them as great volumes of research. If you’re not familiar with them, they are very similar to the Filmscript books put out years ago by MagicImage by Philip J. Riley, that had the shooting script, as well as a bunch of other information on whatever film it was on. I ended up getting The Mummy’s Hand, The Mummy’s Tomb, The Mummy’s Ghost, and The Atomic Submarine. Yes, I know those mummy sequels aren’t the greatest, I do find them entertaining on occasion, but I do know that these volumes will have a lot of information about them, so those will go nicely in my reference library. Plus, I stumbled across Submarine a few years ago and really enjoyed it. So again, more reference material waiting there if I ever need it.

On Friday, I was sitting behind my table, telling myself once again that I really shouldn’t be spending any money, and I looked across the dealer room and saw a friend and fellow vendor opening a poster up another vendor was selling. It was from Pete Walker’s The Comeback (1978). I had seen that artwork before, which I believe was used for a DVD release, but had never seen an actual poster of it. I quickly went over there to check it out. It was a little more than what I would have liked to have paid for it but was in good condition. Add in the fact that I had never come across one of these before, I bought it. Again, so much for not spending money.

Then there was the Dracula Teeth promo item from Hammer’s Dracula: Prince of Darkness that someone had. These were little cardstock teeth that were given away as a promotional item for the release of the film. Hammer had also issued a Zombie mask for Plague of the Zombies and a beard for Rasputin: The Mad Monk, all of which came out in 1966. No luck in stumbling across them . . . yet.

Another cool couple of items I bought were actually from Daniel Roebuck’s table. Last year, I picked up a couple of these for Phantasm and House of 1000 Corpses, but this year, they had two different ones for Lon Chaney Sr.! How cool are these? Who would have ever dreamed that someone would make these little old fashion slide puzzles but with Chaney characters? Wonders never cease.

On Sunday, after a dealer had packed up early, leaving his tables empty, another dealer laid out a ton of those old plastic masks from those Halloween costumes we had as kids. Not sure if these were re-issues or originals, but for me, other than looking at them and getting a smile, I really had no interests in them. He had a couple of rubber masks as well, but since I don’t collect that type of stuff (mainly because rubber will eventually rot and fall apart), I never really looked. But then I overheard the dealer telling a friend, “I’ve got the perfect mask for you! It’s from Curse of the Swamp Creature!” This immediately got my attention because that was one of the Made-for-TV movies Larry Buchanan made in the late ‘60s. Yes, not a great film, but I’m a huge fan of Buchanan’s so that never mattered. When they both walked away from where the mask was, I, once again, quickly went over there to take a look. They did a pretty nice job on the mask, but knew I was safe from another purchase because whatever he was charging for it, it wasn’t going to be that cheap. When I asked the price, the dealer shrugged his shoulders and said, “$20?” Now how could I pass up the chance to own a mask from a Larry Buchanan film? Especially for only $20?!?!

But the biggest purchase, and surprise of the weekend came on Saturday afternoon. But let’s back up a wee bit. On Friday, as I was walking around the vendor room, I noticed the table run by Dominique Lamssies, and it had some home-made items, almost like plushies, or stuff creatures. There was a bright red one on the top that was Beluah, the dreaded Venusian from It Conquered the World. Such a creative design and damn cool! Of course, it wasn’t there for long because Daniel Roebuck came along and bought it! She also had some Tinglers, Killer Shrews, and a very cool looking Crawling Eye, even with some decapitated soldiers in its tentacles! How cool is that! She had said that she likes to make things that she herself would want to buy. I just love that her passion for these films and incredible talent helps her create these amazing creations.

Then on Saturday, I was standing behind my buddy Don England’s table chatting with him, which was facing Dominique’s table on the other side of the room. As I’m talking, I’m looking over there and see some strange looking, long neck of one of her creations. As I made my way over there, I kept thinking “Is that what I think it is.” And it was . . . The Giant Claw! While it wasn’t as big as a battleship, it was pretty damn impressive. It only took a minute or two to realize that I definitely had to bring that home with me and quickly bought it. The price meant nothing to me because as I looked closer at it, you can see the amount of work that went into it, and that every stitch was made with that same love and passion. You can’t put a price on that.

Dominique is on Facebook and Instagram, so I would not only follow her work, but I warn you, you just might have the same urge I had in wanting to purchase one of your own little creations from her! Just amazing.

Needless to say, it was another amazing weekend. While we had hoped to spend Friday night watching The Ship of Monsters for the Mexican movie night, since we’d been up at 1am that morning to drive out, there was no way I was going to be able to stay awake. In fact, I barely made it through dinner before passing out! We did get to spend Saturday chatting with friends in the lobby, having a great time catching up since the last show. Even though the show is so much fun, it really is the conversations with friends that make this show even more special.

The drive home felt a lot longer than it was, even though it is a good 8-hour trek. As I get older, these longer drives do tend to take more out of me. But I know there is a good reason that I’m still doing it and hope to continue doing it for years to come.

Thanks again to Ron Adams and all the Monster Bash staff for continuing to put on a great show. See you at the next one!