Welcome back for Day 6 of Daily Dead’s fourth annual Holiday Gift Guide, readers! Once again, our goal is to help you navigate through the horrors of the 2016 shopping season with our tips on unique gift ideas, and we’ll hopefully help you save a few bucks over the next few weeks, too. For today’s offerings, we’re taking a look at some fun ideas from Diamond Select Toys, Dark Bunny Tees, artist Chad Savage, the soundtrack for Bob Clark’s Black Christmas, a Zombie Science Kit for kids (includes fart putty!), and so much more.
This year’s Holiday Gift Guide is sponsored by several amazing companies, including Mondo, Anchor Bay Entertainment, DC Entertainment, and Magnolia Home Entertainment, who have all donated an assortment of goodies to help you get into the spirit of the season. Daily Dead also recently teamed up with Texas-based artist Dustin Pace of Duddy in Motion to create an awesome Stranger Things print (see below) that all of our giveaway winners will receive in our amazing prize packs that include movies, graphic novels, and much more. One lucky winner will also receive the limited edition box set of The Walking Dead Season 6!
For a chance to win one of our 2016 Holiday Gift Guide prize packs, send an email to contest@dailydead.com with “Holiday Gift Guide” in the subject line, and be sure to include your full name and mailing address as well.
Blu-rays & DVDs:
Star Trek: The Original Series Complete Box Set (Paramount Home Entertainment, Blu-ray)
The Blu-ray collection for Star Trek: The Original Series contains all twenty discs from the 2009 high-definition release in one box set, with all bonus materials and other features also included. Like the first releases, the discs contain both the “classic” and “remastered” visual effects versions, which can be each viewed independently.
Star Trek Beyond (Paramount Home Entertainment, Blu/DVD/Digital HD Combo)
"Star Trek Beyond," the highly anticipated next installment in the globally popular Star Trek franchise, created by Gene Roddenberry and reintroduced by J.J. Abrams in 2009, returns with director Justin Lin (“The Fast and the Furious” franchise) at the helm of this epic voyage of the U.S.S. Enterprise and her intrepid crew. In “Beyond," the Enterprise crew explores the furthest reaches of uncharted space, where they encounter a mysterious new enemy who puts them and everything the Federation stands for to the test.
Books:
Exploding off the page with over 1,000 of the best examples of exploitation, grindhouse, and pulp film poster design comes The Art of the B Movie Poster, a collection of incredible posters from low-budget films from the 1940s, 50s, 60s, and 70s. Once relegated to the underground and midnight movie circuit, these films and their bombastic advertisements are experiencing a surge of mainstream popularity driven by fans appreciative of the artistic skill, distinctive aesthetic, and unabashed sensationalism they relied on to make a profit, with the quality of the poster often far surpassing that of the film itself. The book celebrates this tradition with sections divided into 'moral panic' films, action, horror, sci-fi, and of course, sex, each introduced with short essays by genre experts such as Kim Newman, Eric Schaefer, Simon Sheridan, Vern, and author Stephen Jones, winner of the Horror Writer's Association 2015 Bram Stoker Award for Non-Fiction. Edited by Adam Newell and featuring an introduction by author and filmmaker Pete Tombs, The Art of the B Movie Poster is a loving tribute to the artwork and artists that brought biker gangs, jungle girls, James Bond rip-offs and reefer heads to life for audiences around the world.
Artwork:
Today’s artwork selection comes from the maniacs over at BeastWreck, whose work caught my eye years ago (seriously, I love how vivid and colorful all their prints are). If you want to infuse someone’s holiday season with a huge dose of color, check out this Alien Queen Tribute print, this stunning The Mummy’s Revenge artwork, or this badass Lord Humungus print.
Vinyl Pick of the Day:
Black Christmas – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Waxwork Records)
Waxwork Records is thrilled to announce the deluxe Original Motion Picture Soundtrack release to BLACK CHRISTMAS. Directed by the late Bob Clark and released in 1974, BLACK CHRISTMAS follows a group of sorority sisters who are receiving threatening phone calls, while being stalked and murdered during the holiday season by a deranged murderer hiding in the attic of their sorority house.
BLACK CHRISTMAS is a classic horror film that has stood the test of time, and pre-dates what is commonly known today as the "slasher movie".
The haunting, dissonant score composed by legendary composer Carl Zittrer (PORKY'S, A CHRISTMAS STORY) has never been released in any format, ever. In fact, the score to BLACK CHRISTMAS was widely believed to never receive an actual official release. The masters to the score were thought to be lost or destroyed for 40 years. Waxwork Records has worked for a year with composer Carl Zittrer researching and tracking down the original masters. After locating them, Zittrer spent many months constructing a cohesive, definitive BLACK CHRISTMAS soundtrack experience. The entire album was then expertly mastered for vinyl by Thomas Dimuzio at Gench Mastering. Full album artwork has been created by Canadian-horror-illustration guru, Ghoulish Gary Pullin.
Apparel:
Dark Bunny Tees: We’ve featured Dark Bunny Tees on previous Holiday Gift Guides, as I’ve been a big fan of theirs for some time now. If you’re looking for a holiday-themed gift, this Stay Puft holiday sweatshirt would undoubtedly make a great gift for any Ghostbusters fan out there. And if you’re looking for something a little less Christmas-y, check out these fun Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey and Halloween III-themed pumpkin designs, too.
Enamel Pins:
Chad Savage: Chad Savage is an artist I first covered back in my very first year of working as a journalist in horror, and I’ve been following his work ever since. He does a lot of cool artwork, but he also creates Enamel Pins, too, which I thought I’d feature today. Check out these designs for his Nosferatu skull pin, this classically adorable Boo pin, or this fun Jack-O-Lantern heart pin, which is the perfect way to show off your love of Halloween all year long.
Collectibles:
For today’s collectibles, I thought we’d take a look at just a few of the cool products from the fine folks at Diamond Select Toys, a company I’ve been a big fan of for several years now (I was addicted to their Ghostbusters Minimates line for quite a while). If you want to inject your holiday gift-giving with some fun this season, check out this killer Aliens cookie jar, this awesome Ghostbusters firehouse display (which lights up), or their collection of X-Files Minimates. Diamond Select has a ton of various properties featured on their site, so be sure to take a look around for all kinds of cool stuff.
Kids' Korner:
Zombie Science Kit: Blood, Guts & Body Parts FX Lab
Explore fascinating scientific concepts and skills. This Zombie Science Kit is four science kits in one! Learn about gels, polymers, liquid-solid transitions, suspensions and pigments. Create ghastly Levitating Zombie Eyeballs, Globby Green Gizzards, Blood Clots, Exploding Slugs, Zombie Tapeworms and Fart Putty. Make gruesome brains, eyeballs and fingers you can graft and blend for your own signature gross soap. And no need to run to the store for ingredients - unlike most other kits, everything you need for over 15 experiments is included in the kit* with enough components, tools and materials to do them over and over again. Protective gear for 2 allows for a lab partner to join in, too! 44 pieces plus 2 learning manuals with complete, illustrated instructions and fun learning facts. *Requires sink, water, microwave, oven mitts. Requires supervised use of microwave oven. Adult Supervision Required. Ages 8+
Etsy Spotlight:
For today’s Etsy Spotlight, we’re taking a look at several awesome resources for enamel pins. First up is AlleyCat Graphics, a shop with a killer selection of homemade pins that would make for excellent stocking stuffers for all the horror fans out there. Their Barb from Stranger Things Pin is a lot of fun, but the two real highlights for me are their Nightmare on Elm Street-inspired Nancy Bath Scene Pin and The Thing Spider Head Pin, both of which I really need to nab for my own pin collection.
And for you classic sci-fi fans out there, this Twilight Zone-themed pin from Molasses Wave would also be a fun gift to give (or receive) this holiday season.
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In case you missed them, check out other installments of Daily Dead's 2016 Holiday Gift Guide:
Heather A. Wixson was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, until she followed her dreams and moved to Los Angeles in 2009. A 14-year veteran in the world of horror entertainment journalism, Wixson fell in love with genre films at a very early age, and has spent more than a decade as a writer and supporter of preserving the history of horror and science fiction cinema. Throughout her career, Wixson has contributed to several notable websites, including Fangoria, Dread Central, Terror Tube, and FEARnet, and she currently serves as the Managing Editor for Daily Dead, which has been her home since 2013. She's also written for both Fangoria Magazine & ReMind Magazine, and her latest book project, Monsters, Makeup & Effects: Volume One will be released on October 20, 2021.
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