# A Historical Walk Through Spooky Town



## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

I was going through my old Spooky Town brochures from Michaels and thought you all might want to have a look and remember. Sadly, I am missing some, I think my Son got hold of them. You can see how the selection, and even presentation started dwindling through the years.

If anyone has the brochures from 2001,2005, 2007, 2009, or 2011, I would love to buy them from you. 


Lets start with the 2002 collection:


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

2003:


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

2004:


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

2006:


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

2008:


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

2010:


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

2013:


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

And our current 2014:


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## crazy4holidays (Feb 18, 2006)

There was no collection in 2001. I have all the ones your missing but I'm not sure where they are in the house. We just moved at the beginning of this month so alot of stuff is still boxed up.


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

I thought ST was introduced in 2000 but was no booklet until 2001. We bought our first piece in 2001 when we bought our home.


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## crazy4holidays (Feb 18, 2006)

There might have been some pieces from 2000 at that time but no new items were introduced in 2001, and ive never seen a Michaels booklet from that time


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## Ween12amEternal (Apr 15, 2006)

What an interesting retrospective of how their style has evolved, thanks for posting these up. The new pieces are certainly fun, but for exceptional detail & design I definitely favor the older pieces.


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

crazy4holidays said:


> There might have been some pieces from 2000 at that time but no new items were introduced in 2001, and ive never seen a Michaels booklet from that time



That means I can cross one off my list then. 

I wish I kept the pictures I had of the Michaels displays back then. They took up half an aisle! Loved walking into the stores and seeing these.

First piece I ever bought was Castle on Spooky Hill and the Headless Rider figurine. Still 2 of my favorite pieces to date.


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## crazy4holidays (Feb 18, 2006)

Mine was the graveyard ghosts, then castle on spooky hill too. Once i find them ill post pics of the booklets your missing. Miss those old time displays, not the little end island thing they have today. 

Only thing i could find was this video from 2009. Not that long ago but still sooo much better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoXy_FqvIKc&feature=youtube_gdata_player


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## HexMe (Jul 23, 2009)

Thank you for taking the time to share those! I feel like the best days of Spooky Town are behind us. 2000 - 2005 seem to be great years. My most favorite pieces seem to come from that time period. I do have some brochures from Michaels as well as a dealer catalogue from several years ago that eHobby sent with a particularly big order of mine. We just moved as well and our house is super disorganized and I don't know where anything is but as soon as I find my Halloween binder I will work on scanning what I have.


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## FreakinFreak (Aug 27, 2010)

Shadowbat said:


> If anyone has the brochures from 2001,2005, 2007, 2009, or 2011, I would love to buy them from you.


I definately have 2011, and probably have the rest since they're still in the Lemax boxes (which I won't break out until the end of Sep).

This is a really cool thread, I'll ship it to you for free. PM me near the end of Aug if you still need them and let me know what you need.


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

Bringing this back up to the front. I will have the 2012 catalog on it's way to me. As soon as I get it I'll scan it and post it up.


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## 22606 (Aug 11, 2008)

The older pieces are _so_ much better, at least in my opinion. I love the haunted fountain, which is totally new to me, having never seen it (learned of them in 2004, I believe, as I am almost positive that is the first booklet that I possess). Thank you for posting all of these, Shadowbat.


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## Gym Whourlfeld (Jan 22, 2003)

FUN! FUNNY STUFF! thank you!


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## Berserker (Sep 4, 2012)

for later. looks cool though.


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)




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## BillyBones (Aug 17, 2011)

Here's 2005


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## BillyBones (Aug 17, 2011)

Here's 2007


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## BillyBones (Aug 17, 2011)

Here's 2009


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## BillyBones (Aug 17, 2011)

And 2011


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

Thank you!


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)




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## Melanormal (Aug 15, 2012)

So glad I started collecting these in the early 00's! I loved the earlier pieces but haven't bought any in the last several years since I couldn't find any I liked. It's fun to see all the years compared.


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## Godcrusher (Sep 21, 2015)

VERY cool thread! thanks for posting.


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## Neuf350Z (Feb 12, 2006)

Thanks for posting these. I'm new to Spooky Town so I didn't realize how far back they went!


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## Spookywolf (Aug 4, 2012)

Nice to see all the booklets together. Thanks for posting!


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## Itzpopolotl (Jun 10, 2013)

I have all the booklets from 2007-present. If I find extras of the years your missing when I unpack my boxes this year I will happily send them to you for free.


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

We were going through all the pamphlets again last night remembering when Michaels really went all out for Spooky Town. It's a shame they don't do it up like they use to. I also hate how generic the pamphlets have become.


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## whichypoo (Jul 29, 2009)

I have also been collecting from the beginning. I will look when I unpack and see if I have any of the first ones


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## ChrisW (Sep 19, 2006)

It is interesting seeing how themes have changed over the years, not to mention finish, detail and complexity. I was never a fan of the garish color schemes, preferring the more natural look. I also leaned towards classic, rather than funny, circus, western, etc. themes.


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## GobbyGruesome (Sep 14, 2005)

^I agree - I much preferred the earlier ones, that often looked almost normal, just a little run down. I think they really were spooky. They went through a period a couple years ago where they decided everything looked better with 3 or 4 Gargoyles glued to to. I think they've turned a bit of a corner the last couple years with things being a little more considered. 

As far as the colours go, I don't think you can trust the brochures. There were a few years where we saw the photos online and decided we weren't buying anything because it all looked almost neon. Then when they arrived in stores they looked fine (I think there's been cases where the reverse has been true too.)


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

2017


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## VenomStorm (Aug 11, 2016)

Cool thread. Interesting to see the buildings over time. I agree the older ones look a bit better, althogh the 2016 and even this year's seem to be better than some of the garish themed ones.


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## Shadowbat (Sep 27, 2009)

Bumping this up. If anyone has the 2018 through 2021 pamphlets uploaded feel free to share them.


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## Malicious (Sep 8, 2014)

Thanks to all for posting and the walk down memory lane!


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## Godcrusher (Sep 21, 2015)

I agree that the older ones were better. The quality mattered more back then. Now their are some new pieces that I love each year but so much of it is plastic ow and their prices have soared which doesn't make since. You change to cheaper materials to keep costs down not to double prices.

I think I'm going to focus on some of the older pieces I want like graveside diner and cemetery tours and pause on any new stuff unless I catch great deals.


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