Spooky Surprise Grab Bags

[horrorhunter]

Here are eBay pics from the auction I won:



That green Skeleton is REALLY short-molded. Glad I have a nice blue one.

And the back:



There was a magic trick card included in each bag in addition to a couple of toys and a sweet. Here's a pic of 5 of the possible cards. I have #23 coming with my grab bag.

Got my Spooky Surprise stuff in the mail today! Todd even put everything in separate clear plastic holders that display nicely. It's all on the shelf now with it's fellow monster junk. 

[Hepcat]

So far we know of three MPC monsters that were knocked off by whichever company did these little 1 1/2" versions: Witch, Creature Of Doom, Skeleton. What puzzles me is why they chose the three with the most small bits sticking out (bats, scythe) that had to be left off of the smaller sculpt. Maybe they thought by leaving off the small details the sculpt was changed enough to keep from being sued by MPC. They are still obviously knock offs. If the only reason they left off those small details was for molding/encapsulating purposes then why did they pick the three with the most protruding small details?

Yeah, it looks like the green Skeleton was short molded. That must have been common back in the day.... You know, the bases on these are weird too. They have the little holes like the MPC Unbreakable Weird Monsters they were copied after but the holes don't serve a purpose like the MPC base holes (to attach to other toys like the Haunted Hulk). I guess Becker or the actual manufacturer did it to save plastic.

You know these indications of penny-pinching when it came to minimizing the amount of plastic required are perhaps a clue as to why the Witch, Skeleton and Creature of Doom were chosen for these mini figures despite the fact that all three designs ended up being reduced/truncated. Perhaps these were the three figures that required the least plastic once they were truncated!

[horrorhunter]

You know these indications of penny-pinching when it came to minimizing the amount of plastic required are perhaps a clue as to why the Witch, Skeleton and Creature of Doom were chosen for these mini figures despite the fact that all three designs ended up being reduced/truncated. Perhaps these were the three figures that required the least plastic once they were truncated!

Could be. 

It's fun to theorize but realistically we're probably over-analyzing this. Some fat fellow with a big ceegar probably just said "Pick any three of those cheapass monsters and make 'em even smaller and cut even more plastic where ya can. Multiple won't sue us...hell, they steal from Marx all the time anyway! We're sellin' the whole damn bag for a nickel so go CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP!!!"

[Count Zero]

found this photograph while digging around online...
evidence that these little buggers were also sold as vending product?

[Count Zero]

found some more photographs online.
here are a couple color variations.

that black reaper is my favorite so far.

[marsattacks666]

found some more photographs online.
here are a couple color variations.

that black reaper is my favorite so far.

The second photo is my fave.

[Hepcat]

That skeleton doesn't look like an MPC knock-off.

[Hepcat]

found this photograph while digging around online...
evidence that these little buggers were also sold as vending product?

I'm not sure that capsule is quite big enough for the figure. On what site did you find the image? I'd like to read the text that accompanies the picture.

[horrorhunter]

I'm not sure that capsule is quite big enough for the figure. On what site did you find the image? I'd like to read the text that accompanies the picture.

Yeah, those Becker Minis are 1 1/2" tall which would require a very large capsule. The pic looks like someone just paired the figure and capsule to suggest they might have been sold that way, but the capsule in the pic looks too small for the figure.

My money's on the Becker Minis only being sold in Spooky Surprise grab bags which would help explain their scarcity. Don't know for sure though.

[horrorhunter]

My Spooky Surprise collection so far:

[Count Zero]

i don't have any photographs handy at the moment - vending capsules come in a variation of standard sizes from as small as 1" to as large as 4" - i know these Becker Minis fit very nicely into a 2" capsule with a lot of room to spare.

i haven't tried it yet - but i bet they would fit into a 1 1/2 & 1 3/4 too.
the one pictured with that black reaper looks like it may be a 1 incher - though i could be wrong. it might have been crammed in there.
ive seen it so many times were prizes have been crammed into capsules - leaving them bent & warped as a result.

am i playing the devils advocate? maybe.. but i don't want to give up on the idea that these somehow made their way into gumball machines too

[horrorhunter]

My Spooky Surprise collection so far:

Toy Ranch had several of his Becker figures listed on eBay for $25 each, and I believe they all sold. As scarce as these things are I think that's actually a cheap price for them. They are far harder to find than the MPC Weird Monsters they're based on. Fair market value on these things in nice condition may be 2 or more times what those sold for. They almost never show up on eBay, and that's an indication something is really scarce.

[Hepcat]

My Spooky Surprise collection so far:

While the Becker Spooky Surprise grab bags all included a Magic Tricks card:



Sometimes they were red though as opposed to a bluish purple!

The paper grab bags also featured these nifty tattoos on the backs:




It appears that the same tattoos were also on the backs of the Funny Monsters grab bags:



Cards such as this one were also included in the Funny Monsters grab bags:

[Hepcat]

A large part of Becker's business was similar grab bags with various themes. Lonnie Cummins has catalogued many of these grab bag issues including Willie Whistle's Bubble Gum Surprise (1950's), Grab Bag Surprises (1960's), Elephant Jokes (1962), Funny Monsters (1960's), Spooky Surprise (1960's), Wild West (1960's), Combat (1967), Make Your Own Silly Signs (1972) and Baseball (1972) plus cards for Football, Funny Animals, Secret Agent, Space Age, Christmas Puzzles, Military and 3D Circus Stand Ups which may have been issued as part of their own series of grab bags or simply a component part of another issue such as Grab Bag Surprises. Here are some pictures:













The L.M. Becker Company's products were only distributed regionally in and around Wisconsin though. As a result, the company's products are not widely known and the collector base for the various Becker card sets isn't deep. Little about the various card sets is known.

[Hepcat]

A large part of Becker's business was similar grab bags with various themes. Lonnie Cummins has catalogued many of these grab bag issues including Willie Whistle's Bubble Gum Surprise (1950's), Grab Bag Surprises (1960's), Elephant Jokes (1962)....

Here are a couple of samples of the Elephant Jokes: