This year there have been a few great new products to keep us happy, and what better way to sum them up than a video from one of our resident product testers – Professor Frankenwerter…

 
Full-size Fun

Of all the Asda Halloween 2011 products, Whilhemena the Witch has probably caused the most controversy.
She’s a great product, with great detailing – especially on her craggy, rubbery face. She also has lots of great witchy phrases to keep  you happy and your guests/trick or treaters coming back for more. There’s no doubt that she’s a great place to keep your treats.
However, many Asda Halloween fans were expecting something bigger, and little Whilhemena really isn’t nearly as teriffying as Wanda the Witch from last year’s collection.

As a result, many prop shoppers have been lured away from Asda by the Sainsbury’s butler who, it is argued, gives Whilhemena a good run for her money.

Inflatables

But Asda do have some big decorations. The inflatable products are definitely worth checking out. As you will have seen in our video, the 4ft ghost is very cool and can be used both indoors and out (in reasonable conditions). The 9ft ghost looks even better. Although we didn’t get to try it the idea of a 9ft menacing spectre in the garden will appeal to most, although it does come with a hefty price tag (£45).

Furry Fun

The floor crawlers offer real entertainment this year with the enchanted broom proving very popular with Asda Halloween shoppers. Triggered by a guest passing by, this life-sized gadget springs to life, spinning around and cackling. Similarly, the wandering ghost could cause a few squeals in your household. Although it is a little let down by its size, we were really impressed by the fact that it senses obsticles when floating about and changes direction to avoid them. They both make great additions to any Halloween party set-up and are competetively priced.

There were a few nice toys with the Ear Flapping Dog and Marty the Monkey singing and dancing their way into our Halloween hearts. They make great gifts as do the cuddly monsters and frankenstein’s monster dolls that are aimed at the younger shoppers.

We at Halloweenerrific loved the man in chains last year and were equally impressed with Convict Colin, a hanging skeleton that writhes about and groans when activated by a passer-by. The only slight let down would be Colin’s small size, but that is reflected in his competetive price-tag.

Grave Matters

The dancing skeleton gravestone was a surprise favourite this year, with lots of shoppers enjoying its moves and sounds. Most impressive were the cool lightning effect that comes on during the performance in time to the music. It’s one product that this Asda Halloween fan may still have to go back and purchase. In a similar vein, the gargoyle with blood pouring from its mouth looks to be another great product to add a little atmosphere to your Halloween gathering. Unfortunately the professor couldn’t get ours to work, so you’ll have to try that one out for yourselves.

 
Along with all that great stuff, Asda have again provided plenty of the usual treats, gifts and costumes that provide good quality at an affordable price.

Asda Halloween 2011 Summary

It would seem that the Asda Halloween 2011 products have been chosen with the economic climate in mind. Big, expensive, life-sized props have been replaced by smaller and cheaper alternatives that make things easier on our pockets and also help to ensure that Asda aren’t left with thousands of unsold Halloween products come November.

That said, many of us were still a little let down that there weren’t more bigger, fantastic decorations on offer.

There is still plenty to choose from though with inflatable ghosts, knee-high witches and roving gouls, so Asda is certainly still sitting atop the Halloween retailler pile this year.

We’re already looking forward to what Asda Halloween products lie in store for us next year!

Choosing the best Asda Halloween products

Yes, there have been plenty of products to choose from, and it’s hard to pick just three out of the whole lot, but based on the things that we found to be most entertaining ansd fun, we put together a little list. Then, very kindly, Asda provided us with the products to ‘test’ (or play with) and this helped us to make those critical final decisions.

What are you waiting for, check out the video…

Top 5 Asda Halloween products for 2010

If you can’t get to your Asda store, or you prefer the convinience of online shopping, there’s still time to buy these products online.
Here are the links to our top 5 Asda Halloween products on the Asda Direct site to save you searching around:

Asda Halloween quick links

Wanda the Witch

Crystal Ball Fogger

Door Knocker

Singing Witch

Oh, except for the hanging man in chains, we couldn’t find that on their site for some reason. There are LOADS in the shops though, so if you want one, just get along to your local Asda store.

General link to the Asda Halloween products

So that’s enough Asda coverage for one year. We’ve got LOADS of other stuff to cover over the next few days (yes, there’s only just over a week left now!)

Once again, the Asda Halloween products have come out on top!

Okay, so she would probably have just bought a toy from somewhere else, but Build-A-Bear really do make an extra effort to make their cuddly toys extra spooky at this time of year.
Each year, they bring out a Halloween cat and you’re then free to put them in a variety of themed costumes. This year, it’s ‘Midnight Kitty’.
She’s a sleek, black witches cat (supposedly) who looks cute enough as she is really (see the photo… ahhhh).

But, if you like, you can customise your animal – hence the ‘build’ part of the company name.
There are a variety of different outfits for Midnight, from a Halloween t-shirt to full on witches outfit with broom.
They even used to (might still do it, I’m not sure) put in little speakers which make sounds when squeezed. For instance our first Halloween cat says ‘Trick or treat’ or ‘Happy Halloween’ when you squeeze it’s paw. I’m yet to see whether Midnight will have this option.

It’s Alive!

Best of all, if you buy your Halloween buddy from one of the many Build-A-Bear stores you get the pleasure to see it being stuffed and sewn together before your very eyes. It’s like being a real-life Dr Frakenstein!

I’ll let you know what it’s like in the fur when ours arrives!

Visit the Build-A-Bear website for more details: Build-A-Bear Halloween

With a torn suit and dead looking face, this guy looks every bit a legitimate zombie. Look, he even carries the spade that he used to dig himself out of his lego grave (I think) and some chicken (?!). Okay, so it wouldn’t look great for Lego if he was carrying a severed limb. Either way, he looks great doesn’t he?

Anyway, he was from series one, which is still available, but stocks are running short. I did find one place that let you buy particular characters, but at an inflated price. Better than having to buy 10 packets just to get the one you want though eh?

In series two, there is a witch and a vampire. These figures are in the shops now, so get out there while they’re still available. Rumour has it, that the next series will have a mummy!

It’s also worth noting that there are websites that list the barcodes for the characters so that you can tell them apart when buying them. However, this does mean that you have to walk into a toy shop with a piece of paper and rifle through the Lego. Good job I have kids to use an excuse for this sort of behaviour!

Actually, I had paid them a visit last year and got a couple of bargains. I had always regretted not buying a big multi-pack of vampires fangs (don’t we all) and got a great deal on a witches cape for my other half.

On entry, we were presented with a nice display containing lots of sweets and other little novelty bits like candles and small decorations. Nearby were also some kids costumes, which looked decent enough. Initially I thought that this was ‘it’, so was a little bit disappointed – although I did still pick up a pack of spooky drinks label stickers, which looked good (but were maybe a bit steep at £2 a pack).

Around the other side of the shop on the way to the tills were lots more costumes and other halloween bits, which was good to see. Although I’m still not sure why it wasn’t all together.
There were some nice costumes at competetive prices and guess what, more halloween pinatas! Obviously Matalan ALSO read up on our tip that they would be the big thing this year .
This time, instead of being pumkin shaped, they were shaped like a cute ghost. Not sure how I feel about beating that to pieces… Poor ghost.

Other things worth noting, are some great glow in the dark face-paint and cute pumpkin baby booties.

There is also a giant coffin full of jelly sweets for £6 that would be perfect to take care of any trick or treaters that might pay you a visit!