Its good to put some vampire teeth in on Halloween.
There's a long tradition.
One of the earliest monster fangs I remember were these red lipped sets with the distinctive flared-outwards shape.
They were mostly party favours and vending machine treats along with other plastic icons like the peeping skeleton, which sat in your top pocket!
The flared toy fangs may have been influenced by B-movie monster flicks like I was A Teenage Werewolf .....
...and How To Make a Monster.
Another style of chomper was the sabre-tooth. Gone are the flares in favour of two long straight incisors, appearing at the mouth's sides as in the vampire section of Vault of Horror, Midnight Mess....
... or together in the middle as in Salem's Lot.
Such incisors featured in toys such as the Thingmaker Fright Factory, which are basically tusks! ....
... and these Ghoulish/ Ghoul Teeth, which featured plastic gums and press-on fangs, which I assume you could position how you wanted.
But I suppose the most common gnashers worn every Halloween are the classic hinged pair, usually in white, but my faves have to be these red Werewolf Teeth with the best blister card art this side of a full moon!
Will you be putting your teeth in this Halloween?
When I was at school there was one lad in my year who genuinely had fangs! Seriously, his canine teeth were slightly longer than his front incisors. It's a varied world!
ReplyDeleteThe last photo is the pair of fangs that I most identify with in my youth.The most common ones were white and would glow green or blue in the dark but I sought out a rarer pair that was green and would glow purple.Those red dandies would have definitely caught my eye.I had a trick that involved cutting them at the hinge and applying them with my grandparents' denture adhesive.Made talking with fangs in much easier.
ReplyDeleteI certainly remember the hinged white plastic fangs of old. Essential dental wear for any wannabe Vampire when I was a kid. Great article, Woodsy... nice to see these variations of old Halloween favourites in their original packets. Pure simple unadulterated vintage Hong Kong plastic at its cheapest and at its best :)
ReplyDeleteHi Woodsy
ReplyDeleteHad the fright factory thingmaker when I was a kid. Tired the fangs, tough to keep in while talking. The scars never stuck, the fake eye you had to tie a string on each side to wear, but I loved building the little skeletons!
Jim
Sacramento CA
Great memories Jim! I'm struggling to recall the detail of the Thingmaker. Did you make the fangs out of the gloop they supplied?
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