Local events & attractions, vacation destinations, theme parks and other things to do in Arizona, Southern California and Las Vegas. Articles and reviews on all kinds of entertainment, from comic book collecting, haunted houses & escape rooms to family vacations to Disneyland, Universal Studios & more.
This box Comic Block subscription box from Nerd Block was purchased by me to review for you. The Cost starts at 13.99 per month (plus Shipping) and gets cheaper based on the length of subscription. You currently get a welcome box with a new subscription. This month box included a shirt, 3 comic books and an art print. The Spawn Shirt has an Ebay value of around $10 dollars. It is a fairly heavy cotton, unlike some of the exclusive t-shirts I have received from various subscription boxes. The eyes glow in the dark and looks a little eerie in the mirror. Not necessarily a Spawn fan, but did keep this shirt for myself and have gotten multiple compliments.
Heroes Vengeance #1 - Comic Block Variant – Cover value $3.99 "NBC Reborn Prelude" Heroes Vengeance from Titan Comics, which will serve as an origin story for one of the new characters. The series will consist of five issues, and will be written by Heroes Reborn supervising producer Seamus Fahey. Selling on Ebay for around $5-13. I have not watched the show, and have little interest in the comic and know no one to gift it to for Christmas, so it is in my sell pile. Although I have no doubt this comic was well accepted by some fans.
Lara Croft Frozen Omen #1 – Cover value $3.99 Dark Horse Comics features an exclusive variant cover! It’s up to Lara to stop a cult from causing worldwide devastation! Selling on Ebay for around $12-20. I enjoyed the Lara Croft Tomb Raider games and movies. I have kept this comic for my collection.
Back To The Future #1 – Cover value $4.99 IDW Back To The Future features an exclusive variant cover. In "Back to the Future Part II," Marty McFly travels to October 21, 2015 which was just last month and there was a lot of hype for 'Back to the Future Day'. Not sure of the story line, but enjoyed the movies so am keeping this for my collection. Selling on Ebay for around $9-25.
Venom Print – Ebay Value $5-12 The last item this month is a Venom art print! A 100 lucky people (not I) got one that was signed by the artist. This was also something I kept for my personal collection.
Over all this month's Comic Nerd Block subscription box gave me a Spawn shirt to wear, 2 comics to add to my comic book collection, a comic to sale and a Venom print worth framing. Thumbs up on quality verse cost.
🎃 All Hallows’ Eve: The Spooky Origins & Legends of Halloween 🎃
Halloween, also known as All Hallows’ Eve, Samhain, Lamswool, Snap-Apple Night, and Guy Fawkes Night, is one of the oldest and most widely celebrated holidays in the world. With its roots in ancient Celtic traditions, Roman festivals, and Christian influences, Halloween has evolved into a global phenomenon of costumes, candy, and haunted festivities.
👻 The Ancient Origins of Halloween
📌 Where Did Halloween Begin? Halloween is believed to have originated over 2,000 years ago in Ireland, as part of the Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced "Sow-in"). The Celts believed that on October 31st, the veil between the living and the dead was at its thinnest, allowing spirits to roam the Earth.
🔥 Ancient Halloween Traditions Included:
Wearing ghoulish masks & disguises to avoid being recognized by spirits.
Lighting bonfires to ward off evil spirits and provide warmth for the coming winter.
Leaving out food and drinks to appease wandering ghosts.
🎭 The Romans later influenced Halloween with their festival of Pomona, the goddess of harvest—which is why bobbing for apples became a classic Halloween game!
🕷️ Trick-or-Treating & Superstitions
👻 Trick-or-Treating Origins
Ancient Beliefs: Celts feared ghosts disguised as humans would knock on doors of homes that did not leave out offerings.
Medieval "Souling": Beggars went door to door offering prayers for the dead in exchange for food.
Scottish "Guising": Children dressed up and performed songs or tricks in exchange for treats.
Modern Trick-or-Treating: The earliest written reference to "trick-or-treat" appeared in The Alberta Canada Herald on November 4, 1927.
🎃 Jack-o'-Lantern Legend
Irish folklore tells of "Stingy Jack", a trickster who fooled the Devil and was doomed to roam the Earth with only a turnip lantern to light his way.
Irish immigrants brought the legend to America, where pumpkins replaced turnips due to their abundance.
🕯️ Did You Know? The largest pumpkin ever recorded weighed 836 lbs, grown by Norm Craven in 1993!
🎭 Halloween in Modern Culture
💀 Halloween in the U.S. vs. Other Countries
In France & Australia, Halloween is seen as an overly commercialized American holiday.
Americans spend over $6.9 billion on Halloween costumes, candy, and decorations—making it the second-largest commercial holiday after Christmas.
Trunk-or-Treating (cars parked in a circle at schools/churches) became popular in 2000 for safer candy collection.
⚠️ Halloween Safety Myths & Real Dangers
Car Accidents:Children are twice as likely to be hit by a car on Halloween than any other night.
Poisoned Candy Hoax: Despite widespread fear, no confirmed cases of random poisoning have been found.
Razor Blades & Drugs in Candy: Most incidents were hoaxes or family-related crimes, like the 1974 cyanide-laced Pixy Stix case (perpetrated by the victim’s own father).
🔞 Age Restrictions on Trick-or-Treating Some U.S. cities have laws banning trick-or-treating for kids over 12, with fines or even jail time for violators!
🎃 Famous Halloween Pop Culture & Movie Trivia
📽️ The Movie Halloween (1978)
Due to a low budget, the filmmakers used a cheap William Shatner Star Trek mask for Michael Myers’ iconic look.
The film helped popularize Halloween as a major horror holiday.
🕵️ Harry Houdini’s Halloween Death (1926)
The legendary magician & skeptic of the supernatural died on Halloween night from appendicitis—after being punched in the stomach.
Some believe Houdini's ghost still tries to make contact on Halloween.
🎃 Halloween Around the World
🌍 Halloween-Like Festivals Worldwide
Día de los Muertos (Mexico) – A three-day festival (Oct 31 - Nov 2) celebrating deceased loved ones.
Zhong Qui (China’s Autumn Moon Festival) – Honoring spirits and family unity.
Sukkot (Jewish Thanksgiving Festival) – A nine-day festival of gratitude.
Onam (India) – A harvest festival with food offerings to the gods.
📌 Did You Know? The earliest recorded Canadian Thanksgiving was in 1578, making it older than both American Thanksgiving and Halloween in North America!
🎃 Final Thoughts – The Enduring Magic of Halloween
Halloween is a blend of history, folklore, and modern traditions, evolving from ancient Celtic rituals to a multi-billion-dollar holiday. Whether you’re trick-or-treating, watching horror movies, or celebrating with a haunted house tour, Halloween continues to be a night of mystery, magic, and fun!
🔥 What’s your favorite Halloween tradition? Let us know in the comments below!
Loot CrateLoot Crate was founded in 2012 by an entrepreneurial team of geeks and gamers and has gained a lot of attention as the subscription service to get a bunch of geek toys sent to you every month for $19.95 or less.
But, it’s not the only game in town, Geek Fuel launched as an alternative to Loot Crate. It’s basically the same deal. For $23.90 or less per month you get a box full of stuff every month that’s pretty close to Loot Crate. Geek Fuel includes a Steam downloadable game code worth around ten dollars.
Both offer a T-shirt which in reality almost covers the cost of the box, especially if you signed up for a year subscription to save a couple dollars per box.
I'll tell you though, Geek Fuel's "3 bonus mystery items" you get for signing up for a year, the first one did not seem very awe inspiring to me. Especially since the sign up bonus for the Wizard World Presents Comic Con Box sells on Ebay for about $150 dollars (the box also cost about 50% more). I'll get the next bonus item in the next box and the third in my 3rd box and have hope for something more intriguing.
By being an active Loot Crate subscriber you're automatically entered to win a monthly Mega Crate VALUED AT OVER $2,000+! SUPER Geek Box is yet another Monthly Box of nerd and Gamer Gear you can subscribe to, it is a little cheaper than the others if you use the promotional discount coupon code (Use Code: CHAOS). I have not received my first one yet so can't speak to how happy I am with it.
The Comic Con and Nerd Comic Block subscription boxes are probably the best options if you are interested in comic books, especially those with variant covers.
Loot Crate, Geek Fuel or Super Geek monthly subscription boxes are probably the best option for general movie and video game type gear and exclusive T-shirts.
Nerd Block also has boxes targeted at specific things like SCI-FI, HORROR and KIDS and you can save a few dollars with the discount code MEGTURNEY. Meg Turney is a cosplayer and Nerd Block unboxer .
Outer Places, the digital
media company that explores the science in science
fiction, is launching its Supply Pod mystery box program on October 2 2015.
Supply Pod is a box of Sci-Fi loot that delivers unique products themed around upcoming Sci-Fi releases and scientific events. The first box is based on the real-life
science behind Andy Weir's novel, The Martian, which inspired the
movie starring Matt Damon about an astronaut stranded on Mars.
One lucky Supply Pod purchaser will win an exclusive The Martian movie poster, signed by Matt Damon and other cast members as well as author Andy Weir.
The Essential Pod ($29.99 plus 7.99 shipping,
handling and tax) contains science and sci-fi items that would be great
to have if you were stranded on Mars.
The Deluxe Pod ($39.99 plus 7.99 shipping, handling
and tax) contains all the items in the Essential Pod plus a paperback
version of The Martian by Andy Weir. 50 random Deluxe Pod customers could receive an autographed copy of The Martian.
The company is expanding its list of partners and will be adding new boxes in the coming months.
Supply Pods are currently only available to ship within the continental United States.
Click to read more about mystery boxes like Supply Pod
