Rogers Gardens 2010

Alright, my fellow Halloween fans! Get ready for this years tour of Rogers Gardens in Newport.
If you are not a fan of Halloween, you may skip this post (Bore!).
This store does such an amazing job. I cannot express my awe at the creativity and obvious fun they must have doing it. I smile at every turned corner, every shelf, every room. I've decided that this would be my dream job. I would love to make people feel that way. So- if you have a store and want me to this, I'm available! How fun would it be?!?
Without further blibbidy-blab, let's go!
Now, c'MON. They turned the already-rad "It's A Small World" art deco design into a haunted entry. Disney macabre? GENIUS, I say. They even honored the tick-tock clock face movement twisting back and forth... back and forth...

A beautiful cuckoo clock all black. It was huge! And notice the bird....

I thought these clip boards on the walls in this room was a clever idea. Photocopies of weird things. Some ordinary and some way creepy, like that clown near the top and the woman screaming.

Check out the vending machine in the back. Yum!

The theme inside was basically a toy factory gone wrong. All these happy things that are now haunting. The first thing you see coming in is a ventriloquist doll sitting on a table who keeps making scary jokes about how you won't leave or how he did something veery wrong.
As you keep walking through you see the elements of this idea everywhere.
This wall of Frankensteined Jack'O's was really clever. They blinked on an off with the fun music. I love all the circuitry and plugs and spray painted 'burn out' marks everywhere.

The ceiling even had huge, rotating gears.

Then in the middle of the back room was the big ventriloquist machine, making the same dolls we just saw greeting you at the front of the store. Look at that thing! That's an intense project!

And peeking inside will show you they are escaping with minds of their own.

Nearby was an area that looked like creature/machine experimentation.

In the entrance to another room, the door frame was made to look hot and burned away like this, entering an area where a blast occurred.

A blast of toy dolls! Check out all that work. And all those charred, black dolls. Oh boy. Delightfully sinister. This is when Scott had had enough and he returned to the car. Said it was all too twisted for him. (teehee- I love it!)

A close up of the plastic devastation....

Everywhere there were pieces of things.

Even tucked here in a cabinet.
I didn't get a picture of this but they had pretty girl dolls in their boxes, just as you would see at a toy store, all dressed up and smiling, mounted on the wall and on shelves. But some of the heads were wired so they would turn back and forth randomly. And they were named weird things like "Bedtime Betty" or "Sleeping Sally". I don't remember exactly, but titles that were super creepy.

I liked these pumpkin faces. Thought they would be easy to make with funkins and save the $30+ price tag.

Now this.... This table was beautiful. Weird, random sculptures of faded wood. I loved it. But they were pricey!

Hope you enjoyed the tour and are inspired to enjoy the rest of your October!!!