Retro Halloween Stickers by Troll
February 23rd, 2010 by John Wolfe
Yesterday, as I was going through a box of stuff from my childhood, I came across these 1980s Halloween stickers (click on the image to see the full page). The stickers came with an order I placed with “Troll Books” during 4th grade. If memory serves, Troll Book Club catered to children and was widely affiliated with most elementary schools. I used to live for the day their fall catalog arrived at school because it always had a wide variety of spooky collections available. In fact, it was the only thing I used to look forward to once summer had ended and classes were beginning again.
In previous posts, I’ve mentioned a creepy book about vampires and werewolves, which made an impression on me during my youth; I believe that book came from either Scholastic or Troll Books as well.
The date on the bottom corner of the sticker page reads 1984. I remember being a sticker fanatic during that time in my life (especially scratch-n-sniff), so I must have cared greatly for these Halloween-themed stickers to have never peeled them off of the original page. I’m going to have to look for a poster frame that will fit this because these guys are going up on the wall in my office. 
In the above image, you’re looking at the backside of the Halloween sticker page. It’s a promo for a few of Troll’s books. Most are easy to see (click on image for a larger view), but on the far right hand side is one of my favorites, which didn’t come out so clear — it’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”
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February 23rd, 2010 at 7:04 pm
Oh wow! What memories and what a find! My mother threw out everything from childhood. I can think of a couple things I would have loved to have kept, especially my little orange plastic jack-o-lantern Trick-or-Treat candy bucket. Mind you, I always used a pillowcase, but I loved that little plastic guy–I’d put him on my windowsill to smile at me from September through November.
February 24th, 2010 at 10:32 am
I still have a few boxes of stuff, mostly my old Star Wars and He-Man collections.
I’m wanting to sit down and go through all of them to see if there’s anything else retro or vintage pertaining to Halloween. If so, I’m going to display those items in my office. I used to have the plastic jack-o-lantern, too. The ones they make now look a little different than the ones from my childhood. In the 70s, I even had an elongated plastic jack-o-lantern pail. It wasn’t round and perfectly shaped like most; it was sort of pear shaped and oblong with a different expression than the round guys.
Thanks, autumnforest, for your message!
February 24th, 2010 at 1:27 pm
Ahhhh memories, John, my dear sweet friend, how do you do it?
I don’t recall those stickers very well but I sure do recall Troll books catalogs. In fact it was the one thing my Mom never minded splurging on for me…BOOKS. Actually that’s where a bulk of my Star Wars books came from in the 3rd grade. All the more reason the “weird” sticker above would apply to me: I was the only girl who read sci-fi and thus often had a flock of boys around me both in class and out – strictly because of my books. This one boy all the girls had a crush on and became quickly bent out of shape when he would huddle around my desk and none other; just to talk about Star Wars and tell me what a cool girl I was. Once we reached the 6th grade, as a parting gift from me, I actually gave him my entire school collection of Star War books. Arg! What was I thinking??? I just knew how much more he adored those books than me and by then I read them all several times over. I wish I kept those but at least I was sharing so that’s got to say something 
See this is what happens John, you bring back a part of my youth I never think about and that’s totally cool. Nowadays the WEIRD sticker would apply to me for a million reasons I can think of, LoL, of which you probably know a good portion of them or a healthy dose
Oh and I remember those oval looking pumpkin pails. I usually ended up using a pillow case as well but I came close to owning that plastic pumpkin because it looked like it could hold more candy than the wide ones. Of course as an adult now knowing it would equal to the same but I liked how slender it was. One more thing, the prospector video was really creepy. I’m still hung up on what exactly took place but it had me feeling cold, all alone, isolated and scared the whole time…especially cold!
Great finds my friend, great finds!
February 24th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
I love the stickers and candy wrapers from my youth. What a blast. I have one of my old candy pales as well it is in perfect shape and grins down at me from the shelf over my desk. Good times.
February 26th, 2010 at 2:04 am
Goldie,
I was trying to remember what girls liked when I was in third grade… I’m drawing a blank. Life, for me, at that time, totally revolved around Halloween (of course), monsters, stickers, He-Man and the Dragon’s Lair arcade game. I ate, drank and breathed all of those things. Like you, I was into Star Wars, but it sounds as if you were even more into it than me. By the time I was eight, they were getting close to releasing Return of the Jedi.
That was an extremely nice thing to do in giving away all of your Star Wars books. The feeling from the gesture alone has to override any angst you might have occasionally felt by parting with your collection.
Those pumpkin pails seem to be a part of a lot of people’s childhood memories when it comes to Halloween. That’s got me curious now as to when they started coming into fashion. I’ll have to look that up.
Glad you enjoyed “The Prospector.” The creator did such an amazing job on that animation, especially with the snow. He captured it perfectly! I can definitely understand why it gave you the chills, between the weather and the spooky atmosphere.
Ethan,
Between you, me, Goldie and autumnforest, that makes five of us who either used or wanted to use those plastic candy pails/jack-o-lanterns. Now I’m really curious to see when they started getting popular. Thanks for sharing and reminding me about the older styles of candy wrappers, too. I wish I had a collection of those as well, along with the “old school” monster cereal boxes like Frankenberry and Count Chocula.