Horror Block April 2015 Unboxing / Titan Ecto-1 Vinyl

Followers to the Spook Central Facebook page have known for the past month that Nerd Block, makers of specially-themed mystery boxes, has teamed with Titan Merchandise to produce an exclusive officially-licensed Ghostbusters vinyl figure for the April 2015 Horror Block. "What's a Horror Block?" you may ask. Well, it's a box of horror-themed items sent out to you each month on a regular basis. The fun is in opening up the box and seeing what you've gotten! They wouldn't tell me in advance what the Ghostbusters vinyl figure was, so I couldn't give it the detailed coverage that Spook Central is known for.

The April 2015 Horror Box shipped on April 25th, and I received mine on May 2nd. Five days from Canada to New York...that's pretty damn fast! What follows is an image-intensive unboxing/review of the contents. The box arrives, and it's all black with the Horror Block logo, and a big bloody handprint! Does Dr. Vannacutt work for Nerd Block? Subtle, it is not! Thank goodness this isn't "Porn Block" :-)


I slice open the seal and I'm forewarned, "DON'T OPEN, DEAD INSIDE". Oops, too late.


Opened up, and everything is neatly placed inside. The Ghostbusters item is literally staring me right in the face, so let's get right to it.


It's a stylized Ecto-1 that the front sticker says is 4.5 inches in length. I didn't measure it, so I'm just gonna assume that's correct. Should you decide to keep it in the box, as I'm doing, you'll be pleased to see that there's a drawing of the firehouse to give it a nice background. I've uploaded a bunch of images of it to a gallery on the Spook Central Facebook page.


Instantly, it reminded me of The Real Ghostbusters Ecto-1 Floating Soap Dish released in the 1980s.


This is not the first vinyl Ecto-1. Funkopop released an Ecto-1 with Winston last year. This new Titan Ecto isn't as detailed as that one, but at least it doesn't have a truncated roof rack and a hole in the top.


Now, let's look at the non-Ghostbusters items in the box. Sitting to the right of the Ecto-1 is a little brown box. Taking off the tape, I find a black ceramic "Bates Motel - No Vacancy" coffee mug made by Bloody Disgusting. I can imagine Norman sipping from this; sharing a drink with Mother.


I believe that each month's Horror Block includes a t-shirt, and this one is no exception. This month, it's a black "I [heart] Evil" shirt, with the "heart" being a very familiar blood red skull.


In addition to the coffee mug, there's also a set of skeleton shot glasses that are reminiscent of Jack Skellington.


Under all of that is a package of cardboard coasters from "The Overlook Hotel". I was totally confused by this, until I saw the "Heeeeeeeeeeere's Coasters!" tagline, and then I knew what movie it was from. The honeycomb pattern doesn't exactly scream "horror", though it probably makes more sense to fans of the film. It's been quite a while since I've seen it.


Finally, we have a copy of the latest issue (May 2015) of Rue Morgue magazine, with a cover photo of Hannibal's Mads Mikkelsen.


Also inside the box was a two-sided card detailing the contents. One side was all about the Ecto-1.


The other side detailed the other items. They're not as important as the Ecto-1, so they don't get a whole side to themselves :-)


At this point, you're probably wondering where you can buy the exclusive Ecto-1 vinyl figure. Sadly, it's not available anymore from Nerd Block. All current subscriptions for the Horror Block will start with the May 2015 box. My contact at Nerd Block told me that they have no plans to put it up for sale again. It's possible that they may do a Grab Block or start to sell past Blocks, but that isn't something that they're offering right now. Your only option would be to get it from resellers on eBay, and needless to say, they've jacked up the price.

All in all, I liked the contents of the Horror Block, and would highly recommend it to other horror fans. I was kinda hoping there would have been a Walking Dead item in there, but the box wouldn't have been big enough to contain all of the awesomeness of Ghostbusters AND The Walking Dead, so something had to give :-)