THE BASEMENT’S HALLOWEEN HAVEN: Home Depot
It’s mid-August and you know what that means! It’s time to start decorating for Halloween. In this household we celebrate Halloween more than Christmas and keep our decorations up for a much longer period of time. Though it’s still technically summer, the Spirit Halloween stores have begun opening and the pumpkin beers are on the shelf. This is my favorite time of year.
One company that has really been impressing me of late is Home Depot and their Halloween offerings. They now sell all kinds of lights, props and full-size and larger than life animatronics! Though lower-end animatronics have been available for years through other companies, they average about five to six feet in height. Some of what Home Depot is selling is in the seven to almost twelve feet tall range!
For a store like Home Depot to take a chance on a holiday like Halloween says a lot. I am guessing that they are also doing okay with it because there is rarely anything left the day after Halloween for the half price sales and they continue to add new creations each year.
Though other retailers add to their selection every year, I am noticing that the quality is going down and the prices are going up. What Home Depot is offering tends to be of a higher quality with, in my opinion, prices that don’t break the bank.
Because of my lifelong fascination with flying saucers and aliens, two of Home Depot’s newest animatronics were two I just had to have. The first is a six foot alien gray with glowing green eyes and a chest pack that also lights up. It is motion activated and though a four-foot height would’ve been more accurate, this is one figure that looks and acts in such an eerie way.
The second is the three foot version of the same alien. This time though he dances and sings to some very bizarre music, that is guaranteed to get stuck in your head. My only complaint about these two is with the collar. Because of the weight of the chest plate, it tends to pull the collar down, exposing some of the inner workings. It can be fixed with a little work but perhaps a longer neck would’ve solved the issue.
All of Home Depot’s Halloween offerings are available online or in their stores. If you order online they offer free shipping and I got my items within two to three days. You just can’t beat it. I hope everyone gives Home Depot a shot this year; the better they do the more they will increase their selections year-after-year.
Don’t forget to check out the other entries in my BASEMENT’S HALLOWEEN HAVEN series.
~David Albaugh
