Home Depot Halloween 2026

I think it will be interesting to compare Home Depot's Halloween selection to what I just shared from Lowe's. Both stores had some amazing animatronics. I feel like Home Depot had a bit more humor in theirs. That might sound funny with what I'm starting off with here. Remember the flying monkeys from The Wizard of Oz? I don't know what's scarier here, the eyes or the teeth.

I took these photos a while back, but as I recall, the wings flapped.

This pirate section was one of my favorites. I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney, and these remind me of that. You can't help liking this guy.

 

A skeleton with a bit of a beer belly. :)

The opposite of a beer belly:

This skeletal barista or bartender was all too real. I mean, he feels like he's a lot of actual people. And boy, did this one like to talk! And talk. And talk. It's one of those props you walk away from and he's still going. Oh, I see here he's named "John, the Last Call Mixologist".

 

He had some cool skeleton tattoos. Tattooed boney arms! This guy is something. And what's neat is that he stirs that little glass.

All lit up! How fun would it be if someone set him up in their bar or coffee shop?

A real reacher:

 

This dude was a creeper. Look at those hands!

This guy! I love the comically tall hat.

 

Everything about him is great. My mind keeps flipping back and forth between "Is this scary or is this funny?"

That part of me that was scared by the raptors when I first saw Jurassic Park is digging this. It looks like someone hung a skeleton snake over his back and down his arm.

 

 

Roar!

 

 

And check out his exposed meaty leg. Kinda gross.

 

Speaking of kinda gross, this thing! This baby troll. Blech! I mean that in a complimentary way. This prop gave me the heebie jeebies.

Remember him?

A plague rat! I feel like this prop said something kind of funny but I can't remember what it was.

Its head turns from side to side.

 

 

How fun are these? I think this was the first time I'd seen non-pumpkin fake food carvings.

I love these next two! How vintage can you get?

 

And a Halloween-themed Home Depot bucket. This wasn't for collecting treats. I think this was just a good looking, practical bucket. It was fairly large. Nice touch with the 2026 in the cobwebs.

Here's something nasty. The "Rotwing Parrot" was back with the pirates.

To me, this is a wicked gargoyle, but I want to say it was called a pixie.

The wings flapped and everything. Look at the attention to detail on these wings:

 

See that line under the spider? The spider shot forward along that.

How great would this be on the top of a building?

 

I got such a kick out of this plant monster for some reason.

 

He lights up in a really pretty purple.

So there we have Home Depot! Pretty great props, hey? As I said before, I felt like some of these were humorous. It could be my sense of humor. Well, next up is Menards!

From Tremblerz to Tremors

Remember that recent trip to The Domes I shared? Well, I felt inspired to learn more about what the "Tremblerz" display there was based on. I appreciated the work that went into those little critter models! Wouldn't seeing this inspire you to learn their story?

After a lot of googling about sandworms, you might remember that I learned these little critters were inspired by the "Graboids" in the movie Tremors.

I searched our library system for the Tremors movies and found quite a few DVD options! In fact, there were a number of "Attack Packs" available to check out. The Tremors "Attack Pack" consists of four Tremors movies, two of which I've watched.

I tried to photograph this Graboid in its natural environment. 😉

After having a few of you recommend the movies to me, and knowing they were monster movies that seemed inspired by some of the greats of the 1950s and 60s, I had a feeling I'd like Tremors. Turns out I loved it! As expected, Kevin Bacon and Reba McEntire were a hit with me. But there was another character who stole the show...

I watched this guy with his off-the-grid lifestyle, with more weapons hoarded away than you can imagine, and I kept thinking "I know this face, I know this face!" but I couldn't place it. I learned after watching the movie that I was watching Michael Gross in action. Would you believe this is the man who played the dad on Family Ties? Talk about a different role! I never would have guessed it was him. For those of you who have seen The 'Burbs, you might find his character, Burt to be an awful lot like the Rumsfield character. Burt and Rumsfield are both highlights. I wonder what a movie starring both those characters would be like? Hmm... There would probably be a little competition.

Rumsfield keeping watch with his Animal Crackers

OK, so what can I say about Tremors without giving much away... I mean, for anyone who hasn't seen it already. And I got the feeling I was one of the few people who had not! Anyway, Tremors is a monster movie. And I think you have a pretty good idea of what the monsters look like at this point. It's a very fast-paced thriller but with so many funny moments. And with the exception of maybe one character, I really liked everyone in this.

On the DVD commentary someone said that this movie is like JAWS but on land, and I think that's fair. Like the shark in JAWS, these monsters aren't playing favorites. If you're standing on the ground as they snake on by, you could be eaten. It doesn't matter if you're a good person or not. So while I kept thinking one character would get eaten on account of being really annoying and doing every dumb thing possible, well nope.

The setting for this movie is a town in Nevada called Perfection, and I'm pretty sure that's one of those ironic town names. Only 16 people live in this desert town. Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward play some sort of freelance handymen, who are likable guys. There's a female grad student who is out there working on some research. Burt and his wife Heather (played by Reba McEntire) are survivalists, or I guess we would say Preppers nowadays. They own every weapon short of a cannon. And it's implied that they have a cannon. There are a few other side characters who are nice people. The town is faced with a killer monster problem.  The townsfolk have their different ways of problem solving and working together, and that's interesting and fun to watch. You have to wonder what you would do in their shoes as you watch this.

It seems like a funny thing to say, but I liked how normal the people were. The men and women interacted in a realistic way and nearly everyone worked well together and had their own strengths. I think that would be the very realistic challenge if you were thrown in with a handful of people in a situation like this. Everyone would be thinking on their feet, almost literally! You'd have to think and act quickly, and just bring any skills you had forward to help. I can't remember the last time I saw a movie with this much functional teamwork.

The second Tremors is also fun, but not quite as good as the first. I still recommend it, though. Kevin Bacon isn't in the second one. Chris Gartin is in his place and he's beyond goofy. Michael Gross makes another appearance in this one and basically steals the show. I started really getting into that movie after he showed up. Without sharing too much, I'll just say that the Graboids have a new trick up their sleeves in Tremors II and the challenges start multiplying very quickly. If you thought the people had to move fast in the first one, just wait and see the second!

I'm trying to decide if I'm going to watch the third and fourth Tremors. I can see that Michael Gross is in them, so that is encouraging. After a bit of googling, it would appear that the fourth movie is an origin story/Western! OK, I think I'm going to need to watch that. 🤠

So, any Tremors fans out there? I'm guessing basically everyone?