Celebrating Spooky Season with a Look at the Past
Tico Toys: Lighting Up Halloween in 1969
Based in Rhode Island, Tico Toys was a lesser-known but delightfully imaginative toy and novelty manufacturer that left its mark on mid-century seasonal décor. Their 1969 Halloween Electric Light Ups catalog is a glowing example — literally — of late-60s innovation. Specializing in electric window decorations, Tico’s lineup included molded plastic jack-o’-lanterns, glowing skeletons, and charming witch figures, all designed to plug in and shine through the night with eerie delight.
These light-up pieces captured the shift toward electric holiday decor that was gaining popularity in the postwar era, combining cheerful fright with mid-century modern convenience. Today, original Tico Halloween items are highly collectible, often recognized by their vibrant colors, stylized faces, and unmistakably 1960s design sensibilities.
The 1969 catalog offers a perfect time capsule: a glimpse into how Halloween was celebrated in suburban America — cheerful, glowing, and just a little spooky.
Bayshore Industries: 1952 Latex Masks & Mid-Century Horror
Bayshore Industries, based in Maryland, was a major player in early latex Halloween masks. Their 1952 catalog showcased a bold mix of horror, humor, and pop culture. The masks were hand-painted and made from flexible rubber — a novelty at the time.
Some designs still impress with their craftsmanship. Classic monsters, ghouls, and aliens filled the pages. These masks were meant to shock, and they did.
However, not all pages age well. The catalog also includes offensive caricatures of Black and Native American people. These images reflect harmful stereotypes that were common in mid-century products.
Today, the catalog serves as both a design archive and a reminder. It shows how Halloween products have evolved — and how much further we’ve come in terms of cultural respect.
Collectors still seek Bayshore pieces. But they do so with a more critical eye.
Halloween Patents: Chasing the Gold Rush
From the early 1900s through the 1960s, inventors saw Halloween as more than spooky fun — it was a booming business. Patents from this era show how entrepreneurs raced to cash in on the holiday’s growing popularity.
Costume accessories, noisemakers, light-up decorations, trick containers — if it could glow, spin, squeak, or scare, someone tried to patent it.
These ideas weren’t just playful. They reveal how Halloween shifted from a neighborhood tradition to a commercial powerhouse.
Some patents feel timeless. Others are delightfully strange. All of them capture the spirit of creativity that helped shape Halloween into what it is today.
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