Ah, Black Friday.  I can already feel the rumbling of the masses, well rested from their turkey-induced comas, stampeding into malls and Best Buys across the nation.  Well, like everyone else in the free world, we here want presents!  That’s why we’re bringing you our Top Ten Most Desired Toys and Collectibles for Black Friday.  Be they past or present items, here are our favorites…

10. ‘Night of the Living Dead’ Mego-Style Ben

This is the first of three Dead figures we’re drooling over.  Everyone loves retro these days, right?  Transformers was made into a big-budget blockbuster, clip shows devoted to decades past are still ratings hits, and now we’re getting back into retro toys.  Especially toys from toymaker Mego, who’s uber-popularity waned in the late ’70s after producing successful runs of Star Trek and superhero 12” action figures.  Well now EMCE Toys, with the blessing of Mego’s original founder, has released figures based on Night of the Living Dead.  While the zombie is a fun figure, there’s something simple, kitsch and awesome about this Ben fig.  Maybe it’s the fact that you just can’t get a Ben figure anywhere else, maybe it just looks so weird we can’t say no.  Grab it on sale here!

9. ‘Friday the 13th’ (2009) Jason Voorhees Action Figure

We’re drooling over this figure, partly because Mezco’s the first to do it.  Sure, there are tons of Friday the 13th action figures, maquettes and various accoutrements, but only this 7” figure captures the lumbering lunatic in his latest incarnation.  We haven’t actually played with it yet, but check him out – multiple weapons, imposing stature, attention to detail…we’re hooked!  This is the only figure on our countdown that’s on pre-order at the time of this posting, so place your order now (to receive by late February) and relive the nightmare in a whole new way!

8. Creepy Crawlers Bug Oven

Remember Creepy Crawlers?  If you were a child in the mid-‘60s, or early ‘90s, or even if you’re a child now, then you probably have fond memories of tormenting your little sister with this rubbery-bug maker.  Like an EZ Bake oven for boys, the Creepy Crawlers Bug Oven used metal molds to create fun and strange-smelling rubber critters.  Now, not only has the oven been re-released by Jakks Pacific, but word has it that on Black Friday, Toys “R” Us will be selling the ovens for $10.99 a pop!  Go get yours, and don’t worry if everyone looks at you like you’re a weirdo for buying this children’s toy.  That’s just how you do.

7. Max Toy Monsters

Max Toy Co., a company founded by toy lover and commercial illustrator Mark Nagata, continually releases some of the coolest monster toys on the market.  Inspired by Kaiju (essentially Japanese giant monsters ala Godzilla, Mothra and Co.), Nagata creates some of the most vibrant, colorful and outlandish-looking monster toys this side of the Pacific.  Take, for example, Boy Karma – the six-armed, hoodie-clad boy with a giant eyeball for a head – or Alien Xam, the crab-clawed, alien-brained villain of Nagata’s toy world. With a constantly rotating collection for sale, full of color variants and new interpretations, the monsters Max Toy Co. puts out are something we’re lusting for this holiday season.

6. “Bub” Action Figure 

The second of three amazing Dead toys on our list!  This one, from Day of the Dead, comes courtesy of toymakers Amok Time.  Everyone’s favorite teachable zombie, Bub, has finally made his appearance in the action figure world.  We’re way into this figure for a few reasons.  First, it’s awesome that someone would find this marketable.  Second, it’s made by Amok Time, and they take their horror franchises seriously.  And third, he comes with accessories like a circa 1985 walkman.  A walkman.  Awesome.

5. ‘Gears of War 2’ Lancer

How many times have you played a video game and thought to yourself, “Man, if only I could shred some alien face!”  Well now you can, with a little imagination and this sweet replica of the Lancer from Gears of War 2!  Available as an Amazon.com Exclusive, this battery-operated, high-tech carnage machine is one of the coolest game props we’ve ever seen.  It’s blood splattered, sharp-looking, and deadly!  It’s like a Nerf gun on steroids, nightmares and steroids.

4. Ray Harryhausen Gift Set

The genius of Ray Harryhausen…  Before CGI spaceships and advanced SFX make-up, before the days of the discerning fanboy, there was beautiful, rickety stop-motion.  To celebrate those bygone days, the newest collector’s edition of Ray Harryhausen’s films contains the first colorized (bleh) versions of the classics 20 Million Miles to Earth, It Came from Beneath the Sea, and Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, but fret not – for it also comes with the original black-and-white versions, plus a little something extra for all you diehard fans.  That’s right, with this great bundle of flicks you’ll also receive a figurine of Ymir!  Ymir was, of course, the sweet little alien monster from Venus who grew to extreme proportions in Harryhausen’s 1957 classic 20 Million Miles to Earth.  Of course, if you’re really smitten with Harryhausen (and what geek isn’t?), and you already own the films in one version or another (read: Blu-ray), then we’ll draw your attention to this 8 piece collection of toys based on Harryhausen’s portfolio of monsters…which is also fantastic.

3. Gentle Giant’s Crawler Mini Bust

Hooray!  A statue of The Descent’s Crawler monster! In the horror world, there are a lot of collectible statues.  Dracula, The Mummy, Frankenstein’s Monster, and other Universal monsters, as well as Freddy, Jason, and Michael, have all made appearances in polystone form.  But this mini bust is on our list because it’s a monster we love but have never seen given the statuette treatment.  This guy’s a 1/6 scale, standing 6.5 inches tall, and the detail on it just looks amazing.  We’re not sure of the availability of this mini, seeing as it’s produced in a limited-edition run, but keep an eye out at Gentle Giant and on eBay to see if any more these beauties crop up.

2. Hare Krishna Zombie 

This is one of those figures that just seems too incredible to exist.  The final entry from the Dead series to make our list, the Hare Krishna zombie from Dawn of the Dead is one of the coolest figures we’ve ever seen.  Maybe we just can’t get over the fact that it’s even been made, but NECA’s Cult Classics line really went for the hardcore fan with this one.  Seen just for a few moments in the original 1978 Dawn, this little bald blue guy is a real treat for Romero freaks.  And hey, he’s on sale!

1. Lincoln International Monsters

We admit to bending the rules a little here.  Since our number 1, most-wanted, most-sought-after toys this holiday season have long been out of production – the rare, near-impossible-to-find Lincoln International Monsters!  For the second time in this list, Mego comes up.  The company released a fantastic line of monster action figures in the seventies, based on the archetypes of Frankenstein’s Monster, the Mummy, Dracula, and the Wolfman.  They were colorful, imaginative monsters, had glow-in-the-dark eyes and hands, and even had a castle that they could play in.  But these Mego figures can still be found on eBay from time to time, and they’re well worth checking out (for more info, visit the highly informative Mego Museum).  Lincoln International’s line of monster figures, however, are not so easy to find.  These figures are some of the strangest interpretations of monsters we’ve ever seen.  Especially the mummy figured, titled “Mummy”, with blood-soaked bandages and gouged-out bloody holes for eyes!  All of these toys are classics, and we wish toymakers would continue to create such quirky fun figures.  Make ‘em all in plastic, that’s fine.  Make ‘em super poseable, that’s fine too.  But give us a Wolfman (thank you, Mezco), a Frankenstein’s Monster and a Yeti.  Don’t make us scour the earth to find toys of our favorite monsters.

That wraps up our countdown of favorite toys for Black Friday shopping.  Some are easy to find, some not so much.  Some are cheap, some are way expensive.  But they all take the horrific and turn it into a toy, and that’s why we’ll always come back for more!