Department 56 Grimsly Manor Review
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- Опубліковано 23 сер 2024
- One of the original yet still the greatest haunted houses ever created for your Halloween village.
This is the first review of a Department 56 building on the channel, and if you'd like to know more about D56, let me know in the comments.
Music
A huge thank you goes to Alex Productions No Copyright Music.
The music featured in the video are -
• Dark Ambient Backgroun...
• Dark Thriller backgrou...
Shop
Fancy owning something original? Head over to the Videoville Villages Etsy shop to exclusively purchase seasonal village pieces and merchandise
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Videoville Villages,
Ah, the Grimsly Manor... The first village piece I ever purchased... AND... The one that almost stopped my foray into Villaging.
On my second trip to Las Vegas, 2000 I believe, I stumbled across a store in a mall (inside the Aladdin Hotel And Casino on the Strip) called Department 56. It was an absolute WONDERLAND of Halloween and Christmas, with AMAZING village displays that excited me at every turn. I was instantly hooked on the idea of somehow building something similar in my home, allowing me to experience this kind of magic anytime.
The only thing holding me back were the exorbitant prices. I couldn't believe what they were charging for everything! It took me a couple more visits back to Vegas, before I finally broke down and bought my first piece. The centerpiece of one of the largest villages Department 56 had on display... The Grimsly Manor.
I was SO EXCITED to finally get it, because I was mostly drawn in by it's lightning effects (something to this day I look for in other village pieces), and I paid $110 at the time (which I still cringe at when I think of it). It seemed like the perfect piece to start out with as everything seemed to draw attention to it in Department 56's fantastical arrangement. I got it home, and instantly disappointment set in. I thought, is this just something you'd put over a candle? It had nothing inside of it, completely hollow. And those cool lightning effects? I guess they tricked my eye in the store, but when I turned it on at home, seeing the lightning come from inside of the house, didn't look right to me. And the sound effects? Though cool at first, were WAY TOO LOUD and I had to get creative with taping cotton over the speaker to dampen the sound. Never got it to sound quite right. And the look of the building itself? Just blah. All of the sudden, this piece didn't feel like Halloween. It just looked like an old house. And the bright paint job took away from the creep factor, which somehow felt different in the store. I then realized that the only reason this piece looked so cool in the store, and really felt like Halloween, was due to all the OTHER real Halloween pieces around it! I felt in a way, scammed.
Now, I did buy one other Department 56 Haunted Barn piece the year after (I don't think it's part of the snow village collection), because it better represented the holiday I so loved, but I pretty much made my mind up at that point, that Villaging wasn't going to be my thing. I felt it was an overpriced hobby for what you got. That was until...
My mom decided to give me an early Halloween gift one year, a new village piece. She said she got it at a store called Michaels and thought I might like it. That piece ended up being, The Mortis Theater. And that piece, even to this day, might just be my favorite village piece of all time!
I went down to Michaels as my Mom said there were even more pieces available, and this is where I discovered a new magical Halloween world, the world of Lemax! Lemax, to me, looked leaps and bounds better than Department 56, better designs and animated parts, and the excitement of Villaging flooded back to me!
I looked at the prices, which were steep, but not as high as Department 56, but my mom said to ignore them, as when she went to pay for The Mortis Theater, it rang up at 80% off! So I thought I'd take a gamble and put a bunch of pieces in a cart, including favorites Frankenstein's Laboratory and the Cursed Tomb, and sure enough... 80% OFF! And this is how it was for MANY YEARS at Michaels. When they'd put Spooky Town on display, day one, everything would be automatically 60% (no coupons necessary), and then when October hit, everything would be marked down further to 80% off! Amazing times!
But as most of us know now, Michaels isn't a consumer forward company any longer. For the past several years, they've overinflated Spooky Town prices, and after you use the coupons they offer, it makes you feel like you're now paying the real full retail price, if not a bit more. The coupons mean nothing as you're no longer getting an actual discount. And with the HORRIBLE bait and switch coupon tactics Michaels used this year, this may be my last year I shop with them and wait until their exclusives become part of the regular line the year following.
Suffice it to say, Lemax saved the Villaging hobby for me. And I love having year round villages as part of my Home Arcade, so I can enjoy them anytime I want, both Christmas and Halloween. I actually just opened up a new extension to the Halloween theme park area that I'm hoping to make a video for it at some point. I've added 21 new pieces and it's absolutely SPECTACULAR! I did remove one piece, because it unfortunately died, Department 56's Monsters of the Deep 😥, but that's how it goes sometimes. But that space now houses a piece I think Grimsly Manor should've been all along. ENTER: Lemax's Gothic Haunted Mansion! Talk about a Unicorn piece, this one is it! Amazing sights and sounds (with a volume control) and the lightning effect is actually done properly, on the outside of the house. If you've never seen this piece, I can't recommend enough checking it out! There are thankfully a few videos out there.
Grimsly Manor is a grail for many a collector and I'm glad you got one. It was my first foray into Villaging, and though it almost killed my aspirations before they started, it's not a horrible piece. It just not Halloween enough for me and doesn't spark wonder unless you put a bunch of other Halloween pieces around it.
Thanks for another great video and take care!
vgv
Hi ya vgv,
I recorded the footage at around 11PM the other night and with how loud that box is, I thought any minute now I'm going to get a visit from either my wife or son to find out who's screaming lol - I even checked the volume and it was apparently on "low" haha.
That's a video I need to see! If my numbers come up in the lottery, 💯 I would have a Lemax haunted theme park - Fright night every day of the week! And the new Pumpkin Motel they have just released, there'd be a few of them as the park resort lodgings (I can hear my wallet calling me to stop the pain as my mind runs away with the idea 🤣).
I only saw the Gothic Mansion for the first time a couple of months back and it was part of a bigger display, but the lighting caught my eye and I was like whoa what was that?! I think i'm just a sucka for lightning effects lol. I'm on the lookout for one, but being across the pond, It's a case of either the house is priced reasonably but the shipping is ridiculous or the other way around 😔.
Ebay are not helping with their International postage fees because they are double the cost of what it actually is to send, if you do it via the post office.
Fingers crossed for you that those 40% coupons start circulating. It's still early days since they stocked their shelves with Spooky Town and if everyone holds their nerve and waits for the sales, I'm sure they'll come.
Keep well and I can not wait to see that vid!
Pete,
Thank you for covering a piece I've only seen in photos. Great research you did, and I'm sure that little boo boo on the side will be an easy fix.
Thank you, it was fun digging into D56, so much history.
I actually found a Grimsley Manor at my local Goodwill store a few years ago and the sound and lights still work. I only paid 10 or 15 bucks for it with the original box! One of my best thrift finds ever.
Oh wow! That's incredibly lucky
Ty
Glad you enjoyed
You should list ur etsy shop in the about me section too
Absolutely I should! What a wally 🙄. Thank you for suggesting that, I'll get that fixed later.
Cheers 👍
yeah I thought u was a collector when I first found ur channel. Might want to change the sign u use to record, make sure people know u have an etsy shop. . When u were unboxing, I thought it was just the name of your youtube channel @@VideovilleVillages
@@nomanejane5766 I am a collector, it's where everything has stemmed from, but I also design and make my own items and the UA-cam channel is an extension of my passion for villaging and generally making things, be it physical or digital media (I'd be a nightmare on Dragons Den or Shark Tank 🤣).
The logo is perhaps more fitting to my earlier range of buildings made. Whilst they look in keeping with Lemax, the internal scenes are HD video, so with buildings such as the Cabin and Tudor House, you can have your own family, fully animated within your village.
There's also the Santandeer Bank that plays a video in the window