One of the biggest collections of movie monsters and Halloween creatures belongs to a Mid-Missouri man.
Although he had been collecting for several years, it was during the recession of 2008 that Merrel Breyer's collection began to grow because people needed to sell their collections for money.
"The prices were fairly reasonable," he said. "I got a lot of the ones I wanted at that time. A couple are worth a lot more because the artists who made them have passed away."
From a Bela Lugosi "Dracula" costume to Freddy Krueger from the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series, you probably can find most of the monsters or villains that terrified you when you went to the movies. Asked how many items he has in his collection, Breyer said it's between 500 and 1,000.
"I've got primarily movie monsters, a few superheros and some villains," he said. "We've done displays for many of the local libraries when they have had free comic days and Agrihaunt for the Department of Agriculture."
Breyer said helping his family get ready for Halloween is what made him want to get involved in costume collecting.
"When my niece was growing up, I liked to decorate the house up for Halloween. I also saw a video called, "Halloween, the Happy Haunting of America." One of the people in that, David Lady and his Horror Hotel, became a good friend of mine. Watching that gave me the ideas to go forward with the collection. The movie was funny, but it was also scary. So I got the movie monsters and was able to create that type of a setting."
Among the harder-to-find pieces Breyer is proud to have gotten was the "Bride of Frankenstein."
"There weren't a whole lot of copies of her made and I just happened by chance to find it," he said, "so I grabbed it as quick as I could."
Breyer said most of the costumes were made in the United States. He said the reaction from people is always mixed when viewing the costumes.
"It's never bad," he said. "You will get kids who don't want to come through the front door when we have the costumes out. We'll get adults who get nostalgic and love seeing their movie monsters up close. No one has said it's the spawn of Satan, but there's probably somebody out there that might."
Breyer expects his collection to grow, although he is reaching a saturation point.
"I've gotten almost all the ones I really wanted to have," he said. "There's always new mask makers with new ideas. Somebody could create a character that would go along with something that's already in the collection."
Breyer said in the end having the collection is all about having fun and sharing that with people.
"It's also nostalgic because a lot of these pieces are from the black and white movies that I loved as a kid and want to pass onto the next generation so they know there's more than just special effects. There's the classic monsters that are part of our Halloween and always a part of our makeup as Americans."