Very scary monsters were welcomed to Balboa Park today. The terrifying creatures were kindly helped onto the stage of the Spreckels Organ Pavilion.
Vampire, spiders, skeleton, spooky ghost–all will be entertaining a big crowd this evening.
The fearless humans who take the stage with these monsters will provide a Phantom of the Opera concert at 6:30 pm! (If you read this in time–today is Saturday, October 25th–perhaps you’ll have time to make the concert.)
Just some fun photos that I took during my afternoon walk through Balboa Park.
Enjoy!
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Tourists, shoppers and those wandering through Seaport Village need to keep their head on a swivel! The tentacles of a monster octopus might suddenly grab you!
Why is this gigantic octopus assailing unsuspecting people?
Perhaps because it anticipates Halloween!
Inflatable octopi were recently placed all around Seaport Village. The tentacled terror is a central element of the upcoming Halloween celebration Bayside Boo: Spirited Night by the Bay.
The event website explains: Presented by Seaport Fudge Factory, Bayside Boo will feature spooky beats, sweet treats, and plenty of festive fun. Dance under the moonlight, enjoy the vibes by the bay, and let the ghoul times roll.
Would you like to experience Bayside Boo? Come by Seaport Village on Friday, October 31, 2025, from 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm, and watch out for slimy tentacles!
Oh, dear! The overgrown octopus has emerged from San Diego Bay!
Is that flimsy fence enough to hold the rampaging sea monster?
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Years ago, McDonald’s gave a special treat to San Diego. The fast food restaurant donated two of their McDonaldland television commercial puppets to the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater in Balboa Park. The two puppets are now perched up near the ceiling of the puppet theater, in shadow behind the audience seating. I happened to spy them yesterday!
I learned that over ten years ago McDonald’s donated their old McDonaldland puppets to various established puppet theaters around the country. The Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater received the famous, lovable Bernice, plus the horned pink creature in my first two photos. The theater affectionately calls the latter their “Pink Monster,” but little seems known about this particular puppet’s history.
Both of these McDonald’s puppets are quite worn after many years, so they now sit quietly, themselves watching puppet performances on the Marie Hitchcock stage.
Okay, here’s the mystery! Do you recognize the big “Pink Monster” puppet with horns? Was it in fact ever used in McDonald’s commercials? What was it called? If you do know anything about it, please leave a comment!
And now, meet Bernice! You quite possibly recognize her!
Bernice (performed by Tim Blaney and Tony Urbano) – A strange creature that was introduced in 1992 and that ate inedible things like the script in the three-part “Ronald McDonald Makin’ Movies” commercial.
You can find a great photograph of Bernice with Ronald McDonald on the RestaurantClicks website by clicking here!
As that website explains: The lovable Bernice appeared in TV commercials with Ronald McDonald for a decade, from 1992 to 2001… The main personality characteristic of Bernice remains her ability to eat anything. In one memorable commercial, Bernice eats the script and throws everyone into chaos.
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
More and more reasons to scream in San Diego during Comic-Con 2025 are appearing!
Scream with horror–or delight!
Several building wraps in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter are going up very quickly today, with six days to go until the start of Comic-Con 2025.
I took these photos in the late afternoon…
As usual, the convention center facing side of the Hilton San Diego Gaslamp Quarter will feature wraps that promote horror shows on AMC, including Vampire Lestat, an adaptation of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire series
Across Fifth Avenue, the Omni San Diego Hotel is now almost entirely wrapped up with graphics promoting the upcoming Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle movie!
The north-facing side of the Hilton Gaslamp building will promote an Amazon Prime Video series, as usual. This year it’s Gen V, a spinoff of The Boys franchise
If anything will make one scream, it’s the undead! Daryl Dixon has arrived to save the day on the Pendry hotel!
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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Instead of snuggling with a Labubu plush toy monster, why not devour one? (Yes, a fuzzy toy would be difficult to swallow–I mean eat a Labubu donut!)
I’m told Labubus right now are one of the hottest collectibles around. If you’d like to collect one in your stomach, head over to the Donut Bar in downtown San Diego!
That’s my smiling friend in the above photo! (The human-eared, non-purple face to the right.)
The Donut Bar has other fun Labubu merchandise, too, and I can see it’s selling fast!
I’m told that during Comic-Con, their world-famous donuts will be adding a Fantastic Four design for 2025. I can’t wait!
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Should we all be worried? Many of Doctor Who’s most dangerous adversaries have materialized in San Diego!
Fortunately, most are confined inside the Monster Vault at the Comic-Con Museum. People can safely observe the deadly creatures and robots while moving through the museum’s epic exhibition Doctor Who Worlds of Wonder: Where Science Meets Fiction.
A huge collection of props from Doctor Who, the world’s longest running science fiction television show, is possibly the coolest part of the exhibition.
Today, as I visited the Comic-Con Museum, I noticed many Doctor Who fans entering the Monster Vault and remembering some of the show’s most terrifying episodes. Some of the detailed, life-size props are super scary. I wouldn’t care to meet real-life versions!
There are menacing Daleks–the Doctor’s arch-enemy: a hateful, genetically-modified species bent on conquest. There is mad scientist Davros, creator of the Daleks. There are different versions of the deadly cyborg Cybermen.
There is a mutated Dreg, a Sea Devil and a Silurian (both evolved reptiles), an armored Sontaran warrior, an Ice Warrior, a parasitic Weeping Angel that moves when you’re not looking, a bug-eyed Wrath Warrior, and more!
As a nearby sign explains: When designing monsters, sometimes the show’s creators explore different options that don’t make it to the screen… The possibilities of alien life are only as limited as our imagination.
This front yard Halloween display has no equal in San Diego!
A wonderfully insane scene erected beside a sidewalk greets those passing through Serra Mesa. If you’ve driven down Murray Ridge Road, you’ve probably seen it.
This particular front yard has a history of immense displays that are jammed full of characters. The hand made figures are grimly humorous and madly inventive. The popular culture is often referenced, the San Diego Padres are rooted on, and our military is saluted. There’s politics mixed in too with a good helping of sarcasm.
Seeing all the bloody mayhem, one might develop goosebumps, or cringe, or laugh!
I’ve briefly spotted these crazy displays in years past. Because Halloween is approaching, I wanted a close look.
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
In San Diego, hundreds of Comic-Con fans walked through a toxic waste site today. A truck hauling biohazardous material overturned overnight, spilling a slime-like blue substance in a downtown parking lot. The toxic waste is thought to have mutagenic properties.
Workers in pink hazmat suits and gas masks proceeded to open the rear of the truck, allowing curious Comic-Con fans to walk through it. Inside the tanker truck fans discovered all sort of cool toys adhering to the gooey walls! With any luck, these happy visitors won’t mutate into some sort of horrible monster or beast!
Yes, you’ve realized by now that I’m kidding. The truck and the blue slime are actually part of a Comic-Con 2024 offsite activation produced by MrBeast Lab. They make all sorts of cool toys.
When I exited the offsite, I got free swag! A monstrous miniature figurine!
I believe the offsite will be open throughout Comic-Con during the day. Look for it north of MLK Promenade and east of First Avenue, on the back side of the Bathroom Battlestation!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
Cool San Diego Sights! 