Reinke Brothers

Halloween is just a few weeks away! At this time of year, there's no better place to visit than Reinke Brothers, right in the heart of downtown Littleton. To say this is the ultimate stop for ghoulish gear in the Denver area is a big understatement.

The history of Reinke Brothers spans over 50 years. It begins with the store's namesakes creating their own makeshift haunted houses and charging neighborhood kids pennies to ride through in a shopping cart they caught while fishing. The first official Reinke Brothers haunted house took up residence at Englewood's Cinderella City mall in 1984. However, as long as I've been in Colorado, the brothers' have been a fixture of downtown Littleton, in a store with a haunted house facade.

If you think the outside of the building is wild, wait until you see the inside. There are thousands of costumes for sale, from floor to ceiling. The store also features a wide variety of horror props, and supplies for performers such as jugglers, magicians and clowns.

The store also continues to celebrate where it all began. A portion of the store contains the Reinke Brothers Haunted Mansion, which seeks to terrify Denver area residents each fall. Even when it's not Halloween season, the store features many large and scary figures, some of which may even start to talk to you when you aren't expecting it.

Even if you find the building too scary to enter, you can still enjoy the outside of the store, which features a few slightly macabre murals...and one of John Lennon. Go figure.

You can find Reinke Brothers at 5663 S Prince Street in downtown Littleton. As their sign says "It's not just a store, it's an adventure."

Fifty Two 80's

I'm a huge fan of classic movies, TV and pop culture in general.  So, today I finally ended up visiting a vintage toy store I've heard a lot about here in Denver, Fifty Two 80's...and it's pretty awesome!

Now, for those who aren't from the Denver area that may be wondering about the name of this store, allow me to enlighten you.  Fifty-Two Eighty (5,280) is a number seen a lot here in Denver because a mile is Five-Thousand Two-Hundred Eighty Feet.  Denver is, of course, the Mile High City.  This store focuses on toys from the eighties...thus Fifty Two 80's.

I knew there would be some cool stuff at this little shop, but I was not expecting the huge volume of cool stuff!  They had Star Wars toys, Masters of the Universe, E.T., Muppets, Strawberry Shortcake and pretty much everything else from the greatest decade ever!

I was especially impressed with the large selection of movie trading cards they had, most still in their original packages...gum and all.  This included some wax packs of cards that I didn't even know existed.  They had packs of Dune trading cards released by Fleer back in 1984.  I also spotted some cards from the James Bond flick Moonraker and the long-forgotten 1985 dinosaur movie Baby, Secret of the Lost Legend. 

I kind of wanted to just tell the lady at the counter that I'd just take one of everything, but that's not really in the budget.  At some point, though, I do plan on returning to stock up on some memories.  Fifty Two 80's is located at 1874 S Broadway in Denver.