The Michael. The Bride.

That will be the last two cigars in Tatuaje’s legendary Monster Series. The Michael will be nationally released this year, while The Bride is expected to launch next year.

Tatuaje’s Pete Johnson is declining to talk much about the cigars, but he did tell halfwheel The Michael measures 6 1/2 x 52.

The Monster Series started in 2008, creating cigars based off of monster characters from popular novels and films. The annual series is amongst the most soughtafter releases of the year, particularly when it comes to dress boxes.

Since 2010, Tatuaje has released the cigar in two different formats. The bulk of the cigars are released in 10-count boxes known as plain boxes, while there are 666 boxes of 13 cigars that come in painted boxes made to look like coffins. Those boxes, known as dress boxes, are sold primarily through 13 retailers who each receive 31 boxes with the remaining 200 or so boxes trickled out over Tatuaje’s distribution network.

Because no retailer is chosen for the list more than once, the list of retailers—known as the Unlucky 13—is almost as anticipated as the announcement of the cigar itself.

Typically, the Monster Series release is shown off at the IPCPR Convention & Trade Show over the summer—this year’s will take place in July—while the Unlucky 13 are announced in the first week of October and the cigars usually ship around a week later.

The Michael is based off the character of Michael Myers from John Carpenter’s Halloween series.

Johnson’s plan was to release 13 Monster Series cigars, though these two will only bring up the count to 11. He has said that he now considers Chuck and Tiffy, first released as part of the Pudgy Monsters in 2014, as part of the official series, technically the 11th and 12th releases despite their release before the seventh cigar in the series.

  1. Tatuaje The Frank (7 5/8 x 49) — 2008 — Based on Frankenstein — 666 Dress Boxes of 13 Cigars (8,658 Total Cigars)
  2. Tatuaje The Drac (6 3/4 x 52) — 2009 — Based on Dracula — 1,300 Dress Boxes of 13 Cigars (16,900 Total Cigars)
  3. Tatuaje The Face (6 3/8 x 56) — 2010 — Based on Leatherface from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre — 666 Dress Boxes of 13 Cigars & 1,300 Plain Boxes of 10 Cigars (21,658 Total Cigars)
  4. Tatuaje The Wolfman (7 1/2 x 52) — 2011 — Based on The Wolf Man (1941) — 666 Dress Boxes of 13 Cigars & 1,300 Plain Boxes of 10 Cigars (21,658 Total Cigars)
  5. Tatuaje The Mummy (7 3/4 x 47) — 2012 — Based on the Boris Karloff character from The Mummy — 666 Dress Boxes of 13 Cigars & 3,100 Plain Boxes of 10 Cigars (39,658 Total Cigars)
  6. Tatuaje The JV13 (7 1/2 x 52) — 2013 — Based on Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th — 666 Dress Boxes of 13 Cigars & 4,500 Plain Boxes of 10 Cigars (53,658 Total Cigars)
  7. Tatuaje The Jekyll (7 x 49) — 2014 — Based on Dr. Jekyll from Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde — 666 Dress Boxes of 13 Cigars & 4,500 Plain Boxes of 10 Cigars (53,658 Total Cigars)
  8. Tatuaje The Hyde (7 x 49) — 2015 — Based on The Hyde from Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde — 666 Dress Boxes of 13 Cigars & 4,500 Plain Boxes of 10 Cigars (53,658 Total Cigars)
  9. Tatuaje The Krueger (7 1/4 x 48) — 2016 — Based on Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street — 666 Dress Boxes of 13 Cigars & 5,000 Plain Boxes of 10 Cigars (58,658 Total Cigars)
  10. Tatuaje The Michael (6 1/2 x 52) — 2017 — n/a
  11. Tatuaje Chuck (4 x 50) — June 2014 — 20,000 Samples of 2 Cigars (40,000 Total Cigars)
  12. Tatuaje Tiff (4 x 50) — June 2014 — 20,000 Samples of 2 Cigars (40,000 Total Cigars)
  13. Tatuaje The Bride — 2018 — n/a

There has also been much discussion about going back and releasing previous Monster Series releases, something Johnson indicates he still plans on doing, though no details of how or when that would start have been announced.

As for The Bride, it is based on James Whale’s The Bride of Frankenstein .

Update — This story originally indicated The Bride was based on Bride of Chucky, then the The Bride of Frank. It is based on The Bride of Frankenstein.

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Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.