Dinosaur Dracula!

The Mostly-Complete Dino Drac Archives.

You have some reading to do!

Below are most of the Dino Drac blog archives. Certain categories may be excluded to keep things tidier. If you notice any typos, pretend you didn’t.

  • Five Random Action Figures, Part 13!

    We’re in the middle of a blizzard, and it’ll be a miracle if I’m able to finish this article before the power goes out. If I sound like I’m rushing… I am! So, onward with the thirteenth edition of Five Random Action Figures. I took these photos over the weekend, hoping to capital

  • Dino Drac’s Corner Store!

    You are bored. There’s no one around and nothing to do. Desperate for any sort of action — even one as silly as buying a Snapple — you hop on your bike and ride to Dino Drac’s Corner Store. Well, its proper name is Dino Drac’s Convenience Store, but everyone just calls i

  • The True Legends “Tree Warrior.”

    Okay guys, we need to talk about Tree Warrior. Tree Warrior is part of the True Legends line, a collection of low cost, lower quality fantasy toys. If you’re a TRU hound, you’ve probably seen their aisle full of True Legends offerings, ranging from battle-ready elves to giant neon drag

  • French Toast Crunch is back!

    I know I’m late on the draw and that 99% of you have already heard the news, but for the remaining 1%: French Toast Crunch is back! It’s true! The cereal debuted in 1995 but was discontinued in 2006. From then until now, you could only find French Toast Crunch on “DO YOU REMEMBER EAT

  • Extremely Old Bubble Gum.

    Tonight’s random topic: BUBBLE GUM. Very old bubble gum that I spent too much money on. Turning frivolous purchases into Dino Drac content is my eternal salvation, so here we are. Below: Five bubble gum brands from the ‘80s and ‘90s. May they help you remember a time when perusing th

  • Saturday Television of a Misspent Youth.

    Back in junior high, I spent a lot of my free time alone. I don’t mean that to sound maudlin; I had friends, and we’d hang out often enough. Thing was, we had few common interests, and whenever they ran off to do whatever normal boys did, I hid at home. This was during the early ‘9

  • Five really old cans of Chef Boyardee.

    Let’s look at five ancient cans of Chef Boyardee pasta, because of course I have those. Pac-Man Pasta! From 1986, it’s both my oldest can and the prettiest… even if one must approach “golden chicken flavored sauce” with healthy trepidation. The milky, yellow glop looks not entire

  • Deadsites: “The Beast” 1996 TV Movie!

    These Deadsites posts are always tricky. For every entry that seems to resonate with you guys, there’s another that maybe three people on the whole planet are interested in. Admittedly, today’s entry runs the risk of falling into the dreaded latter category. I can’t afford to care,

  • Dino Drac’s January 2015 Funpack!

    (AVAILABLE IN THE UNITED STATES ONLY!) I’m officially ready to shill the hell out of Dinosaur Dracula’s first Funpack of the new year. It’s the January 2015 edition, stuffed with 10+ items! As this is now the sixth Funpack in the monthly series, it’s safe to assume that most of

  • Five Random Action Figures, Part 12!

    It’s time for the twelfth edition of Five Random Action Figures! (Three of these were picked up just this week. Thank you, mysterious and awesome local comic book shop that’s apparently been hiding in plain sight since last spring.) Peter Venkman The Real Ghostbusters, 1986 Most of the

  • Awesome & Expensive Junk on eBay.

    I’ve been keeping an eye on a few eBay auctions despite having no plans to actually bid, out of sheer amazement that people have such rare stuff to sell. Like, how the hell do you end up with 59 Fireball Island board games? Most of these treasures will ultimately make quiet exits, reme

  • The Christmas Fallout, 2014 Edition!

    Happy 209th anniversary to the Treaty of Pressburg! I hope everyone had a great Christmas. If you don’t celebrate Christmas, I hope you had great Chinese food. Mine was the usual two-day marathon of TOO MUCH EVERYTHING. The holiday season was a little rough around the edges, but it ended

  • The 1982 Sears Wish Book!

    It’s almost Christmas Eve, and I have so much left to do. None of the presents are wrapped. Half of them haven’t even been purchased. There are mushrooms to stuff, clothes to wash, cookies to bake and hair to cut. So, like a big dumb idiot, I made one more Wish Book review the first

  • The 1985 JCPenney Christmas Catalog.

    Oof. Christmas caught me by surprise this year, and I didn’t write nearly as often as I would’ve liked to. Can’t do anything about that now, so I’ll just try to make this an extra good one! Today we’re gonna look at some highlights from the 1985 JCPenney catalog, which was basica

  • This $5 dinosaur playset is the best.

    Every Christmas, various department stores dedicate whole aisles to those super cheap “generic” toys. You know the kind. They always come in the same-style boxes, whether they’re sets of dominoes or princess baby dolls. Shown above is one example. The “Dinosaurs Play Set,” a 21-p

  • Happy Mother’s Day!

    Guys, we need to talk about this Mother’s Day card. I made it for my mother in 1986. 1987 at the absolute latest. Considering the card’s enormous size and use of strange paper, I can only assume it was an art project from grade school. The cover looks innocent enough, or at least as i

  • Obscure Nightmare on Elm Street Playset.

    One of the coolest-ever Nightmare on Elm Street toys technically had nothing to do with it: In 1988, Tonka launched a small line of Wrecking Crew toys. These were various construction vehicles that could plow through break-apart playsets. (Not a terribly misguided gimmick, given kids’

  • Classic Christmas Commercials, Volume 5!

    Welcome to what could be this year’s last batch of Classic Christmas Commercials, donated by our pal Larry. Tonight, you’ll see everything from a super capitalistic Santa to a giant apple pitching cheap underwear. Are you excited? Call Santa’s Hotline! (1987) I’ve seen at least

  • Sugar Cookie Toast Crunch Cereal!

    I know everyone’s giddy over the return of French Toast Crunch, but don’t forget about this one! Sugar Cookie Toast Crunch is the second of General Mills’s two new holiday-themed cereals. I covered Holiday Sprinkles Cookie Crisp a few weeks ago, and as great as it was, I think this s

  • I have crazy love for Santa Robot.

    I’ve never been happier, and it’s all because of Santa Robot. I don’t know who was responsible for Santa Robot, nor do I have any hard evidence of when he’s from. (Though given the similarities to Tomy’s old battery-operated robots, it’s a safe bet that Santa Robot is from the