Welcome to Dinosaur Dracula’s MAUSOLEUM OF MADNESS, PART II! Every day through Halloween, check back for another vintage creepy collectible – everything from deep cut toys to ancient store displays to at least one totally insane costume. Probably ten cereal boxes, too.

I won’t be plugging this on social media much, so you’ll have to remember to visit on your own. Maybe stick an orange Post-It on the fridge. (Yes, it must be orange.)

PS, if you missed last year’s Mausoleum of Madness, it’s over here.

#21: Garfield and the Halloween Party! (1990)

God, this pushes so many of my nostalgia buttons. I lived for these square books as a kid, which spanned endless topics but always had this same shape, plus that irresistible bonus of “12 collector stickers,” affixed to a sheet right under the front cover.

Such books were staples of elementary school book fairs, and I couldn’t get enough of them. Course, it helped that so many of the titles would’ve grabbed my attention even without the promise of free stickers. From pro-wrestling to Ghostbusters, all of my favorite things seemed to have a book like this.

That included Garfield, who actually had several books of this sort. This was easily the best of them, because by 1990, Garfield and Halloween were firmly established as peanut butter and jelly. (His creepy cartoon special had been running annually since 1985, and even five years later, it still ruled over the season.)

If you’re wondering what Garfield and the Halloween Party is actually about, let’s have Grade School Matt answer that question:

“I don’t know, I tore the stickers out and now I can’t find the book.”

#20: Horror Movie Prism Stickers! (1980s)

Available in vending machines at department stores and supermarkets, horror movie prism stickers had an outsized impact on our lives. There was an army of these in the late ‘80s, covering not just the huge films starring icons like Jason and Freddy, but some pretty obscure titles as well. I even have a prism sticker for Zombie Nightmare, of all movies.

I’m not sure if any of the stickers were properly licensed, but given how generally infringing the prizes in vending machines were back then, I doubt it. They certainly looked professional enough, with beautiful, colorful art that only added to the ghastly imagery’s punch.

You didn’t need to be a kid who’d seen The Howling or Return of the Living Dead Part II to realize that shiny stickers based on them were way cooler than gumballs. Blowing quarters on these was not an exercise limited to horror fans.

In fact, I dare say that for some kids, the stickers were a gateway drug towards horror movies. If you dropped 50 cents on a Jason Lives sticker on the way out of Kmart, you were probably gonna become more curious about the movie, right?

The vintage stickers are now hideously expensive, and the market is full of scamsters selling undisclosed repros. If you decide to start collecting them, just know that the hobby breaks people, and should only be pursued by those who truly cannot live without prismatic stickers representing The Gate and Monkey Shines.

#19: Monster Match Store Display! (1991)

This is an extremely rare photo of a genuine Pepsi / Frito-Lay “Monster Match” store display, crammed into a convenience store back in 1991.

That year, the companies involved teamed with the Universal Monsters not just for cool packaging upgrades, but also a sweepstakes wherein customers would receive halves of Monster Match cash to try to piece together for fabulous prizes. (The top prize was a million bucks, and I think getting rich by eating Doritos is absolutely the best way to do it.)

Even if you won nothing, and most didn’t, you still got chip bags and Pepsi boxes adorned by the faces of Dracula and Frankenstein. So I guess everyone did kinda win something?

The best part of the brouhaha was the EIGHT-FOOT cardboard Monster Match display shown here. These were shipped to gobs of stores and were a common sight during the 1991 Halloween season. For a whole month, every 7-Eleven looked like Six Flags Fright Fest.

I’ve written about the Universal Monsters renaissance of the 1990s plenty of times before, but it’s only now occurring to me that Pepsi and Doritos were arguably responsible for it. You can blame the postage stamps or Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but I don’t think many eight-year-olds were gonna get into the old school boo crew without the assistance of salt and sugar.

#18: Spooky Leaf Bags! (1990)

Like tissue ghosts and plastic spider rings, decorative leaf bags are timeless staples of the season. They’re traditionally pumpkin-themed, which makes sense given the general shape of trash bags filled with leaves, but many companies have tried to work more variety into the gimmick.

For example, take this box of “Spooky Leaf Bags,” made by Sun Hill. What great art! There’s something so delightfully ghoulish about kids bringing a giant disembodied Dracula head to life by feeding it dead leaves. It’s very Tales from the Darkside. Needless to say, I bought this for the box, not the bags inside.

By the way, if you’re in the market for a Halloween leaf bag because you actually want to use it, going vintage is the best bet. Most of today’s bags are ultra-thin, quick to rip, and look like they came from Dollar Tree even when they didn’t. The older ones are usually rougher and tougher, and sometimes you get bonus art of kids practicing the dark arts in broad daylight out of the deal. Read More…

Posted by Matt on 09/09/25
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Surprise drop! Dino Drac’s Envelopes of Evil are BACK FROM THE GRAVE. If you missed the memo, these are special, limited edition packages filled with creepy collectibles that are offered exactly once and then never spoken of again.

(These have nothing to do with the Funpacks, by the way. Totally separate thing!)

For the Envelope of Evil VII, a handful of flat (or flattish) items conspire to make your Halloween season just a little bit grander. The cost on this one is $40, and that includes shipping to anywhere in the United States.

Jump to the bottom for ordering info, or keep reading to learn about everything inside the Dino Drac’s seventh Envelope of Evil! Read More…

Posted by Matt on 09/09/25
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Dino Drac’s Eerie August Funpack – the first of three all-spooky Funpacks for the 2025 Halloween season – is here!

This one is LOADED with all sorts of creepy treasures – everything from old toys to old cards to old stickers to old Ghoul-Aid. (Yes, you read that right.)

Here’s the scoop: All subscriber boxes have already shipped as of last weekend, and are either on the way or already delivered. As of this writing, I have *very* few spares leftover for any non-subscribers who want one.

If you’d like to get one, send me an email, and if I have any left I’ll send you the deets. As always, they’re $25, and that includes shipping to anywhere in the United States. UPDATE: Sorry, they are now sold out!

Now, let’s see what’s in the box! Read More…

Posted by Matt on 08/25/25
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