I’m gonna need you to watch a scene from Child’s Play 2. Trust me, okay?

Here we have young Andy Barclay inspecting his new bedroom. His adoptive mother encourages him to play with the assorted toys, and tells him that there are even more in the closet.

The scene establishes that there’s a Good Guys doll in the house. It’s just a normal, non-possessed doll, but given Andy’s history with Chucky, he’s understandably shaken.

But that’s not why I made you watch it.

During the closet scene, note how Andy is drawn to the top shelf by that bomb-ass skateboard. It isn’t onscreen for long, but look close and you’ll see that it’s absolutely bathed in horror movie references!

One might theorize that this was a custom prop, and that some regular skateboard was refurbished with horror imagery as a wink at the genre.

Nope! That was a real skateboard! Thousands of kids had it!

The Nightmare skateboard (or Night Mare, depending on how you read it) was released by Nash in 1986. I’m no expert on skateboards, but even *I* had one of Nash’s. (Mine just said “NASH” and had no neat ties to Jason Voorhees, but on the other hand, it was really glittery.)

Nash’s boards were sold in tons of toy shops and department stores. I imagine that this one served as a mutant gateway drug for kids who needed a little push to start watching horror movies. (It’s kind of like how I never bothered with the original TMNT cartoon until I found that swank spiral notebook with Donatello on the cover.) Read More…

Get set for the fourth edition of Tiny Tributes to Minor Monsters, featuring everything from a zombie wrestler to the Godzilla version of Satan. Everything you need, really.

The Fake Undertaker!
WWF SummerSlam (1994)

I never love pro-wrestling more than when it’s at its most preposterous, and on that front, this was a tough act to follow. The main event of WWE’s SummerSlam ‘94 pay-per-view was the Undertaker versus… the Undertaker.

No, really! After a long hiatus, fans discovered that their beloved Undertaker had been bought off by the evil Ted DiBiase. As the Undertaker had by then spent over two years as a hero, it was hard to believe that he’d throw so much goodwill away for a fistful of hundreds.

As it turned out, he didn’t! At SummerSlam ‘94, the real Undertaker returned for a match against his imitator. Total Boba Fett / Jodo Kast situation. The “UnderFaker” lost the battle and the war, never returning to WWE after his defeat.

While it’s true that fans obsess over WWE canon way more than the company itself does, nobody can scratch this from the record books. You could not write a complete list of past-and-present WWE superstars without listing the Undertaker twice, and that is the best.

PS: The phony Undertaker was portrayed by Brian Lee, who’d later wrestle as Chainz, a sort of stock “biker” character. Read More…

Saint Patrick’s Day is just around the corner, and me and Jay thought we’d celebrate the occasion in the best way possible: With a tangentially-related podcast!

In the brand new episode of The Purple Stuff Podcast, we’re naming 10 great GREEN things. Yes, GREEN things. That was the only rule. Our picks range from Ninja Turtles Pies to weird old wrestlers to, uh, pea soup. ALL FOR YOU, SAINT PAT.

If you like things like kryptonite or Uncle O’Grimacey, this is THE SHOW for you.

Download this week’s episode by clicking here!

Thanks as always for listening, and for spreading the word. We’re aiming to get the show back on a set schedule starting in April. (Next one on deck is our annual WrestleMania special!)

For maximum effect, listen to this while drinking a Shamrock Shake.

We missed a lot of great GREEN things in this episode. Name a few of your favorites, in the comments!