Dino Drac’s 2023 Daily Halloween Thing!
Wednesday, October 25th:
Just wanted to point out something interesting about Gremlins 2. During the “yogurt scene” where Mohawk rises out of the pile of M&M’s, look close and you’ll spot many of the long-discontinued TAN ones, which were replaced by blue M&M’s in 1995.
(Yes, that should be your main takeaway from this scene about alien rats desperately trying to eat late night snacks so they can transform into reptilian demons.)
At the time of the switch, I was elated. What kid wouldn’t want blue candy? But absence makes the heart grow fonder, and tan M&M’s have acquired a wild amount of supporters in recent years. Some go so far to say that the tan ones tasted better, which of course is only true in that M&M’s from the ‘80s and early ‘90s probably did taste better than those made today.
Gremlins 2 is the gift that keeps on giving. Might be the most jam-packed movie ever. I’ve seen it hundreds of times over the last 30+ years, and I’m still discovering new things on every watch!
Tuesday, October 24th:
I was digging around my bins and came across the Halloween issue of Looney Tunes Magazine, from 1990. Yes, that was a real magazine. Every kid-targeted thing had a magazine back then. (And judging by the ad pages, Kool-Aid Koolers and Jif Peanut Butter kept the entire industry afloat.)
The centerfold of that issue was this beautiful parody. CARROTJUICE. Oh, that’s perfect. 10/10, no notes. I understand that parody centerfolds were a hallmark of Looney Tunes Magazine, but it’s hard to imagine any of the others topping this.
Monday, October 23rd:
Well, here’s me back in 1989. I was going for Nicholson’s Joker, obviously, but I inadvertently did Heath Ledger’s version nearly two decades before he did.
I’m fairly positive that it was nowhere near Halloween when this photo was taken. I don’t even remember trick-or-treating as the Joker, but I definitely recall dressing like him on multiple occasions, just for kicks. I was a wee bit obsessed.
Man, the one-two punch of Nicholson’s Joker in 1989 and all of the technicolor trench coats in Dick Tracy a year later left me with some pretty screwy ideas about fashion.
Sunday, October 22nd:
Can we give it up for Louie’s costume in the classic 1952 Disney short, Trick or Treat? He’s the one dressed like a ghost.
(At least, I’m pretty sure that’s Louie. The devil duck is predominantly red, which would indicate Huey, while the wizard duck is wearing a blue shirt, which points to Dewey. By process of elimination, that leaves Louie. I’ve put a *lot* of thought into this.)
A sheet ghost with blacked-out eyes would’ve won the duck costume contest on its own, but then Louie added that giant, flaming jack-o’-lantern. It was like the proverbial cherry on top, only in this case, the cherry was fifteen pounds and fourteen inches tall. Go, Louie!
Saturday, October 21st:
Just a quickie for tonight, because I’m swamped! Here’s a Kool-Aid Halloween ad from 1962, which will hopefully be an instant spirit boost for anyone who needs one late in the season.
It comes from an era when magazine pages were much larger, so I had to scan this in fourths and Frankenstein it back together. I want my flowers, because I think I did a good job!
Friday, October 20th:
Big thanks to my pal Chris for sending me one of Burger King’s new “Trick-or-Heat” Halloween buckets, which are sadly only available in four cities… and none of them are even remotely close to mine.
The bucket is comparable in size to the ones from McDonald’s, but it’s way more goth. It also glows in the dark. If you’re dying to own one, they’re all over eBay, but I’d suggest waiting until the prices drop. (Which is a guarantee, since it seems that more people bought them to resell than to actually enjoy.)
It’s a cute bucket, so it’s a real shame that BK went with such a limited promotion. When things like that happen, sometimes the blame falls on us. We take a leaked image or a rumor, and our imaginations run wild. In this case, though, Burger King literally posted a photo of the bucket, and played along with excited replies from people who had no idea that it was going to be so tough to get. So they gotta at least accept partial blame for the gripes.
Hey, BK? Next year, go national! You might’ve won the Halloween fast food war this year, but now it’s neck-and-neck. You’ve got the spooky food, but Ronald’s got pails aplenty.
Thursday, October 19th:
I was digging around in one of my bins and found this beautiful thing, which I completely forgot I had!
In an entry a few days ago, I showed you a Crystal Pepsi 12-pack from the 1992 Halloween season, where they cleverly paired the clear soda with the Invisible Man. Well, here’s another from that set – and really the only other one where the monster kinda fit the soda.
Acting as the mascot for Mountain Dew, it’s the Creature from the Black Lagoon! Hey, Mountain Dew is green, and a lot of its old TV commercials showed people diving into bodies of water that could’ve possibly constituted as lagoons. I think it works?
