Dino Drac’s 2023 Daily Halloween Thing!
Wednesday, October 18th:
Holy grail achieved! You’re looking at one of the posters that hung inside Burger King to promote their kickass Universal Monsters figures back in 1997.
Those were easily among the greatest toys ever given out at a fast food chain. (And yes, I know that NECA’s been making some killer new figures based on the set, but I’m a purist, and it’s not the same when the Wolf Man isn’t served with fries.)
I’ve collected the four monsters three times over and didn’t think there were any stones left unturned, but then this popped up. I plan to frame it, and maybe also to marry it.
Tuesday, October 17th:
McDonald’s unleashed the Boo Buckets today, and while part of me wanted to drive all over the place until I’d collected all four, I decided to leave it up to chance. I had enough points for a free Happy Meal on the app, so I just had one delivered, unsure if I was even going to get a Boo Bucket, let alone the one I really wanted.
The good news is, I got a bucket. The bad news is, it wasn’t the purple vampire pail that I was destined to marry. Oh well. I’ll try again tomorrow. For today, I’m happy enough with my goofy mummy bucket.
There doesn’t seem to be any set rules as far as distribution goes. Some McDonald’s restaurants already have all four buckets. Others clearly only got one case at random. If you’re determined to get the whole set in one outing, it seems doable, though you may need to visit a few McD’s to make it happen.
Given the absurd volume of photos people have posted today, I’d say that the 2023 Boo Buckets are a smash success. Which means that McD’s won’t have any reason to stop the spooky stuff next year. Yay!
Monday, October 16th:
We talked about this on our last podcast, but I gotta give it up again for The Haunted House, the 1929 Disney short wherein Mickey gets trapped inside a house full of dancing skeletons, who force him to play the piano.
It’s less famous than The Skeleton Dance, Disney’s similar short from that same year, but I prefer it. Both were featured on Disney’s Scary Tales video, which I rented endlessly as a kid, but it was really The Haunted House that got me twisted. By that point in my short life, it was the creepiest thing I’d ever elected to watch.
(I was especially fond of the Grim Reaper, who screamed “PLAYYYY” back in a time when any talking cartoon character was a big deal.)
While The Skeleton Dance is on Disney+, I understand that The Haunted House isn’t. Luckily, it’s all over YouTube. Enjoy!
Sunday, October 15th:
I’ve talked about this on my socials before, but it really deserved to be on the actual site. You’re looking at a 12-pack case of Crystal Pepsi from the 1992 Halloween season, back when Pepsi was still tight with the Universal Monsters.
At the time, various monsters turned up on various 12-packs. There was never much rhyme or reason behind which monsters appeared on which boxes, but in the case of Crystal Pepsi, they saw a chance to get clever.
How perfect is this? The Invisible Man as the Crystal Pepsi mascot! Freakin’ love it. I make it a point to gush about this at least once a year, so thanks for letting me check another box off my list.
Saturday, October 14th:
Okay, I think it’s only fair that since we just posted a big new podcast, I get to dog it on today’s entry. I’m spent! So all you get from me today is this kickass Hunt’s Catsup ad from 1960.
It’s another old Halloween print ad that I’ve flirted with buying for years. Finally pulled the trigger. Man, I’ve amassed quite a pile of spooky print ads this year. Figures that I ran out of wall space in my office!
Friday, October 13th:
A Friday the 13th in October is a special thing. I hope you’re using the night wisely, and by “wisely” I of course mean watching five Jason movies in a row, while eating candy every single step of the way.
Unfortunately, I’ve only left myself enough time to watch one single Friday the 13th movie. I think I’m gonna go with the seventh installment, The New Blood. Not because it’s cool to see Jason face off against a girl with telekinetic powers, or even because he looks like a zombie dinosaur without his mask. If I’m being honest, it’s all because of THE SLICE.
Yep! If you watch The New Blood closely, you’ll spot several cans of Slice soda. The classic Mandarin Orange flavor, plus the famous Apple Slice in that swank gold can. I can’t imagine that Pepsi was funneling money to this particular movie for covert advertising, so I guess some folks on the set just really enjoyed Slice. And why wouldn’t they?
(Actually, Pepsi and Paramount had already been longtime biz partners by then, so it wouldn’t surprise me if there was a little mutual back-scratching going on.)
It helps that The New Blood is a solid entry in its own right. I’ve long said that it has a direct-to-VHS flavor, and I cannot stress how much I mean that as a compliment. If you’re having trouble deciding which F13 flick to go with tonight, you could do worse than that one!
Thursday, October 12th:
To my complete shock, the last remaining Burger King within reasonable driving distance actually had all of their new Halloween offerings, right on time.
I’m already on record as a fan of the Ghost Pepper Whopper, but I gotta give it up for those Ghost Pepper Chicken Fries. Delicious, and like the Ghost Pepper Chicken Nuggets from a few years back, they pack some serious heat.
(Though I should point out that BK’s Chicken Fries lose their luster quickly. Eat them as fast as you can, because if you wait too long, they turn into what I’m positive is literal rubber.)
Perhaps most importantly, my Burger King even had the correct spooky Whopper wrapper and the thematic Chicken Fries box. I’ve had bad luck with getting BK’s limited edition foods in the proper packaging before, so I was on edge before the dramatic reveal.
Honestly, between this and the spooky crowns, it’s a shame Burger King even bothered to do that four-cities-only plastic bucket promo. They already did enough to satisfy us Halloween hounds; adding such a limited bonus item is just gonna needlessly piss people off.
(Will that stop me from trying to get one on the secondary market? Of course not! I’m a sucker.)
