Dino Drac’s 2023 Daily Halloween Thing!
Wednesday, September 20th:
While we wait for McDonald’s to come clean about their plans for this year’s Boo Buckets, I thought I’d show you a prior set that almost nobody talks about.
This pair came out in 1999, when McDonald’s was way into rendering their mascots as if they starred in a Nickelodeon cartoon. Forgoing the usual jack-o’-lantern motif of their previous Halloween buckets, these had wraparound scenes starring Ronald, Grimace and Birdie.
It was a pretty big departure from the norm, but at least they kept the cookie cutter lids from prior sets. Nostalgia for these particular Halloween Happy Meal pails seems virtually nonexistent, which isn’t the worst thing in the world, as it’s kept the eBay prices reasonable.
Tuesday, September 19th:
Was very lucky to find this photo of a Pepsi/Doritos Halloween supermarket display, from 1996. That year, they skipped the usual partnership with the Universal Monsters to team up with Goosebumps, and gave free mini-books out to anyone willing to endure the arduous task of buying soda and chips.
I wish supermarkets still brought this kind of energy during the Halloween season. Many have displays, sure, but rarely with this level of a wow factor. I’ve said it before, but between the junk food displays and all of the spooky standees in the beer section, going food shopping near Halloween was like visiting a haunt.
You can’t say that the promotions weren’t effective, either. I *still* think of Pepsi and Doritos as the official junk foods of Halloween, and they barely do anything spooky anymore. Momentum built more than 20 years ago is still carrying those brands!
If you decide to go hunting for fun displays, try sticking with the second-string stores. Target, Walmart and the bigger supermarket chains have every inch of their stores down to a science, and they’re too homogenized to allow for much creativity.
On the other hand, a random grocery store that hasn’t seen a remodel in decades isn’t beholden to such standards. If the manager is cool with it, you might find a six-foot scarecrow, wearing a cheap Frankenstein mask, propped up in a beach chair over a bed of hay. And isn’t that what you really want?
Monday, September 18th:
GOD did I adore these dolls. From 1999, it’s the Universal Monsters “Stuffins” collection, which was sold exclusively at CVS. (Many people forget what a destination CVS used to be for Halloween junk. For a while, they were arguably better than Target.)
This set was the last blast of the 1990s Universal Monsters renaissance, and what a finale it was! Shown above are most of the dolls, but there were also plushies for Gill-man and the Bride of Frankenstein. These are on the small side, but if I remember correctly, CVS sold much larger versions, too.
I have tremendous nostalgia for these. I amassed a few of them after several trips to CVS, and lined them across the top of my old tube television as that year’s “Halloween display.” Back then, the season wasn’t nearly what it is now, and that small touch was all it took to make the entirety of October feel spirited.
If interested, the dolls are all over eBay, and while not exactly dirt cheap, they’re far from expensive.
Sunday, September 17th:
As a child, we had one neighbor who I really hated. She was an older lady whose kids were already grown and gone, but with the way she acted, you’d swear she was never a mother at all.
This woman seemed to hate kids. Me, my friends, all of us. She was chummy with our mothers and pleasant enough when they were around, but every time it was just us on the block, she’d watch from her window, waiting for something – anything – to complain about.
If we were playing wiffle ball and the ball landed on her property, that was it. She’d run outside immediately, screaming her head off over the great travesty of somebody stepping on her lawn.
Then there was the time I used chalk on the street too close to her house. I was barely done doodling my stupid white sun before she was out there yapping, all while smearing the chalk with her foot.
Oh, and I’ll never forget the time I knocked on her door after joining the Olympic Sales Club. What a mistake that was. I understand not wanting to buy expensive wrapping paper, but she practically launched me off her front stoop, Jazz-style.
On the other hand…. she did give me that popcorn ball!
It was Halloween, 1980-something. I was hesitant to even knock on her door, distinctly recalling that she had no candy the year prior. (Of COURSE she didn’t.) But I’d saved the houses closest to home for last, and I couldn’t leave any stones unturned. This was my final shot at free Halloween candy for a whole year!
To my shock, not only did she have candy, but she had GIANT CANDY. An individually-wrapped popcorn ball! I’d never even heard of them before that afternoon. It was the single most striking treat I’d received, and I couldn’t believe it came from that woman.
Maybe she wasn’t so bad after all?
To this day, whenever I see a popcorn ball, I think of my first one, and the grouchy neighbor who gave it to me.
You’re forgiven for ruining my chalky sun, you witch.
Saturday, September 16th:
I can’t say that I’ve ever given the matter much thought, but this is at least in the running for my all-time favorite print ad. From Warren Publishing in 1978, here was your chance to own genuine soil from Dracula’s castle!
….in a coffin-shaped pendant, to boot!
While each came with a certificate of authenticity, I gotta believe that the dirt in those coffins was not actually procured from Transylvania. Even if it was, Warren Publishing way oversold the quality of the pendants. I bought one off eBay years ago, and it was just a plastic coffin charm attached to a “gold” necklace that was only mildly above vending machine quality.
But who cares? Just the idea that you could own a part of Dracula’s history was worth the… wait, this thing was 18 bucks? Plus another 2 for shipping? TWENTY DOLLARS in 1978? That’d be almost a hundred bucks today!
Okay, it wasn’t worth that much, but I still adore the item, and I still think this was one of the slickest magazine ads ever produced. In fact, it’s currently framed and hanging in my office, which puts it in exclusive company with my McDonald’s translites, TMNT pudding pie wrappers, and that old press photo of some dude getting the Batman logo shaved into the side of his head.
Friday, September 15th:
Released in 1986, Ghosts ‘n Goblins was one of my favorite Nintendo games. Don’t get me wrong, I was just as bad at it as everybody else, but between the music, the scenery and the army of monsters, it all had such a great, spooky vibe.
I bought it with birthday money from a nearby card/comic shop, simply because that was the closest place with any NES games. See, Nintendo was hot enough in the ‘80s to inspire stores that had nothing to do with video games to still keep a few in stock, just so they could technically pass as destinations for gamers.
This card/comic shop never had more than 6 or 7 titles in stock, and they only ever had one copy of each. They weren’t especially good titles, either. Looking back, I imagine that the owner simply went around looking for games that were on sale, to buy and then flip back at his own store.
My impatience got the better of me more than once, so despite the limited library and higher prices, a number of my Nintendo games came from that shop. Sometimes I picked a dud, but I never regretted Ghosts ‘n Goblins. I loved that ridiculously hard game, and I never would’ve given it a chance had I gone to TRU and had a hundred pretty boxes to choose from.
Here’s a playthrough, if you’re interested in seeing a guy in red underwear fight Satan.
Thursday, September 14th:
Here’s a collection of official Madballs masks, from 1986. Yes, there really were Madballs masks. I should know, since I had two of them.
I never wore one for Halloween, though. I got them way after, when they were on clearance, reasoning that marked-down masks were better than whatever else I could swindle out of my mother on that long-ago trip to Kmart.
I put them to good use. Me and some of the neighborhood kids used to make oddball sci-fi movies, using my Dad’s old Panasonic camera. I believe I’ve written about these movies before. I played “Emperor Guillotine” – a name I outright stole from a Johnny Sokko villain – and wore a Beetlejuice mask.
The lead hero was my friend’s older brother, who wore a Dick Tracy coat and carried one of my Photon laser guns.
Two others played my unnamed henchmen, and wore the Madballs masks. They had no lines and were really just there for Fake Dick Tracy to beat up. If I remember correctly, the two specific masks were of Skull Face and Horn Head. (Horn Head isn’t pictured here, but I assure you, he had a mask.)
I wish I still had the videocassettes, but they’re long gone. Tbh, I probably taped over our opuses with old episodes of Monday Night Raw. We put a lot of work into those movies, but when Doink the Clown is scheduled to fight Bam Bam Bigelow live from the Manhattan Center, you gotta make sacrifices.
