Halloween 2016

Happy Halloween, everyone! Course, by the time most of you read this, it’ll be November. Hell, it might technically be November even by the time this gets posted. Oh well. I like November, too. Stove Top and Sunday circulars. I hope you had a tremendous season, and I hope Dino Drac playe

I did it. I took the plunge. I am now the proud owner of a vintage My Pet Monster doll, complete with break-apart handcuffs. He’s two feet of adorable terror, with stoner eyes, shark teeth and an alien dick nose. I love him. I’ve hugged him. Released by American Greetings in 1986, My P

I wanted to do another edition of Five Random Action Figures before Halloween, lest I waste the excuse to take pictures of plastic monsters out in the freezing rain. So here we are, hours later, with me sneezing and my phone’s touchscreen on the fritz. I suffer for you. Rancor Monster St

We need talk about The Wickedest Witch. Starring Rue McClanahan as an exiled she-devil (seriously), the NBC special premiered on October 30th, 1989. It aired only that one time and has never been released on VHS or DVD. Even taped-off-television copies are incredibly hard to find. Life isn

I have a story for you. It’s pretty long, so sit down and for God’s sake close your other tabs. It’s about ALF. Gordon Motherfuckin’ Shumway. I haven’t written much about ALF on Dino Drac, but make no mistake, he was my main dude. ALF was my hero and my muse, and his TV show<

Look dudes, you’re too old to go trick-or-treating. This Halloween, you’re gonna have to treat yourself. And I have just the thing! ($25 MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION BOX. UNITED STATES ONLY!) Dino Drac’s Halloween 2016 Funpack is finally here, and baby, it’s loaded. There are around a doze

Shrinky Dinks were invented in the early ‘70s, but it wasn’t until the ‘80s that their popularity exploded. That’s when the color-and-bake sheets of polystyrene plastic caught the attention of major toy companies, leading to dedicated Shrinky Dinks sets for He-Man, Rainbow Brite an

I’ll say one thing about this year’s crop of Halloween junk food: It sure is big. Sooo many brands are only now taking their first swings at Halloween or autumnal releases, and good luck trying to sample it all by October 31st. The 2016 season hasn’t had many shout-from-the-rooftop s

If you like to spend the Halloween season making frivolous purchases, this should be up your alley: ($20 SHIPPED VIA PRIORITY MAIL! UNITED STATES ONLY!) Yes, it’s the return of Dino Drac’s Envelope of Evil! The third edition is stuffed with strange reading material and goofy goodies,

Welcome back to Vicious Videocassette Boxes, an ongoing series of tributes to… vicious videocassette boxes. There are many who collect old tapes out of sincere affinity for the format, but I’ll come out and admit that I treat videocassettes more as decorations. They’re like little

Ah, finally! It’s Mood Table time! I invented the Halloween Mood Table back in 2007. That year, I was all out of sorts over various personal issues, and completely lost my Halloween spirit. The Mood Table was how I got it back. I’ve made one every year since, and along the way, hundred

It’s October! I know you’re all waiting for my Halloween Mood Table (Coming tomorrow!), but I wanted to celebrate the arrival of MONTH #10 with a special bonus weekend update. So here’s me, dressed like a vampire, reviewing 50 bucks’ worth of Halloween garbage. (CLICK HERE TO SEE

Guess it’s lame to do another Classic Creepy Commercials post so soon, but I have a lot of great ads to get to this year. I’m worried there won’t be time for them all! (God knows your Halloween season won’t be complete until you watch a promo for a 1994 TV movie about Roseanne.) De

We’re ridiculously close to October, which is great and maybe also a little bit terrible. Remember to make the most of the Halloween season! DO SPOOKY STUFF! …even if it’s just listening to scary podcasts for an hour. Hey, speaking of which! Yup, we’re finally ready to drop the

Oof, there is some serious nostalgia in this edition of Classic Creepy Commercials. Get ready for the feels. Big thanks to Matt B. and Aaron G. for so graciously donating the ads featured below! You guys are the coolest curators. Pumpkin Kutter! (1980s) Still in production today, the Pump

Get set for another batch of 2016’s best Halloween junk food! (…with the same asterisk that we had last time. When I say “best,” I just mean “most interesting.” Sometimes, pretty things taste pretty bad!) Butterfinger Peanut Butter Skulls! These are terrific! I’m not sure

Many countries have their own exclusive Halloween snacks, and if they’re especially good, the rest of the world can only seethe and stew over their geographical plights. Or if you’re like me, you just spend a fortune on international shipping for weird Doritos. Below are three of Jap

You know you’ve found the right video when there’s a goddamned McDonald’s Halloween pail on the cover: (Look close. That’s totally McGoblin.) Released in 1990, Halloween: Trick or Treat was the first in a long series of order-by-mail videos collectively known as The Pagan Invasion.

Here are more of my favorite spooky action figures from the ‘80s and ‘90s, photographed in a moldy forest: Shish Kebab Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (1989) By far the best figure from Kenner’s Beetlejuice collection, Shish Kebab Beetlejuice also wins the award for weirdest. His “scary sk

Hot take: Hostess has quietly become the most dependable snack company of the Halloween season. Sorry, everyone else! The proof is in the literal pudding: THOSE BOXES, THO. They look like cheap backdrops for public access horror hosts, and I mean that in the best way. What’s really ende

After having a blast curating that first batch of ‘80s and ‘90s newspaper ads, I couldn’t wait for Round 2. So this is it. Enjoy the show. Oreo Halloween Treats! (Target, 1994) Treat-sized packs of Oreos are still around, of course, but I have immense nostalgia for the specific versi

Behold, some of 2016’s best Halloween junk food! (Well, I don’t always mean “best.” Sometimes just “noteworthy.” I hope you can forgive me this trespass. “2016’s Most Noteworthy Halloween Junk Food” just sounded so clunky.) This will be a multipart series, because my #1

Madd Matt has returned with another bag of Halloween junk, and today, in this video, you’re going to look at it: (CLICK HERE TO WATCH IT ON YOUTUBE!) Spoilers: You will see a Boglin and a cheap ninja sword. Thank you and enjoy.

My buddy Matt let me borrow some tapes that his family recorded back in the mid ‘80s, which is seriously the best thing anyone could let me borrow. Like holy shit. I need three external hard drives and cake. I’ve only begun to sort through the goodies, but I already found one of my un

Remember when Ghostbusters Cereal had those sweet holographic boxes? It wasn’t just Ghostbusters Cereal, either. By the end of the ‘80s, Ralston had blessed no less than four other brands with the same treatment: Nintendo Cereal System, Cookie Crisp, Dinersaurs (dinosaurs who operated