Halloween 2017

Happy Halloween, everyone! Thanks so much for being a part of Dino Drac’s 2017 Halloween Countdown. I was determined to get one last video done before November hit, and with a huge assist to caffeine, here we are: Madd Matt is back with one last bag of Halloween junk. Enjoy. Unfortu

Eek! A combination of things — good things, bad things and things in-between — caused me to be a little (lot) less prolific than I would’ve liked to have been this last half of October. Sorry about that! Don’t worry, though. I’m still totally in love with Halloween, and e

The original My Pet Monster doll was awesome in a once-in-a-lifetime way. He was just so big, so unique and so toothy! If you’re looking to buy back a piece of your childhood, that doll is one of the few ‘80s toys that really lives up to its legend. In fact, My Pet Monster was

Get set for a special Halloween edition of Five Random Action Figures! This time, we’ll be dealing exclusively with MONSTERS… like creatures with pumpkins for heads, and also creatures just named Pumpkinhead. Samhain Retro-Action Real Ghostbusters (2011) Samhain was one of the “b

This will likely be the final edition of 2017’s Best Halloween Junk Food, but that ain’t for lack of deserving snacks. This season may have been short on HUGE things, but the sheer volume of “pretty good” things was astounding. Here are my five latest finds: The Spider Donut! Found

If you’ve never seen Killer Klowns from Outer Space, fix that! The 1988 film is exactly as weird as the title suggests, but it’s also just a good little movie. Those who have seen it may remember a minor scene wherein the Killer Klowns invaded a pharmacy. That’s why I’m here tonigh

With only two weeks left until Halloween, you’re (hopefully) trying to cram in as much spooky fun as possible. We’re now at the point where if you blink one too many times, October will be over! LIMITED TIME! LIMITED QUANTITY! UNITED STATES ONLY! But have no fear! With Dino Drac’

I try to work one “retro cereal box” article into every Halloween Countdown, mainly for the excuse to spend more money on old cereal boxes. Help. Ghostbusters II Cereal! (1989) In one form or another, Ghostbusters Cereal remained on shelves from 1985 through 1991. It was a wildly impre

Get set for the latest edition of Classic Creepy Commercials, the series in which I pay tribute to ancient spooky ads, or something. On a mostly unrelated note, I never bought into the idea that essays need a strong intro. Monster Face! (1992) Monster Face was basically a Dr. Frankenstein

Here’s another batch of Halloween-themed newspaper clippings from the ‘80s and ‘90s, featuring everything from Fruity Yummy Mummy to free goldfish. (If you missed the last edition, it’s over here!) World Premieres of Halloween Classics! (October 30th, 1985 & October 31st, 1989)

If you don’t remember Slimer Fruit Snacks, don’t feel bad. Few people do! They arrived in 1991, a figurative minute before the original Real Ghostbusters cartoon went kaput. Slimer didn’t have much momentum in his attempt to take over the fruit snack market, but he sure put the effor

If you’re having a hard time getting into the Halloween spirit, I don’t blame you. Everything kinda sucks right now. I’d never tell anyone to put trivial pursuits first, but having small respites from the real world isn’t a bad thing, either. Besides, I have the perfect thing for p

One of my favorite things about the Halloween season is the constant encouragement to go on silly adventures. How else would I end up playing miniature golf in a glow-in-the-dark dungeon? In the latest Purple Stuff Podcast minisode, me and Jay from The Sexy Armpit play a round of Monster M

Exactly two years ago today, I tried one of Burger King’s Halloween Whoppers. You remember them, right? The Halloween Whopper was the shining star of the 2015 Halloween season. Even a thousand articles about green excrement couldn’t ruin the moment. I’ve been running the Halloween Co

Today was an all-in-one video day, so I am now deliriously tired and a sworn enemy of proper sentence structure. On the bright side… mission accomplished! Here’s the latest Madd Matt video: Madd Matt’s third bag of random Halloween junk for the 2017 season includes everything from a

Y’all remember Grimace, right? The purple dude, I mean. Ronald McDonald’s de facto best friend. Throughout my childhood, Grimace was constantly on television, making commercial breaks tolerable with his adorably dopey demeanor and never-say-never attitude. (I’ll remind you that he on

It might not feel like it, but it’s the first day of autumn! Nobody can deny that we’re in the Halloween season now. If you were holding off on taping up cardboard skulls or transforming into a bat or whatever, now is the time! To help ring in the best season of the year, we’re

I’m back with more of this year’s hottest Halloween junk food. Some are new for 2017, others are just new to Dino Drac. If you missed Part 1, start there! Since three of these are pumpkin spice-related, I’ll admit that my prediction about last year being THE last year for the pum

Get set for another batch of Classic Creepy Commercials, featuring everything from horror movies to space aliens to bugs made out of Play-Doh. We’re gonna have a time! The Official Boglins Hotline! (1988) Yep, this was a real thing that really happened. An official Boglins hotline! As I�

What was that old Jean Grey quote? Something about evolution leaping forward every few hundred millennia? Keep it in mind. PEPSI HALLOWEEN COLA. Yes, this is a real thing. Unfortunately, as of now, it’s only a thing that exists in Japan. I spent way too much money importing the stuff so

The Halloween season is a time for frights, yes, but it’s also a time for frivolities. At least, that’s what I need to say when I’m about to hock boxes of spooky nonsense. Available in the United States only! Dino Drac’s September Funpack is (finally) here! If you don’t know the

Remember the opening scene of 1988’s Child’s Play? Detective Mike Norris (Chris Sarandon) chases serial killer Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) into a toy store. Nearing death, Ray uses a voodoo spell to transfer his soul into a doll, signaling the start of a cheeky slasher series that’

We judge each Halloween season on the strength of its junk food. That’s just how we roll. Lots of interesting new candies? Great season. Nothing worth taking pictures of in Target? Bad season. So how is 2017 looking so far? Pretty good! Sure, we don’t have the knockout punch of a Frute

Happy Friday! Here’s a new podcast to kick off the weekend. It’s about Halloween doughnuts! We know we’d promised a regular full-length episode this week, but we had to shift gears to make room for today’s once-a-year opportunity. For whatever reason, Krispy Kreme c

The return of the Halloween Countdown means that I get to dust off one of my favorite recurring Dino Drac features: Classic Creepy Commercials! Since I’ve now covered well over 100 spooky commercials, the pickings are slim and I’ll need to get creative. So like, my apologies to those