Halloween 2018

What did you guys think of the 2018 Halloween season? Were you happy with all of the candies, movies, events and nonsense? What are some of the things that you will forever associate with this specific Halloween season? …those were the questions we asked ourselves for a special Hallo

Burger King saved Halloween again: In what must be considered the sequel to 2015’s Halloween Whopper, Burger King has unleashed THE NIGHTMARE KING, a “burger” that’s more like a buffet. Pair that with their dark-as-night Scary Black Cherry Frozen Fanta, and you pretty much have to

I saw the new Halloween movie on Thursday night, with Jay from The Sexy Armpit. We hadn’t planned on doing a podcast about it, but why not? We spent an hour aimlessly running through the stuff we loved, the stuff we liked and the stuff we were maybe not totally sure about, but the non-sp

I’m finally ready to unveil Dino Drac’s 2018 Halloween Funpack! Sadly, there’s a catch! UNITED STATES ONLY! This one is already sold out! At least, it will be by the time most of you see this! (Sorry, but I warned ya… the best way to guarantee yourself a Halloween Funpack was t

I’ll be honest: I wrote the rest of this article first, and saved the intro for last. Then I forgot to write it. Now I’m five minutes away from my arbitrary publishing deadline, and I have no intro. Words. Aalsalslals. Aososdoso. There, now this looks like a paragraph. Below: Three cer

I’m halfway back from an unexpected break, because October likes to hand me more tricks than treats. Here’s the latest edition of Classic Creepy Commercials. Garfield’s Halloween Adventure! (1998) This CBS promo from 1998 celebrated the first airing of Garfield’s Halloween Adve

I know you’ve heard me sing this song before, but before now, I didn’t have the proper materials to hit the right notes. Indulge me, please. I need to talk about SHOCKTOBER. SHOCKTOBER was an October-long stunt that WPIX ran in the early ‘90s. Every weeknight at 8PM sharp, WPIX broke

A few people asked if I planned to bring back Dino Drac’s Envelopes of Evil. Well, yes! Running this site is mad expensive during the Halloween season. I need some green to go with all of that orange. LIMITED TIME ONLY! UNITED STATES ONLY! With that, it’s time to unveil Dino Drac’s E

It’s October 1st, and you know what that means. The tradition must continue! It’s time to unveil my 2018 Halloween Mood Table!  WATCH IN HD ON YOUTUBE! …which is more of a Halloween Mood Creature, but we’ll get to that in a minute. I invented the Halloween Mood Table bac

You know how I bombard you with weird appetizer recipes every Christmas season? I’d like to start doing the same for Halloween. You can’t stop me. I’ve been collecting these little Halloween recipe books for longer than you’ve been alive. They’re placed near the registers in ever

I can’t say that it’s been a banner year for Halloween junk food. So far, I’ve seen too many repeats and not enough new-and-noteworthy candies. (Course, average buyers wouldn’t notice the difference, and they’re the ones who matter.) On the other hand, I did manage to find enough

When people like me bring up the old McDonald’s Halloween pails, we’re usually talking about the first few sets of them, which still stand as some of the most famous (and objectively best) Happy Meal toys ever. Less-celebrated are the many “sequel” sets dotted across the 1990s. Ble

For years now, I’ve been telling y’all that old greeting card stores are some of the best places to find ancient Halloween stuff. It was never a stretch: Locating these stores has been one of my Halloween rituals for a loooong time, and guys, they never disappoint. Since mom-and-pop gr

Get set for the best edition of Classic Creepy Commercials yet. I’m serious. I’m Babe Ruthing this mofo. All of these ads were rescued from taped-off-television compilations. For maximum effect, imagine them sandwiched between seven-minute stretches of DuckTales and Scooby-Doo. You

We visited a random party store in Jersey, and guys, this place was a goldmine. Looked like it hadn’t been renovated since 1992. The layout of their mask section was SO old school. Taking that as a hint, I dug deeper and found tons of vintage Halloween thingies hiding in the aisles. Tak

IT IS HERE, guys. Time to unveil the super spooky September Funpack! UNITED STATES ONLY! LIMITED TIME! LIMITED SUPPLY! I’m extremely happy with how this month’s box came out, and I think you will be, too. It’s the Halloween Countdown around these parts, so naturally, the September Fu

If the new Halloween film has reignited your passion for the franchise at large, we’ve got the perfect hour-killer for you: In this brand new episode of The Purple Stuff Podcast, me and Jay from The Sexy Armpit are proud to present our MICHAEL MYERS MISHMASH — ten weird and aweso

Every Halloween season has that one thing that separates it from all other Halloween seasons. Something that makes it uniquely special, whether it’s a Fruity Yummy Mummy revival or a black-bunned Whopper. This year, that “one thing” seems easy to identify. A new Halloween movie starr

Remember that absurdly frightening drunk driving PSA from the ‘80s? The one with the skeletons? The 1984 TV spot was pretty famous in its time, partly for its use of Michael Jackson’s Beat It, but mostly because the PSA was so shocking in its execution. After four friends agree to let

If you follow me on social media, you know that I’ve been going nuts trying to find that new bat-shaped version of Reese’s Puffs cereal. I love a happy ending: Yep, I finally found it! (I say “finally” as if finding a Halloween cereal during the first week of September is somehow o

Time to dust off another recurring feature from Halloween Countdowns past. Get set for a new edition of ‘80s and ‘90s Halloween Newspaper Ads! (I promise, it’s more exciting than it sounds.) With this series, my goal is to hit upon some of the less-celebrated aspects of yesteryear’

It’s October of 1993. Mom drives you to Toys “R” Us to find a Halloween costume. Too old for Lamb Chop and too bashful for Aladdin, you settle on a cheap hockey mask and a pair of gnarly werewolf gloves. But here’s the best part: After Mom pays the bill, the cashier hands you a

The return of Dino Drac’s Halloween Countdown means I get to dust off one of my favorite recurring features: Classic Creepy Commercials! If you weren’t around for the eighteen previous installments, this is where I gush about old spooky TV commercials. I’ve spent the last six months

Here’s an inordinate amount of words about a GoBots figure. I have my reasons! Meet Creepy, one of the evil Renegades. As far as insectoid robot monsters go, he’s aces. Ghoulish purple claws, toxic green paint, and a name that would make me love him even without those things. What make

Behold, my first big find of the 2018 Halloween season! Pumpkin Spice Frosted Flakes are in stores now, and guys, they are good. Maybe even grrrreat. I’ve never been the biggest pumpkin spice guy, but I like it when it works, and this stuff works. I figured it would, given that pretty mu