My Pet Monster, LIVE at Toys “R” Us!

As My Pet Monster fans know, the well doesn’t run very deep. There’s the classic doll, a couple of spinoffs, a short-lived cartoon and that weird live-action movie. Once you’ve absorbed those things, you’ve pretty much read the book.

…which is why it’s my great privilege to show you something that even the most devoted followers of My Pet Monster probably don’t know about:

Yes, a costumed character version of My Pet Monster once appeared at Toys “R” Us!

(The suit was less a “come-to-life” My Pet Monster and more just a super-sized version of the doll, with the same dead eyes and the same rubber teeth. Hell, it even had the plastic handcuffs!)

My Pet Monster’s unlikely appearance was promoted in this commercial, which I found hiding in a DuckTales episode from 1987. Woo hoo.

Our hero appeared alongside Garfield, a Pound Puppy and a Cabbage Patch Kid. Strange that out of the four costumed characters, My Pet Monster only came in third as far as nightmare fuel. (The Cabbage Patch Kid in particular could’ve inspired her own horror franchise.)

If you never had the chance to experience one of these old Toys “R” Us meet-and-greets, boy did you miss out! Since these were official appearances sponsored by toy companies, the costumes were always top notch. It wasn’t like meeting a fake Power Ranger in a motorcycle helmet at some car dealership.

The characters made their entrances through the swinging storeroom doors, and if you were a kid at the time, it all seemed super Hollywood. You’d actually be nervous in their presence, not because they were scary, but because the idea of offending a six foot Pound Puppy would’ve made any kid sick.

(Well, sometimes they were scary, too. Remember my Purple Stuff Podcast story about meeting Darth Vader at one of these events? I was completely convinced that he was going to murder my brother. Of course, that didn’t stop me from asking for a new Darth Vader figure on the way out.)

I hope you’ve enjoyed this slice of forgotten My Pet Monster history.

Now back to Disney’s DuckTales.