Dino Drac’s Spooky September Funpack!
If you’re digging all of the spooky site content during this year’s Halloween Countdown, the best way to guarantee more of it is by subscribing to Dino Drac’s Funpacks!
(LIMITED QUANTITY! AVAILABLE IN THE UNITED STATES ONLY!)
New to the site? Every month, I create and mail out a new Funpack — that being a box of goodies stuffed with retro-and-new toys, cards and other assorted nonsense. Subscriptions are handled via Paypal and run $25 a month (including shipping), and you can cancel at any time without penalty.
Without the Funpacks, there’d be no Dino Drac, so all subscribers have my sincere and unending thanks for helping to keep this silly site going!
September’s Funpack is all about Halloween, of course, loaded with well over a dozen items that should guarantee you at least one night where you can cut loose and embrace the goofy awesomeness of the spooky season.
Skip to the bottom of this post for ordering info, or keep reading to see everything you’ll receive! Read More…
Classic Creepy Commercials, Volume 12!
Ah, the first Classic Creepy Commercials post of the 2016 season. I can bleed again.
If you’re new to the site, old TV commercials with a Halloween slant are my favorite things in the world. Every year, I do my best to infect everyone with that same peculiar passion.
Below are six more spooky ads from the ‘80s and ‘90s, joining the hundred-or-so already buried in the Dino Drac archives. May they spark memories of regrettable costumes and pillowcases full of chocolate.
Real Ghostbusters Toys! (1980s)
If the shots from Ghostbusters II are any indication, this one’s from 1989. By then, the Real Ghostbusters collection had already been around for years, leaving Kenner with no choice but to keep getting weirder.
New on the block was the Super Fright Features set, which was another of Kenner’s attempts to make kids buy the same four characters they’d already bought seventeen times. It sounds exploitative, but real heart and soul went into each wave. There may have been 200 Egon figures by the time Kenner threw in the towel, but none of them were remotely alike.
On the Halloweenier side, this spot also features The Mummy Monster from the aptly-titled Monsters series, where Kenner borrowed monster characters who were already famous long before Peter Venkman ever got slimed.
Given how creative Kenner was in creating custom ghosts for the toy line, I can’t in good conscience say that the Monsters line was a step up. On the bright side, they were really cool monsters! Read More…
Old Halloween Newspaper Ads, #1!
Ready for some thick Halloween nostalgia? Of course you are. That’s your drug and I’m your dealer. Our relationship is sketchy and has been for years.
Down below: Five spooky newspaper ads from the ‘80s and ‘90s.
The “Hannibal Voorhees” Mask!
(Walgreens, 1993)
Cheap hockey masks (or “Jason masks”) have arguably been the most ubiquitous costume accessory of the past several decades.
Certain companies may utilize better materials or add goofy gimmicks, but the “standard” mask — a chunk of white plastic with a simple strap — is as easy to find today as it was in the mid ‘80s, when Jason Voorhees was a much fresher face.
Shown here is one of that mask’s famous spinoffs. After The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal Lecter became an unlikely star of the Halloween season, thanks chiefly to the restraint mask he wore while trolling Ruth Martin.
Plastic replicas were common, but even more popular was this version, which blended Hannibal’s restraint mask with Jason’s hockey mask to create something familiar but altogether distinct.
The dueling references were lost on me as a kid, but they’re plain as day to see now. Though certainly more popular in the ‘90s, these masks still pop up today. Read More…
Five Random Action Figures, Part 31!
Certain Dino Drac features take a break during the Halloween Countdown, but not Five Random Action Figures. I know where my bread is buttered.
But since we are in the spooky season, any editions published between now and Halloween will feature scary monsters exclusively. That’s partly to maintain the theme, but mostly because I love photographing action figures over beds of cheap phony moss. You can’t do that with or in April.
Pudgy Pig
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1994)
Ah, my favorite MMPR monster! I haven’t seen the episode featuring Pudgy Pig since high school, but even after 20 years, it’s hard to shake the visual of a bulbous piggy head in a legionary helmet strolling around on showgirl legs.
I thought the first few waves of Power Rangers toys were a mixed bag. The line’s most popular and/or expensive offerings generally struck me as being the most cumbersome, with the more intricate ones working under the same principle as Jenga stacks. On the bright side, Bandai almost never messed up the monsters.
Could there have possibly been a more perfect representation of Pudgy Pig in action figure form? So good. Dig the pig. Fine swine. Read More…