Vintage Vending #25: Gooey Grabbers!
It’s time for another edition of Vintage Vending, celebrating more of the crummy/perfect nonsense that we used to trade our quarters for. GET EXCITED. TRY TO.
Since this one is going up during the Halloween Countdown, everything featured below is SPOOKY. I’ll also double down and feature two old vending machine prize sets this time around. Pay me.
First is the Gooey Grabber collection, likely from 1985 or 1986. Though I’ve featured similarly “slimy” toys on Vintage Vending before, the difference this time is in the presentation. It’s so evil!
The teaser card design reminds me of so many 1980s spook houses, but the real treat is that “mascot” hiding on the left. He’s clearly a Garbage Pail Kids ripoff! Read More…
2015’s Best Halloween Junk Food, Part 2!
As the Halloween season creeps closer to its conclusion, you may need a little pick-me-up to keep your spirit in check. Easiest solution: Eat a buncha junk food!
It’s been an incredible season on the spooky food front, as I’ve evidenced many times over the last few months. Here’s another batch of this year’s best Halloween junk food, waiting to be hunted and purchased and devoured and excreted.
Gross.
Halloween Crunch Cereal!
Halloween Crunch has been around for almost ten years now, leaving me with the sad realization that I had no good reason to write more about it. What’s worse, the cereal spent the previous several years repeating the same box design, making longtime Halloween bloggers like me cry real tears over having nothing new to report.
Well, this year is different! While the cereal remains unchanged, they finally updated the box. Guys, they swung for the FENCES with this one. It’s by far the best-looking of this year’s Halloween cereal boxes, so dark and so foreboding that I almost can’t believe Quaker Oats signed off on it.
If you’re new to Halloween Crunch, it’s normal Cap’n Crunch with the added bonus of reddish ghost shapes, which each hide powdery pockets of green food dye. When milk is added, the dye turns it green, leaving you with a big bowl of weirdness that looks straight out of Nilbog. That’s so Halloweeny. Read More…
Five Random Action Figures, Part 23!
A fortuitous stop at a New Jersey toy store left me with just enough ammunition for another spooky-themed edition of Five Random Action Figures.
Thanks for the good deals, Unmasked Collectibles! (And also thanks for having that R2-D2 cooler, because angels get wings every time I see one of those.)
Electronic Talking Venom!
Marvel Super Heroes, ToyBiz 1991
I absolutely loved ToyBiz’s Marvel Super Heroes line, which went hand-in-hand with Marvel Universe trading cards to transform me from someone who was casually aware of comic books into someone who still remembers planet Salaria by name.
Among the set’s best figures was Venom, but specifically THIS Venom, which came with the accessory to end all accessories: A battery-operated backpack that let him spew audible threats! Each of the backpack’s three buttons signaled a different phrase, the best of which being — and this is an exact quote — “I WANT TO EAT YOUR BRAIN.”
The figure debuted back when anything having to do with Venom was immediately cool, but the fact that this one came with a Halliburton modified into a shit-talking backpack just put it over the top. Read More…
The Purple Stuff Podcast: Episode 11!
The latest episode of the habitually late Purple Stuff Podcast is now available!
By popular request, me and Jay from The Sexy Armpit are doing a SPOOKY SONGS SEQUEL, covering another 13 creepy tunes that are perfect for anyone’s Halloween playlist. (If you missed the original episode, it’s over here!)
We’re mixing oddities with some on-the-nose choices, and if you listen to the whole thing, you might even hear another reference to Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake. Check it out using the player below, or download the MP3 directly at this link.
For those who requested a longer show: This one is!
The Purple Stuff Podcast is on iTunes and Stitcher, too! Thanks for listening, as always! Read More…