Purple Stuff Podcast: The Santa Show!
The Purple Stuff Podcast’s big December show is here! If you’re having trouble getting into the holiday spirit, an hour-long discussion about wacky Santa Clauses oughta fix you right up.
Yes indeed! In our latest episode, me and Jay from Sludge Central name eight of our favorite SANTA CLAUSES from all walks of pop culture. Movies! TV shows! Cereal! Weird decorations! Creepy hotlines! It’s all here!
We don’t know what took us so long to tackle such an obvious subject, but we think this episode was worth the wait.
Click here to listen to this month’s show!
As a reminder, you can also support the Purple Stuff Podcast on Patreon, where you’ll get an exclusive bonus show every month. December’s is coming soon, but if you join today you’ll also get access to all of our older bonus shows. There are a lot of them!
Below are supplemental links about the Santas we’re featuring on the show. Don’t read if you’re avoiding spoilers!
1. Boris Karloff as Santa!
2. Harry from Christmas Evil!
3. Cap’n Claus from Christmas Crunch!
4. Santa from Christmas Comes To Pac-Land!
5. Empire’s Giant Santa Head Blowmold!
6. Creepy 900-Number Santa!
7. Morticia Claus from The Addams Family!
8. Santa from Power Rangers!
Thanks so much for listening, and for sharing the podcast around. (It really helps!)
Feel free to name some of your favorite pop culture Santas, in the comments!
Dino Drac’s December Funpack is here!
Hey! It’s time to show ya Dino Drac’s December Funpack. It’s ho ho hot.
U.S. ONLY! LIMITED SUPPLY!
Maaaan guys, this is a good one — a great mix of stuff that’s perfect as a holiday gift to yourself!
If you’re already a subscriber, good news, you’re locked in!
If you’re not a subscriber and you want this Funpack, here’s the deal: Subscriptions are currently closed, but I do have a small amount of extras that I can sell on an individual basis. These are very limited and may not last long. Scroll to the bottom to grab one, or keep reading to learn about everything in this month’s box! Read More…
Highlights from the 1986 JCPenney Catalog!
December is moving way too fast. I should be used to it, since it always does. What is it about this month? Why is December ten minutes long?
I can’t slow December down, but I can make the most of what’s left of it. By “make the most” I of course mean thousand-word articles about toy catalogs from 1986.
Today we’re gonna look at highlights from JCPenney’s 1986 Christmas catalog. I tried to avoid the most obvious stuff, which wasn’t hard since my catalog was missing 30-40 key pages. (If you’re looking for that year’s heavyweights, check out my older review of the 1986 Sears Wish Book.)
Enjoy this trip back to a time when kids rode robots instead of bicycles. It was a different world.
Armstrong Mobile Command Poweride!
($119.99)
This was produced by Tomy, the same company that gave us Verbot, Omnibot and so many other robot toys of the ‘80s. If anyone was gonna turn a tricycle into R2-D2, it had to be Tomy.
The Armstrong Mobile Command Poweride was a motorized scooter with an insane amount of features. Not only could kids drive him around, but Armstrong could even pick things up with his red robot hands. Assorted buttons triggered laser-like sound effects, and he even came with a microphone that made your voice sound robotic!
This was thirty-five years ago, but I guarantee you that all prior Armstrong owners still think about him every day. I’m sure you have distinct memories of riding your first Big Wheel. Well, imagine if your first Big Wheel had a robot head and arms that could lift bottles of soda. Jesus Christ! Read More…
2021’s Best Holiday Junk Food, Part 1!
Oof, there’s a lot of new holiday junk food out this year. I should’ve started this series weeks ago, because Christmas is like five minutes away and I fear that I’ll never be able to catalog all of this hot new candy before Santa arrives.
But ya gotta start somewhere, so here I am, fueled by sugar and typing with sticky fingers. Below are five of 2021’s hottest holiday junk foods, from soda that tastes like gingerbread to candy canes that taste like cake.
Reese’s Peanut Brittle Cups!
(Found at CVS)
These feel more like a proper dessert than something you’d mindlessly devour, like so many other checkout-line candies. I could see an upscale coffee shop billing these as “gourmet” and charging 3.99 a piece. Instead I got ‘em at CVS along with cough drops and expired cat food.
I don’t know if I would’ve guessed “peanut brittle” on a blind test, but they’re very good, and very peanut buttery. To mimic peanut brittle’s rocky texture, these are filled with crunchy peanut butter, giving them a mouthfeel similar to Hershey’s Krackel bars.
GRADE: A. I predict that these won’t be a one-and-done for 2021. They’re such a home run that I can see Reese’s bringing ‘em back year after year, slowly transforming Peanut Brittle Cups into an all-out holiday tradition. The best part is, if I’m wrong, nobody will remember. Read More…