Dino Drac’s November Funpack!
NOTE: The deadline has passed for the November Funpack. To see what I’ve cooked up for December, click here!
I know we’re still in Halloween mode, and thank God for that, but if you’ll pardon me this one exception, it’s time to debut Dino Drac’s NOVEMBER 2014 Funpack! (Available to those living in the United States only.)
If you’re worried about those post-Halloween doldrums, I think November’s Funpack will be a great pick-me-up. It’s quite possibly my favorite one so far! Read More…
Candy Corn Pebbles Cereal!
Happy Saturday! With less than a week left before Halloween, I hope you’re taking advantage of the weekend by cramming in as many SPOOKY THINGS as possible. Don’t dawdle. You’re gonna miss it when its gone.
Might I suggest tracking down a box of Post’s new Candy Corn Pebbles cereal?
I’ve been trying to get my hands on this since the start of the Countdown, but around here, it didn’t hit stores until this week. I say this with confidence thanks to nigh-daily searches that left me with nothing but anguish. Oh well, it was totally worth the wait! See what I thought in three and a half minutes:
As I mention, the cereal looks and smells like candy corn, but the taste is neutral enough to make it safe for people who hate candy corn. It’s basically a less tangy Fruity Pebbles, or perhaps more accurately, a cross between Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles. Which I think is a first? Read More…
McDonald’s “Book of Life” Halloween Pails!
They’re not McBoo pails, but they’re the spiritual successors!
Now at McDonald’s, each Happy Meal comes with one of two trick-or-treat pails based on The Book of Life, which isn’t exactly a “Halloween” movie, but remains perfectly on-point because its promotional imagery deals mostly in chalk white skulls.
McDonald’s has been putting out similar pails for years now. It started in 2010 with a Mr. Potato Head theme, and I don’t think they’ve missed a season since. The pails are always lidless, always stinking of fries, and always accompanied by a circular sheet of stickers. Read More…
The RETURN of the SCARY MARY HOTLINE.
Uh oh!
It’s the return of Dinosaur Dracula’s…
SCARY MARY HOTLINE.
If you don’t know what this is about, I’d suggest reading this article from last year.
Or, if you don’t feel like clicking around, I’ll just repeat myself!
Back when pay-per-minute telephone hotlines were a huge deal, it seemed like every kid-targeted “thing” had one. Teen idols had them, musicians had them… hell, even cartoon characters had them. We gobbled them up! Needlessly protracted messages from our favorite stars may sound like a waste of money, but in a world with far fewer ways to kill a few minutes, they were pretty great. Stupid, but great.
The best of them — in my humble opinion — took us deep into the bowels of hell. There were TONS of horror hotlines in the ‘80s and ‘90s, featuring everyone from Freddy Krueger to Grandpa Munster to ghouls of a more generic sort. What made them special was that they weren’t just for hardcore fans. Kids who were typically petrified of “horror stuff” could test the waters, listening for as long as their nerves (or wallets) would allow.
Hotlines being what they were, keeping you on the phone for as long as possible was the goal. Sometimes, you’d have to wait for the end of the message to find out how you could win a free bicycle. Other times, your narrator just spoke very, very slowly. The only kids who listened to the entire messages were the ones who gave no fucks about what their parents would do when the bills came in. The rest of us hung up early, satisfied that we “talked” to Freddy Krueger for even one measly minute. What a story to tell at school!
It’s easy to make fun of those old hotlines. They were exploitative and goofy, and in 2014, it’s hard to imagine paying for such a “privilege.” Still, I have nothing but fondness for my own experiences. Those hotlines put unique stamps on otherwise boring days, and in the case of the horror hotlines, the thrill was more akin to a roller coaster — but one you could step off of whenever the going got rough.
…which leads me to the return of Dinosaur Dracula’s SCARY MARY HOTLINE! Read More…