Vintage Halloween Treat Sacks!
TELL ME. When you went trick-or-treating, what did you use to hold the candy? A McBoo pail? A pillowcase? A Radio Flyer wagon?
Most often, I’m guessing you used a plastic bag made specifically for that purpose. The “trick-or-treat sack” has historically been just as integral a part of a kid’s Halloween experience as his or her costume, so it’s no big shock that tons of companies made them for promotional giveaways. Think of the free advertising! If I gave away 50 Dino Drac treat sacks, I’d have effectively turned 50 people in walking billboards.
I’ve collected five such promotional trick-or-treat sacks from the ‘80s and ‘90s, which aren’t only windows into Halloweens past, but remembrances of companies as they used to be… or even companies that folded when you were still young enough to go door-to-door for free candy!
Let’s take a look. A look at bags.
#1: Toys “R” Us Treat Sack!
Based on the art, I’m guessing this is from the mid ‘80s. I’m also guessing that TRU sold them rather than gave them away, because a free treat sack would not have had that reinforcing hard plastic oval thing lining the handle. (You’ll notice that the rest of the bags featured here lack it — and they were all obvious freebies, because nobody would’ve paid for them.)
Cold, hard truth: ‘80s kids has the best-ever Geoffrey. Not too creepy, not too sleek, and definitely not too much like a real giraffe… which is good, because real giraffes don’t know what’s going on, and as mascots for toy stores, they’re de facto detached.
Back then, Geoffrey’s family was seen much more often, too. I can’t remember the last time I saw Geoffrietta or Geoffrey Junior; clearly it’s been long enough to forget their real names. Here, the Giraffes (capitalized to denote surname, not species) contemplate trick-or-treating at the scariest house in their neighborhood. Are four fun-sized Almond Joys really worth the risk?
If you look at this bag as a sort of open-ended one-panel comic, it’s pretty Creepypastaish. Read More…
Win a set of Dinosaur Dracula trading cards!
Who wants to win a set of Dinosaur Dracula trading cards?
Yes, Dinosaur Dracula trading cards!
After teasing them for over a year, it’s finally time to give them away! Between now and Halloween, there will be at least fifteen winners of the full 30-card set!
The cards feature gorgeous art, sinister stories and plenty of references to Dino Drac characters and culture, and I… had absolutely nothing to do with them!
The set was the brainchild of my friend Steve, who very casually told me that he and his friends created a Dinosaur Dracula trading card set. Well, holy shit!
Before I tell you more about the cards, let’s give kudos to their creators!
Magic Steve – Conception & Story Writer
Wil Brendel – Artist & Inker
Jake Crunk – Colorist
These guys did this totally on the arm and created the whole set before I even knew about it. They asked for absolutely nothing in return, so the least I could do is ask everyone to follow these creative masterminds on Twitter! (Their names link to their accounts!) Read More…
Madd Matt’s Vampire Doll, from 1988!
Madd Matt is back, and he has a new doll!
Actually, the doll isn’t new. It’s from 1988. Many of you should recognize this animated vampire figure, which for a time seemed as common a Halloween decoration as fake webs and plastic spider rings.
Part of a larger line of battery-operated monsters, I’ve long thought of them as cheap imitations of the much nicer Telco figures. (I don’t mean “cheap” as an insult. On the collectors’ market, those Telco “Motionettes” can go for several hundred dollars apiece, while this cruder Dracula frequently sells for a mere ten bucks. That’s how much I paid. Score!) Read More…
Deadsites: Kellogg’s Spooky Town, from 2000!
Welcome back to Deadsites, where I study defunct websites and revisit the internet’s barely recognizable past!
I wanted something Halloweeny for this edition, of course. How about Froot Loops?
From 2000, it’s Kellogg’s SPOOKY TOWN — a site-within-a-site that was only accessible during October. Though unmentioned, its likely purpose was to promote special Halloween editions of certain Kellogg’s cereals. (Both Froot Loops and Rice Krispies had them that year. Tony the Tiger, noted asshole, abstained.)
“Goofy holiday pages” remain components of kid-targeted marketing today, but 2014’s versions lack the same charm. If Spooky Town existed now, I imagine it would focus on getting kids to share images of Toucan Sam across social media. Maybe it’d have a side page where you could print coupons for shitty e-readers.
Back in 2000, it was rarer for kids to connect with other kids online. If they did, it was either on a heavily-moderated half-forum where every message had to be preapproved, or on a site that they probably shouldn’t have been on. For children, using the internet was mostly “alone time” — and not just in the physical sense.
That partly explains why I love Spooky Town so much. Unburdened by thoughts of viral reach, it’s much more sincere. Just a happy little Halloween page where kids could play games and get tips on their costumes. If their parents were in the room, they’d learn how to make cats out of Cocoa Krispies. Read More…