Imagine a costume that gave you two extra heads, gold skin and a bib with the planet Saturn on it, for one low price. It sounds impossible, but in 1983, it happened.

Distributed by Spearhead Industries, the Cloneheads collection was a series of inflatable Halloween costumes that, among other things, gave you two more heads. Spearhead wasn’t the first to do this gimmick, and they were far from the last, but their Cloneheads series mixed a great vintage feel with such a generic charm that, at least for today, it’s my favorite thing in the whole wide world.

Tomorrow, it’ll probably be those Candy Corn Oreos. Yeah, I heard.

A demonstration:

My “Alien” set is pretty rocking, what with its extraterrestrial robot heads and Saturn smock. Still, when I look back at the other Cloneheads sets, I can’t say that it would’ve been my top pick. Read More…

Dinosaur Dracula’s 1^st Halloween Countdown is more of a reset, of course, since I’ve been doing this thing for ten goddamned years.

The first Halloween Countdown, back on X-Entertainment, started on September 18^th, 2003. The 40 or so articles within it were often rushed, often crude and often designed with really irritating backgrounds, but I still love it. Doing that year’s Countdown is what transformed me from a guy who liked Halloween to a guy who can’t imagine a year without it.

It was a much different Internet in 2003, and certainly, my place in it was worlds apart from wherever my place is now. X-E was still a big site, and making websites was still all I did. I was a year away from starting at Nickelodeon, living the dream of eternal goofs everywhere by being paid to be an eternal goof. I wasn’t making boatloads of money, but at the time, I didn’t need boatloads.

The site’s early success allowed me to stay an idiot kid for a few years longer than people should stay idiot kids, and even if I’m immensely thankful to have grown up in my own weird ways, I can’t say that I’m not a little bit jealous of me-in-2003. Read More…

I was glad to see Spookylicious Pop-Tarts make their triumphant return. Even if Kellogg’s has only been at it for a few years, Halloween Pop-Tarts have already become one of my absolute needs for a great season.

The saga began in 2010, when Choc-o-Lantern Pop-Tarts were introduced. Then, in 2011, Kellogg’s brought ’em back with very minor adjustments and the new “Spookylicious” moniker. I guess focus groups showed that “Spookylicious” was a palatable title, because this year, they went with it again.

Save for the faintest upgrade to the box design, they’re exactly the same as last year’s version. This is no flaw, since last year’s version could only have been more perfect if $50 bills were taped to each Pop-Tart.

Reviewing the same exact Pop-Tarts three years in a row may seem like a stretch, but I ain’t here for that. You already know that they’re delicious and covered in Halloween sprinkles. Still, even if the formula and box design is mostly the same, there is one thing that makes this year’s offering worth another go on the blog fodder front.

Kellogg’s added an all-new recipe to the back of the box! Read More…