Dino Drac’s February Funpack is here!
If you’re already a Dino Drac Funpack subscriber, congratulations, you’re part of a currently maxed-out club!
Subscriptions are closed for February’s Funpack, though I do have a few spare boxes that I can sell on an individual basis. (Scroll to the bottom if interested, and be quick!)
UNITED STATES ONLY! LIMITED SUPPLY!
February is one of the dreariest months of the year, so I designed this box with weird winter cheer in mind. Weird winter cheer, and so much Batman. Keep scrolling to learn about everything in this month’s Funpack! Read More…
Visiting the house from Spookies!
Yesterday, I visited the house from Spookies. Stood right in front of it with the old VHS tape, like a big dummy:
In real life, it’s the Peter Augustus Jay House, located in Rye, NY. It’s a preserved and protected landmark now, but it certainly wasn’t in the mid ‘80s, when Spookies was filmed. Back then, it was just a rundown mansion with moldy walls and busted electricity. Terrible for most purposes, but perfect for a low-budget horror movie:
Now, this place wasn’t just “in” the movie — it WAS the movie. Everything you see in Spookies was shot in that house, or in front of that house, or in back of that house. Hell, if I remember the story correctly, many in the cast and crew actually slept there during filming.
While inside tours are on hold due to Covid, I mainly just wanted to see the front of it, anyway. Turns out that I live just an hour away from the Jay House. (On a good day, at least. I have to take the GW Bridge to get there, which is often so stuffed with traffic, I’d get to Point B faster by mailing myself via UPS Ground.) Read More…
Purple Stuff Podcast: The Future Show!
The Purple Stuff Podcast is kicking off the new year with a trip to THE FUTURE!
We’re looking at things that were either set in the future, or that just seemed futuristic in their time. It’s a super eclectic mix loosely bound to one vague subject, but hey, that’s us!
Get set for an hour with me and Jay from Sludge Central, as we ramble on about everything from Photon guns to Casio calculator watches to a little-known movie called Star Crystal.
Click here to listen to this week’s show!
As a reminder, we’re also on Patreon, where you can grab an exclusive bonus show every month. It’s a good time to sign up: January’s bonus show is already live, and we’re planning *two* bonus shows in February. Thanks so much for your support! Read More…
TMNT References in Television and Movies!
It’s tough to exaggerate how popular the Ninja Turtles were in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Batman may have been a bigger movie and The Simpsons may have been a bigger TV show, but the thing about the Turtles is that they hit into EVERYTHING.
All at once, they had a white hot cartoon, a white hot movie, a white hot toy line, a white hot arcade game, and a comic book series that was at least red hot, but probably white, too.
When something gets into the zeitgeist to that degree, its reach keeps expanding even when it’s not doing anything. From their halcyon days, below are five times the Ninja Turtles were referenced in movies and TV shows. (You know you’ve made it when Sophia Petrillo namedrops you!)
TMNT 2 VHS on Step By Step! (1992)
In Back to Basics (S2), Carol fumes over the kids’ financial irresponsibility — mostly thanks to a rented copy of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II, which got lost under a bed for so long that she had to buy it outright.
Frank is less annoyed, because he’s heard great things about The Secret of the Ooze. Surely there are worse things to be saddled with than a movie wherein David Warner uses magic slime to grow a werewolf. Frank can’t wait to kick back and relax with the Ninja Turtles and a cold can of… Sprit?
Props to the prop department: Not only is that a legit TMNT II videocassette, but it’s very specifically a rental copy. You can tell by the cumbersome hard plastic sleeve. (I couldn’t stand those. They may have been protective, but I hated having to shake them like maracas to get the tapes out.)
(Big thanks to Looey Q Comics for tipping me off about this!)
TMNT Cereal on 21 Jump Street! (1989)
In the opening seconds of Mike’s P.O.V. (S4), a high school student (that’s Mike) breakfasts on TMNT Cereal before heading off to school. Oh, and because this is 21 Jump Street, he kills someone on the way to class.
The cereal wasn’t just a cute reference or a matter of happenstance — it helped establish that Mike was still a kid. Given that the guy who played him (Donovan Leitch Jr.) was over 20 at the time, that was pretty essential.
A mix of cheap Chex and chalky marshmallows, TMNT Cereal wasn’t one of my favorites. That never kept me from grabbing it, because the Ninja Turtles were my gods and they demanded tribute. (And also because of the way-cool giveaways, like those bowls that came shrink-wrapped to the boxes!) Read More…