Spooky VCR Games, Ripped 4 Your Pleasure.
Hi, I’m Matt, and I collect tapes from old VCR board games.
Just the tapes, I mean. I can’t honestly claim that they’re super fun to watch without the game components, but as a kid, I did it all the time.
It started with the Clue VCR Mystery Game. My parents received it as a Christmas gift in 1985, or maybe it was 1986? Whatever the case, they never played it. The box sat in a drawer for years, collecting dust next to a bunch of mysterious wires that everyone was too afraid to toss.
I eventually adopted it, but it was tough to play VCR board games by yourself. Instead, I just watched the included tape like it was an actual movie. In a way, it was, and in many ways it wasn’t. In time, that tape became something I threw on whenever I wanted sights and sounds without needing to pay much attention to them.
That’s my pitch for this article, actually. Out of context, the tapes that came with VCR board games don’t make a whole lot of sense, but as background noise, they’re phenomenal!
Below are complete rips of the videos that came with three classic VCR board games. Since it’s the Halloween season, all of them have something to do with horror. (Those were the best ones, anyway.)
I’m not suggesting that you plop down on the couch with a bowl of popcorn for any of these, but they’re perfect for those occasions when you’re, say, reorganizing the junk on your shelves, or doodling monsters with crayons, or redoing your eBay watch list as a tacit admission that you’ve never really gonna buy a MOC Stinkor from 1985, even if it’s the best way to guarantee fresh patchouli. Read More…
Dino Drac’s Envelopes of Evil are back!
Surprise — it’s back! Dino Drac’s fifth ENVELOPE OF EVIL is available now, assuming you live in the U.S. and have $31 to spare.
You’ll receive a Priority Mail envelope stuffed with all sorts of spooky goodies, and maybe one that isn’t spooky at all. It’s a macabre mix of reading material, collectibles and activities, and exactly the sort of treasures that Dino Drac readers would be into. (I hope!)
Supplies are limited, and once they’re gone, they’re gone forever. Scroll to the bottom for ordering info, or keep reading to learn about everything you’ll receive!
(Please note that this is NOT a Dino Drac Funpack — that’s still yet to come. This is just a side thing!) Read More…
A Halloween Mood Table For My Cat.
Well, it’s October 1st, and you know what that means. Halloween Mood Table time!
I invented the Halloween Mood Table back in 2007. You can think of it as Halloween’s Christmas tree. Just set up a small table somewhere in the house, and cover it with spooky junk. Beyond the decorative factor, the hope is that you’ll have “a spot” to turn to whenever you need to rejuvenate your Halloween spirit.
My Halloween Mood Tables have gotten weirder over the years. Back in 2018, it was more of a Halloween Mood Monster. Then last year, I skipped the usual bric-a-brac and let my action figures enjoy a month-long Halloween party.
As for 2020? Well…
This year, I decided to make a Halloween Mood Table for my cat.
All it took was a trip to Petco and, jeez, 75 dollars? How the hell did that cost 75 bucks? Oh well, my cat is worth it. Let me introduce you to him:
Meet Halloween. Yes, that’s his name. Halloween the cat.
He’s around four months old. We weren’t intending to adopt another cat, but this guy almost literally fell in our lap. At first, we told ourselves that we were only fostering Halloween until we could find him a forever home. That lasted roughly twenty minutes. This is his forever home.
Halloween has a condition called cerebellar hypoplasia. The part of his brain that handles motor skills is underdeveloped. Some cats have a milder form of CH that gives them balance issues and a “wobbly gait,” but Halloween has a severe case. He can’t walk at all, except for those 1-2 second instinctual bursts that always end with him sideways on the floor. The condition will never get worse, but it will never get better.
It’s usually a death sentence for strays and ferals, but cats with CH can manage perfectly well indoors. You’d be amazed at what this kitty can do. Read More…
McDonald’s Haunted Halloween Happy Meal!
When I say “Halloween Happy Meal,” your mind drifts to one of two things: Those awesome buckets, or that army of costumed Chicken McNuggets.
And hey, I get it! Objectively, those are the best spooky goodies McD’s has ever produced. Doesn’t mean that there aren’t others deserving of 700-word tributes, though.
So let’s talk about their Haunted Halloween Happy Meal, from 1998.
For people my age, this set is mostly familiar through eBay hunts and the occasional yard sale. There’s a dark period in our lives when we’re too old for Happy Meal toys, yet not old enough to stop giving a shit that we’re too old. The Haunted Halloween set debuted when I was stuck in that terrible hell, appropriately scored by Garbage’s Version 2.0. Read More…