Dino Drac’s Halloween Funpack is here!
The October Funpack is always one of the most important of the year, so I try my best to really make it rock. This year, I think I’ve succeeded — get a load of the goodies!
UNITED STATES ONLY! *VERY* LIMITED SUPPLY!
It’s a Halloween party in a box, loaded with cool collectibles, awesome art, sinister snacks and even a tub of slime. This is one of my all-time favorite Funpacks, and if you’re already a current subscriber, good for you, because these are pretty much sold out already!
I have just a few spares left, which you can order at the bottom of this page. Subscriptions are maxed out for this month, but if you’re not a subscriber and you want a shot at just this one Funpack, scroll to the bottom and see if they’re still available.
For everyone else: Let’s see what’s in the box! Read More…
Boris Karloff’s Guacamole Recipe!
Today I made Boris Karloff’s guacamole. No, really:
Some of you should be familiar with this 1960s newspaper clipping, where Boris Karloff — yes, as in Frankenstein’s Monster — shared his recipe for guacamole. The recipe is pretty “web famous,” and I’m hardly the first food blogger to give it a whirl.
A few readers requested this article after my experiments with Halloween Chex Mix and Vincent Price’s Supper Casserole. Well, if the thought of me mashing avocados in the name of Frankenstein is all it takes to make you happy, sure, let’s do this.
Before we start, lemme tantalize ya with a shot of what we’re gonna end up with:
Mmm! Like the post-sunlight remains of the Vegetable Gremlin. Read More…
2020’s Best Halloween Junk Food, Part 3!
It’s been a great year for Halloween foodies, but in a quiet sort of way. While we haven’t gotten anything on the level of Fruity Yummy Mummy or the Halloween Whopper, there’s been an awful lot of not-awful stuff!
As this edition of 2020’s Best Halloween Junk Food will demonstrate, the trick is to avoid relying on big department store chains exclusively. Yeah, you’re gonna find stuff at Target and Walmart, but if you stop there, it’s kind of a middling season. Take a few extra drives, and you’ll be ten pounds happier in no time.
Hocus Pocus Shake!
(Available at Carvel)
My sympathies to those who don’t live near a Carvel ice cream parlor, because this is one of the coolest things I’ve seen all season. Partnering with Freeform, Carvel has unleashed a special HOCUS POCUS SHAKE that arrives in its own collectible cup!
(If you didn’t know, Hocus Pocus has become the “mascot movie” of Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween. This year, they’re running the film no less than fourteen times!)
The color of the shake is misleading — it’s actually vanilla flavored, with a generous helping of crushed Oreos. If you’ve never had Carvel’s vanilla ice cream, trust me, nothing compares. Picture soft serve vanilla, but bless it with something marshmallowy. It’s like the ice cream from an ice cream cake, and it tastes like all of my childhood birthday parties.
GRADE: A+. The Hocus Pocus Shake is essentially a revamp of Carvel’s Slime Shake, which was another Freeform promotion. I miss the specific shoutout to slime, but objectively, this one is better.
Halloween II Slasher Sours Candy!
(Found at Spirit Halloween)
The impulse section at Spirit Halloween is loaded with overpriced novelty candy. You can safely ignore much of it, but there are a few things you absolutely need to buy. Like this.
A teensy Michael Myers tin wouldn’t normally stir me up, but my God, check out that candy. Adorable little knives! And they’re to scale with four-inch action figures, so after you get sick of eating weapon-shaped Smarties, you can turn your vintage Admiral Ackbar into a stone cold killer.
Yes, these are marketed specifically as a Halloween II thing. It’s not for any creative reason. Movie licensing rights are wild, and sometimes it’s only possible (or just phenomenally cheaper) to use logos and likenesses from random sequels.
We’re seeing a lot of that this year, and I don’t mind it at all. It’s forcing merchandisers to embrace chapters of film franchises that wouldn’t normally get much attention. (Kinda neat to walk through a costume shop and see Freddy Krueger masks with Dream Master branding. They’re the same masks, but it’s still neat!)
GRADE: A. Honestly, the candy assortment is where Spirit Halloween shines brightest this year. Read More…
Classic Creepy Commercials, Volume 28!
Whether you’re into Freddy Krueger, Universal Studios or KILLER ROBOT CABBAGE PATCH KIDS, this edition of Classic Creepy Commercials will satisfy your weird craving. Enjoy:
Freddy’s Holiday Party Contest! (1988)
Stay with me here, because it gets convoluted!
If you lived in Portland in 1988, you had the chance to win Freddy’s fabulous HOLIDAY PARTY KIT, which included everything from a Dream Master videotape to, wow, Freddy Krueger party hats.
To enter, “all” you had to watch Freddy’s Nightmares (Sundays at 6PM), write the name of the particular episode on a postcard, and then drop that postcard off at a participating video store.
Sounds like a major fuss, but how else were you gonna get your hands on official Freddy Krueger party invitations? I just hope KPDX 49 ran this spot frequently, because it took me five tries to understand the rules. Read More…