Dinosaur Dracula!

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation!

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation isn’t just one of my favorite Christmas movies — it’s one of my favorite movies period. It’s a film that becomes more beloved with each and every viewing, and I can say that with confidence because I’ve seen the damn thing over a hundred times.

Jay from The Sexy Armpit feels the same way, so it was only fitting that we’d dedicate an episode of The Purple Stuff Podcast to Clark’s merry misadventures.

Yep, we’re kicking off the holiday season with an hour-long tribute to Christmas Vacation, featuring everything from moose mugs to Taz mugs to Aunt Freakin’ Bethany. It’s a show we’d planned to do since our earliest Purple Stuff days!

Click here to listen to the new episode!

Thanks as always for listening, and for sharing the show around! If you missed the news, we’ve also started a Patreon page for The Purple Stuff Podcast, where you can pledge a little dough and receive access to monthly bonus shows. (The first of which will be dropping very soon!)

If you want spoilers about what’s covered in this week’s episode, here are some pics:



If you’re heading off to Parts Unknown for the holiday, have a terrific Thanksgiving and a fruitful Black Friday. I’ll be on stuffed mushrooms duty as usual!

Pringles Thanksgiving Dinner!

I was one of the lucky few who managed to snag a limited edition Pringles Thanksgiving Dinner kit. Yes, that’s a real thing that really exists.

These weird ass Pringles were only available online and sold out in minutes, even despite a midnight drop. Naturally, the $15 kits then popped up on eBay, where they’re still fetching 8-10 times that much.

Each box contains a complete Thanksgiving dinner in Pringles form. (I love how I wrote that sentence so casually, as if “Thanksgiving dinner in Pringles form” didn’t call for at least five dramatic ellipses.)

Turkey in a Can! Stuffing in a Can! Pumpkin Pie in a Can!

Each variety has an equal number of calories and roughly the same nutritional profile. I don’t know what “disodium guanylate” is — my guess would’ve been a stray lyric from Cracker’s Low — but if you eat everything shown above, you’re getting shitloads of it.

Let’s grade the beasts: Read More…

Dino Drac’s November Funpack is here!

The November Funpack is always one of my favorites to put together. It’s a chance for me to create a sort of “2nd Thanksgiving” for y’all, where the turkey is replaced with candy and the blessings are replaced with, uh, Phantom of the Opera figures.


UNITED STATES ONLY! ONLY AVAILABLE FOR 3 DAYS!

I think you know the score by now. Dino Drac’s monthly Funpacks are available on a subscription basis. It’s $25 a month (including shipping), and for as long as you remain subscribed, you’ll get a new box of old nonsense each and every month. Scroll to the bottom for ordering info!

The November 2018 Funpack is loaded with strange food, stranger collectibles and a whole lotta Snoopy. Keep reading to learn about everything that’s inside this month’s box! Read More…

Toys from the ’88 JCPenney Xmas Catalog!

Ah, the holiday season — my favorite excuse to blow money on old department store catalogs just so I can scan a few pics of action figures. It’s just what The Waitresses sang about.

Let’s look at some highlights from the 1988 JCPenney Christmas catalog. I’ve reviewed other editions before, but if this is your first time, those catalogs were only slightly less amazing than Sears Wish Books. So many toys, so many video games, so many gaudy bathrobes!

I would’ve been nine years old at the time, ruled by plastic monsters and Nintendo cartridges. Naturally, Santa brought me several of the exact things featured in this catalog. I even have proof!

See if these scans jog your memory:

G.I. Joe Action Figure Sets!
($19.99 each)

Love seeing these “mixed assortments” of action figures in old catalogs. Since it was impractical to sell the figures individually via mail-order, the stores grouped batches of ‘em together, and kept the prices jusssst low enough to let those batches pass as bargains.

But there was a catch! Usually, these action figures arrived in simpler packages than their in-store counterparts. On the lower end, the figures were sealed in plastic baggies and then stuffed into plain cardboard boxes. They were the same toys, of course, but getting six figures in a plain box wasn’t quite as exciting as getting six figures on their beautiful cards.

I’m digging that “Bad Guys Set” on the bottom. What a lineup! Toxo-Viper looked like the “Homer’s Car” version of a Cobra troop, while that red-faced Iron Grenadiers dude was one of my favorite figures from any toy line. (I thought of him as the Negaverse Cobra Commander.) Read More…