When people like me bring up the old McDonald’s Halloween pails, we’re usually talking about the first few sets of them, which still stand as some of the most famous (and objectively best) Happy Meal toys ever.

Less-celebrated are the many “sequel” sets dotted across the 1990s. Bless McDonald’s for trying, but as they continually revamped the pails with wackier designs and added features, they lost the core simplicity that made the originals so beloved to begin with.

Still, while those first few sets may forever be the fan favorites, the later editions certainly weren’t garbage. Take the 1992 set, for example, which struck a nice balance between the originals’ simplicity and the later editions’ cartoony excesses: Read More…

For years now, I’ve been telling y’all that old greeting card stores are some of the best places to find ancient Halloween stuff. It was never a stretch:

Locating these stores has been one of my Halloween rituals for a loooong time, and guys, they never disappoint.

Since mom-and-pop greeting card stores have largely become places for people to just buy scratch-offs and coffee, the stock just sits there collecting dust through the years. What was once new becomes vintage, and we get to be the gnarly vultures.

Play your cards right, and you’ll walk out with Halloween decorations from the early ‘90s and even earlier — all at their original prices, to boot!

Get the whole scoop in today’s video:

WATCH IN HD ON YOUTUBE!

I went to four different greeting card stores to prove my point, and this vid should inspire you to go on similar adventures. At least, I hope it does, because that was my main point in putting this together!

We’ll take a tour of various stores, and of course, I’ll show you all of the goodies I picked up. If you want a few spoilers, check out the images below. Yes, all of this old spooky junk was right there for the taking: Read More…

Get set for the best edition of Classic Creepy Commercials yet. I’m serious. I’m Babe Ruthing this mofo.

All of these ads were rescued from taped-off-television compilations. For maximum effect, imagine them sandwiched between seven-minute stretches of DuckTales and Scooby-Doo. You were wearing Skidz and eating Tato Skins, and you hoped that nobody could see you.

Local Haunted House! (1990)

Whenever I write about old TV commercials, there’s a percentage of you who take my word on things and never actually play them. PLEASE, PLEASE DON’T DO THAT WITH THIS ONE.

From El Paso, Texas — Halloween capital of the world — it’s Junior Woman’s Haunted House Spectacular! From what I can tell, this was some sort of local, low-fi Halloween event where kids could meet Dracula and other costumed creeps.

That such a thing even had a TV commercial is amazing enough, but the fact that they pitched Junior Woman’s Haunted House Spectacular with a custom rap makes watching this the best possible use of 30 seconds.

It’s oh-so-imitable, and the replay value is through the roof. I encoded this six months ago, and I’ve seriously watched it more than 200 times. It’s become my go-to medicine for whenever things are bad.

Best part: The music was added in post, which explains why every one of those three dozen kids appeared to be dancing to a different song. Read More…