Its that time again! Time for Pumpkin spice Latte to take over every product including candles and #2 pencils! Time for bags of candy that you'll be nursing until Christmas! Time for every cosplayer like myself to complain we have nothing to wear for Halloween!
And, of course, time for a Dinosaur Dracula Funpack! I'm excited about this one--but seriously, I'm excited for every pack I get--because LOOK AT THAT HALLOWEEN THE CAT STICKER! The treat bag is a great treat in of itself, but KITTY. 8D
Halloween the at has been a fixture of the DinoDrac IG, where you can see this adorable special needs kitty be the cutest thing in the universe.
Let's take a look at the plethora of goodies from the pumpkin treat bag, which is stuffed full of tasty and fun treats.
Lookit that haul. Like a Great Jagras piñata-smacked for its gems, except these decorations are candy and x-ray specs. The metaphor got away from me in a F1 racer, sorry >>.
Sometimes it feels like...somebody's watching me.....
Let's start, as we usually do, on the tasty goodies. Snack food from my DD funpacks have been a key in keeping me from getting Deviljho Hangry on a weekly basis. Keeping snacks around with our new puppy Ace (a bottomless pit black lab that literally eats anything including inedible objects) is a challenge but if he gets into my fruit snacks, I'mma go off on his Ultrapuppy bottom. D<
While it doesn't look like much, let me tell you getting more than maybe 2-3 items in a pack is certainly the treat. 8D I'm a fiend for fruit snacks, but GET OUT OF MY WAY, THAT COWTAIL IS MINE.
Maybe its just me, but having a bunch of lollipops makes me really happy in terms of a halloween haul. I'm a sucker for suckers.....8D (I'll see myself out later). I have 2 kinds of candy tastes: caramel/butterscotch with milk chocolate, and hard fruit candy, preferably slightly sour. And sometimes, after Reese's and Snickers, I need that fruit hit from something like Skittles or Airheads.
Also, the teeny bag of Franken Berry is genius. More cereals need to make small lunch box bags more often. Unless they already do. I'm not one for researching something like that when I'm busy chowing away at a "first one's always free" mini taste of Franken Berry.
I'm a hack.
One of Dino Drac's recent videos talked about the trading cards as halloween treats phase from decades ago (oh my god the 80s an 90s were decadeS ago....D8), s I won't go too much into that but I wish I had gotten some as a kid. I'm a lil younger than Matt but I totally was trick or treating age by the time the Mario or Zelda Nintendo cards were being put out.
The TGIF cards and the Hunchback cards are staples of the DD funpacks so Its always great to see more of them. I don't think I've ever completed a set of trading cards through Dino Drac but I wanna say I'm getting close.
I don't store them in series (I store them by month received) so heaven help whoever finds my massive binders of obscure and not so obscure trading cards....uh....sorry? >>
The Coke penlight actually works! Its a nice warm light and will do nicely for searching for my phone or glasses when I drop them off the side of my nightstand. It comes with a nice ball chain to attach to keychains though considering its probable vintage nature, I'd worry about breaking it.
Every wanted your very own X-ray specs? Well, I've always wanted a pair. I knew they didn't work (if I recall, Foxtrot or maybe the Simpsons), but I've always wanted to know what kinda trickery could make a kid think they could see through your hand.
Turns out its a red lenticular (?) pair of lenses with some blurry qualities to make a ghostly outline of anything lit by light. On a scale of 1 to fooled-my-8-year-old-self, I'll give it a solid "eh, at least they're not Google Glass".
Let's talk about Super Monstruos, baby, let's talk about you and me. I've gotten a few things from this line of plastic, Hispanic monster figures (the skeleton warrior makes an appearance in an old Dino Drac Advent Calendar image partying with a mini DD, Jenga and a Unicorn.
My XE/DD art is wild sometimes....
Well. All the time.
These guys are made from a shimmery, shiny plastic that makes them go from cheap toys into knock-off bootleggy Sofubi variations. I mean yeah, this emerald Frankie Mon is no vintage Glitter Ultraman Tiga sofubi, but they make them feel a little more special. Frankie stands pretty well, though Mr Pirate's pegleg makes him stand about as well as a late game Jenga tower on a rickety card table. Below is the pamphlets that came with the figs, showing the line of figures with blurbs about them.
The Freddy figure seems to actually be licensed, as New Line is credited on its page, which is hilarious considering the Human Fly isn't. Fair Use, amirite?
I didn't know there were so many figs in the set, and as they were never actually released here in the States, I feel saddened. Damn, I have to get into another plastic figure obsession besides Sofubi? I'm screwed.
Here's the mini poster, harkening back to a halcyon, long gone time when we had Halloween specials on the tv and ads of spooky and scary franchise toys.
I miss those days, BUT if you need a Ghostbuster scratch, I highly recommend the new figures released for the upcoming new movie as they perfectly capture the old school toys.
Have I fawned over the adorable Halloween the cat sticker? HALLOWEEN THE CAT.
This cat is the best thing ever. And now I have a sticker of hi fluffy face :3
The newsletter and essay are my favorite parts of the boxes (next to the snacks because I am also a bottomless pit for snacks like my puppy). I really love reading DD articles and having them on paper for me to keep in a nice binder somehow makes me feel warm and fuzzy.
Also I love the drawing assignments, with this month's being a HALLOWEEN CANDY MONSTER. I can't wait to make a candy kaiju or something. Maybe a candy version of the Flatwoods Monster. Because of course.
The essay is about the little, behind the scenes things he enjoys outside the site. Just vibing with his kitty in the living room, or having late night drives (something Doc and I do on occasion).
And that's the thing we should be trying to remember about the fall into winter holidays; from Halloween down to roughly Valentine's day with Lunar New Year and maybe an unusually early Easter, these holidays pack in activities and special events that can get overwhelming. I sometimes forget to breathe during the holidays and take breaks. I recommend it to anyone. Go out and grab a holiday coffee, light a candle, take a night drive and just talk with someone while driving aimlessly. They feel really rejuvenating. Especially those boba tea runs or night drives. Can't recommend those enough.
While we've scaled back the Halloween Countdowns, I feel like we can churn out some better content and articles as we go. It feels better to just kinda enjoy the holiday instead of always trying to capture and document the moments. Go out and find your spooky this year, Lunies.
I've got some Nosferatu to watch.
--Dio (10/20/21)