The Snowman 1940

I was watching an old Christmas tape and this was one of the featured cartoons:

 


I LOVE this music video using the creepy old cartoon!

Hockey Homicide

Goofy's How to Play Football

Mortal Mansion

Saturday night bedtime story for the kids.  Found this awesome pop-up book for cheap at Savers.  I was going to post this to Instagram, but the app keeps crashing on my phone.  Maybe it's for the best.

So much to look at on each page, and so much blood!  Which page is your favorite?  I actually noticed there is a ghost that looks exactly like the ghost on the cover of Ghosts & Ghouls.

Funko Horror Themed Cereal

While I was watching the Netflix documentary, Making Fun: The Story of Funko, I discovered that Funko is releasing several horror themed cereals in Summer 2018! (Not yet released at the time this post was written)

Funko is working on the following themed cereals, to include a mini-Pop figures in each box, for just $7.99!

Freddy Funko

Elvira, Mistress of The Dark

Freddy Krueger

Cuphead

Beetlejuice

Batman

Pennywise

Captain Caveman

Friday The 13th

Gremlins

Cthulu

Harley Quin

Skeletor

Mumm-Ra

and MORE!

Becker said "When you add milk to the Freddy Kruger cereal, it looks blood red.  With the Beetlejuice cereal, when you add milk it looks like slime."

Did you buy some Funko cereal, or do you plan to?  What do you think?  Did you open the box, or leave it sealed?

Peter Piper Pizza - Memories Snowball Effect

I recently found this cute little PPP (Peter Piper Pizza) mascot to add to the food mascot plush collection.  He was 50 cents at the DI, score!

When I was a kid we didn't visit the Sandy City PPP very often, so it was always a special occasion.  A while back PPP closed all stores in Utah, and I thought they were done, but they do still have locations in other states, and even in Mexico. 

I didn't even know PPP had a dino mascot.  I used to own a Little Caesar mascot as a kid.  I would love to complete the pizza trinity with Little Caesar and The Noid.  Or better yet, some Rock-a-Fire Explosion plushies!  I wouldn't pass up Chuck-E-Cheese plush toys either...

Anyhoo, PPP was my earliest memories of playing Mario Brothers on an original arcade machine.  When I couldn't go to PPP, I would challenge my brother to play the 2-player battle mode on SMB3 (Super Mario Brothers 3).  I played that game to death! 

The moral of the story is pizza places were awesome back in the 80s and 90s, and they are pretty lack luster now.  That may be my nostalgia talking, but I think pizza places are a lot less fun now.  We still have a local Jungle Jim's.  That place is falling apart now, and the rides and games are pretty lame.

When I searched for commercials online I found a bunch of weird YouTube videos about Caillou and family misbehaving at PPP... The internet is a strange place.

During my research (Google searches) I found out that PPP bought out the other PPP (Pistol Pete's Pizza).  Check out this awesome commercial!  I really wish I could have tried it before it disappeared. (Pete's also featured the Rock-A-Fire Explosion.  I thought the show was exclusively at Showbiz Pizza.  The More You Know!)

Anyone remember Discovery Zone?  It was a sad day when the Sandy Mall location closed.

Funko Pops I Might Actually Want

1. Resident Evil Tyrant, Licker, Nemesis, and Hunter
2. GPK Teevee Stevie
3. The Ghostbusters Slimer & Staypuft Marshmellow Man
4. Krampus
5. Monster Cereals Monsters
6. Gravity Falls Bill Cypher
7. Dr. Who TARDIS
8. Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, & , Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde

Netflix The Toys That Made Us

The Toys That Made Us is an episodic documentary series on Netflix about some of the legendary toys from our past.  If you are a toy fan, I highly recommend it!

Episode 1 - Star Wars: This episode was fantastic, and I learned a few things I didn't know about the original Star Wars toy line history. Definitely my favorite episode, even though I am not a big Star Wars toy collector, I do love Star Wars.

Episode 2 - Barbie: This episode was very interesting, even though I am not a Barbie fan.  WARNING: some of the subject matter in this episode is not appropriate for children.

Episode 3 - He-Man: Pretty good episode. Fair warning, a few F-bombs are dropped here.

Episode 4 - G.I. Joe: Can't go wrong with G.I. Joe, I enjoyed this episode

There will be 8 episodes in all.  As of now, only the first 4 episodes are available.

Have you seen the series yet?  What did you think?  Do you have a favorite episode?  What toys made you?

Creepmas 2017 Day 8: Rapsittie Street Kids: Believe in Santa

I feel this has to be a troll movie, but here are the supposed facts per awful-movies.wikia.com:

Rapsittie Street Kids: Believe in Santa is a musical CGI Christmas TV movie from Wolf Tracer Studios Inc. and J Rose Productions and directed by Colin Slater that aired on The WB on November 25, 2002. It was never aired again after that due to it being critically panned. As a result, it was lost for 13 years until it was found and uploaded online.

More insight from awful-movies.wikia.com:

Why It Sucks

1. Very low animation quality, especially the characters' movements.
2. Abysmal CGI that could give an early PSone game a run for its money. The character models are blocky and look unfinished with awkward facial expressions and backgrounds that look really ugly.
3. Lazy lip-synching.
4. Unoriginal storyline typical of many christmas movie. (I would add a non-sensical storyline, with loads of unbelievable dialog)
5. Stereotypical characters.
6. Horrid songs.
7. Loads of filler.
8. The main character Grandma speaks in a jumbled up and backwards manner, yet the characters can all understand her. This was an error or glitch that was never noticed.
9. The film wastes the voice talents of Jodi Benson, Paige O'Hara, Nancy Cartwright, Grey DeLisle and Mark Hamill, as he only appears in two scenes with only eight lines.

Creepmas 2017 Day 2: Merry Christmas Will Byers

Creepmas 2017 Day 1: Mix Tape

May it chill your bones this fine Creepmas season.

Side A

1. Winter's Majesty - Nox Arcana Intro
2. Winter's Majesty - Aquilon's Wish
3. Psych-Out Christmas - Silent Night - Quintron & Miss Pussycat
4. Nightmare Revisited - Nabbed - The Yoshida Brothers
5. Gingerbread Man - The Residents

Side B

1. Psych-Out Christmas - Christmas Monster Party - Len Maxwell
2. The Police - Every Breath You Take (Audio) - Stranger Things 2
3. Psych-Out Christmas - Jingle Bell Rock - Quintron & Miss Pussycat
4. Weird Al Yankovic: In 3-D - Nature Trail To Hell
5. Surprise Eggs! - Do Not Hold On To It - Ulsa

Creepmas 2016 Mix Tape

Mason's 2017 Birthday Wish List

1986 Weird Balls: Wart Hog & Worm Skull

Source

Charlie Brown Thanksgiving DVD

Stranger Things Season 1 DVD Box Set

The Best of Retro Video Games Album on CD

SNES Classic Edition

October Friday the 13th, 2017

Jack 'o Monkey?

Dollar Tree!

 Whoa, check out those graphics!

Great seasonal sweaters!

Halloween 2017 Mixtape

I have been putting together "mixtapes" for a few years now.  Not in the traditional sense, rather I pick and pull songs from YouTube and create a playlist.  I was creating themed playlists for every month of the year, but I got burned out on that.  Now I just create Halloween (and Creepmas) playlists every year.  I hope you enjoy these spooky tunes while you wash your dishes on a dark and stormy night.  

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Side A

1. Adventure Time - Stakes Intro

2. Minecraft - Halloween Mashup Pack 

3. Stranger Things 2 - Comic Con Trailer

4. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle - Phantom Song (Tom Phan)

5. Unsolved Mysteries - Opening Theme

Side B

1. The Misfits - Halloween

2. The Best of Retro Video Games - Pacman

3. The 'Burbs - Main Theme/End Credits

4. Silent Hill 2 - Ashes and Ghosts

5. Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen - Very, Very, Very Unbelievably Scary

"Hidden" Tracks

Over The Garden Wall - Patient is The Night
Over The Garden Wall - Finale 

Halloween 2017, Rising from the grave once more!

Well, it has been far too long and I had to go through and delete all the dirty spammer comments.  Halloween 2017 is quickly approaching!  It's my favorite time of the year and it is time to dust off the ol' blog and talk about Halloween.  No more letting Instagram be my easy blogging alternative.  At least for October and December, the Halloween and Creepmas season.

As a pre-Halloween post if you will, what is your favorite thing about Halloween?  Costumes, candy, movies, foliage, cooler weather, spectral anomalies?

UPDATE:

CHECK OUT http://countdowntohalloween.blogspot.com/ TO SEE HOW YOU CAN PARTICIPATE IN THE COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Mighty Max Storms Dragon Island: Episode 16, Blood of The Dragon

In order to properly obsess over a playset you have to appreciate the cartoon/movie most toy lines are based on. 

Mighty Max is fairly unique, as the toy actually preceded the cartoon show. Check out the pre-cartoon TV spot for the Mighty Max Trapped in Skull Mountain set and it's pretty clear.

The funny thing is each set sounds like the title of an episode, so maybe they already planned on creating a cartoon, they just didn't want to wait to start pushing the toys before the cartoon was ready.  Max was animated in the Skull Mountain commercial.

Without further adieu, YouTube presents Blood of The Dragon:

Cheesy, yes, but I lived for this show when I was a kid!  It was pretty dark.  Drinking blood, even dragon's blood, would be unheard of in today's cartoons marketed to youngsters.  There is even an episode where a bloody crime scene is shown and Max is worried his friends may have been murder victims. Moving on to the cast:

Max - Rob Paulson!  Basically the human boy version of Raphael, and the same voice actor too.

Skullmaster - Tim Curry!  Seriously, there could not be a more perfect choice for Skullmaster.  He really delivers the death threat lines perfectly!

Felix - Maxes best friend. Voiced by Corey Burton, now the narrator of Future Worm.

Virgil - Tony Jay! Top notch casting for this show.  Tony has a great voice and he's perfect as Virgil.

Norman - Richard Moll. I don't believe he ever did any other voice acting, but he's great.  Norm is the muscle and has some nice one liners.

Overall, this episode doesn't translate perfectly to what is featured in the playset.  The Lizard Mutants in the playset look nothing like those in the TV episode.  The island itself is obviously way different. It is a nice adaption however and is close enough.  Next post I will take a closer look at the actual playset.

Did you ever watch Mighty Max?  Do you remember this episode?  Did you ever compare it to the playset?  Let me know what you think in the comments below!

12 Playsets

One for each month of the year.  I will focus on and obsess over these playsets every month accordingly:

January - Lego Space Systems 453 & 454, Landing Plates & Crater Plates. Best. Modular. Set. Ever.

February - Mighty Max Dragon Island - Just add a blue sheet for water. (Red sheet for lava with the Skull Mountain playset)

March - Robin Hood Sherwood Forest playset - Like the Ewok Village, just better.

April - TMNT Technodrome - Pairs perfectly with Mini Mutants for epic scale!

May - The Family Play Castle - Sadly no commercial for this awesome set.  I used to play with this set at my aunt's during the annual Easter get together.  I love that trap door!

Fun facts about the different variations at Anne's Odds and Ends.

June - Tim Mee Battle Mountain - Again, no commercial, how sad.  A perfect multipurpose playset!

July - Construx 6110 Colossal Set - Very yes!

August - Imaginext Bat Cave - It may be the best bat cave so far!

September - Micro Machines Space Galaxy Command - How does this not have a commercial!?

October - Weeble's Haunted House - This one was a new discovery for me.  Found a thrashed set for super cheap!  Love that shaky camera work at the end.

November - Filmation's Ghostbusters Ghost Command - Maybe one day I can own one?

December - PeeWee's Playhouse

Did I miss one?

Frogacuda's Toy Cave Episode 1: 2016 Madballs blind bags CODES!!!

Frogacuda: Hello internet, we hope you enjoy the first episode of Frogacuda's Toy Cave. Cutting straight to the codes first, so you don't need to search all over.  We give you the 2016 Just Play American Greetings Madballs codes!  

Look closely on the back bottom of the package and you will see numbers stamped onto the package, ending 001-007.  Each ending number corresponds with the Madball contained within. (You can barely make it out in this picture, if at all. Don't look at the barcode. You should be able to see the indented number on the bottom.)

001- Skull Face
002- Horn Head
003- Screamin' Meemie
004- Dust Brain
005- Slobulus
006- Oculus Orbus
007- Glow-in-the-Dark Skull Face

Horn Head, Skull Face (& GID Skull Face), Screamin' Meemie, and Oculus Orbus

Frogacuda Jr.: Now we are still hunting for Dust Brain & Slobulus.  So, if anyone finds these two please let us know.

Frogacuda: We are also collecting the full size Madballs, which you can find in the same location as the minis at Target.  We haven't checked Walmart yet, but we've heard they've been spotted there as well.  We need the full sized Horn Head and Slobulus.  If you can find those then count yourself very lucky!  I haven't even seen Slobulus on eBay or anything.

Full size Oculus Orbus

Frogacuda Jr.:  Yep, people have opened cases and haven't found a single Slobulus, and only very rarely found a Horn Head.

Going back to the blindbags, you'll notice there are 13 total on the back.  Only seven are currently available though, so don't give your hopes up looking for Swine Sucker, Lock Lips, Fist Face, Bruiser Brother, Snake Bait, or Buzz Off, because you won't find them. Hoping they will release the rest soon.  Though I find it a bit deceiving to have all 13 on the package now.

Frogacuda: Also, these have had mixed reviews.  A lot of people don't like the "X" eyes.  I don't mind it, I kind of like the style.  I really want to see the animated shorts, but nothing is posted on Madballs.com yet.

Frogacuda Jr.: The "X" eyes kind of bother me, but I still like them. They're a definite buy for any Madballs fan.  I also like that they are made of a squishy foam, just like the originals.

What does everyone watching think?  Do you like these new Madballs?  Let us know in the comments below!

Forgacuda:  Well, that's it for this episode.  If you have any suggestions, words of wisdom, tips & tricks, or you wanna send us any toys to review, or furniture and posters to jazz up our toy cave, please email us at FCToyCave@gmail.com.

My Top 10 Fast Food Toys

Recently I have been thinking about all my favorite fast food toys from the past.  Here are my personal top 10 favorites:

10.  Hardee's Halloween Smooshies

Hardee's had some real winners!  I still have all the Halloween Smooshies, but all the bases the little plushies came in are now all long since lost.  The Surfing Pizza has a nice review HERE.

9. Hardee's California Raisins Series 1-5

My Dad collected a ton of these and I remember playing with them all the time.  Hardee's released 5 sets, including a set of plush raisins!  They were a perfect tie-in with their cinnamon raisin biscuits, and the commercial if perfect!

8. Wendy's Playskool Definitely Dinosaurs

Almost everyone had these kicking around the house, even if you don't remember where they came from. I still have quite a few and they have held up after all these years and my kids play with them today. Check out Katrina's Toy Blog for more info on the definitely Dinosaurs toy line.  I can't believe how many color variants Wendy's released!

7. McDonald's Batman The Animated Series and Batman Returns

Finally, McDonald's  made the list (it's really unavoidable) I'm clumping these 2 batman themes together because the awesome little cars go together so perfectly. 

6. McDonald's Fast Macs & Mickey's Birthday Land Racers

These are just classic!  Like number 7 on the list, these are actually 2 toy lines, but they together perfectly.  I played with these little cars for hours.  Maybe my Dad should've kept them locked up in a case like the dad in the commercial, because us kids eventual wore them out.

5. McDonald's Super Mario 3

Nintendo & McDonald's go together like fries and and a shake!

4. Jack-in-the-Box & Burger King Universal Monsters

These were almost on par with toys you could find at the toy store! I didn't even know about the Jack-in-the-Box Monsters until I saw the fun little video below

3. McDonald's McDino & McRobot Changeables

These are at the top of the list for most fast food toy fans, and I can see why.  I still have some of the Dinos kicking around.  I love that the McRobot commercial used hand-drawn animation, perfectly knocking off the Transformers.

2. SubwayABC's Bump in The Night

Who'd a thunk Subway of all places would make the list!  No offense to anyone that likes Subway's current "toys", but I think it's all pretty lame now.  I loved the claymation Bump in the Night cartoon series, but somehow I missed out on these.  Probably because Subway wasn't really known for kids meal toys.  Maybe some day I will buy these.  Then Bumpy, Squishington, Molly, and Destructo too, can have wonderful adventures while I'm away.

Source

1. Burger King & KFC Micro Machines Z-Bots

It's no secret that I love Z-Bots, and when I found out Burger King had Z-Bots, well, The Burger King Kids Club was the clear winner of the kids meal wars in my eyes.  I found out several years later KFC also had Z-Bots Linkbots, so I thought I'd throw that in.  The KFC Linkbots are pretty ugly, but they're Z-Bots and pretty rare, so I want them too!

What are your favorite fast food toys?  Did they make my personal favorites list?  Am I missing out on an amazing fast food toy premium?  Tell me in the comments below!

Creepmas 2016 Day 13: The 3rd Annual Toytivity Scene

For the past 3 years I have been creating what I like to call my "Toytivity".  Largely inspired by one of my favorite holiday classics, Merry Christmas Mr. Bean.

I was lucky enough to find a decent nativity set from the DI on the cheap so I can use the manger to really sell it.  2016 is my favorite so far.  I only wish I owned more female action figures.  A Blackstar demon will have to do for now.

I'm certainly not the first to create a nativity scene using action figures.  Check out more at http://unrealitymag.com/images/the-action-figure-nativity-scene-contest/

Have you created your toytivity yet? If so, I wanna see it! If you haven't created one yet, then what are you waiting for!?