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10/23/2003: New Article: McDonald’s Halloween Happy Meals Tribute!

Here’s a new article covering some of McDonald’s best Halloween Happy Meals, including a quick look at what dey got goin on this year. Several old favorites are covered — spooky McNuggets, costumed McDonaldland figures, treat certificates, and yes, my personal favorite, the holy “McBoo Trick-Or-Treat Pails.” I loved those things; they’re actually one of the things I always kept on my mind to review for this October. Finally, the day has come. And now I’m glad it’s over. Now I can put away that small part of me who constantly nagged every nerve in my body to write about McBoo pails. It’s over, it’s finally over. Happy Halloween. Updating the Countdown in a few minutes…

Posted by Matt. E-mail me!

Discussion Thread: 78 comments

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First post! Woo hoo!

I can’t understand why I went nuts for those pails.

Ghosted by BaronKrusha @ 10/23/2003 1:44 AM EDT

oh no! poor chinny! poor cute lil ball of soft fluff..

Ghosted by FreakinCrazay @ 10/23/2003 2:07 AM EDT

I had the witch pail in 92 I think lol those things didnt hold candy well for me neither so mom brought along hy vee plastic sacks for the extra candy because she couldnt talk us out of usuing the stupid pails LOL! Poor chinchilla (fuck spelling lol) when did it die ?

Ghosted by Katie @ 10/23/2003 2:20 AM EDT

Oh yes…the mighty witch pail She is fucking cute. Even her lil’ wart still tickles my fancy!

Keep ‘em coming!

Ghosted by Applesauce @ 10/23/2003 2:34 AM EDT

I most definitely had McBoo for years and years. I think I thought it was stupid when i was like 8 (1991), and gave it to my sister, who put all her toys in it. Probably have it still in a box somewhere.

Ghosted by James McQuiston @ 10/23/2003 2:39 AM EDT

I’ve eaten breakfast cereal out of the pumpkin, they make pretty good bowls. I’d say a plain old pillowcase is they best for hauling your loot.

Ghosted by J McIver @ 10/23/2003 3:21 AM EDT

I used to keep all my broken crayons inside those little pails. I think I still have some of those mcnugets lying around in my toy boxes (lost all the costumes though) and I know I saw the birdie somewhere when we were moving. Oh the memories.

Ghosted by Snchpnz @ 10/23/2003 3:25 AM EDT

"Yes, the old bedsheet ghost was real unique, Grimace. You big purple dumbass. You indescribable source of nightmares. You terrible, terrible gumdrop."

I just internally injured myself from laughing at this so damn hard……2nd time today I have done that. First was on "I love the 80’s strikes back 1985" with a public service announcment from that year featuring Bob Barker telling you that you can’t get AIDS from cats……….anyways, you are the hero of the day Matt…..

Ghosted by Loneman1 @ 10/23/2003 5:51 AM EDT

Yes, Loneman1! When I watched that, I thought that while I did have many weird fears when I was six years old, getting AIDS from a cat did not even top my top-ten list! Poor, poor Bob Barker! He couldn’t even get a cool, funny PSA like Dick van Dyke (the one where he was the door…? "If there’s a fire, and I’m hot, DON’T OPEN ME!") PSAs today aren’t nearly as interesting…

Ghosted by purplegirl247 @ 10/23/2003 8:34 AM EDT

Man..regault…..what is going thru you mind streach armstrong was awsome…..well not streach himself but vac-man was the shiz-nite your crazy.OK now i had the pail I think i had the famous irish McGhost it was the best i kept the ninja turtles i took to friends houses in it as for candy yeah it did suck i just took a pillow case.One Request when all hallows eve is over can you review fraggle rock i loved that show it was my favorite come one little furry creature who live in a cave and worshipped a giant talking trash heap AWSOME!! and mabye also talk about how denver the last dinosaur sucked but you cant mess with the themsong it ROCKED "He’s my friend and a whole lot more"

Ghosted by ATOMRENNER @ 10/23/2003 8:36 AM EDT

Naked nuggets….ehe.

I have the scared silly commercial on tape, and millions of other commercials that really should be on this site. I definitely have an AIDS public service announcement by some guy from Guiding Light or other soap opera, saying that we need to change our lifestyles. It’s hard – but isn’t it worth it?

Ghosted by Jessica @ 10/23/2003 9:10 AM EDT

Our local McD’s quit giving out the Stretchers. Seems there was sort of danger associated with them. Cripes, a kid can’t have any fun these days.

Ghosted by Peg @ 10/23/2003 9:29 AM EDT

OMG im so sorry about your chinchlla matt! i found a wich pail at a thrift store without the handel or top and just HAD to have it! i dont understand what makes them so darn desirble but now i want to RULE THEM ALL!!!!!

Ghosted by Jawa @ 10/23/2003 9:32 AM EDT

Is there anyone here with old commercials on tape from the Boston area? I keep thinking of the ultimate 80’s robot store from Waltham, Mr. Big’s Toyland. This would be one of the stops for a X-E trip if it still existed, so if you have a commercial please send it to Matt. I dreamt of going to this hallowed place as a kid, but never made it to Waltham.

Here is what I could find:
Scroll down to the second use of red font on the left and there is a still from a commercial
http://darkstar_013310.tripod.com/
This collector guy never went to the store either
http://www.collectiondx.com/collection.asp?ID=20

Ghosted by Michael @ 10/23/2003 9:38 AM EDT

This is my very first time leaving a comment on this site. My sister and I have been reading X-Entertainment for awhile now and never get sick of the oh so amusing articles!! But wow, the McBoo pails…that made my day! I had the green witch pail and seeing the picture made me nostalgic LOL Thanks for this one man, it was awesome, I want my pail back…

Ghosted by Courtney @ 10/23/2003 9:52 AM EDT

Great Matt, just great, now I have to go get a damn happy meal. Thanks alot pal

Oh, the puppet show episode was thrilling, just thrilling. You should be on broadway…

Ghosted by spazzamatic @ 10/23/2003 9:57 AM EDT

See, I was always disappointed when I got little certificates for ice cream and things, because I couldn’t eat it right then and there. What good is a little piece of paper, I want god damn candy!

Ghosted by i was a lion @ 10/23/2003 10:45 AM EDT

I was always a fan of the pumpkin myself. Even though we had better, higher-quality pails, I still used the McD’s pumpkin. That is, until I got fast enough to cover lots of ground on Halloween, when I switched to a trusty pillowcase.

Ghosted by tony @ 10/23/2003 10:59 AM EDT

And thus marks the only time I’ll ever write an article before Matt…

http://www.parnasas.com/PopArena/Articles/mchalloween.html

Ghosted by Mr. Mr. Mr. @ 10/23/2003 11:09 AM EDT

Mr Mr, maybe not. Matt’s written about most of this stuff years ago. This was just the first full article on them.

Oh, and i had that Mighty Max white monster guy.

Ghosted by Eight O Clok @ 10/23/2003 11:11 AM EDT

Gah, I’ve been trying to find that Lagoon Screamer you referenced in the article. No luck so far. Guess I’ll pick him up on eBay after Halloween.

Ghosted by Desperately Seeking Slimy @ 10/23/2003 11:16 AM EDT

Matt, I always wanted the ghost pail. Wasn’t too fond of the witch pail though. Alas, I lived near a city that never supported McD’s Halloween extravaganza. We didn’t even get the "Happy Meal" ’till I was already too old to get them, but not old enough for nostalgia. What a mean pocket of years that was. No pails for me. Back to trusty pillowcase. O Canada…

Ghosted by Armagideon Time @ 10/23/2003 11:50 AM EDT

So let me get this straight. The McNuggets in the commercial are coming up with new ways for you to enjoy eating them better? Sadistic little suckers, wouldn’t you say?

I remember the commercial, I just never realized until now that their goal was to make their dip tastier for when you’re eating them.

Ghosted by AlfonsoTheBat @ 10/23/2003 12:42 PM EDT

dude, the ghost was the supreme ultimate pail in the history of candy transportation units. i didn’t care mine filled up immediatley and i hardly got very much, it was a ghost dammit!

Ghosted by KingLeto @ 10/23/2003 1:11 PM EDT

I cannot believe that poor Chinny-chin-chin is no longer with us. Seems like only yesterday we were chuckling over its antics in the dust bath and trying to determine what, exactly, gender it was, and now… nothing. Such is the way of life, my friends- transient. Like that guy squatting in the abandoned house down the street. Matt, will you ever tell us how she(?) met her fate? Cat attack? Overconsumption of fluff? Death by Transformers? Inquiring minds want to know…

Moving along, I’m sure this topic has been broached a million times, but screw it, I’ve been gone lately- who here remembers the 80’s movie "The Monster Squad"? You know, the one with the fat kid Horace (RIP, dude), the stereotypical cool kid with sunglasses who smokes, Rudy, Scary German Guy, and the older sister who fucked up the whole damn mystic ceremony by not really being a virgin? ("Well, just Tommy Reynolds, but he doesn’t count." "DOESN’T COUNT?!?") Have you ever seen that flick, Matt, and if so, is there any chance we’ll ever see a review of it? From what I hear, it’s SUPPOSED to be coming to DVD next Tuesday, finally, so for any other nostalgia buffs who always loved The-Goonies-meets-the-Universal-Monsters, be sure to check it out.

"Whoa… Wolfman’s got nards."

-D

Ghosted by The Lucky One @ 10/23/2003 1:28 PM EDT

I seem to remember on year when the McBoo pails came out (maybe teh first year?) that there wasn’t a witch or a ghost, but rather just 3 different pumpkins, that had different faces. I just remember having 2 different pumpkin pails, one with a "scary menacing face" and another with a "goofy crazy face" and that I kept Legos in both of them when not in use for candy.
I thought the ghost and witch came out later. I remember being disappointed because I never got either of them.

Ghosted by BaronVonHotPants @ 10/23/2003 1:51 PM EDT

Ha, I love it! We still have the McNugget halloween figures. My wife puts them out every year for decoration.

Ghosted by MrChuckles @ 10/23/2003 1:53 PM EDT

Baron — the three McBoos I mentioned initially are all dated 1986. You’re partly right though, as I have other pumpkins with assorted faces from the same year, just a little later than 86.

Ghosted by Matt @ 10/23/2003 1:57 PM EDT

Yep, Monster Squad is a great flick. Very quotable. I think I’ll go quote it to some of my co-workers now.

Ghosted by AlfonsoTheBat @ 10/23/2003 3:13 PM EDT

Mama always said "there’s a lot you can tell about a person by their Happy Meal". Where they goin. Where they been. If I think back real hard I can remember my very first Happy Meal. I’m pretty sure the year wasn’t 1677, because we moved to Memphis in 1978 and the Happy Meal had just come out when my sister and I spent a week with my Grandmother. Grandmother had a surprise for us too! She and her siter were driving 100 miles to Nashville to spend all freaking day at the palm reader and why not bring along the 5 and 11 year olds who are staying with you. "It’ll be like goin to the beauty parlor only less fun!" Anyway, I got my much anticipated first Happy Meal that day and the prizes weren’t exactly the gold plated Darda Demon’s and 12" Mallibu Skipper’s that the commercial suggested we might get. My prize was a fake fucking watch. I think the face may have opened up to reveal a secret compartment that might contain a flea or a crushed baby aspirin. It was the kind of crap that I was accustomed to receiving by the metric buttload at 10 different Mardi-Gras parades every year when we lived in New Orleans. Needless to say, the prize left a bit to be desired, but ohhh the jokes and word search made up for it. For about a minute.

Anyway, the best Happy Meal toys ever were the mini stompers.

Ghosted by klatubaradanikto @ 10/23/2003 3:42 PM EDT

I recently came across my origional Mc Boo pail. It was one of the 3 pumpkin types; the classic jack o lantern face. And what was inside all these years???? MY M.U.S.C.L.E MEN COLLECTION! How’s that for rokken?.

Ghosted by Copie Boy @ 10/23/2003 3:43 PM EDT

These things rocked, i used to snatch them out of my neighbors yard when he left them out over night never had the witch one though. The poor chinchilla you should have gotten the $500 parrot instead.

Ghosted by Byrd_man @ 10/23/2003 4:18 PM EDT

no more chinchilla…this makes me terribly sad, matt. I hope it isn’t your death-like grip on creatures (like the fish) that caused its untimely end.
on topic..I remember those pails quite fondly. didn’t the ghost glow in the dark, perhaps? I never had one, but I’m sure my friends did.
hooray mcdonalds.

Ghosted by candice @ 10/23/2003 4:53 PM EDT

Ah, the pails. Actually, the first year McD’s did that, it was 3 pumpkins with different faces on them. McBoo was one. McPun’kin was another; he had your standard smiling jack-o-lantern face. The third was McGoblin, who had an evil glare in his eye & a scary, jagged smile not unlike the one Violet drew on the back of Charlie Brown’s melon. A few years later they decided to make the lineup McPun’kin, McWitch, & McGhost. And yes, that was its name. McGhost.

P.S. Matt, if you can find a video called "The Night Dracula Saved The World," you must watch & review it. It also aired on the Disney Channel as "The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t"

P.P.S. I have Monster Squad on DVD.

Ghosted by Mike Fireball @ 10/23/2003 6:04 PM EDT

Check out our review of the latest stretchy toys here http://www.MillionairePlayboy.com/toys/mcstretch.php
Cool, loved seeing the toys of the past again.
Keep it up Matt.

Ghosted by Googler @ 10/23/2003 6:20 PM EDT

Hiya Mike

I just checked again, and the mystery continues — the three main pails from the article are all dated 1986, but I also have a fourth pumpkin pail with a different mug, also dated 86. Then there’s yet another pumpkin pail, and another ghost (the ones with the cookie cutter tops), and these are dated 1991. Is it possible that McD’s would’ve released three pumpkin pails plus a ghost and a witch in the same year? Only in a perfect world: someone must’ve forgotten to update the copyright dates.

Incidentally, there’s allegedly a commercial that gave live to the McBoo — I’ve only got a wav file of it somewhere, so I don’t know what he looked like.

Ghosted by Matt @ 10/23/2003 6:20 PM EDT

As the case with playmobil, they usually don’t update the copyright on the mold if all they’re changing is the paint…it costs money to change the molds that the plastic is printed on… so they just pour up more, and change the decale or stamp or whatever

Googler

Ghosted by Googler @ 10/23/2003 6:30 PM EDT

Already showed this to Matt. For the rest of you kids, here’s the other two pumpkin McBoo’s:

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~fk4a-myst/can/1986/can-8601.htm

Ghosted by Mike Fireball @ 10/23/2003 6:35 PM EDT

My condolences Matt, on the passing of the chinchilla. Will you be getting a surrogate?

I always used a store-bought jack-o-lantern pail for getting candy. We had about four of them and when one was filled, we just got another. I always laughed at the McDonalds pails I guess because I was a damn nazi child who thought kids were poor cheap skates if they couldn’t afford a real recepticle. If you are one of those kids I secretly mocked, my appologies. I was pretty misguided as a kid. I guess that’s what happens to you when you’re not allowed to watch horror movies growing up. (I’ll never give up that bitterness from my parents. They’ve turned me into a horror addict now.)

Ghosted by inkmage @ 10/23/2003 6:41 PM EDT

Yes, apparently, McBoo’s (the pumpkins) got a few years all to themselves, with Witchy and Ghosty being added in ‘89. I would’ve been 9…sounds about right to me. While searching around, I came across multiple variations on all three. These pails got around.

Ghosted by Matt @ 10/23/2003 6:45 PM EDT

Ink: no more chinchillas for me. My last one was just too off the wall to replace. I know a few people with chinchillas, and none of them acted anything like mine. This thing was a puppy trapped in a rat’s body. I’ve got no idea how/why it died — the only theory we had was that it overate after its normal post-cage-cleaning food-dish-fill ritual. It was not a happy day in McDonaldland.

Ghosted by Matt @ 10/23/2003 6:47 PM EDT

Noooooo! The Chilly died! That was the cutest rodent ever. I’m sad now. ;_;

Ghosted by Lucky Cat @ 10/23/2003 6:49 PM EDT

Well…the Siamese Fighting Ninja Fish and the hermet crabs live on, at least. Maybe Chin sent his spirit to one of ‘em.

Ghosted by Matt @ 10/23/2003 6:50 PM EDT

The ghost definately glowed in the dark. Those things were the only things me and my sis and my cuz would go trick or treating with. We usually had to stop to drop some off, but that’s why you start on one side of the neighborhood and double back.

Ghosted by TOP1214 @ 10/23/2003 7:15 PM EDT

Ahh, I used to have one of those pails. It was the witch, I think. Probably had the ghost, also. Heck I think I had all three. ‘Course, I have no idea where they are now. But they are still cool!

Ghosted by Paul Ortego @ 10/23/2003 8:14 PM EDT

First of all, I’m sorry about the death of your chinchilla. I know that sounds weird, but my family’s lost everything from sea monkeys to cats and I know it can be hard when a pet, or anyone we were close to, dies.

I think we still have about half the toys and items mentioned in the article. My sisters and I didn’t use the McBoo pails for carrying candy. Even then, we could tell they’d never hold our entire trick-or-treating haul. Mom used McPun’kin and McGhost (I don’t remember if we ever got McWitch) for decoration, and I believe she still has McPun’kin.

We had three or four of the McNugget dress-up characters. I know we had the mummy and at least two of the vampire. My youngest sister was still little enough in the mid-90s that she could collect McDonald’s toys. She got the Birdie and Grimace dress-ups, and I’ve seen both in my brother’s room, so it’s probably fair to assume that they were among the many toys he inherited from her when she decided she’d outgrown such diversions. Where they are now is beyond me. I don’t know if Mom finally declared them "collectables" (as she did with the McBoo pails) and rounded them up for Halloween decor, or if they’re still lost in the black void of my brother’s room.

Ghosted by starwenn @ 10/23/2003 9:36 PM EDT

Those buckets were a big thing in school for me. The cool thing to do was to bring your lunch in them around halloween time. Matt you forgot about the Mc Donalds glow in the dark bags that came out in the early 90s. My mom hated when kids came to our house with the cookie cutter ones because the tootsie pops never fit through the little hole.

Ghosted by pikachulover @ 10/23/2003 9:53 PM EDT

You rock, Matt. The background is a bit dark, and there’s not enough contrast to read the content. Maybe it’s my browser, I dunno. Anyway, this is a really small thing compared to all the fun I’ve had reading your articles. It’s a strange combination of fanboy geekdom and magical genius. Yeah… something like that.

Ghosted by Hope @ 10/24/2003 2:04 AM EDT

Gee, Matt. Sorry to hear about Chinny.

Not to be macabre or anything, but I’ve occasionally wondered what you high-falootin’ city folk do with your dead pets? Granted, a chinchilla doesn’t really require more than a one-gallon Hefty freezer bag and a dumpster (or a ‘McBoo’ halloween pail for added ceremony), but what about a beloved cat or dog?

Ghosted by Inky @ 10/24/2003 2:34 AM EDT

When I was little one time we made a scarecrow out of some old clothes stuffed with leaves. The absolute coolest thing about it, though, was that we made his head one of those pumpkin pails, and my dad wired it up to an outside light and stuck a lightbulb in it so that his head glowed. It was amazing.

Ghosted by youjik33 @ 10/24/2003 12:09 PM EDT

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