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Monster Cereals & A Farewell To Halloween!

Well, it's finally over. Halloween is here, soon it'll be gone, and with it, we bid farewell to the X-E Halloween Countdown until next year. My brain says THANK GOD, but my heart yearns for more rubber bats and bloody wonder. This will all be forgotten in a week when I see Holiday Fruity Pebbles at Waldbaum's, I'm sure. Speaking of something similar, the final entry on the Countdown takes a look at a decades-standing Halloween favorite, The General Mills Monster Cereals. I found a megabox containing all three varieties -- Count Chocula, Franken Berry & Boo Berry -- and it's made Halloween actually feel like Halloween. A much needed boost, since it's like 200 degrees outside and the kids next door are trying to set up an inflatable pool.

Had fun with the trick-or-treaters today. We gathered up all of the small toys and candy I intended to write about, packed 'em in Halloween-themed Ziploc bags and continued the tradition of being the best loot-givers of the block, sure to be adored by every six-year-old in the neighborhood, at least until 9 PM or so. Oh, of the many things I didn't have a chance to cover this season, I really didn't want to let this one slide. Here's a gallery of pics I took at our wonderful local mall's Halloween store, which by now is probably selling reindeer that dance when you clap:




(click pics to enlarge)

Thanks for reading all month-and-a-half. Click "more" to see the final entries in the Halloween Art Expo, and check out the previous posts for more installments. Oh, and do me a favor -- out of sheer megalomaniacal curiosity, I'd like for you to tell me which three entries on the Countdown were your personal favorites this year, in the comments. Don't have to list reasons or anything. Hope everyone had a great Halloween! Think I'll hop in the coffin now...

Ubu Rex lines his paper with madness...

Maramuray is a visionary of the most arguable kind...

Underdawg owes me ten bucks...

Dumpweed probably committed suicide soon after e-mailing this...

T. Walter's pride is in his stomach...

James Smith doesn't believe in God...

B-Dawg had the right idea...

Ferange perpetuates anorexia...

F.O.S. ends the Art Expo properly. With cats...

Happy H, all.

Posted by Matt on 10/31/2004. E-mail me!



Discussion Thread: 141 comments

when is the thanksgiving countdown slated to begin?

Chestnuts roasted by samantha @ 10/31/2004 10:01 PM

so sad, it’s all downhill from here. at least it was a complete countdown, then there’s one less thing to make the OCD flare up again, hehe.

Favorites:

Pet Costumes: makes me jealous I couldn’t do that to my cat.

All the Kids costumes, and the Micheal Myers one. I don’t care if it violates the rules.

AAAaaaaannnnndddd…..the Contact Lenses. Soo cool, I’d wear them til they stuck to my eyes.

I wish the countdown could start all over again. Like Fred Savage said in the last ep. of Wonder Years, "I don’t want it to end…(sniff)Winnie"

Chestnuts roasted by kidneyboy @ 10/31/2004 10:10 PM

Just a thought…
How about adding the ghosts to some sort of Scrooge comic for XMas… you know… ghost of Christmas past, etc…
I’m just trying to find ways to rekindle my love for the Halloween ghosts. :)

Chestnuts roasted by Croww @ 10/31/2004 10:13 PM

Fav 3:

-The Many Faces of Jason
-The Big Alien Sequal (I killed the last facehugger)
-Costumes for Pets

Chestnuts roasted by Mr. Mr. Mr. @ 10/31/2004 10:27 PM

Ghost With the Most Ruled…

Many faces of Jason was interesting

of course the cat in a cape

the freaky contacts were cool

Thats about it from me, lookin forward to the christmas montage.

"ho, ho , ho I’m hu-hu-hungry!!!"

" Bawwwwwny!! My PEBBLES!!!"

– Kevin

Chestnuts roasted by phunqsauce @ 10/31/2004 10:33 PM

yabba-dabba fruitylicious-doo!!!

hehe, I couldn’t forget that…

Chestnuts roasted by phunqsauce @ 10/31/2004 10:34 PM

I, too, have had absolutely NO trick or treaters at my door tonight. :( What is up with that??? I live in a big apartment community- just think how many families a kid could hit up in a span of 30 minutes!! Oh well, more candy for me, I guess… Thanks for keeping the spirit alive for us, Matt!

Chestnuts roasted by Jillybeann @ 10/31/2004 10:40 PM

we average about 2 or 3 a year but the houses on my street are far apart in a rural area…

Chestnuts roasted by phunqsauce @ 10/31/2004 10:43 PM

You know, I think that fewer kids go door to door overall than when we were kids. Must be more freaks around now than in ’85.

Chestnuts roasted by Jillybeann @ 10/31/2004 10:44 PM

And another Happy Halloween to Matt and all Bloggers! Though Halloween isn’t my favorite holiday, primarily because I’m not a huge horror fan, I did enjoy most of the articles, including the slasher costumes, the candy coverage (I actually bought the Cocoa Cats tonight), and the Halloween Specials commercials.

I’ve never been a huge fan of the Monster cereals. As memory serves they DO taste marginally better than Lucky Charms, but I’m still not crazy about marshmallows in cereal. I think Frankenberry turned up most in my family’s house due to the pink color – pink was one of my sisters’ favorite colors when we were growing up.

Chestnuts roasted by starwenn @ 10/31/2004 11:00 PM

Ugh…………..SHrek crap is haunting me. I keep seeing that damn commercial with the old Wal-Mart greeter and the gingerbread man. My eyes are BURNING!!!!!

Chestnuts roasted by phunqsauce @ 10/31/2004 11:02 PM

My 3 faves were the cheetos, the dew and the dog costume.

Chestnuts roasted by pikachulover @ 10/31/2004 11:15 PM

Hmm… sorry, Matt I’ve been busy procrastinating about preparing to move to Ottawa (usually by playing Metropolis Street Racer on the Sega Dreamcast), so I haven’t had as much time lately to check out this fine web page.

I actually did go out for Hallowe’en this year, for the first time in about 17 years or so, but just to walk around Montreal (and see I Heart Huckabees). I dressed up as Thnikkaman from Homestar Runner, wearing an orange sweater, a pair of Men in Black RayBan sunglasses I paid way too much for at an airport Sunglasses Hut in 1997, and a white sheet of paper with "TH" written about it. I thought of using cheap costume makeup to paint my face blue with a wedge of teeth, since Thnikkaman is really just the Homestar Runner character Bubs wearing the most minimal of disguises, but I just wasn’t *that* brave, and, in any event, it was raining so the makeup would have run all over my sweater.

Unfortunately, I didn’t seem to encounter a single HR fan walking around downtown, since no one got the reference.

It was a great Hallowe’en countdown this year, though. I especially liked the article about dressing up your cat; I just wanted to bring that up because, no, Matt, it’s not just your cat that has learned to say "Noooooooooo!" My cat says the same thing too, very distinctive from her normal mewing, and I fully believe she is attempting to say the English word "no"; I don’t think it’s a far-fetched premise at all that animals can learn to say one or two simple words. She hears "no" often enough and must have some vague knowledge as to what it means and if she can do a meow variant that sounds more or less like "no", she’ll use it when she doesn’t approve of something. And it’s not just my cat that can say one simple English word; when I get home, Luke, my golden retreiver mix, says "Eh-rooow", which I honestly believe is an attempt to say "Hello". He never makes a sound like that at any other time other than when a person he knows comes through the door. Strangely enough, of our two dogs, Luke is the stupider one, he can’t plan things the way my other dog, a Labrador mix, can, but he is the one with rudimentary language skills.

Chestnuts roasted by Steve Brandon @ 10/31/2004 11:30 PM

My favorite were the Ghost with the most comics, the kid costumes and the contact lenses. I was kind of hoping for another ghost comic for the road.

Chestnuts roasted by snchpnz @ 10/31/2004 11:31 PM

I’d say I liked the 3d bloody words because they were awesome, the ooey gooey banana things because of the line about the albino monkey and standing skull man because he rocks my socks off (no, not the red sox, stop talking about them dammit) and the story about the cat wasting lives. The contact lenses were close to beating out the 3d words though, tough choice between those two, ended up using the coin. All in all, the countdown was awesome even without Madd Matt. More awesome than Halloween itself perhaps, and at least as awesome as the Rocky Horror Picture Show the drama department put on last night.

Chestnuts roasted by Mara @ 10/31/2004 11:43 PM

so matt. honestly, how did the monster trio mixed cereal ( That obviously was the reason Jimmy Hoffa disappeared.) taste? cuz I’m thinkin chocolate strawberry blueberry wouldn’t be as good as it sounds…

Chestnuts roasted by capt. Spacklepants @ 10/31/2004 11:57 PM

FRUITY YUMMY MUMMY MAKES YOUR TUMMY GO YUMMY………BITCHES!!

Chestnuts roasted by Rayzak @ 11/01/2004 12:06 PM

X-E T.V. Show?

Chestnuts roasted by Mattfan @ 11/01/2004 12:09 PM

I tried mixing Count Chocula and Frankenberry a few weeks back and I wasn’t too excited about the mixture. It was kind of weird, I couldn’t quite put my finger on it but I know I wouldn’t try it again. I think Boo Berry and Frankenberry might be a good mixture but the box of Boo Berry I had was stale and stale marshmallows are no good.

I saw today at one of the 8 million Acme’s near me Cap’n Crunch Christmas Crunch but didn’t have any cash at the moment to pick it up. You can bet I will be going back later in the week to pick that bad boy up.

Good job on the countdown this year Matt. It was extra Halloweeny for me this year on the site since I was backed up reading your articles so I read last years countdown last month and this year’s as they came out. So I’m about Halloweened out. Maybe…

Chestnuts roasted by Storm Shadow @ 11/01/2004 12:36 PM

I’m not sure where our host makes up his info, but Frankenberry and Boo Berry are available year-round. If your local store doesn’t stock them, bug the manager.

Chestnuts roasted by Mr S @ 11/01/2004 12:37 PM

I live in PA and I only see Count Chocula year round. I see Frankenberry once in a while and I only ever see Boo Berry from late Sept. to the end of Halloween. So Matt is not making anything up that isn’t true.

Chestnuts roasted by Storm Shadow @ 11/01/2004 12:39 PM

There was another art contest and I never found out? ARGH

Chestnuts roasted by Mars @ 11/01/2004 12:50 PM

I mixed all the halloween cerals once, a week ago, sadly the box of boo berry was left open and was stale, I did not no this, I just had my wisdoms out, hard,stale ceral+my teeth in pain=not a good experience

otherwise this was great, plan on a christmas countdown?

Chestnuts roasted by bogeyb @ 11/01/2004 1:14 AM

Thanks as always for the effort, Matt!

Chestnuts roasted by Andy @ 11/01/2004 1:16 AM

Ahem. Neglecting the Fruit Brute aren’t we? I found a box on some site, and there was a coupon for 18 cents. Or degrees. You know, for a cold day. I’m not sure if they mean F or C, though.

Chestnuts roasted by Yama the Space Fish @ 11/01/2004 8:01 AM

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