X-Entertainment.com X-Entertainment.com A Proud UGO Affiliate
X-Entertainment loves Christmas and will not stop talking about it, ever.
« [Main Index] »

X-E goes Upstate! X-E buys a Vader doll!

Here's that trip report I promised -- a visit to my friend's creepy old vacation home in Delhi, New York. On the outskirts of a farm town, the place is in the middle of nowhere, plagued with ghost stories and stocked with enough cheap beer to convince anyone that they're actually seeing ghosts. I love the filthy ol' place. The very long article features every last nuance of the trips we take there, or at least, the ones I feel comfortable mentioning in a public forum. If you and your circle don't have a place like this to escape to, I strongly suggest finding one. Just leave your good clothes at home. If you like looking at stale Pepsi, this article is for voo.

Had to pick up a few kiddy birthday presents last night. While at Toys 'R' Us, I spotted this Darth Vader "Wrestling Buddy," made by the same company who put out all of those WWF/WWE/WCW dolls of the same stature through the years. Basically, they're dolls made soft and durable enough for kids to pound the Holy Hell out of without worry. I've only had one other, striking the likeness of "Macho King" Randy Savage, but I think it's pretty safe to say that Vader's set a new standard when it comes to wrestling buddies. It even shouts various Vader-phrases when you punch its stomach. A bit steep at twenty bucks, but it definitely has that conversational couch pillow appeal deal going for it.

There's a new Revenge of the Sith cereal, too...

I guess it's only called "Star Wars Cereal," arriving in boxes either with Darth Vader or Yoda featured. The cereal itself tastes fine, though the marshmallows are just recolored rehashes from previous Star Wars cereals and other completely unrelated cereals. At least they snuck a General Grievous head in there.

This week, I'll show you a much better example of a Sith-based food product -- Pop Tarts, with lava inside. Yayyyy.

Posted by Matt on 04/24/2005. E-mail me!



Discussion Thread: 105 comments

Actually, those TGIFriday’s potato skins seem to be exactly the same as Tato Skins. Erm, at least, they’re made by the same company. The Meijer stores around here sell both brands side-by-side.

Chestnuts roasted by steve-o @ 04/25/2005 12:25 PM

General Grievous marshmallow heads.. genius!

Chestnuts roasted by Review the World @ 04/25/2005 12:33 PM

The vaguely R2D2-ish shape of the blue-and-white marshmallow actually reminds me more of the little-known character http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php/Senor">Señor from Homestar Runner. Change the white to red and add a trunk and a couple of stars, and it could be a passable Republican National Committee logo.

I’m still pissed that George Lucas changed fast food allegiances from Pepsico’s Yum! brands to Burger King, as that measn we won’t get Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC festooned as one of three planets this time around. And Pepsi’s running a Revenge of the Sith promotion, yet Burger King is a Coke restaurant, so will BK not be able to put the Coke logo on cups while this promotion is in effect, or is Darth Vader going to endorse both sides of the cola aisle depending on whether or not you happen to be inside or outside of a Burger King at the time? (I know, I think way too much about stupid things…)

Chestnuts roasted by Steve Brandon @ 04/25/2005 1:19 AM

Seems like a sorta cool place. I would have played the Spy game just to do a future article. Same with the stores you mentioned.

Since you mentioned Corey Feldman, he’s mentioned in this week’s Entertainment Weekly in an interview with Corey Haim about the DVD release of License to Drive.

We still got those tato skins where I live. They’re good. But I prefer the TGIFriday’s Chili Chese flavor ones. Also, didn’t the Poore Bros use to make pizza-flavor tortilla chips? I don’t remember what they were called though.

Off topic, I felt sorta old yesterday watching a show on tv last night. It was the 10th anniversary "reunion" of All That on Nick. 10 years? I still remember when it first premiered. It rocked.

Chestnuts roasted by JLAJRC @ 04/25/2005 1:34 AM

Wow, this is late April and every single tree I saw in those photographs had no leaves. They must be like that all year. Yeah, that place is depressing all right…

Chestnuts roasted by Mars @ 04/25/2005 1:51 AM

JLAJRC…ya I fell old too. I missed it cause of work, but I taped it. It got really, really, really HORRIBLE after all of the old cast left. The nerve that Jaime Spears was there…

After reading the article: Holy….Crap. This has got to be one of your best articles that you’ve written, right up there with the Photog Blog, the Chia Plot, the Advent Calendars, and the Jones Soda Holiday Pack Test (which I got greenlit on Fark)

If this article doesnt get on fark, it would be a serious crime.

Chestnuts roasted by Invader Norbert @ 04/25/2005 1:54 AM

Tato Skins were started by Keebler, yet that bag has no Keebler logo on it. The theory I’ll go on is that a smaller company bought the rights to make Tato Skins when Keebler wasn’t making enough money off ‘em, and only sells them in small rural places.

Chestnuts roasted by Mars @ 04/25/2005 1:54 AM

Mars- I gotta say, I had no idea Tato skins even still existed. When I first saw Matt’s photo of that bag, I thought it was an expired treasure of the past. Man, the things you learn about America from X-E. It’s been too long since I’ve been out of rural parts of this lovely country of ours.

Chestnuts roasted by Nate @ 04/25/2005 6:21 AM

Hey, Matt, doesn’t burning styrofoam make the flames turn green? I know burning wrapping paper will make pretty colors. Although, I can’t imagine the birthday celebtration that would occur at the House.

Hey, I bet if you follow that attic crawlspace, you’ll fund Jimmie. Watch out for zombies, though.

So, today is my 30th birthday. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Chestnuts roasted by trajeal @ 04/25/2005 8:23 AM

Is it just me, or am I the only one who thinks Matt ought to get someone else to help update the site? With his busy schedule, X-E is practically dead to the world.

Chestnuts roasted by Hogwash @ 04/25/2005 9:47 AM

Now that isn’t very nice.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 04/25/2005 9:53 AM

Christ…this is nothing. I created a wrestling website back in college and I haven’t updated the damn thing in SIX YEARS! I’d happily provide a link to it, but I’ve forgotten the address…

Chestnuts roasted by The Yeti @ 04/25/2005 10:03 AM

Invader- I was kind of surprised that Kevin Kopelow and Lorri beth Denberg weren’t there. What exactly are they doing lately? If Kenan Thompson can do it, you would think they would too.

I live in Iowa and Tato Skins are in many grocery stores cheaply.
By the way, were those other chips called Pizzarias or something? I know they came in cheese, pepperoni (yech), and supreme (my favorite).

Chestnuts roasted by JLAJRC @ 04/25/2005 10:04 AM

Hogwash -

Leave him alone – if you think you could do a better job of maintaining a website, working full-time, seeking out and taking pictures of nauseatingly ancient foods and beverages, obscure toys, etc., then go for it.

Perhaps instead of bitching about the lack of updates, why not consider them as rare jewels or something?

DAY-amn.

Chestnuts roasted by Gretchen @ 04/25/2005 10:21 AM

Matt, the article on the house was some of your best work to date. It ranks up there as one of my favorite X-E articles, my all-time favorite being the Casino Arcade feature from a few months back.

Chestnuts roasted by Kathodos @ 04/25/2005 12:02 PM

Ok, here’s what ya do before your next trip out there: get someone you trust to help out. Go up there days before the actual weekend, and gather some twigs and sticks. Make you some "Blair Witch" style figures. Various sizes. Stash them out of the way. Sometime during the weekend, you and your cohort do the sneaky-sneaky out and set up as many of the sticky-men as possible. If you can hang up a big one from a tree branch, groovy. Don’t even mention or watch BWP, and let the others find the figures, like, early the next morning. While they’re freaking out, go stand in the corner. It helps if they’re wasted, and you’re not. Remember, kids: Don’t do drugs, but take advantage of those that do. They are excellent for trying out your repretoire of bar bets.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 04/25/2005 12:10 PM

Hello all. I have been keeping up but haven’t had much to say.
I have been meaning to send in some pics of the classroom all of the SW stuff in it but…been…so ….busy….

Chestnuts roasted by The Manimal @ 04/25/2005 12:34 PM

remember that song. . . . . .
"tato skins got baked potato appeal, cause they’re made with potatoes and skins that are real"
p.s. i found this site googleing scratchandsniff stickers and the pictures never showed, but i did enjoy your commercial page

Chestnuts roasted by k-b @ 04/25/2005 2:11 PM

Hey Matt!

New to the site. Let me say "thanks" for one of the most entertaining websites I’ve uncovered yet. Great stuff! The Delhi "House of Horrors" article was perfect. I spend much time adventuring in those parts and know the area well. How about a review of that ‘Spy vs. Spy’ game in the near future? It would make an excellent addition to your ‘Shitty Board Games’ collection. Tell you what . . . I am going to clean out my Generation X’er rented ‘packed with shit’ storage bin, and send you any ‘historic’ treasures I find. There should be some gems tucked away in there. Much better than trashing the shit, huh? If you’re interested, contact me. I’d be glad to do my part to keep X-Entertainment alive!
Take care, Bro! Keep up the good work!

Chestnuts roasted by REBLYELL @ 04/25/2005 3:09 PM

Oh yeah, that was one of the more interesting things I’ve read lately, on the site or off. We also have that Spy Vs. Spy board game, and we’ve also played it just once, if even that. I’d say that I have an identical television, a standard model mid-priced, mid-sized, mid-Nineties Sony Trinitron, to the one at the house, but the version of the television I have has a full-sized "SET UP" button on the left, not the tiny button that the television in the photos has. There also seems to be a lot of crud on the left speaker… at first, I thought that someone had actually kicked the speaker in a bit.

Weirdly, I have always thought Pepsi was an even "solution", where all the liquids are more or less evenly dissolved, but, as it appears that the liquid at the top of the bottle is fairly clear, I guess Pepsi is more of a "suspension", where, given a long enough period of time, the heavier ingredients will sink towards the bottom.

Is "alcoffee" a typo? Or is it just shorthand for drinking both coffee and alcohol at night?

If anyone’s interested in seeing more alleged ghost photos, I’ve got http://ourmedia.org/node/8301">one of my own, though it’s one taken in the daytime, on a racetrack, in front of a large crowd. (Not saying it’s a ghost, just something weird I can’t quite identify that looks kind of like a face.)

Chestnuts roasted by Steve Brandon @ 04/25/2005 3:11 PM

"tato skins got baked potato appeal/cause they’re made from potato skins that’re real"

that damn jingle has been running through my head since i read this article.

and thanks for giving a girl from oklahoma a view of what upstate new york is like. i always wondered why people said it was NYC and the rest is "upstate"…now i think i understand.

definitely one of the best articles on X-E. Thanks!

Chestnuts roasted by Rosella @ 04/25/2005 3:58 PM

Matt,
I commend you on another great read. And I have to be honest, sometimes when you write lengthy articles like this I skim through them, but this one I read from beginning to end and I thought it was fantastic. Maybe it was the creepy aspects of it, maybe it’s because my boyfriend and I love vacationing in Lake George but at least that’s a living breathing area…your friend chose to live here why?? And that photo of the house at night is DAMN spooky. Keep up the great work!

Chestnuts roasted by Melissa Y. @ 04/25/2005 4:12 PM

Matt,

Great site, I have been a loyal reader for well over a year now and love all the articles. I think I hold a new record for your site, I read your entire blog from day one to today in only three days while "working" at my office. Great stuff, keep up the good work. Ahh… the memories.

Chestnuts roasted by Tigerfan @ 04/25/2005 4:21 PM

Steve, I think I figured out what you have a picture of, and I can’t believe you have photo evidence of him in the wild: http://pages.sbcglobal.net/bluealbino/SYP/images/mrburns-eh.gif">Headshot http://www.spookshop.com/thumbs/simpsons/mr_burns.htm">Costume

Chestnuts roasted by Backwards Barry Wins Everytime @ 04/25/2005 5:00 PM

"This is Darth Vader, he’s my buddy. We like to wrestle. Tee-hee!"

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash knows a few haunts in Oklahoma. @ 04/25/2005 5:07 PM

Add A New Comment!


This entry was posted on Sunday, April 24th, 2005 at 2:27 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.