X-Entertainment's Christmas Season & Advent Calendar, 2008.

08/25/2006: August Megaparty #25: New Tic Tacs!

I had to go buy a birthday card this afternoon, and while the lady at my local pharmacy rung up a card and gift bag that cost three times more than any cards and gift bags should, I spotted the weird packages of Tic Tacs seen above. And then…I goofed.

While my mind said “OOOH!” like it usually does whenever strange new candy is first spotted, this time, my mouth decided to follow suit. My dumb stupid mouth. I don’t think I can ever go back to this particular pharmacy. I’ll forever be known as the “guy who ‘ooohed’ over new Tic Tacs.” They’re probably talking shit about me right now.

Anyway, starting with the lesser of the two, “Citrus Twist” Tic Tacs blend lemony yellow and limey green mints together for an assault on the eyes and the tongue and — if you count the pleasant chattering of a box of Tic Tacs in one’s pocket — the ears. Pretty sure I could do without another lemon Tic Tac for the rest of my life, but the lime mints are at least interesting, and very, very limey. They would’ve been better served ditching the lemons, keeping the limes and calling ‘em “Margarita” Tic Tacs. Tell me you wouldn’t buy “Margarita” Tic Tacs. With a straight face, I mean.

The “Fruit Festival” Tic Tacs are a bigger production; they come in a BIG box that makes me hands look so demure, and the label tells me that they’re, in fact, a “limited edition” variation. These are really, really good. Unless you’re cherry picking with a watchful eye, there’s no way to prepare your mouth for the sensations of various surprise fruit flavors as they dissolve and conspire to make all the saliva in your mouth taste like fruit salad. I don’t even mind the lemon Tic Tacs so much when they’re hitching rides with cherry and orange.

I mean WHOA HEY, new Tic Tacs! Can today possibly have any more major events in store for me?

The cherry tic-tacs tasted terrible to me. Maybe my batch was poisonous.. But when I saw them I was excited too. =) By the way, I would be all over those Margarita tic-tacs. Did you know that Jello has margarita & strawberry daquiri flavors out?

I’m glad I could tell you of it’s existance. =) It tastes rather salty to me, though I guess that’s the point. Salty jello just doesn’t seem right! I’ve still seen it in my local grocery stores so you shouldn’t have much trouble finding it, though I assume it’s a summer-only promotion.

Tic-Tacs remind me too much of that chick on that commercial who juggles them with her tongue. And though I’m pretty sure it’s a trick of the music, I always think I can hear them smacking into her tongue. Also, if I try to carry them around in my pocket, it sounds like I’m smuggling rattlesnakes in my pants. Again.

Aww man, the orange tic tacs are the worst. My grandma always had those, and I’d choke them down because they’re still candy, but ewww.

Hey, did anyone else used to pretend that the tic tac box was a ligter for their bubblegum cigarettes, or am I just weird?

â€œI mean WHOA HEY, new Tic Tacs! Can today possibly have any more major events in store for me?â€

Yes, look out your front window. Thereâ€™s a car and inside that car is a man. Thatâ€™s not me, Iâ€™m the guy on the corner crying because not only do I not have any normal everyday tic Tacs, now I donâ€™t have these new ones. I want a fruit festival going on in my mouthâ€¦

Hey they’ve sold lime tic tacs for a long time now!! That used to be my favorite flavor so everyone i know would buy me a pack whenever they saw them and i ended up with like twenty containers of lime tic tacs which is pretty impossible to work your way through. It would be cooler if they called them margarita tic tacs though…geez i cant wait til im 21

Oh wow those do look pretty impressive. I got funny looks at Walgreen’s yesterday after walking in, seeing the Halloween aisle stocked and “whispering” super loudly “SWEET!!” an old woman frowned :/

Katella: I know, but I prefer to think of these limes as different limes. Maybe they’re key limes?

Eddie, I did almost the same thing today when I walked into Giant Eagle. =) Of course now I have a sweet little skeleton pez dispenser (that glows in the dark!!!) on my desk. It’s sad, two months away and I’m already so excited for Halloween. You should have seen me a month ago when the party supply store had squishy eyes and such!

Can’t wait to try the new Tic-Tacs when I see them. Although I never quite understood them. If they’re supposed to freshen your breath it takes half a package to do what one stick of gum or breath mint does. Yet, I don’t quite call them candy. Why eat TT when you can have some real candy?

Like Katella says, lime TT have been around for a long time now. My favorite flavor along with orange.

Since when did the US become lemon-phobic all of a sudden? It seems like that’s the flavor that always disappears when a new candy flavor is being introduced (See Gummi Savers). Lemon Coke has gone extinct. The sad thing is that lemon is my favorite fruit candy flavor.

You know ive never had key limes, but i think i need to find myself some of those new tic tacs to try them…and the fruit ones look pretty interesting too…does anyone know if they still make those huge boxes of tic tacs? the tic tacs were a lot bigger and they would come wrapped up in cellophane or something…im pretty sure i didnt just make that up

Yay! New Tic-tacs! Thanks Matt, I will be sure to try these before the limited edition goes away. I can’t wait to taste them!

I got these awhile back because I was immediately taken in by the multi-colored tiny candy in the see-through plastic container and resealable white top thingy. You see, I thought they’d be the second coming of DYNAMINTS (http://static.flickr.com/38/78114804_1b03c8f66b_m.jpg).

I agree about the “surprise” fruit flavor, but not in the “hey, I wasn’t expecting how great this cherry flavor is” kind of surprise, but rather the “Oh my God, what have I allowed into my mouth and how quickly can I evacuate said “Fruit Festival” abominations without wretching in front of all the nice people?” kind.

I believe the proper term is “bleh”. I’m not sure there was any cherry flavoring at all but multiple kinds of “melon” (and not the good kind like watermelon but the kind that’s always left over from a fruit salad after all the grapes and strawberries have been usurped.)

But hey, whatever floats your cookie crumbles. I, myself, treat the “just plain Orange” box like most people eat Lay’s. Jebus help me, I can’t eat just one. I don’t know what that eventually does to a person…after the 4th or 5th entire box. (Curse you wholesale clubs and your bulk sales strategy!)

I’d also like to point everyone to the Tic Tac Web site (www.tictacusa.com) where you can do things like help choose their next flavors (GRAPE! Oh please! Oh please!) as well as learn about your true inner self by your Tic Tac preference (Fruit Festival seems to be intentionally ommitted, else those with such preference learn their true calling as homicidal maniacs. . .er, uh, or whatever it is that Matt does for a day gig. : )

Tic Tacs are a polarizing commodity it seems, because while I kind of dug orange Tic Tacs as part of the “Fruit Festival” box, I cannot STAND them alone. The sight of orange Tic Tac packages does me wrong.

Also, I know they make lime Tics, but I have to believe there’s something a little different about the limes in “Citrus Twist.” They’re really bitter, and I can’t imagine anyone eating a whole box of ‘em. Except for those of us prone to eat raw limes by the pound, like myself.

Clever screen name: Hey that tic tac flavor thing was fun!!! How awesome would it be if they really made cherry-watermelon tic tacs? yum! Okay im too excited about tic tacs maybe i need to go do something else.

Like when you first realized you could ask for “mixed” when ordering from the lemonade truck. You mean I can get cherry AND watermelon? In the same cup? Is that LEGAL?

Not since peanut butter and chocolate (which EVERYone knows are the two great tastes that taste great together) have two flavors so blissfully co-mingulated (I think I just made that last word up).

Don’t be ashamed of candy excitement. It’s when you’re NOT excited about the candy that you should start worrying.

I heard they’re coming out with a new Ecto-Cooler Tic-Tac flavor to help promote Ghostbusters 3, which was just greenlit by Sony and DreamWorks. Actually, that’s a complete lie. I just wanted to see if I could make Matt respond to my post by putting the words “Ecto-Cooler” in here. I’m lonely and I wanted attention.

Oh you son of a bitch, I just picked these up while I was buying Anbesol at CVS and was going to write about them on my blog.

I saw pink tic tacs in the store the other day and they were dedicated to breast cancer research. I was trying to figure out what flavor they were. I couldn’t. These look tastier.

kb, those pink Tic-Tacs are actually nipple flavored, I believe. They’re trying to tie-in with the whole breast thing.

Gahh. Brain is pudding from reading all day. Useful comments to follow later. That is all.

I did exactly the same “oooooh” thing when I saw those white chocolate Pirates of the Carribbean M&M’s. And the Star Wars M&M’s. And Superman Slurpee cups. And Sour Apple Crush. And this Super Mario energy drink I saw at a big happy fun candy store called Tutti Frutti. And when I saw that there was a candy store called “Tutti Frutti.” And chocolates made with vodka.

…and thsoe Fruit Tictacs look a little like grape-tomatoes in various levels of ripe-ness

Yet Another Matt: I used to pretend they were lighters too! I also pretended that they were my medication, that and Pez. I could only eat one Pez a day or I would overdose.

These tic tacs look good. I dont even remember the last time I had a tic tac! The lemon reminds me of Smints. Does anyone remember these? Their packaging was pretty cool! You had to press a little button and the smint would pop out.

I actually found these last week at the 7-11 on the White Horse Pike down the street from me (the same place I bought my Superman Slurpee cup from). I stopped to get a Slurpee on the way home from running some errands, and I saw them on the counter and figured, what the hell, I’ll try ‘em. Matt’s right, they ARE really good, and this is coming from someone who has never been a big Tic-Tac fan. I want to use that big, empty Tic-Tac case for something, but I’m still considering options.

I guess I’m the only one who diggs orange Tic Tacs, I eat the hell outta em’ Except one time I ate an entire box of them at once, It was exactly like chewing a mouthfull of TANG powder. After that I couldn’t eat the orange kind for awhile.

And since I’m tired, I forgot to mention I found the Fruit Festival Tic-Tacs. Didn’t know the Citrus Twist ones exist, but now I’ll have to look for them, too, if they’re anywhere near as good as the Fruit Festival.

I just saw those Tic Tacs at the store about an hour ago and thought to myself, “I bet Matt does an article about these.”

Joker-I used to love orange tic tacs myself. Don’t know if I still would though. Every week when my mom went shopping I would have her buy me some orange tic tacs and an archie diegest.

I’m an orange lover as well. Like you didn’t see that coming. I can’t eat Tic Tacs by anything but the mouthful. They don’t last long around me

Sorry your part of the country isn’t with it yet, Matt…we’ve had Lime TicTacs in California now for a while. Let me know if you want me to send you some for an article

. They are mighty tasty, although my favorite tictac has to remain Wintergreen.

Orange Tic Tacs, and everything orange flavored, except for oranges, is delicious. Oranges have that awful texture.

As a child, I always favored the citrus flavors, but now I love grape. I always thought grape flavored stuff was for poor kids. I hope they don’t make grape Tic Tacs though - that’d be nasty.

Through my whole life, I can probably count the total number of Tic Tacs I’ve eaten, on both hands.

How I loathe the regular white Tic Tacs. My grandmother hands them out one at a time. “Do you want one?” No, give me the box and let me take a shot. On second thought, no don’t do that; they taste like mint and mint anywhere but in Oreos is universally gross.

Ryane, I restarted Kingdom Hearts. Apparently, the leveling choice you make in the Destiny Islands switches itself AFTER you reach level 40. So instead of gaining levels fast, I started gaining them slowly. No way, not when I have to hit lvl 96 to get my last combo addition. Maybe that’s why you couldn’t handle Riku and Ansem.

Knegative: Wow, you totally lost me, there!

It’s been so long since I played I forget what Destiny Islands was, and the fact that it switches after level 40? Sorry!

I just don’t remember that, but then again, I’m the stupid one that ended up not visiting the Little Mermaid’s place before getting myself into this mess I’m in with Riku/Ansem, and I can’t go back - grr. Heck, I can’t even remember what level I am, but yeah, I’m convinced that’s why I couldn’t beat him. I never have that much trouble beating a boss!

Your rate of leveling is determined by the conversation you have with Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie at the beginning of the game. If you choose to level fast like I did, you gain levels easily. Then you hit lvl40 like I did, and it reverses. The official strategy guide just tells you that your choices affect your rate of leveling, it doesn’t say that if you choose fast or slow, its switches on ya at lvl 40. I’m picking slow as we speak. I’m okay playing the first part of the game on what amounts to expert so I can level faster by the time I get back to where I was.

When I was a little kid,I was poor,and grape is definately for the po folk. I love it,though.
Just so everyone’s aware,the Darth Vader “Dark Side” M&Ms are now back as a regular variety of M%M’s,just like plain or peanut. They come in a purple bag.

Matt - What is that mutant semi-clear green army man that seems to be holding up the citrus twist tic-tac box? It looks like you sneezed out an army dude that likes to hold up clear plastic boxes of tic-tacs…

Ohhh ok, I see now.

Thanks for the explaination! I’ll have to remember that, because I do indeed want to go and kick everyone’s ass on there again and finally beat the thing.

Good luck with Riku! I could never stand to fight him and over so much. lol I tried, but couldn’t take it.

I like lime tic tacs, adore orange ones, and I think I would like lemon too, but cherry? Ewwwwww… Nothing should ever be cherry flavored except maybe lifesavers and tootsie pops. And, well, cherries. And cherry pie, which contains cherries… I guess that’s a few things, but what I really mean is, most cherry flavored stuff… wait, I forgot kool aid… OK, here’s the deal: Cherry flavored tic tacs couldn’t possibly be good. If It is nontranslucent and does not contain actual cherries, it will taste like crap in cherry flavor.

just saw ‘a scanner darkly’ at a dollar theater. anybody have anything to say about that one?

That I’m pissed because it never was released anywhere near me. And I am the biggest Keanu fan on the planet. Ask around on the blog, I’m not exaggerating.

And before you ask, I am perfectly fine with Adam’s constant ribbing of the Lake House. 1. Because he is God and he can do whatever he wants. 2. The jokes he makes about it are actually funny, because while the Lake House isn’t actually bad, it isn’t good either. Yes, Colonel you heard me right. It has some of my favorite themes, but I’ve seen them done a million times better, in just about a million other books/movies/games/etc.

But Keanu looked SO GOOD in the white button up shirt! :* So, that makes up for the slight lack of “better-ness” with The Lake House, in my book, though I liked it.

Yet Another Matt: I never pretended Tic Tac containers were Zippos, although I wish I had cos that’s awesome. I used to fill empty ones up with water and drink outta ‘em, though. Anyone else ever do that?

And speaking of kids pretending to smoke, I’m sure we all did the ‘exhale’ on cold mornings walking to school.

He’s transcendently dreamy in Little Buddha. And he hacks his hair off. I have a thing about hacking hair off

See also Blow Dry for Rachael’s own beautiful rendition.

Fear not, Lake House is still better than Chain Reaction, which has consistantly held off all contenders for worst Keanu movie. Although, you’ll notice that every time Rachel Wiess and him have been together, he gets her in a bathtub. Check it, its true.

I LOVE orange Tic-Tacs, I gobble them down by the handful! Never cared much for the mint varieties, but these two new fruit flavors sound pretty good to me.

Anyway, nobody needs to be ashamed about saying “Ooooh” to new candy or buying something geeky. In my experience, the best way to be into geek-stuff is to have no shame about it whatsoever.

For example, I read “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” comic-books which I buy at the grocery store. I am an adult male and this is a very little-girlie thing to read. The only reason I DON’T get made fun of for it is because, I buy it with absolute confidence. If you don’t *act* embarrased, you won’t *be* embarassed.

It’s the same reason I was able to use my TMNT lunch-box well into High-School (until my house burned down destroying all my childhood treasures), without taking any shit about it.

Tetsu speaks with great wisdom. It’s how I was able to walk back into my highschool to buy football tickets, wearing pink shoes.

And buy Josie and the Pussycats. Then the soundtrack. I played with what would be considered girl’s toys when I was a kid too. Sweet Secrets were the shizznite. Pastel, female transformers. I was all over that. Just have to do it with Purpose.

Reminded me of when I walked into Sears the other night and said, “Oh My GOD, look at all the TV’s!” Then quickly diverted myself from the 2 sales people directly ahead of me that turned to look back.

I know, TV’s and Tic Tacs aren’t on the same level, but I still felt like a jackass, even over a TV!

Ihaq and Daniel: thank god. Now I feel like less of a freak. Still think tic tacs that aren’t in the mint genre are gross though.

I love me some Tic Tacs. Only the white ones, though–I eat those a box at a time. I still wish they hadn’t recently redesigned them and made them bigger, though.

I have to admit I love the cyberspace sequences, and the props are quite nice as well.

Once upon a time, I was in Spencers flipping through the posters. Now, understand that I don’t put posters of scantily clad women up in my room. I’ve got bands (Blink and Green Day), movies (Constantine and V for Vendetta), and games (a beautiful giant Squall over my desk). That sort of thing, but the people in Spencers obviously did not have this knowledge.

Point being, I basically scream “Aww man, all they’ve got is girls!!” I got more than one funny look for that one.

I own two copies of Mnemonic. Regular and Superbit, because those are better, I swear.

Click my name to see the best wrestling match of your life! It’s a no holds barred falls count anywhere match in Japan between two upcoming young rookies. I should mention,one of them has psychic powers like Jean Grey.

Doubt it was any better than this “Lucha Libre” match I saw on Galavision a week ago. I was flipping through the channels and there it was on Galavision. The best match included, as it’s LEAST strange wrestler, a midget in a Chucky costume! His opponents included “El Zorro” who had two wooden swords, a guy in goth makeup called “Manson”, a guy dressed like tthe Aliens from the movie “Aliens”, a guy with a skull mask with a rainbow mullet wig, a guy dressed only in his wrestling mask and a pair of black briefs with the Batman symbol on his ass and a Yin & Yang on his crotch who kept dancing like a stripper, and someone dressed like some weird psychedelic rainbow alien /dragon/ butterfly creature that I refer to as Lollipop Dragon.

Believe it or not, it gets weirder. The “Lollipop Dragon” as I call him summoned his simular friends, each one a different color, the green one especially strange. AND THEY TURNED ON HIM! It actually included green LD holding back Rainbow LD while Alien guy kicks him in the ‘nads! I had no idea what the hell was going on the whole time but it was one of the COOLEST things I’ve EVER seen on TV!

I think I want to put on a banana costume, move to Mexico, and become a Luchador!

Did A Scanner Darkly get a wide release? I don’t think it ever screened in my state. I saw it at college theater in Austin last month. Wasn’t expecting much from it, but I thought it was good.

Yeah well I was in 7-11 the other day buying some beer and at the counter I notice some pogs causing me to go “Oh boy pogs are back!”..thing was I wasn’t being sarcastic..and they’re MARVEL POGS ..ahem..no wonder I don’t got a girl..or friends..

Attack of the Show! said Scanner got a nationwide release. But they LIED. I expect that out of Perriera. I trusted you Olivia!

Cheat!s on. and then at 4 we’ve got the Star Jones episode of X-Play. It’s quite delightful. It has a Lake House joke and everything.

Tetsu-well,okay it can’t top that. But I thought X-E’ers might appreiciate the DYI home camcorder “let’s be idiots in public” aspect of it.

Ok, I admit I haven’t done any digging for FF posters, but Jeebus, I’d love that. Would love one of Sephiroth or Cloud from Advent Children even more.

“Later in the show we’ll review a Mega Man game. That’s right, another Mega Man game. We thought they were done for the summer. But they just keep coming back….Like the Herpes”

Alright. I have the limited edition version of the strategy guide for VIII. They still publish the guide, but it has a white background now and is sans poster. You can find this sad thing at Barnes & Noble. There was a couple in mine when I bought the guide for X, about 6 months ago.

Mine, however, was purchased the day I bought VIII, which was probably less than a week after it was released. I wasn’t in the habit of reserving everything at GameStop, at that point yet. Mine has a silver hologram cover and had the poster in it. I love it alot. It’s black near the top so I can watch the reflection of my TV in it while I’m on the computer.

I’m going to link the store connected to FinalFantasyHybrid to my name. Can’t recall if they have the exact poster, but they’ve got alot of them, and wall scrolls, stickers, and all kinds of cool Final Fantasy stuff.

knegative-I never knew I should be ashamed to love Josie and The Pussycats I love that movie. As for the soundtrack I love it so much that I bought it lost it and had somebody burn me a copy that I carry around in the original case. I love Du Jour too.

Knegative: Okay, between playing with girl toys as a kid and the poster story, you’ve just won yourself a fan

I seriously almost spit out Coke when I read the poster thing.

My biggest embarrassment probably comes from playgrounds. I don’t GO to playgrounds unless I had a reason to be at that park or something, but when I’m at one it’s impossible to resist the temptation to swing or climb on stuff. Luckily I’ve found playing on playgrounds to be socially acceptable if you’re roughly under 30, have other people roughly under 30 ALSO on the playground with you, and the playground isn’t full of children.

OK, I am on vacation right now, but I found a computer with internet acess, but only until monday. (crappy dialup acess, but a compy nonetheless)

I spent all of Thursday night and all of Friday sick probably due to mild food poisoning from bad leftover coleslaw. I’m fine now, and here’s my answers from last blog’s survey:

Last Album - Alapalooza
Last book - Don’t remember
Last tv show - Flavor of Love
Last movie at home - probably Blue Colar Comedy Tour: One For The Road
Last movie at theatre - Clerks II
Video game played - Smash Bros Melee

Now for this blog: Don’t really care much for Tic-Tacs. And Clever Screen Name, just be lucky I wasn’t here to get on your case on misquoting Simpsons (well, you completely spelled Moe’s name wrong too)

What if they combined TicTacs with the goo from the chewing gums we talked about earlier? It would be like a party in your mouth and everybody was throwing up.
I’m really surprised that there never was a Tick/TicTac cross-promotion when the cartoon came out. I imagine a Deadly Bulb dispenser with squealing Pig Leg.

mrjayberry: I’ve been fighting the uphill battle of loving Josie and the Pussycats since I first saw it all those years ago on Encore. People have these silly preconcieved notions of masculinity. They’re kinda the fundamental assumption that make my every action funny in the eyes of others.

But I am certainly glad to know someone else who knows the joy of what is (without irony) one of my top 10 favorite albums. I’ll have everyone know that most of the songs were crafted by Adam from Foutains of Wayne, and that Adam Duritz himself co-wrote Spin Around and You Don’t See Me. Tack on the fact that Rachael, Rosario, and Tara did the choral backing vocals and you have miracle of modern science.

Somehow, someway the Halloween and Christmas jukeboxes have intermingled themselves in my itunes library.

I’m hearing Huey Lew…I mean Ray Parker Jr., then Nat King Cole, and then Bowling for Soup. It’s a beautiful thing.

Much love for including I Won’t Be Home for Christmas Matt!!! You just need to add the entirety of All Hallows Ep by AFI. You have the Misfits original version of Halloween, but you need Fall Children, The Boy Who Destroyed the World and Totalimmortal!

when i was little, i used to eat whole packs of the orange ones in one (extremely short) sitting: another reason i was hugely fat? i do not know, as i am unsure of their nutritional value.
mmm. if i ever leave this house in time, i will venture to treat my mouth to this new Tic-Tac experience.
giggle.

The fruit festival tic tacs are so awesome! I found them because I was in “5 and below” and I went to the register and then, all of a sudden, i saw tic tacs labeled “fruit”. I took one, looked at it, bought it, and now, the box is empty (sadly). Even though i LOVE orange tic tacs, these are even better.

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