X-Entertainment | The Graveyard Gang is a THRILLA.

The Graveyard Gang is a THRILLA.

"Thriller" is one of the songs of the season, and to celebrate, here's a look back at the Graveyard Gang, a line of cheap bendy zombies from 1984 that quite obviously intended to capitalize on Michael Jackson's popularity without paying him a cent. For bottom of the barrel toys, these are actually pretty cool, and they came blister-packed with coffin-shaped plastic bubbles. For those around the same age as me, I hope the article doesn't resurface any memories of how freakyscared you were of the music video when you were a kid.

Posted by Matt on 09/24/2006. E-mail me!

Discussion Thread: 72 comments

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1st at last! What are “Boogers in a Box” candy from TARGET? They were all sold out!

Chestnuts roasted by threebeesatdisney @ 09/24/2006 9:20 PM

Fascinating article. X-E covering the world of obscure/crappy toys. Also like the GREMLINS 2 reference.

Chestnuts roasted by The Manimal @ 09/24/2006 9:33 PM

Spooky.

Chestnuts roasted by diseases from monkeys @ 09/24/2006 9:36 PM

I loved the THRILLER video then and I love it now! I don’t know why …and sidenote….I miss Vincent Price
I will have to dig this video out of my archives (VHS) unless someone has a link to a digital version….. PLEASE!

Chestnuts roasted by threebeesatdisney @ 09/24/2006 9:40 PM

“man-faced sleaze whore”
ahhhh man i love this site….
pure literary geinus matt!!!
ThreeBees: Check youtube for the hilarious house of frightenstein for a good vincent price fix.

Chestnuts roasted by JoshC @ 09/24/2006 9:45 PM

I can’t believe I forgot to tell my 2 semi-related THRILLER stories of mild interest:
1. The best part of the THRILLER video was the other Jackson brothers (The Jacksons) doing the rip-off video “TORTURE”. When Jermaine or Tito or whoever punched open the giant eyegball….yowza.
2. School field trip to SHOWBIZ PIZZA (a sort of Chuck E. Cheese for those who don’t know)and all the kids got Billy Bob and the gang to sing THRILLER. Don’t ask me how or what was going on but they did some sort of interactive robot Billy Bob for us and he played what we requested (although now it is obvious that the man behind the curtain was prompting us).

Chestnuts roasted by The Manimal @ 09/24/2006 9:49 PM

I think Michael looks better in that doll then he does now.

Chestnuts roasted by Charles S. @ 09/24/2006 9:51 PM

JoshC Thanks…I have it playing now. I never heard of that show but I love ol’ Vincent in the beginning introduction part.

Chestnuts roasted by threebeesatdisney @ 09/24/2006 9:56 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE4OSyFWGPc

I don’t know how to hyperlink this…oh well. Here is a smidge of the THRILLER video.
Any full length versions?

Chestnuts roasted by threebeesatdisney @ 09/24/2006 10:01 PM

Hilarious House of Frightenstein gets to be played EVERY DAY in Canada on the Space channel. Aren’t we so lucky?

Chestnuts roasted by Roadblock @ 09/24/2006 10:01 PM

Here’s one link to Thriller courtesy of Yahoo videos. If you zoom in and watch closely, you can see the blue zombie mouthing the words “Matt… I’m still coming for you, Matt…”

(Or he might be mumbling the words “Michael… Stop pinching my butt, Michael…” The video quality isn’t great, so it’s hard to be sure.)

Chestnuts roasted by SJ @ 09/24/2006 10:04 PM

Those are cool I have never seen them before. I love looking at bootleg toys even though I have always wondered what’s the difference between a bootleg and a toy that is just a cheap dollar store piece of crap? Because if a toy looks like batman, and he’s el batmano, and is exactly the same but cheaper, and slightly different, THEN THAT is a bootleg. But what if something is just a cheap army guy. He’s not? it’s slightly confusing sometimes.

I found a site a couple of years ago kinda like Matt’s but a lot smaller, and he ahd a section about him bootleg toys and ripping on them, he linked in his name (it was a domain) and one of them was a toy keyboard which was a barnyard electronic music keyboard, and it had hello kitty and pikachu on it. It was really funny, one was a bright pink pencil/school set with random shots of spiderman. This WASN’T bootlegactionfigures.com

can anyone help me i’ve searched and searched and actually asked before. I would like some help so I can bookmark this site. Thanks

Chestnuts roasted by Goob @ 09/24/2006 10:21 PM

Ooh, Photoshopped bliss. (Did I just steal that from something? I have a feeling I did.)

And I actually posted a link to full length “Thriller” last night. Hmm. (rummaging.) There it is! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4-IlviV8Ao.

Chestnuts roasted by Katherine @ 09/24/2006 10:27 PM

Strangely, this video never really scared me. Maybe because of the music.
I remember seeing an article about Return of the Living Dead in a magazine of my father’s and being scared shitless of that though.
Now I love it and don’t find it remotely scary.
Strange how these things shift about.

Chestnuts roasted by FangsFirst @ 09/24/2006 10:40 PM

Yes, I too was scared to death of Thriller as a child. I never made it past the “GET AWAY!” part, as that particular scene normally sent me fleeing into another room. Upon subsequent viewings of the video during my adult years, I noticed a poster for the movie “Schlock” affixed to the outside of the theater that Jack-O and his date exit shortly before the zombie dance-number. For the uninitiated, “Schlock” is a delightfully campy horror-comedy directed by and starring John Landis (who also directed the Thriller video) about an ape-man who runs around murdering people, eating bananas, and poking a blind girl in the boobs. Check it out if you have the means.

Chestnuts roasted by The Yeti @ 09/24/2006 10:46 PM

Can’t help but notice how Karen Corpse reminds me of The Oracal from The Matrix…a lot really. Hm.

Nice little figures though, haven’t seen Thriller characters that well-done since Six Flags Fright Fest lol.

Chestnuts roasted by Dan @ 09/24/2006 10:53 PM

Oh, the werewolf bit had me so freaked as a kid. Nice call on the Edith dress…I read the description before the photo loaded and it was exactly how I pictured it.

Chestnuts roasted by squee4242 @ 09/24/2006 10:54 PM

i have the making of thriller on vhs. i watched it every day one summer and learned the dance.

Chestnuts roasted by allie @ 09/24/2006 11:30 PM

ever since that video came out in 82/83, vincent price’s laugh and michael jackson’s eyes have scared the bejeezus out of me. everytime i hear thriller nowawdays, i have to escape from hearing that laugh. i just realized it’s also in public enemy’s “911 is a joke.” thanks a lot, chuck.

anyone remember when thriller came out? it was a world premier video and michael had a special message at the beginning saying how he was not related in any way to the occult.

one more thing. anyone see weird al’s “eat it” video? at the end, weird al tries to copy the scary yellow cat eyes bit, but it’s so foolish. weird al just has fake plastic cat eyes over his real ones.

Chestnuts roasted by matty @ 09/24/2006 11:32 PM

I’m supposed to jump on that Matrix reference, aren’t I? Too bad.

My mom got me a black phone with furry pink boa feathers on it, that says “I heart Rock ‘N Roll” in sequins, today. And a Hello Kitty Lunchbox!!!!!!

If that doesn’t strike you as funny, remember I’m a 24 yr old male. start giggling…….Now!

Chestnuts roasted by K- @ 09/24/2006 11:47 PM

I remember the first time I ever saw this video. I was at my Grandma’s house, and the parents wanted to leave but I was like, “No!!! We gotta stay and see that video or we’ll miss it!” Because it was the premiere. I laid on the floor about a foot from the screen (Cause ya know, Grandma had one of those fancy floor TV with carved wood encasing it.) I don’t really remember being scared too much, but I was amazed at it, and it’s length. My brother kept trying to scare me afterwards, too.

Cool dolls. I’ll chip in 5 bucks.

Chestnuts roasted by Ryane @ 09/24/2006 11:51 PM

I was probably four the first time I saw it, but it didn’t scare me. Of course, my Friday nights were spent watching Tales from the Crypt with my babysitter’s daughter, so nothing really scares me (which really sucks).

Chestnuts roasted by broomstickjockey @ 09/25/2006 12:03 AM

Matt,

I am in love with these action figures, but I can not find them anywhere. Do you mind me asking where you got them?

Chestnuts roasted by Cotter @ 09/25/2006 12:07 AM

Yeah, I gotta say thos dolls are kick ass! Take any cheep ass toy and make it glow in the dark and it automaticlly becomes cool and worthy of my time.

I can’t remember the first time I saw the Thriller video, it came out when I was real young so I didnt have a chance to see it until I was older. It is a really awesome video fo sho!

Chestnuts roasted by IHAQ @ 09/25/2006 12:08 AM

I LOVED thise video as kid, though only during the day. At night I was absolutely convinced my Micheal-in-his-weenie-yellow-sweater-vest was growing fur in the darkness of my room.

Was the blue zombie the guy with the hole in his stomach who sorta dribbled a full mouth of blood at one point? If so, I think he scared me too. For some reason I was certain that he’d been killed by a cannon ball to the gut. Lucidity was optional at my house.

Chestnuts roasted by LemonWitch @ 09/25/2006 12:11 AM

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