The X-Entertainment Blog

09/19/2008: Halloween Countdown ‘08: Fizz ‘n Find Surprise Toys!

Fizz ‘n Find is a brand of small toys that arrive trapped inside hard, sandy eggs which quickly dissolve when placed in warm water. While I’d bet that any Fizz ‘n Find promo material writers devised a more appealing way to describe the brand’s gimmick, my explanation was totally correct: They’re dishwasher soap bricks with toys inside.

I’ve never paid the Fizz ‘n Find collection much attention, but these new “Trick-or-Treat Surprise” editions are virtually impossible for anyone charged with finding something Halloweeny to write about for 45 days straight to pass up. The toys you receive are in no way worth the five bucks you pay, but much of the price bloating is justified by the experience. I’ve owned a lot of action figures, but very few of them were obtained by placing a sandy egg in a bowl of water and watching it dissolve into rabid dog foam.

I originally thought that I’d be dissolving that swank happy pumpkin, but as it turns out, the pumpkin is just a wrapper to keep the egg from crumbling prematurely. The actual fizzer is shown at top right. It doesn’t have any particular odor, but since the happy pumpkin was so tightly wrapped around the egg that I had to use my teeth as a surrogate X-Acto knife, I can confirm that it tastes weird. Somewhere between soap and a lemon cough drop.

After dropping the fizzy egg into warm water, it immediately began to bubble, quickly transforming into a puddle of foamy trouble. Sadly, the foam is so thick that you really don’t get to see the egg give birth to a toy. It’s all hidden behind a big foam wall. Once a minute or two goes by, you’re free to reach in and grab your surprise.

The “Trick-or-Treat Surprise” editions contain one of four Halloween-themed figurines. I bought two, and perhaps because the cosmos owed me a solid after that horrible Joker cereal toy fiasco, I got my exact top two picks.

The simple ghost (named “Boo”) and super-deformed vampire (named “Trick”) each have posable limbs and glow-in-the-dark features. Trick even came with a removable cape! The figures are detailed/painted well enough, but they’re awfully tiny and kind of a ridiculous “end result” for parting ways with a paper Abe Lincoln. But like I mentioned, it’s all about the experience. I’ve owned cooler toys that cost less than five bucks, but they weren’t born of sandy, fast-dissolving eggs that taste like soap and cough drops.

The remaining figures include Wartsy (a witch) and Treat (a spin on Frankenstein’s Monster), and the back of their packages suggest that we “collect them all.” I may take them up on this. I stand by my statement that I already got the two coolest figures, but I just noticed that the one based on Frankenstein’s Monster is holding a tiny teddy bear. Even without fizzy foamy eggs, ironic Frankensteins are well worth five bucks.

If you can’t find these marvelous Halloween stocking stuffers in a store near you, click here to buy some online. I get a hefty commission if you do. Like, if seven thousand of you bought one, I might make enough to get that bear-boasting Frankenstein’s Monster without yanking money from my vacation fund. I plan to visit Portugal to find my real parents.

Oh, and hey — true Countdown entries such as this are only promised on weekdays, but come back tomorrow anyway. We’ll (”we’ll” meaning me) be running a one-day art contest for prizes valued in excess of thirty cents, and those around during the late night hours are free to join in the discussion of three horror flicks airing on cable television that I plucked from the TV Guide listings. It’ll be almost as fun as going outside and doing something, like people do in the movies.

Posted by Matt. E-mail me!

I thought you weren’t going to put anything on the main page or did I miss something?

I don’t know Matt, often staying inside can be as fun, or MORE fun than goin outside! Anyway those little egg figures are neat. Do they have a Skeleton one?

THanks for helping me waste some time before I have to leave work! So if you want to “collect them all” do they tell which ones you get or do you just have to go for it? I’m assuming you go for it since you were happy you got those two. This is a long statement that really could have been shortened to like one sentence…

Mama’s Boy: I’m honestly convinced that there’s virtually nothin you can’t sell. However dumb the majority of the world thinks somethin is, there’s STILL at least ONE person somewhere who’ll buy it. Matt has proven that countless times. lol. Not that I think the stuff Matt buys is stupid, i’m just sayin the majority of the world probably doesn’t share the taste of us X-Ers. But so what!=) My buying habits and taste are EXACTLY like Matts.

While the toys inside are probably not worth 5 bucks I think I’d get sucked intro buying them, too. I have a thing for tiny figures of all sorts. Which is why my desk is littered with everything from flapper-liked dressed pinguins to fat Homer from the episode where he eats until he’s considered handicapped.

They are neat little figures…not $5 dollars worth, but pretty neat all the same.

Cap N.Ultraman: I agree with you, there’s always someone to buy the stupid crap others come up with. It’s usually the stuff being sold and not the desire to own a certain something that causes people to actually buy something. Marketing often works that way, too. Don’t give them what they want, make them want what you have.

I went back and looked at the Joker entry, and now I want a box of Resse’s Puffs.

I’ll agree with DC. Neat figures, but I’ll keep my $5. Anyone seen the Galvatron figure they have out? I saw it at Target last weekend. Why does he transform into a tank? Didn’t he transform into a cannon or something?

i guess i’m in the minority who’d pay five bucks to own my very own little, bushy eyebrowed, kid Fonz vampire..

sfcfb: In the original movie and seasons after the movie, Galvy was indeed a cannon. But in sequel series Galvy transforms into other things, like a tank for example.

If anyone has IFC, at midnight A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child is on.

Thank god the count down is official. You always make me laugh a really ackward laugh.

Have you guys seen those ghost Peeps? I almost wanted to buy some but then I remembered that I hate marshmallows.

Also, was it five bucks for each toy or five bucks for the both of them? ‘Cause I could see paying 2.50 for one, but not five dollars.

pdc: I have not seen it on DVD anywhere. I think I read it was not out, but I could be wrong.

Annette, It’s $5 per fizzer. It’s ridiculous now, but if you wait until closer to Halloween, and especially after, they’ll probably drop way down. They’re not likely to be sold out or run out of stock before the actual holiday.

Matt, I’m jealous that you got the ghost one. I bought one of these, really wanting the ghost, and ended up with the witch instead. I was semi-crushed, but she is wearing a cool shiny silver get-up, reminiscent of 1950’s sci-fi movies. Martian witches… that’s worth $5.

Hey, do any of y’all, Matt included, know a lot about spiders? I killed a spooky one last night and am wondering if it’s a brown recluse, sac spider, or baby wolf spider. If I post a pic can someone help? Thanks! -Eddie

if you have a picture why don’t you just browse around the net. You should be able to make a + ID.

pdc: Disney’s Halloween Treat is indeed not on DVD. I know because after listening to the theme last night (god bless the Halloween Jukebox), I got the urge to watch it. Sad that it has not progressed past VHS, as it was part of my Halloween tradition for years:(

Click my name to see a picture of the spooky kitchen stuff I picked up at Kroger today!

OOhh. Glow in the dark toys are the greatest. It is best when you find out a glow in the dark item is glowin the dark after you have bought it and leave it out on your dresser and then at night you are laying in your bed and like, “Hey! That glows!”

And thanks for all your kind words in the previous post. Our spirits are up and we are taking a cheesy but needed “kick cancer’s ass” attitude.

Good post, Matt! Also, can you tell us in advance what the art contest will be about? On another note, I’m thinking of renting Ed Wood on DVD and watching it tonight. Has anyone on here seen it?

Ed Wood is a fantastic movie, although I have never seen an actual Ed Wood movie. I own the DVD.

No advance notice! :) It will be a quickie art contest only available to those able to draw something tomorrow. PRESSURE.

I’ve never seen these at all. Never even heard of them until I read this. The ghost is cute and Trick’s got that nifty cape…but I think I’ll pass, too, unless I can find something similar at a dollar store.

And Cheetara, my parents taped “Disney’s Halloween Treat” off the Disney Channel in 1988, and as far as I know, have watched it every fall season since. I don’t believe it’s ever been on DVD, which is a shame, since some of the similar Christmas compilations are. Halloween in my family wasn’t complete without that talking jack o’lantern and the spooky opening song.

Mama’s boy This is most of the essence of this site. Useless crap. We are fascinated by the stuff. Most of it we live vicariously through Matt’s purchases and never buy it ourselves. So I guess you could say the time we spend here is an investment.

Annette If you ever take the plunge and get peeps DON’T get the white ones. They taste like plain sugar and not flavored like the other ones and I avoid them. I would rather have no peeps at all rather then the white ones. They aren’t unappetizing but they aren’t good.

Cheetara I love the candy corn one! You can find several versions of Disney’s Halloween treat on youtube. There is even a guy (I posted a comment this morning on the previous blog post about it) that has a link that you can download a .wmv copy of one of the versions in it’s entirety. I think that is pretty handy and I’m grateful he went out of his way to do so.

And to the article. These remind me of when Mystie reviewed the Zizzlingers. If anyone is curious they should go over to crowncombo.com and read her article. Her figures came in a dissolvable pink baggie (w/ soap inside like this one) and had 3 disney princess figurines in it. It’s not spooky or Halloweeny but it’s worth a read. Hers has a video!

On another topic, I am repeating what I wrote on the previous blog article comments.

I just wanted to mention that Showtime is repeating tonight at 10:00pm the episode of Penn and Teller Bullshit when they talk about nostalgia and how people talk about the past like it was an ideal time to live in and in reality it isn’t as good as they remember it being or thought it was.

I thought it was an interesting episode when I first saw it about 3 or so weeks ago. I kept on forgetting to mention it so here you go. They will repeat it of course if you miss it just look for it. I thought it would be a good topic of conversation.

Anyone seen the Galvatron figure they have out? I saw it at Target last weekend. Why does he transform into a tank? Didn’t he transform into a cannon or something?

The post-G1 Galvatrons were simple recolors of existing Megatrons. The new Classics Galvatron seems to be a hybrid of both G1 and Current models. To be fair, I’m holding the G1 Galvatron in front of me right now, and he is simply awful in terms of accuracy. He has very few points of articulation and hardly looks anything like the cartoon version.

This version got it right. Kickassness and functionality. He also has an alternate mode to turn him into a cannon as well.

He’s fuggen sloppy, imo. However, I love that crazy bastard enough that I’d buy it if I saw it in person.

those are really cute. a little pricey, but at least they don’t look like they were painted by helen keller.

Also, speaking of songs, but I’ve set up another contest on my blog. Clicky the name to take you to a challenge regarding Disney songs!

Back on topic, Yeah, those figures do not justify the $5 one would attempt to part with to get them.

wow, those look pretty fun. I can’t wait
to show off my third grade art skills. I’ll
submit it on a bevnap.

They’re pricey. Hey, does anyone remember the Gremlins to that grew when you put it in
water? That was a good one. I also remember Disect an Alien. I don’t remember the name of
the toy line.

I covered these in my own Halloween bloggin’…I only bought one though, and got the Frankenstein’s Monster. I wanted Boo!

I had one of these fizzy things that had a pirates of the carribbean toy inside. it sucked and the hand holding the sword constantly fell off

Sorry for posting twice. It was from the Mad Scientist toyline. They had really great
stuff in the Eighties.

I’m with sfcfb, I like the little figures and, yeah, $5 is a bit steep, but I’m thinking about buying a slew of them for the kids at our convention. Although, I’m not sure how I’ll explain what they are. I’d hate to be the convention that poisoned a bunch of kids with soap… hrm…

Have any of you guys ever seen those Salad Fingers flash animations? If you want something disturbing to watch, check those out. I just came across them today and I’m torn between thinking they’re brilliant and being completely freaked out by them. Search for them on Newgrounds.

Just a question… How do you turn off the Halloween Jukebox? It’s nice to have when you’re reading the blog, but when the theme to Tales From The Darkside is playing on your computer when you don’t have any windows up sounds like a really bad plot to… well, Tales From The Dark Side… Or is this reality?

starwenn: I used to look forward to watching it on the Disney channel every year. The Night on Bald Mountain scene from Fantasia used to genuinely creep me out (still does to an extent).

Goob: The candy corn thingy in the foreground is a hand towel. I’m a sucker for stuff emblazoned with candy corn. I’ll have to go back and find that guy’s post, because I’m itching to watch that special now! If I just had it on DVD, my traditions from the Halloweens of yore could be fully realized. *sigh* At least I have It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown to comfort me.

Annette: My fiance brought me a gift the other day. What was it? A grubby tap.

Boo makes me crave some Ghost With the Most action. We gonna see that little guy during the countdown sometime?

How do you turn this thing off!?!?! Good post, and good idea with the jukebox. Halloween Radio is kind of limited in its musical variety. But HOW DO YOU TURN IT OFF?

Cheetara
Here is the link to the first part In the description is the link to download it or you can just watch it online. There are other versions but that is the only one I know the link to easily.

Plantmonster You close the window. It opens in a separate window so all you do is close it. You can pause it too. You can skip songs so if you don’t want to start at the beginning every time just click on the last song that was playing. Or not it’s your life.

GOOB
I know I’m just overreacting and that I can turn the volume down. But it still plays WHEN THERE ARE NO WINDOWS! SPOOKY! BOO! CAPS LOCK!

How long do you think it’ll be before some idiot swallows one of those things and goes to the hospital? Talk about foaming at the mouth…

It shouldn’t play without any windows open. It runs through the window. Or through a player if you loaded the m3u file like I did a couple of nights ago. But heh I was acting crazay.

Whoa,you can still make him into a cannon? And here I was,confident that I could keep my $9.99.
Hasbro,you win again!

Kid Nicky: Galvy has also been a tank, drag racer,a dragon, and I think a jet. Just incase you didn’t know.
Iv’e been listening to the Halloween jukebox all day. Can’t get enough of it. But that’s a good thing. =)

Tonight I went to Target and looked at the gross Halloween candy section. They had Buckets O’ Body Parts; gummy body parts floating in edible red goo. I was going to buy it, but was too afraid. Would it taste terrible? Would the excessive food additives be poisonous? Maybe Matt could try it first. Go forth, warrior Matt, and devour the bloody, gummy goodness. Perhaps you will live to tell us all about it!

I was just catching up after missing a few blog posts and I caught your message about your boyfriend. Just wanted to add that he is definitely in my thoughts and prayers as an (extended) member of the X-E family.

Matt, I love you!
I wish I had a boyfriend who bought fizzy soaps that dissolved into interesting Halloween characters.

Matt, if the SNT is going to be focused around three movies, can we get a start/end time…just, I’d like to be around for an SNT and would like to know the time difference so I don’t sleep through.

It’s definitely a lot colder around me (I got home a half hour ago) - definitely not hang-out-in-the-backyard kind of weather anymore.

(This is taken from Matt’s comment in the Halloween 8 ball thread)

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III - 11:35 PM on Cinemax More Max
The Craft - 11 PM on HBO Signature
Trilogy of Terror 2 - 1 AM on Sci-Fi

There’s a water theme going on this Halloween. I wonder why they didn’t capitalize on it and do a Creature From the Black Lagoon prize too.

Glad they tell us on the packaging that Step 3 is “FUN!” Thanks Fizz’n'Find creators

meh….sitting here just shootin the shit with you all…I’m gonna go to youtube or somewhere to look for Ed Wood. see you all for snt later on….and KB godspeed to you and your bf.

Ohhh yeah! Don’t know if anyone else has Chiller Network, but they’re showing Freddy’s Nightmares! Haven’t seen this since the 80s! AND this episode is the medical student wh works on Freddy’s body I think.

Talk about Freddy weekend. The fifth one was on last night (i watched that too).

No Wolfman? I’m shocked. But, having a vampire ALWAYS makes up for everything else… no matter what it is.

Shit. Matt. I forgot to mention that TRU carries a dinosaur version of these. They actually have a volcano playset that you fill with water, set the egg in the crater of the volcano and as it fizzes, it looks like it’s erupting! At least, that’s what I gather from the box. You can buy refills/eggs seperately, too. Oh yeah, and the dinosaurs come in parts, and you put them together.

They have a mermaid version for girls, but it doesn’t seem as cool. I dunno, but they are found in the Imaginarium/Science section of your local TRU.

All this fizzy, soapy stuff makes me think of Ross Noble and the Fairy Jasmine bath bombs.

Cap N.ULTRAMAN: So you’re a gummy fan? Hmmm… that’s all well and good, but are you brave enough to sample the bucket o’ blood? >:)

KB: Hang in there. Your b/f will need a lot of support while he fights this. My 60-year old mother beat breast cancer last year, but it was a tough battle. I wish you both the best. Keep us posted on his progress.

Everyone: I think we should share personal experiences even if it has nothing to do with expired candy or toys hidden in fizz. We’re all people who face challenges from time to time. We can be supportive of each other while we banter about fun stuff too. What do you guys think?

Nothing like posting 4 days later! I had an idea about viewing the fizzy birth of the toy. I skimmed the blog quickly here cuz I’m at work, and I didn’t see anyone mention this. But maybe get a tall glass flower vase and observe the fizz/bubbles rise up and see the toy appear…?

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