I’m thrilled that we’re almost in the middle of October, and I’m still managing to find new Halloween stuff. Years of doing these Countdowns has taught me that Halloween’s “premiere” month is September. By the time we get to late October, we’re usually wading through piles of red stockings and candy canes to find one lone ghost. Not this year, and here’s a case-in-point:
From Wilco, it’s Madballs Jumpers! I have no way of proving that these are intended to be Halloween toys specifically, but the odds are pretty good. And heck, even if they aren’t Halloween exclusives, at least they’re a new officially licensed Madballs product!
This year, I’ve noticed the normal Madballs toys for sale in the Halloween sections of department stores, supermarkets and wherever else ghoulish goods are sold. It’s odd to see Madballs living an aisle away from Wheat Thins, but in this case, odd is great. Still, those Madballs definitely aren’t special editions — they’re the same ones that have been on sale for well over a year. It’s nice to see them with improved store locations, but it would’ve been even nicer if they had limited edition pumpkin graphics on the packages. I don’t ask for much.
Toys “R” Us had three versions of the Jumpers available, which either means that the collection has three versions in total, or that some idiot customer bought out the additional versions before I made my grand entrance, flanked by petal chuckers and an aide-de-camp. I’m betting on the former, mainly because I don’t feel like losing sleep over the thought that I don’t have a complete collection of Madballs Jumpers.
Wilco picked a nice trio of characters to become immortalized as gum-giving spring toys. From left to right, we have Bash Brain, Skull Face and Horn Head. Definitely a nice set, though the lack of an Oculus Orbus means that I cannot write a big “10″ on my judging scorecard. Fortunately for Wilco, I am frivolous with partial numbers. “9.9.”
Madballs Jumpers are essentially cheapo suction-cup boosted spring toys, which don’t work well and wouldn’t be much fun even if they did. But then, nobody who buys these things is interested in the stupid springing feature. We just want gum that comes out of something attached to Skull Face.
Each Jumper comes with five gumballs. The gumballs aren’t exactly vending machine-worthy in size, but they are individually flavored. (Which is to say, yellow gumballs are lemon, purple are grape, and so on. Upon further review, “individually flavored” is a stupid way to describe them. I take it back.)
I’m chewing, and the gum is okay, but make no mistake: I never would’ve paid 2.99 for five gumballs if they didn’t come with a suction-cupped plastic Madball.
From one reason to cheer to another! Family Time has unveiled a new line of Halloween Microwave Popcorn Bags, with the idea being that you’d hand ‘em out to trick-or-treaters. This seems totally brilliant to me. How have I never considered the glories of mini microwave popcorn bags as trick-or-treat booty before?
If you’re sworn by blood oath to provide sustenance to masked strangers on Halloween night, this is such an awesome way to stand apart from the pack. They’re different enough to make your home a memorable stop, but not so different that you’re going to offend and alienate all of the small vampires and rock whores who come begging for free candy.
But be warned, these treats come with a trick. The directions on the bags instruct you to put ‘em in the microwave for three minutes. I can confirm that a miniature bag of popcorn would set your entire neighborhood ablaze if you left it cooking in the microwave for three full minutes. 90 seconds is more apropos.
Under normal circumstances, this is the kind of “Halloween thing” that I’d admire from afar and not bother writing about. Upon a rookie’s glance, the popcorn might seem too simple and “blah” for me to meet my description requisite of 250 words. Think again, because there’s something special about this popcorn. Something called food coloring.
Indeed, in addition to butter, the kernels are also soaked in dried bits of orange dye, which turns the popped corn from its usual shade of white/yellow to something that can only be described as white/yellow/ORANGE. Amazing! I’ve been waiting for a Pop Qwiz revival for fifteen years, and now, finally, I have it! And I got Halloween-themed spider packaging to boot! I am way too content for it to really only be Thursday.
Orange buttered popcorn tastes just like regular buttered popcorn, but it’s messier. Fingers are rarely ready for photo shoots after spending time in a bag of microwaved popcorn, but with this particular brand, your hands end up looking as if some kind of extraterrestrial sick dog puked on them.
Finally, we have this Picture of Autumn Leaves Taken From Inside My Car When I Went Shopping, if only to remind you/myself that some of the best things about Halloween aren’t the ones that I normally write about.
Posted by Matt. E-mail me!
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Of course, the high was 90 today. But there’s a cold front a-comin’ tonight, and the high is supposed to be 66 or something tomorrow. Sounds good to me! I can remember it being in the 80s up until the second week of November here.
I’ve also noticed there’s more Halloween stuff late in the game than usual. Even Dollar Tree hasn’t put out too much Christmas stuff yet. I can’t afford any of it right now (I just barely paid my rent), but it’s nice to know that it’s there.
And the trees are starting to turn nice colors here in Southern New Jersey, too. I can’t wait for the ones over my porch to turn colors. They were a gorgeous shade of yellow last year.