McDonalds Plush Muppet Babies:1987

Yay, its November and the holiday months have officially belong.  For me they start in October, but for the rest of America November seems to be the it month. Stores bring out the Holiday decorations, and the malls begin to cast their parade of holiday colors. Corporate America starts showing slews of holiday commercials. Im not saying this is bad, no on the contrary this helps people get into warmer moods, it brings in the holiday cheer.

As a kid I always remember McDonalds having some of the best holiday commercials and happy meal toys.  One of the promotions I remember best were the Muppet Baby holiday plush dolls they had in 87. I didn't own all three but I did own the Fozzie Bear one.  I was always a fan of Fozzie, maybe it was because he seemed to be such an underdog in the show. He was riffled with tomatoes after his jokes, but always got up for more. I actually remember really liking this doll enough to keeping it around even when it was time to get rid of old toys, sure he sat on a shelf but every time I looked at him it brought back memories of the holidays and good times with it.
McDonalds also had Miss Piggy, who always seemed like to much of a bitch for any kid to want to own her, and the Kermit.  They were cute and Cuddly and were dressed to make you feel a little warmer for the Holidays.
Any body else remember or own any of these?

Nightmare On My Street 1988

The Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff released a track in 1988 that would appeal to any 10 year old with a monster fascination. The Song A Nightmare on My Street was the third single off their Parents just don't understand album, and subsequently also the first rap tape I owned. I loved it, could get enough. I memorized the words of the song and would sing it every where! Last night while driving home the song came on the raido and the words came back to me with the same ease as jumping back on a bicycle. I got strange looks from the wife and kids, but there was no stopping the lyrical flow. The song also brought back a rush of memories of childhood Halloween.

Heres a video with the song with lyrics included.  Now you to can sing along to this awesometastic Halloween song!

The Real Ghostbusters:The Boogieman Cometh 1986

The Boogie man was a legend told to make kids do things their parents wanted them to do. I was never really afraid of the Boogieman, but I think it was more because I didn't have a mental imagine to associate with the guy.  That all changed in 1986 when the Real Ghostubsters cartoon came out. I was a huge fan of the movies and the cartoons as a kid.  I would watch them on Saturday mornings as part of my line up, navigating from channel to channel and sometimes having to make important decision as to what I was going to watch and not watch. Ghostbusters though was always one I hated missing.  I don't think these cartoons were every really meant to frighten their viewers, but seeing the Boogieman did in fact give me chills.

This little discription is off the Wiki Page.

"The Boogieman is a somewhat goblin-esque, anthropomorphic creature with human and animal features not unlike the god Pan from Greek mythology.  His skin and fur are pale blue.  He sports a head grossly oversized in comparison to his arms, legs and torso.  His goat-like ears and humanoid nose are quite pronounced and elongated, and his face features high, prominent cheeks.  His humanoid eyes are large and yellow, set under black brows and fantastic, porcupine-like blue hair which projects over his face and runs down the length of his back. The Boogieman's mouth (often twisted into a frightening grin) is large and ugly- bearing ruby-red lips and jagged, yellow teeth.  To top it off, he sports what appear to be unshaven whiskers on his chin.  From the neck down his body is covered in fur.  His arms are humanoid, and his large hands end in pointed red nails.  Below his waist, the Boogieman resembles a hoofed ungulate, like a sheep or goat.  His legs are short, often bent and terminate in cloven hooves. 

The Boogieman wears some clothing.  Around his short neck is a blue bowtie.  He also sports a dark blue dress coat with very long tails."

The first few nights after watching this cartoon,  sleeping was a little harder, getting sent into a room to get something at night became more of an adventure, and closing the closet door was a MUST.(Even though the bastard could open it)  

The Boogieman must have been a popular character for the franchise, because he got a second episode and even came out in a few cameo episodes. Out of all the  cartoons from this franchise the boogieman and the spirit of Halloween stick out the most in mind.  Both episodes were eerie and creepy in their own way.  

A little Halloween treat! The entire episode of The Boogie Man Cometh!

Friday the 13th for the NES 1989

Friday the 13th for the NES was released in 1989 and is considered one of the worst games ever made!
The game was produced by the now defunct toy video game production company LJN, who produced a slew of other movie based games.

Now even though the game was considered crap by its peers, as a ten year old playing video games at night, well this game scared the shit out of me. The crappy soundtrack also did wonders to my 10 year old mind. I always had a fascination with the Friday the 13th movies but was to chicken to watch a whole movie through.

Basic run down of the game was you played as six different camp counselors and you have to defeat Jason 3 times by looking for him throughout his romping grounds, of Camp Crystal lake.  Along the way you do battle with Jason's mothers severed head and other creepy crawlers that also roamed the camp grounds.  Jason would pop out  in different times to attack you, and im telling you there was nothing scarier then going into an empty cabin and having Jason come out of nowhere to try to off you.

Sure the game was a horrible representation of the movie, but then again the movies were pretty horrible in themselves as well. We watched the movies not for the Oscarress acting and cinematography, but because being scared is fun.  This game brought some great memories to me as a kid and also cowboy-ed me up the watch Jason goes to Manhattan which came out the Summer of the same year.

Here is a six minuet video clip of the game, I dare you to try to sit through all of it. I could only stomach about 4 minuets of it, but not because it was bad but because some things are better left in my past where they were some of the scariest things Iv seen.

Ecto Cooler 1987-2007

Hi-C was the drink of choice for lots of kids, sure we had lots of choice like Capri-Sun, and.....well other choices.  But when Ecto Cooler hit the shelves in 87 after the popularity of the real Ghostbusters cartoon, almost every kid was sporting the slimmer approved drink. Not only did it taste great, but it was the same color of the popular Ghostbuster allies. Ecto Cooler stayed on shelves way after the popularity of the cartoon ran its course, the cool green slime color was later removed as to not stain clothing, and the name was changed  to Crazy Citrus Cooler finally the popular drink was discontinued in 2007.

This Halloween you too can make your own Ecto Cooler!  This recipe has been on tons of Blogs and web pages, but the popular ghost is here to haunt Retro Pulp as well.   

• 1 Packet Flavor Aid Orange
• 1 Packet Flavor Aid Tangerine
• 3/4 Cup Orange Juice (No Pulp)
• 3/4 Cup Tangerine Juice
• 1/3 scoop Countrytime Lemonade
• 1 3/4 Cups Sugar
• Green and blue food coloring.

The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown 1966

As far back as I can remember , this cartoon was always part of the Halloween Tradition. In a time when the only place to see cartoons on TV was Saturday Mornings and after school, a chance to see a cartoon during prime time was good enough reason to tune in every year! It was our slap in the face to adults, our HAHA moment. "Oh you want to watch Dynasty? To bad Charlie Browns taken over the air waves Grandma!"

The Cartoon actually first aired back in 1966 on CBS, but even though it was about 15 years old when it got to us it was still a great cartoon and did its part of getting us in the Halloween mood. It was a reminder that fall had begun and the best season were about to start! I remember this CBS intro meaning a seasonal cartoon was coming up. The drumbeat sang to me something out of the norm is about to start and its probably a cartoon!



Heres a little clip from one of my favorite Halloween memories.

My Pet Monster 1986

Here is a tribute to one of my favorite toys I had during my my younger years as a child, that's right annother session of the school of old is about to begin.
In the early 80s, the cabbage patch kid craze started and every littile girl  had a cabbage patch kid, in fact some of you readers might be guilty of having a cabage patch kid or two in the house.  Now I'm not sure if they were trying to target cabage patch kids to boys as well, but if they were, Matel decided to come back with some competion of their own with a toy called my buddy.  Now I must admit the song was pretty  catchy and I still remember bits and parts of it. But lets face it the doll sucked, I'm not sure what matel was trying to do to little boys, because untill then most of them were having battle royals and handi cap fights with their Heman action figures.

I think other toy companys were also appalled at turning little american boys into doll totting fags, who would later have mental problems and low self esteem issues, and bullied there whole lifes,  that's when MY BUDDY was released, My Pet Monster. My pet Monster came out on the scean to remind little boys what they had in between there legs, and have them know if you were going to play with a doll it better be one that looked like a monster.

I remember it took me a while to get my own monster, but when I finally did me and the monster were like one.  Those that don't remember him he was about a three foot blue monster with gold vynal hands and feet and a darker blue cordoroy stomach,  he had these cool hard plastic teeth and big wild plastic beety eyes, and a huge green nose with warts that potruted out of his monsterous face.  The monster came with an orange pair of hand cuffs that would come apart to give the look that the monster could break through them easly with no problem and since the monsters arms were around as thick as any child that owned one, we could put the cuffs on as well and act like we broke through the chains ourselves.


My pet monster boasted hours of fun and delivered!   My pet monster scared my buddy so bad that Matel had to drop the franchise and go with a kid sister doll, because they were getting reports of my pet monster owners decemating my buddy on the play ground.  My pet monster I thank you for countless memories of fun and I salute you!


The Franchise was so popular it even spawned a live action movie and cartoon series. 

Cereal legends

Class is in session boys and girls, for a class from The Skool Of Old.  If you lived through the 80s as a kid or were ever a couch potato in the 80s  for Saturday morning cartoons im sure you will remember these next three guests.  The monsters cereal or better known as Boo-berry, Frankenberry and Count Chocula.

I think that fact that the cereal was comprised of monsters made it popular especially targeting boys from the 4 to 10 age, and probably older,  hell Iv seen boo-berry a few times at the store and I just have to buy it for nostalgia purposes, not to mention the cereals not bad tasting at all.

I was a huge fan of this cereal as a kid especially Boo-berry, though I have to admit that Mr. Franken gave the ghost with a most a good run for his money.  Count Chocula was never all that big to me I guess mainly because there was so many other chocolate cereals out on the market. Freddy you and your chocolaty pebbles won me over!

So a quick History lesson from these ledgands,  the monster brand of cereals from general mills was brought to us in the early 70s, I think 1971.  Over the years the monsters changed in appearance, to make them less spooky. Here is a quick bit of trivia history that you can take back with you and chew, there was actually another monster that was part of the monster cereal collection.  Fruit Brute (1974) is a werewolf. He was discontinued in 1982. A Fruit Brute box shows up occasionally in Quentin Tarantino movies. It appeared in Pulp Fiction (a scene in which Vincent calls Lance on his cell phone, Lance is eating a bowl of Fruit Brute), and Reservoir Dogs(in Mr. Orange's apartment).

I think its easy to say that the public as well as me were more fans of Frankenbearry and Boo-berry then they were of the count.  These two even have there own home pages of all things.  I believe there might be a few old school commercials there as well to check out and maybe have flash back trips.  

What ever happened two these cereal legends and how did they loose there popularity,  how is it that the fat ass cooks from the cinnamon toast crunch commercials are still around but finding a box of boo-berry is almost as hard to find as a cat walking around a Chinese food market. Monster cereal I salute you and hope this small article pays you guys some sort of tribute.

Welcome to Retro Pulp

This blog is Focused mainly for the X Generation. Ill be posting every thing from cartoons, commercials, and food and anything else that might kick start some nostalgia. Blog updates will begin in October and ill be trying to stick to a Halloween theem for the month.

Here is a Montage of Commercials from the 80s to hold you off till then.  Enjoy