Sandwich Bodybag

Most of my posts are usually about some old crap stuff I've happened to stumble cross, but this post is different. This is about something currently in stores now.

Recently I wanted sandwich bags at a good value, and so what better choice than Value Choice Sandwich Bags. At $1.09 for a box of 150 bags that's less than a penny per bag. What a great deal!

At that price who cares about package designs, but as an added bonus I got this unique "sandwich man" cartoon printed on the box.


I'm sure "sandwich man" is perfectly happy wrapped in plastic. He's just relaxing and keeping fresh until it's time to be eaten. "Sandwich man" probably feels a lot like how another once popular cartoon mascot felt about being consumed by humans...



I never understood why Charlie the Tuna was so determined to be caught and taken to the cannery where he'd be gutted, butchered, cooked, chopped-up and packed into cans of Star-Kist Tuna. Maybe the ocean is a depressing place to live. I guess Sebastian the Crab was lying when he sang about how great it was to be "Under the Sea."

Anyway if you look at the bottom of the box you can learn about many other uses for these fine sandwich bags, and the company who manufactures these bags...


The Nash Finch Company are the makers of this and may other quality products sold at independent grocery stores across this country.

It looks like this package was designed in 2002. Who knows how long this package design will last, but for any future redesigns I hope they keep "sandwich man" alive. Or something like that.

Hardee's Ghostbusters II Poster

Although this post is titled "Hardee's Ghostbusters II Poster," I'm technically not going to show the actual poster.

Say what? That's crazy talk.

Seriously, the poster is nothing special. It's simply the Ghosterbusters II logo. What might be more interesting, or quasi-interesting, is the other stuff printed on the poster.

In 1989 Hardee's was the "Official Ghostbusters Headquarters" as you can see from the "cover" of their collector poster below...


Probably the most memorable part of Hardee's Ghostbusters II promotion was the recall of the "Ghostblasters" electronic noisemaker due to the fact some children were swallowing the batteries. I have a couple of those noisemakers tucked away somewhere, and after all these years have somehow managed to keep from swallowing the delicious batteries myself.

Anyways, when you open the collector poster you a vague - make that a very, very vague description of Ghostbusters II with a list of the returning stars...



... the "back" has virtually nothing on it.

This poster was given away for free, and had three different food coupons at the bottom.

Only 39¢ for a cone? That's a deal! Today, these old coupons might be the most interesting thing about this poster.

UNCANNY COINCIDENCE UPDATE: Just as I published this post, "Quint" over at Ain't It Cool News conveniently posted a behind the scenes photo from Ghostbusters II. Click here to check it out. This happily makes this lame-ish post a little less lame.

Star Wars Funmeal

Here are two Burger Chef Star Wars Funmeal packages from 1978 for your viewing pleasure. The Funmeals didn't come with a toy, but the packages are printed with punch-out vehicles that you could put together.

First is Luke's Landspeeder...

... and don't forget the parts on the bottom of the package.


Next is next the X-Wing Fighter...

... and the bottom.

Burger Chef's mascots were the Burger Chef and his young protege Jeff. On the vintage tray liner below Burger Chef explains to Jeff how the salad was invented...

Gee, who knew primitive cave people were dumber than rabbits. How did the human race ever survive?

To close this post here's a Burger Chef commercial featuring Burger Chef and Jeff and their new "Works" and salad bar.

Halloween Horror Double Feature

For Halloween let's have a "Horror Double Feature" with a couple of movies by some hometown boys (well, my hometown) who made good.

Here's an article about Evil Dead (1983) by the Detroit Free Press from May 3, 1983...

Please click to enlarge if you wish to read (I probably didn't need to say that)

... now let's jump to April 10, 1987 for another Detroit Free Press article, but this time it's about Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn (1987). As an added bonus the movie review is also included...


If you were some of those lucky collectors out there maybe you picked up one of these cute, but rare Evil Dead Haunted Cabin toys back in the day...

The Wasp Woman Animated Poster

I wanted to animate this poster for The Wasp Woman (1959) for two reasons - first, if you check out the trailer below, the actual wasp woman in the movie looks nothing like how she appears on the poster...


... and secondly, this is practically the only time a man is the "victim" in posters like these. Enjoy...

A Scary Tale From Novi

This short video from 2001 was the last "creative" production I made for local government access television...



I had super high hopes to make this into a special half-hour show, but it never got off the ground. Former Novi Police Chief Lee Begole had done a show years earlier called Scary Tales From Novi where he simply recounted various local ghost stories and mysterious tales. I thought it would be great to reenact some of those stories for a new show.

I tried to get other city production staff excited by the idea because this was too big to do on my own, but unfortunately nobody really shared my enthusiasm. Even getting this modest little short completed was a chore.

I don't know what it was, but nothing seemed to go smoothly. It's always hard to get actors together for free, and this time I also needed someone with an old car. I wanted to actually show police officers searching the weeds and finding the graves stones, but I couldn't find costumes that looked like 1950's police uniforms. When it came time to do the BW grave stone shots I couldn't property use my tripod due to a missing mounting plate. I remember feeling that this project was cursed.

In the end it turned out OK. Although I think my narration kinda sounds like Criswell from Plan 9 From Outer Space (1958). I don't remember if that was intentional or not.

Music Videos from Hell: Part 3

Now it's time for my last scary music video post. These posts have been so exceptionally popular that Vh1 has contacted me, and I've agreed to turn them into a series of specials. Please look for Music Videos from Hell right after Lindsay Lohan's new reality show WTF Am I Doing to my Life? airing sometime in 2011.

Anyway let's look at a scary video now. In Between Days by The Cure is another one of those videos that's accidentally creepy. The song is very happy, but the trippy florescent makeup is spooky. I don't know what the stop-motion socks are all about.

The Cure - Inbetween Days from feelthemonster on Vimeo.

Let's jump from 1985, to the present day and take a look at Kids by MGMT. This video is a depiction of a small child's nightmare. I'm sure the band has gotten some sharp criticism for apparently terrifying a toddler thru nearly the entire video. (FYI: the actual song starts about 1 minute in)



I'm pretty sure the kid is OK, and wasn't traumatized by the experience in the slightest. Although those monsters were nothing compared to the horrendous futuristic wardrobe the band wears. Silver clothing is so unflattering.

Well I've save the scariest video for last. So if your nerves can take it, brace yourself for the most frightening music video ever...


I don't blame you if you had to look away. The horror... the horror...

The Killer Shrews Animated Poster

The Killer Shrews is a ultra super low budget horror film from 1959 that's surprisingly about giant mutated killer shrews. Let's look at the trailer...



The shrews are mostly played by dogs dressed in what looks like burlap and discarded hula skirts. There's also a puppet sometimes, but neither the puppet or dogs look much like shrews. So for my animation I've used actual shrew art...

The Troubled Town of Woodsboro

Maybe you heard about this since it's gotten a lot of press over the years.

The town of Woodsboro was the unfortunate home of a series of horrible murders in 1996, 1997 and 2000.

I just happened to visit the tragic town this past summer. Although Woodsboro is in California - nearly 2000 miles from where I live, the trip felt as close as my own hometown or maybe the town next to mine. Weird.

Anyway, as you can see from these banners, Woodsboro has an active arts community...

... and if read the center banner, Woodsboro is "Hometown America" not "Stabbing Town America."

For some reason the Woodsboro Police Station was a popular tourist spot. Parents were taking pictures of their children in front of the station. I hope it doesn't have anything to do with the murders because that's kinda ghoulish.

Well, with last murders happening 10 years ago I think it's safe to say the town of Woodsboro can put those ugly events behind them, and look towards a bright and psychopathic murder free future.

Sir K. Daver's Mortuary Theater

Yes it's time for another Channel 12 holiday promo (you can check out my Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter and Valentine's promos if you'd like to see more)...



I remember thinking this was an epic production way back when. I made the candelabras, the gravestones, Lover's Lane sign and a cobweb machine (which I explained how to make here). Today you can buy a fog machine at the corner drugstore for about $19.99, but back then they were a bit more rare. I borrowed mine from the local fire department. Did it all turn out perfect? No, but I was pretty satisfied with the results.

Dennis Moylan played the faux horror movie host Sir K. Daver. Looking back, I'm thinking I should have given Dennis some sort of ghoulish makeup to wear to make him look cadaverous.

Bob Hamlin, (who played the Pilgrim in my Thanksgiving promo) played the Zombie. Bob Zimmerman and Sue Duminsky play the high school lovers. Bob and Sue had never met before the shoot, and I forced them to kiss on camera. I still feel kinda dirty about it to this day.

Original Pin the Fangs on the Vampire?

Here's a scary poster from the June 1975 issue of Dynamite magazine...


This psychedelic image of Christopher Lee from the Horror of Dracula (1958) wasn't just something you were supposed to stare at with your black light on, nope it was part of a party game. It's a monster variation of "Pin the Tail on the Donkey" called "Pin the Fangs on the Vampire."

A quick Google search has informed me that this game is still being played - particularly if you're planning a vampire themed party. Athough I think at today's parties the image of Dracula is being replaced with one of Edward Cullen.

The Beast With a Million Eyes Animated Poster

The Beast With a Million Eyes is a movie from 1955 about an alien entity taking over the minds of earth creatures. Check out the movie clips below...



Supposedly, the alien was never going to be a shown on screen, but that changed after the movie was screened for exhibitors who demanded to see a monster. Heck, there's a monster on the movie's poster after all. So with very little money to work with the job went to the talented Paul Blaisdell. Blaisdell who designed an articulated puppet which looked nothing like the creature in the poster art.

The "Beast" from The Beast With a Million Eyes

Blaisdell went on to create some very iconic low-budget movie monsters like the She Creature and the Saucer Men. Anyways, people who went to see The Beast With a Million Eyes never saw the monster on the poster in action until now...



I took some shorts cuts with this animation. For example I don't have the time to animate each tentacle on the creature's face. Since the woman was wearing sexy lingerie suitable for the bedroom, I thought I'd start her off sleeping. She and the monster are in some sort of vague abstract environment (is that fog, sand or snow at the bottom?) so maybe she's still dreaming.

Revenge of the Creature in 3D

Last year I ran a series of posts about 3D glasses. Most of the 3D glasses I have were from TV promotions, and here's a flier for one such promotion - Revenge of the Creature...

Farmer Jack was a once popular, but now defunct Metro Detroit based supermarket chain. I can't find a single Farmer Jack commercial on YouTube, but someone called Skiz316 has uploaded the entire Farmer Jack jingle...

Music Videos from Hell: Part 2

It's time for another one of my very popular "scary" music video posts that have become the talk of the Internets...

Jeopardy by the Greg Kihn Band was released March of 1983 according to Wiki. The Wiki also says Michael Jackson's Thriller video was released December 2, 1983. If this is correct it's interesting to note that Greg Kihn came out with a zombie music video 10 months before Michael. Michael went on to became a music superstar, and this was Greg Kihn's only #1 hit. Maybe if the zombies in Jeopardy had the dance skills of the Thriller zombies things might have been different.

Also Jeopardy is a true music video - it was actually shot on video...


Now here's a video that's a little more current, Back Against The Wall by Cage The Elephant isn't trying to overtly scary like Jeopardy. It's just plain creepy, but it's also one of my favorite songs released this year...



Do those ugly garden gnomes look familiar to anyone? I think they resemble the scary little creatures from the 70's TV movie Don't Be Afraid of the Dark.

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (TV 1973)

Monster Bulletin Board

Hey look it's another one of those posters from the Scholastic book order things you got back in elementary school. I blogged about a Real Fake Wacky Packages Poster a couple of years ago, now just in time for Halloween I present a "funny" Monster Bulletin Board poster from 1978...


Hmm, those "Marian Sunglasses " were ahead of their time...

Music Videos from Hell: Part 1

For some Halloween fun, I was thinking about taking a look at some scary music videos.

Sometimes they are intentionally "scary" like Michel Jackson's Thriller directed by John Landis, but other times I think the scariness was unintentional. I'll be showcasing both kinds of music videos this month.

The Aphex Twin video for Come to Daddy directed by Chris Cunningham is intentionally scary. Very aggressively scary, and according to the Wiki, "The music video was positioned number 35 in 100 Greatest Scary Moments, as voted by Channel 4 viewers in 2003."

Okay if you've never seen it, brace yourself for some seriously messed up stuff...


Man that's unpleasant to watch, but it's also genius. Chris Cunningham is a master at creating disturbing imagery. Check out his Rubber Johnny short for more of his expertly crafted grotesque weirdness.

Next is a video that I don't think was intended to be scary, but it is. Can your nerves withstand Bonnie Tyler and Total Eclipse of the Heart directed by Russell Mulcahy...



Wow there's everything but the kitchen sink this this video. It's so over the top you could write a dissertation on the underlying themes and symbolism.

Anyway as the video starts it's candles, slow-mo doves, and silk fabric blowing around. You may think it's just going to be some boring video filled with artsy romanticism, but then at the 45 second mark a school boy walks though the door with glowing green eyes. What the hell?

After the guy with the glowing green eyes there's so much other crap going on by the end of the video you practically forgot about him. Then wham! You get hit with the "Boys Choir of the Damned" who not only have the scary glowing eyes, but one boy even levitates.

I'm not sure the makers of this video were aware of how scary this stuff was. I think they were going for something more stylized than scary, but they unintentionally created a nightmare. Seriously what's scarier - the glowing eyed ghost pirates from John Carpenter's The Fog, a R rated horror film that was released around the same time as the music video...

John Carpenter's The Fog

... or the possessed boys choir from Total Eclipse of the Heart?

I don't know about you, but for sheer creepiness the ghost pirates ain't got nothing on that boys choir.

Makeover Leftover

When I was redesigning my blog for the Halloween season I planned to have a animated gif as my profile picture.

You know what? You can't use a animated gif as your profile picture. Well you can use an animated gif, but it will not animate.


You see this is what I wanted. Oh, well at least I got to use it someway.

The Scariest Film Clip in the World

Hey it's October, and time for a month long celebration of scary stuff until we reach the big day ol' day of Halloween.

In all honesty I don't know what the hell I'm going to post this month. I really have nothing planed so I assume we'll both be surprised together. Okay let's get going because the suspense is killing me.

I guess we'll kick off the month with what might very well be the scariest film clip in the world. I watched this film on TV at a young age, and this scene kept me awake at night for weeks...



Terrifying right? I lived in a very suburban neighborhood, with only a few small wooded areas here and there, but I was certain there was a very good possibility that Bigfoot could smash his hairy arm through my bedroom window one night. I was a kid who loved watching monster movies of all kinds, and never had a problem when it was Hollywood make-believe, but this damn thing was another story - it was supposedly real!

This film is one of Sun Classic's "great" documentaries The Mysterious Monsters (1976) and it's available on DVD. If I had children I'd buy this film, and show it around Halloween time for a good scare. I'm pretty sure today's modern internet kids with their iPads, Wii's and 8-Track tape players would still freak out at this stuff.

Boo!

Mammoth Cave Brochure

I love caves, and have a large collection of cave brochures from across the country. I'd gladly use them in posts more often, but the previous times I've posted something cave related it's always one of my least popular pages.

Since there doesn't seem to be much interest in caves, I'm not going to bother posting every page from this Mammoth Cave National Park brochure...

That cover looks dated, like something from the 1950's, but it's not. Well I'm sure the brochure was originally designed in the late 50's, but this cover was still used into the 1980's.

Actually it's kinda cool I think, also they probably used this cover because of the classic thriller that was filmed at Mammoth Cave...

The movie Mammoth! (1956) was made by the same team that created Niagara (1953) three years earlier. It's a movie that's not very well known even by movie buffs. It's not too bad, and anything with Peter Lorre is always worth a look. Add it to your Netflix queue, and be sure to let me know how you liked it.

Strange Change Machine

So that was a fun summer... let's see if I can get this blog back on track now.

In the late 60's the mighty Mattel toy company introduced the "Strange Change Machine" which was a fun little toy that was basically an electric hot plate with a plastic dome on top. You could heat up special little plastic cubes which unfolded into monsters and dinosaurs.

Check out the awesome commercial...



Man, I love that narrator and groovy science fictiony music. Indulge me while we watch the "extended dance mix" of the same commercial (but unfortunately worse video quality)...



Anyway, there are a lot of sites out on the vast interweb if you wish to know more about this toy, but what those sites don't have are big clear scans of Strange Change Machine instructions...


... and on the flip-side of the instructions, a full-color "landscape map" of The Lost World.

I shall return... hopefully

For anyone who may be wondering what's going on, I haven't died (well, not yet). Life has been extra crazy for me lately (and not in a good kinda crazy), but I'll try to return to my semi-weekly posting schedule once things settle down.

Thanks.

What's the deal with the audio on the Studio Canal logo?

Is the sound designer a mad genius, or was this odd sound mix a "happy accident" as Bob Ross might have said?

Happy 4th from 1976

Here's the Sears summer catalog from our country's bicentennial year. How much patriotic red, white and blue type of stuff is in there? Not as much as you might think...

There's some red, white and blue polyester & cotton pants outfits.

The red, white and blue Chuck Taylor knockoff in the center of the page catches your eye, but it's those shoes on the bottom of the page that you need for the summer of '76...

It's 1776 Casual for Men and Big Boys.

If you quickly flipped by this page of "novelty print knit tops" you would have missed the biggest patriotic item in this catalog...

It's a George Washington tee shirt.

It's very possible this red, white and blue playground equipment was always manufactured in this color and has nothing to do with the bicentennial, but I'm gonna take what I can get. Also I'm wondering if those merry-go-rounds are still being sold. I never had one, but it seems like a product that could cause a great deal of injury.