Welcome to Dinosaur Dracula’s MAUSOLEUM OF MADNESS, PART II! Every day through Halloween, check back for another vintage creepy collectible – everything from deep cut toys to ancient store displays to at least one totally insane costume. Probably ten cereal boxes, too.

I won’t be plugging this on social media much, so you’ll have to remember to visit on your own. Maybe stick an orange Post-It on the fridge. (Yes, it must be orange.)

PS, if you missed last year’s Mausoleum of Madness, it’s over here.

#27: Halloween Ding Dongs! (2003)

I love that Hostess still does Halloween stuff, but I miss how hard they used to go on the packaging. 2003 was a particularly strong year for them, evidenced by this breathtaking box of Ding Dongs. (Now there’s a sentence that hasn’t been written before.)

While the Ding Dongs were unchanged from the norm – except for rebranding the creme filling as “s’cream filling” – this was a case where a simple box revamp carried the load just fine. I’ve seen most of Hostess’s spooky packaging from the early 2000s, and what strikes me is how the designs all looked like they were from the early ‘90s. Like, the ghosts on this box were way too pure to have lived through WWE’s Attitude Era.

So why are today’s Halloween Hostess boxes comparatively tame? I don’t know. Streamlined branding, market research, take your pick. Maybe ghosts that look like they were plucked from a 1995 Geocities clipart page just don’t have as much clout in 2025. A pity!

#26: Haunted Halloween Party! (1986)

This was one of the first Choose Your Own Adventure books I ever bought, from an elementary school book fair. I picked it because in my mind, that three-eyed pig costume on the cover had to be a reference to Ree-Yees from Return of the Jedi. (It wasn’t.)

Regardless, I loved the book, which told the story of two siblings who end up at a Halloween party full of real actual monsters. While I can’t recall many other plot details, I’m confident that there were some genuinely creepy endings. Hell, even Choose Your Own Adventure books that didn’t have the word “haunted” in the title had those.

There was a certain feeling I remember experiencing as a kid, right after I’d read or watched something that was outside my comfort zone. It was a moment of strange silence – like that split second between when you stub your toe and the pain sets in. The Choose Your Own Adventure series gave me that feeling pretty often. When one of these books dealt you a “bad ending,” it didn’t play around.

The “bad endings” were never terribly graphic, but they could hint at things that were. Upon reading one, the lights in my childhood bedroom suddenly seemed to dim. The window creaks grew louder, the air gained a chill, and when I could finally muster the courage to look up from that blondish page…

The End.

#25: Kellogg’s Ghost Detector! (1989)

Flashback to 1989, when a few different Kellogg’s cereals – like Apple Jacks – came with a free GHOST DETECTOR. These were thin pieces of paper that looked like various ghouls. If the paper magically curled up when placed in your palm, it meant YOU HAD GHOSTS.

In actuality, the heat-sensitive paper always curled, and worked on the same principle as those old “Fortune Teller Fish” toys. Kellogg’s did not instruct kids on how to handle the prospect of sharing space with malevolent entities from beyond the grave, confident that while they had a legal duty to post nutritional info, ghosts were firmly out of their jurisdiction.

The Ghost Detectors were a September/October thing, and joined a long line of cereal prizes that were clearly meant to tie in with the Halloween season, even without any formal mentions of it. (I’m guessing that was because cereal didn’t expire quickly, and the companies didn’t want people to stop buying boxes on November 1st just because they had stray jack-o’-lantern graphics in a far corner.) Read More…

Posted by Matt on 09/09/25
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Surprise drop! Dino Drac’s Envelopes of Evil are BACK FROM THE GRAVE. If you missed the memo, these are special, limited edition packages filled with creepy collectibles that are offered exactly once and then never spoken of again.

(These have nothing to do with the Funpacks, by the way. Totally separate thing!)

For the Envelope of Evil VII, a handful of flat (or flattish) items conspire to make your Halloween season just a little bit grander. The cost on this one is $40, and that includes shipping to anywhere in the United States.

Jump to the bottom for ordering info, or keep reading to learn about everything inside the Dino Drac’s seventh Envelope of Evil! Read More…

Posted by Matt on 09/09/25
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Dino Drac’s Eerie August Funpack – the first of three all-spooky Funpacks for the 2025 Halloween season – is here!

This one is LOADED with all sorts of creepy treasures – everything from old toys to old cards to old stickers to old Ghoul-Aid. (Yes, you read that right.)

Here’s the scoop: All subscriber boxes have already shipped as of last weekend, and are either on the way or already delivered. As of this writing, I have *very* few spares leftover for any non-subscribers who want one.

If you’d like to get one, send me an email, and if I have any left I’ll send you the deets. As always, they’re $25, and that includes shipping to anywhere in the United States. UPDATE: Sorry, they are now sold out!

Now, let’s see what’s in the box! Read More…

Posted by Matt on 08/25/25
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