80's Day 2022!

80's Day was something I started years ago to show my kids how cool the decade was. I share some of my favorite 80's music, movies, video games and food with them and they seem to really enjoy it! Typically we head out and take part in some activities that I liked to do as a kid. The recreation may not be 100% faithful to what life was like back in the 80's, but I feel like we did the best we could with the resources we had available. Here's a re-cap of what we did in 2022!

We started the day as most kids in the 80's did, eating cereal in front of the TV while watching cartoons! Here is what the lineup consisted of: The Legend of Zelda, Popples, M.A.S.K. and Blackstar! Every year I pick a semi-obscure cartoon from my youth for my kids to view. Of course they know He-Man, Ninja Turtles and Transformers, but they were all scratching their heads when Blackstar hit the screen. As was the case with the Centurions viewing last year, I don't think I created any new Blackstar fans. They correctly identified it as a "Bootleg Masters of the Universe" that was done by the same company, Filmation. Anyway, you can view the episode we watched at the YouTube link below:

After cartoons it was time to throw on some of our best 80's licensed character t-shirts, so we could go out and hit the town! Represented in my kids' attire were the Care Bears and The Legend of Zelda. I chose to wear my Mirage Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shirt and my wife had her Jem shirt on. 

Looking good and ready for some adventure! We hopped in the van and the soundtrack for the day would be a random assortment of CDs containing some of the biggest hits from the 80's! My kids favorite, which led to a car ride sing along, was "The Goonies 'r' Good Enough" by Cyndi Lauper!

Our first stop of the day was the local comic shop! I picked a Spider-Man book and let the kids each pick out an item. I know it's not 80's, but my twins each picked a pack of Pokemon cards and my oldest daughter grabbed a Stranger Things book. It had been a while since I had taken them to the comic shop and they had fun perusing the shelves and looking for something new to read and help with their overflowing Pokemon collection.

Next we went to the mall and hit up Gamestop to check out the latest games for our Switch and then we headed to the candy store. I let them each pick out a Pez dispenser and I grabbed some gummy bug candies. 

I love how the 80's was represented with everything from Warheads to Whatchamacallit candy bars to these awesome looking Golden Girls mints!

By this time we were ready for lunch, so we hit up McDonalds and the kids all grabbed cheeseburger Happy Meals, my wife got a spicy chicken meal and I got a Double Quarter Pounder Meal. Again, my kids were jumping with crazy joy to find out the toy this time around was Pokemon cards! Yay! More Pokemon cards!!! It was pretty cool that we did get the table with the video games built in though!

Usually we go home and play some retro NES, Super NES and Atari video games, but this year I asked the kids if they wanted to go to the local arcade. They rejected that idea, but they did suggest going to Chuck E. Cheese and playing some games there. Who am I to argue with that!

We actually had a ton of fun and they had some pretty cool games including Guitar Hero, Monopoly and of course Skee-Ball!

My kids had something like 5,000,000 tickets which was just enough for them to get a few Tootsie Rolls, some stickers and a small plastic Chuck E. figure. Next time maybe we'll stay for the show and grab some pizza!

Speaking of pizza, it was close to dinner time by the time we left Chuck's, so we stopped by an old 80's staple...PIZZA HUT!

We got a stuffed crust peperoni pizza and a traditional supreme pie. We were going to eat in the restaurant, but when we walked in we were told that due to the lack of staffing the dining area was closed! Oh well, I guess we'll take it home.

When we got home, we dished up and prepared for the night's feature presentation, the 1986 classic...Labyrinth! The kids had seen this movie before, but it had been a while and there was so much that they forgot about. They laughed and thoroughly enjoyed this masterpiece of a film by Mr. Jim Henson featuring catchy tunes by David Bowie. Overall it was another successful 80s day that was enjoyed by all. I know I say this every year, but hopefully next year we can make it bigger and better!

Best of Halloween 2021

Halloween is only a few days away and I have to say that the 2021 season has been a real surprise for me. Last year was fun, but COVID really put a damper on a lot of the usual festivities. This year, my family is back to doing some door to door trick or treating and we'll be decked out in some sweet costumes!

My youngest daughter and my wife will be hitting the streets as characters from the Harry Potter books. My daughter is dressing up as a student from the Ravenclaw house, while my wife has decided to be Bellatrix Lestrange. I have read the first Harry Potter book on my girls recommendation, but I am not too familiar with the character. I know she will pull something cool together in the end though.

My oldest daughter, my son and myself will be going as characters from Stranger Things. I have been a fan of this show since day 1 and my daughter just finished watching the first 3 seasons. My son, has never seen the show, but has played the games and read some of the comics. I will be going as Chief Jim Hopper, my daughter will be Eleven and my son as Dustin. Should be a lot of fun!

The candy selection this year has been fantastic! I found these Ghoul-Aid popping candies at the Dollar Tree and my kids really enjoyed them. My wife picked up the new M&M candies with glow in the dark bags and the Hershey Cookies n' Cream Fangs. Also of note but not pictured here is the Skittles Shriekers! These bags hide super sour versions of Skittles candies within. You never know if you will get a regular flavor or super sour. These are way better than the "Zombie Flesh" flavored Skittles they released a few years back. Not as fun, but definitely more palatable.

Of course the traditional General Mills Monster Cereals returned to shelves and are as tasty as ever! Boo-Berry is my favorite. This year the makers of these cereals stole my idea and introduced...

Monster Mash cereal! Which is a mix of all the monster cereals in one box. I had been doing this for years, but now it is a whole lot easier and I don't have to open 3-5 boxes of cereal to create this delicious mash-up! Also hitting grocery stores was Ghostbusters Cereal as a tie in to the new Ghostbusters Afterlife movie. It is a solid cereal filled with fruity cereal bits and marshmallows. Can't complain about that!

Usually around this time Burger King unveils a new Halloween themed menu item. Past offerings have included the Ghost Whopper, Halloween Whopper and Nightmare King. This year they released the Ghost Pepper Chicken Nuggets. I loved these! The first bite I took was a bit underwhelming, but after a minute the burn hit my mouth and it was AMAZING! These need to be a year round menu item or as had been suggested, turned into a premium sandwich! Wendy's got into the holiday spirit as well by offing "Boo Books". For $1 you got 5 coupons for free junior Frosty treats. The artwork was fantastic and gave us this little zombie Frosty character. My family used our coupons after we went to the pumpkin patch. It was a nice way to end the day.

Mountain Dew was back with VooDew 3! I know a lot of people have many different opinions on what the mystery flavor is this year, but after much consideration and consumption, I have to say it tastes like blue raspberry Airheads candy to me. What do you think it is? Another spooky addition to the Halloween treats this years was the Little Debbie Pumpkin Delights cookies. I'm not sure if I've had these before, but they seem fairly familiar to me. 

One of my favorite memories from this Halloween season was finally sitting down with my son to watch the Monster Squad! I loved this movie as a kid and I was hoping my kids would enjoy it too. Every time I mentioned watching it, I was turned down flat by those kids. Then my daughters and wife decided to watch a Harry Potter movie which my son had no interest in viewing, so I suggested Monster Squad and we both had a blast viewing this 80's scary flick offering.

Overall it has been a great Halloween season and I can't wait to see what 2022 brings. Hope you all have a great and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Discontinued Candy I Want Back: Part II!

I don't know about you but there are just certain things in life that can bring back strong nostalgia and make those memories of the good old days flood back to you. Certain smells, beats & lyrics from a favorite song or tastes of a favorite food or drink can make those good times come back if not only for a quick minute. For me certain candies can transport me back to my childhood in the 80's & 90's. Fortunately for us, a lot of those candies are still around, but in some instances they have been discontinued and we will never experience them again! If I owned my own candy company, these are even more of the sugary treats I would like to revive...

Sparkle Laffy Taffy

I remember discovering Sparkle Cherry Laffy Taffy back in the 90's. The flavor was typical cherry flavor, but inside the taffy were these small crunchy sparkle candies. I like Laffy Taffy, but the little crunch added so much to the experience. After doing a little searching, I found out that this unique form of Laffy Taffy can still be had! Places like Walmart & Kmart have the product listed on their sites, but are currently out of stock, but I did find a candy website where it is still for sale! If you want to try this off shoot of the beloved Laffy Taffy brand by Wonka, you can buy one for $1.99 at CandyDistrict.com.

Topps Character Candy Heads

What kid growing up in the 80's/90's didn't have one of these? It seemed like any movie or cartoon that was even remotely of interest to kids had a Topps Candy Head container on the impulse buy shelves at grocery stores, toy stores or corner markets. They were filled with small fruit flavored hard candies and ranged from Ninja Turtles to Alf to Star Wars! I remember playing down by the creek that ran through my old neighborhood with my sister's Gizmo candy head. I accidentally dropped it into the water and immediately panicked because I knew my sister would be crazy angry with me! I jumped into the flowing water as Gizmo was being dragged away by the current, shoes and all. I was able to rescue Gizmo. I was soaked from head to toe, but I avoided the wrath of my older sister!

Neon Bandits

Does anyone remember these candies from the early/mid 90's? They came out around the time Warheads were the hottest candies on the market. I remember they had a sour taste and came in a variety of flavors. It has been decades since I had one of these, but I remember part of the gimmick was that they would turn your mouth the same color of the candy. Each package had a different cartoon character on the front to coincide with the flavor of candy. I liked them, but nothing could take my loyalty away from Warheads. Speaking of Warheads...does anyone else remember the hot Warheads flavors that came out in the early 90's? 

Topps Juice Bar Bubble Gum

If you had this gum on the schoolyards of the 80's, you were the man! Everyone wanted just a single pellet of this delicious gum. Each box opened like a real carton of juice and poured out small nuggets of fruit flavored gum. The gum was delicious, but just like Fruit Stripe Gum, the flavor lasted all of 30 seconds. That fact never detracted kids from picking these tiny boxes of wonderful from the candy store though. My favorite was the Grape Juice flavor followed closely by Pink Lemonade! They really need to bring this gum back!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutagen Candy Chew

That title is a mouthful, but these things were delicious! These Mutagen bars were neon green colored and had the consistency of taffy with a lime flavor to it. These were once again released around the same time as the TMNT movies were hitting theaters during the height of Turtlemania! I believe this was another KB Toys front register impulse buy. Why haven't more candy companies taken advantage of the TMNT Ooze connection. I would buy those like crazy!

LaVie Fruit Drops

These candies were delicious! They were never my main pick when my family would hit up the store, but my Mom always seemed to have a tin of these in her purse. They came in various flavors like Orange, Cherry, Strawberry & Lemon. Since I always had that connection to my Mom, these candies were more of a grown up way to enjoy candy. They came in different shapes based on the flavor you chose and had a sort of powdered sugar outer coating that added to the flavor. It seems these have been discontinued in the US, but may be available in other countries to this day!

Butterfinger BBs

These mini "popable" versions of Nestle's Butterfinger Bars actually lasted for a long time on market shelves. They were introduced in 1992 with an amazing marketing campaign that featured the uber popular Simpsons characters and they were discontinued in 2006. That's actually a pretty long life span for a spin off candy! I liked these because you got all the flavor of a Butterfinger Bar, but you didn't have to deal with the melting. You could pop a few in your mouth and throw the rest back into your back pack for future snacking. Of course the addition of Bart & Homer didn't hurt at all. In 2009 Nestle introduced the Butterfinger Mini Bites that were supposed to be an update of the BBs brand, but they just don't taste the same. Below you can find some examples of this marketing wonder...ENJOY!!!

Discontinued Candy I Want Back!

I don't know about you but there are just certain things in life that can bring back strong nostalgia and make those memories of the good old days flood back to you. Certain smells, beats & lyrics from a favorite song or tastes of a favorite food or drink can make those good times come back if not only for a quick minute. For me certain candies can transport me back to my childhood in the 80's & 90's. Fortunately for us, a lot of those candies are still around, but in some instances they have been discontinued and we will never experience them again! If I owned my own candy company, these are the sugary treats I would like to revive...

Bonkers Fruit Candy

Nabisco brands produced these chewy fruit flavored candies in the 80's & early 90's. My favorite was the grape flavored. One of the most amazing aspects of this candy was the incredible advertising campaign that was created to help sell Bonkers. Typically there was an older lady who would be crushed by giant fruits that would crash through her ceiling and while this woman was trapped underneath, she would laugh out loud while the slogan "Bonkers Bonks You Out" was said on screen. If you have never seen these commercials, you can check out one at the bottom of this article. Recently the Bonkers brand was bought by LEAF and allegedly they are in the process of bringing these back! According to the LEAF website they... "are in the process of acquiring the machinery needed to wrap these amazing fruit chews." 

Candilicious

This 80's candy was created by the same company that brought us Bubblicious Bubble Gum. Candilicious was created to be a competitor to Starburst candies. If memory serves me right, these came in packs of 12 candies that were assorted flavors and they were a little bigger and softer than Starburst. Once again, my interest for this 80's candy was based solely on the commercials that I would see on T.V. I remember seeing them mostly while I would watch "Saved By The Bell" on Saturday mornings. 

The Real Ghostbusters Gummy Ghost Candies

I searched all the internets and could not find a picture of the Ghostbusters gummy ghosts that were around in the late 80's/early 90's, but they were extremely similar to these gummy bugs you see above. The major difference was that the candy was shaped like ghosts and the packaging was classic RGB. I have fantastic memories of grabbing these gummy candies from the Triple Brook Camping Resort in Blairstown, NJ. We would ride our bikes to the camp and buy these for a quarter. I also remember the store having Punch-Out and Tron arcade cabinets that we would spend our hard earned cash on! I know they still make gummy bugs, but it just doesn't have that same feeling as the Ghostbuster candy from my great summer memories!!

Wonka Jumbo Nerds

I really liked Jumbo Nerds. When we would go into Hartung's General store in Hope, NJ and my dad would let us pick a candy, I would definitely choose Nerds of the Jumbo variety over the regular ones. Jumbo Nerds were so much bigger than regular Nerds and the boxes had a bunch of flavors mixed into one. I just felt they had more flavor, but I'm sure that is just my bias towards these awesome Wonka confections.

Life Savers Holes

These 90's candies released by Wrigley's were notorious for being a choking hazard. That is what ultimately led to them being taken off of store shelves. I think Wrigley's did not want to deal with the headaches and lawsuits, but there are other similar candies still being sold today like Tic-Tac. Those are a choking hazard, but people still buy them! I guess I am still a little salty that Holes were discontinued. I liked the flavor of these small round shaped candies. They were of course just differently shaped Life Savers, but the real draw was the container they came in. Don't act like you didn't save a few of these containers for future use!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ooze Squeeze Candy

I remember getting a tube of this candy from the KB Toys store in the Rockaway Mall in Rockaway, NJ. I remember it being at the front counter where we were paying for a toy, probably a Ninja Turtle action figure. I picked one up and was not disappointed by the flavor. I believe it was supposed to be a watermelon type of goo? This candy was the perfect tie in to the ultra popular movie, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze! Now I know Hubba Bubba makes a similar squeeze candy today, but once again our green heroes and nostalgia has made this version the best squeeze candy ever created by man...at least in my mind.

Nestle Alpine White

Yes, the notorious Nestle Alpine White Bar! This candy was marketed to the sophisticated adult candy connoisseur, so the one time I actually had the pleasure of eating one I felt like the coolest person in the world! I was not transported to a soap opera like winter fantasy land which was a disappointment, but I do remember liking the taste. I will have to say though, thanks to all the great options competing for my sweet tooth, I would have probably picked something else over an Alpine White Bar. After saying all that, damn those commercials were freakin' fantastic though! Below you can find an example of this marketing wonder along with a few other commercials featuring some of the amazing discontinued candies listed above...ENJOY!!!

Halloween 2020 Recap

2020 has been a year unlike any I've ever lived through before. In spite of this and all the restrictions, myself and my wife (mostly my wife) wanted to make this Halloween a great one, full of awesome memories for our kids. Of course the day started off with a nutricious breakfast of monster cereals. I decided to mix all 3 together in my own version of a delicious Monster Mash!

After breakfast and watching some spooky themed Power Puff Girls, Unikitty, Teen Titans and Adventure Time cartoons, it was time to suit up! The whole family decided to dress up as Ghostbusters! My girls were Erin Gilbert & Jillian Holtzmann and my wife was Abby Yates. I was Ray Stantz and my son was Peter Venkman. It was a beautiful day outside, so we went outside and the kids chased me around the yard with their proton packs on their backs!

Even our dog, Wicket got dressed up for the occasion!

The kids were tired from running around catching ghosts, so we went inside where my wife had set up a scavenger hunt for the kids! She hid clues all around the house and after they found each clue they were able to grab some candy and put it in their buckets.

The wife went a little overboard with the candy buying this year, but she wanted to make sure we had all the kids favorite chocolate treats. These included Hershey's Bars, Almond Joy, Snickers and Reese's Peanut Butter Bats. But that's not all...

She also got all their favorite fruity candies like Sour Patch Kids, Swedish Fish, Pixie Stix, Air Heads, Blow Pops and Skittles. She did not know though, that the Skittles she picked up were the Zombie Skittles that randomly included "Zombie Flesh" flavored pieces. Me and the kids had a good time with these and let me tell you, if you have not tried them, the Zombie Flesh taste stays in your mouth for a long time!

While my wife was crafting lunch, the kids did some Halloween word searches, puzzles and word scrambles to stay busy. When lunch was served, the kids were ecstatic to see that my wife had made some Mummuy Dogs for them! These were hot dogs cut in the shape of mummies and then carefully wrapped in crescent roll wrappings. DELICIOUS! 

We ate more candy and then went back outside to bust open the Halloween pinata I picked up. The kids destroyed that thing and my son broke the rope twice while utilizing his pattented "Spin Move". Eventually the candy hit the ground and so did the kids!

Hyped up on sugar, I would have thought these kids would have never slowed down, but we all went inside and played the "Spooky Hallow" level in Pac-Man Party on the Wii. Now we were ready for some real food and the wife knocked it out of the park again with these jack-o-lantern shaped chicken quesadillas!

To wind down the night we went Trick-or-treaing at my sister in law's house, put out the jack-o-lanterns (my son made Kirby, my oldest daughter carved Sally from "The Nightmare Before Christmas", my youngest daughter carved Scraps from "The Corpse Bride" and me and the wife made Witches Shoes and a Bat cave), checked out the blue moon and watched "It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" & "Ichabod and Mr.Toad" with the kids before getting them to bed.

To close out our night, myself and the wife watched "Trick r' Treat" and eventually fell asleep! All things considered, it was a pretty great Halloween. I hope you had a fantastic Halloween also. Can't wait until next year!

BarNone is back!

BarNone was originally released by the Hershey company in 1987. This delicious candy bar was composed of milk chocolate, chocolate wafers, peanuts & chocolate filling and came in packs of 2, much like the more famous TWIX bar. In 1992 the formula was tweaked a bit and caramel was substituted for the chocolate filling. As it is with most food products, as the want for BarNone declined so did profits which led to it being discontinued by Hershey in 1997.

Even though BarNone was only on shelves for about 10 years it did give us this fantastic commercial from 1993. Whenever I would see this on TV, the song would get stuck in my head. I hadn't given much thought to BarNone in many years, but then I went into our local mall candy store and there it  was staring back at me!

The name was recognizable, but the packaging was way different than I remember. The ingredients may have been tweaked a little again as I did not see caramel listed as a part of this bar. Also, gone are the days of 2 bars together as a team. We just got one big bar. 

I'm not complaining. This one bar looks amazing! So much chocolate! I am ready to eat this nostalgic candy bar. Honestly, I never had a BarNone back in the 80s or 90s that I can recall, so I don't have much to compare it to, but man am I ready to try it! This bar is AMAZING! Total chocolate overload...in a good way. 

The wafers are crispy the chocolate is delicious and the peanuts and a little somethin' somethin'! Overall I am really pleased and thankful that the Iconic Candy Company decided to revive this brand in 2019. If you see on I suggest you pick it up!

BarNone definitely delivers on it's promise of being "The Chocolate Lovers Bar". As the old marketing used to say "It tamed the Chocolate Beasty" in me! 

I would purchase this again and again! If you care to read more about old candies brought back to life, please check out my reviews of 5th Avenue and Whatchamacallit!