Motley Crue/ Metallica shirts, conversations about Bill and Ted, and Ducktales McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys.
This home video is a nostalgic treasure of our time and generation so grab a seat and get an eyeball full of marvelous mullets and styrofoam plates of Hotcakes.
Recorded by a pair of friends in Huntsville, Alabama in 1989, future YouTubers Eric and Darrell grabbed a handheld recorder and documented a morning visit to their local McDonald’s for some Hotcakes and unbeknownst to them at the time, a trip down nostalgic fuzzies memory lane as we’re shuffled through a time capsule of what we remember what the fast food giant to be to us old fucks.
That brown board menu lives rent-free in my head at all times.
From the excitement of the driveway of heading out to what was at the time, the peak of our food pyramid’s golden arches (you know that 10-year-old feeling I’m talking about), passing by an old Sam’s Club, and the view of the old faithful McDonald’s play area from the highway, the video takes us back to a simpler time of when those warm apple pies cost a mere 28 cents and Ronald McDonald was plastered all over the inside of the walls.
Can we also take a minute to appreciate these glorious translites?
WOOHOO
I honestly don’t even remember a country McChicken Sandwich but here we are: the evidence slaps me right in the face.
We gotta give a huge shout-out to Eric’s mom for being a good sport and that she’s almost finished watching JAWS, as per her conversation with the boys on the way home. However, I have to intervene here: While Bill and Tedare indeed excellent, Eric is right mom- EVIL DEAD 2 rules and still does.
It may have seemed boldly weird at the time for a couple of kids recording such an experience, but as time rolls on more of these videos seem to be popping up on the internet, like this Toy “R” Us home movie walkthrough. And I’m sure as shit glad they did.
I’m all for spreading the love so be sure to check out their other home videos and their revisit to that SAME McDonald’s as adults! They are indeed, doing the Nostalgic God’s work for us.
Ahh, the days of VHS retailers’ promos. If you’re new here. you should know this stuff is my Kryptonite and you’ll see me rant and rave over this a lot- so buckle up. In case you’re not hip to what the hell a VHS screener may be, let me break it down for you:
It’s basically an early release of a VHS tape sent to video store owners that will ultimately either sway them to stock the shelves with said movie or give it a hard pass. In addition, some of these screeners would be sent to the media for review. Hard to imagine a time when critics would have to actually wait on the postman to deliver physical media as opposed to a screener email that can be obtained in under 60 seconds, eh?
In the horror genre of the 80s, there was no better salesman than that of Robert Englund pimping his Nightmare movies to Mom and Pop video shops. Freddy, or rather the TRUE Sandy Claws here, gets into the holiday spirit as a December release date approaches for the Nightmare franchise’s biggest hit yet, A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. For Video Stores, this wasn’t really a hard sell as stated, the movie did monstrous at the box office for a Nightmare film, and was a big hit for Freddy fans alike.
However, that didn’t stop Englund from making the promotional rounds in and out of his Freddy makeup to advocate for The Dream Master! From late-night talk shows to his own MTV hour-long special, 1988 belonged to Freddy. Also, let’s not forget this was also the year Freddy’s Nightmares debuted on syndicated television!
Yes sir. Freddy was the KING of horror in ’88.
The promo begins with a few snippets of 1985’s The Santa Claus Movie but is quickly interrupted by the 1988 “Sandy Claws Movie” as Freddy dives right into pimping his product that made him a pop-culture phenomenon and why Video retailers should stock up on Dream Master.
I mean, if that 3D media lightbox insert wasn’t enough to get them to buy even if they hadn’t seen the movie, then nothing would have swayed them.
This thing is totally on my horror treasure hunt list.
Anyways, enjoy another rad VHS Retailers promo but with a horror holiday slice to the gut nuggets!
Once upon a time in the 80s, I had a VHS tape filled to the very last centimeter of oxide-coated Mylar tape of nothing but Christmas specials that were played over and over again throughout every holiday season for years. The thing literally had every Xmas special episode on it including a lot of the classic Rankin Bass entries like Frosty and Rudolph, and not-so-familiar ones like “Twas The Night Before Christmas” and the deep cut of Holiday RB specials, “Leprechauns’ Christmas Gold“. Over the years we added to it, with the very first Simpson’s Christmas Special, and even further down, the masterpiece of Beavis and Butt-Head Do Christmas. Do I still own this tape? Sadly, I don’t as this 80s relic was damaged due to that son-of-a-bitch thing called Time. However, I do remember it quite vividly and especially, the very first movie on the tape that opened a plethora of Christmas vomit all over the screen-the highly underrated, Jim Henson’s “The Christmas Toy”.
WAY before Disney and Pixar’s Toy Story, the magnificent mind of Jim Henson told a tale of toys coming to life when no one was around. The story opens up with a cameo of Kermit the Frog introducing us to the home of the Jones family, bonus points to Kermit for including Weegee the family cat, and the kids’ playroom where all the magic happens along with our stories’ toy-time heroes: Rugby the Tiger, Apple the doll, and Weegee’s cat toy Mew- who was my absolute favorite because duh, he’s a cat toy! Even though that little fact was held against him for the better part of the movie.
The Playroom is abuzz with excitement for Christmas Eve with all the toys preparing for the new additions to the area, all except Rugby as he expresses fear and jealousy as he was THEE Christmas toy the year prior that his owner Jamie was most excited for. He hatches a plan to wrap himself up and settle himself under the tree so he may experience that joy once more at a new toy’s expense and it’s up to Apple, another prior favorite Christmas toy, and Mew to talk Rugby out of his nonsense.
I firmly believe Toy Story totally ripped off the premise here, as the similarities are just a little too striking for my taste buds. A jealous favorite toy trying to overthrow a new toy? Especially when that new toy is a Space Princess, (ahem, Buzz Lightyear anyone?) With that all-too-familiar morality lesson of acceptance in the end, it’s a hard pill to swallow that someone at Pixar didn’t see this special and sampled from it. The only real difference is the dark turn Jim Henson put as a spin on the story: When a toy is caught out of place when they’re up and moving around, they become “frozen-solid forever”, never to be awoken ever again. Basically becoming a lifeless toy. This happens a few times throughout the movie and one of those instances was brutally sad. But hey, 80s children’s movies went balls to the wall by making kids cry, and Jim Henson’s Christmas Toy was no exception to the golden rule of trauma!
The Christmas Toy debuted on December 6th, 1986 on ABC and was sponsored by Kraft which made this special even more deliciously appealing! Which meant the breaks consisted of commercials featuring recipes you can make at home that helped to make every holiday celebration special. Because nothing says holiday magic like processed cheese, described by the soothing narration of Ed Herlihy. Because hey, “The nicest gifts under the tree are those you make yourself.” These commercials hit the spot man, with a visual existence of holiday happiness in a warm and comfortable home, filled with family and loads of cheese.
Oustanding.
Just look at these beuts of Christmas Kraft commercial Heaven.
In early 1994, years after The Christmas Toy aired and a year before Toy Story was released, there was a spin-off series called The Secret Life of Toys. I honestly don’t remember much about it other than it existed and occasionally caught snippets of it on the Disney Channel because, by that time, pre-teen anguish had set in and as fate would have it, it would have been Rugby’s (or hey, Woody’s) worst nightmare having a child that was growing up. However, The Christmas Toy was, and still is, a magical transport of nostalgia and in my humble opinion, a damn good Christmas story that doesn’t get nearly enough credit for being as awesome as it is.
If you want to revisit some “old friends” The Christmas Toy is currently streaming on Amazon Prime free for members. Or, you can just watch it here for free from YouTube uploader Dominic Lujan. And in case you haven’t seen it, get ready for a brand-new tradition to add to the holidays!
