As a child, I had a weird fixation with grocery stores. I hated shopping, always hated going to the mall, but I LOVED going to the grocery store. Visions of desserts, snacks, comic books, juice boxes, wrestling magazines and CRACKED magazine danced through my head at the thought of going to the grocery store and in Lynchburg, VA, for my family there was no grocery store bigger than KROGER. That’s not to say it was the only store — we had Food World, Harris Teeter (which replaced Food World), Winn Dixie and Food Lion but it was Kroger that was our store of choice.
Kroger was the closest grocery store to our house but proximity wasn’t the only reason for our fondness because my family always seemed to like Kroger brand apple sauce and Kroger’s knockoff of Hamburger Helper (of which the particular kind we used to eat they no longer make). To my knowledge, Kroger doesn’t exist further down south. I never saw one in Florida where I used to live and my parents still do, but when they came to visit us here in Michigan they were positively thrilled that we had a Kroger! Now THAT’S a powerful marketing.
What a perfect month to discuss the Super Naturals!
I never owned any of the Super Naturals, but I remember this commercial like it was yesterday. I at least was lucky enough to play with a few of the figures that my friends down the street owned (they seemed to own every toy I wished I did).
Tonka produced the line and it debuted in 1987, but apparently never really caught on because there was no 1988 series. The main figures are pretty cool looking (Lionheart, Snakebite and Skull especially) but the ghostlings are kinda goofy. I don’t like the way the holograms show up because it’s like a totally different character inside the torso. The ghostlings look too similar to Jawas and those zombie dwarfs from Phantasm anyway.
The Fruit Brute monster cereal was canceled in the ’80s, but someone there at General Mills must have had a hankerin’ for some fruity monster cereal because 1987 was the year the world was introduced to the Fruity Yummy Mummy (later he was known only as Yummy Mummy).
Kind of sounds like Honey Smacks’ Dig’Em Frog, doesn’t he?
Hot on the heels of Boo Berry, Fruit Brute cereal was introduced the following year in 1974. This cereal has garnered quite a fan base over the years but it was before my time. Those of us who were too young in the early ’80s to know and remember Fruit Brute are probably much more familiar with his successor, the Yummy Mummy.
With the success of Count Chocula and Franken Berry, it was only a matter of time before General Mills brought another monster to the party. 1973 gave us Boo Berry, who seems to have been modeled in look and voice after Peter Lorre. I get the Karloff and Lugosi voice imitations for Franken and Count, but when did Lorre ever play a ghost?
Anyone ever wonder who Boo Berry was before his demise and how he actually died? He probably did some evil things while made of flesh — he’s cursed to wear heavy chains in the afterlife for all of eternity just like Goofy!
If you have anything retroriffic you'd like to send me, feel free to email me at metalmisfit @ comcast.net. We can also just shoot the breeze, if you like.
As a child, I had a weird fixation with grocery stores. I hated shopping, always hated going to the mall, but I LOVED going to the grocery store. Visions of desserts, snacks, comic books, juice boxes, wrestling magazines and CRACKED magazine danced through my head at the thought of going to the grocery store and in Lynchburg, VA, for my family there was no grocery store bigger than KROGER. That’s not to say it was the only store — we had Food World, Harris Teeter (which replaced Food World), Winn Dixie and Food Lion but it was Kroger that was our store of choice.
Posted by Metal Misfit 
Posted by Metal Misfit 
Posted by Metal Misfit 
