What's going on with Igor?

A.1. is delicious, everyone loves it. Know who else everyone loves? Boris Karloff. Boris has been Frankenstein's monster most famously, but has starred in countless movies and shows. He's a perfect pitchman to sell A.1 during the spooky season, speaking of... A.1 has 13 seasonings! Spooky mad scientist aside, what the hell is going on with Igor?

Beware of the Castle of Doom

Troll dolls were all the rage in the early 90's. I myself had quite a few and honestly still kinda dig them. The Norfin brand of Trolls even got a few direct to video cartoons! Castle of Doom, their Halloween special is something interesting. Some good natured trolls find themselves in a haunted castle pursued by Frankenstein, Dracula, and The Wolfman as trolls. There's a mad scientist too! Look, if I were to tell you there was a Halloween Troll OVA, would you believe me? Good thing I found an upload of the VHS. Ironically, troll dolls are also known as Dam dolls thanks to being created by a dude named Thomas Dam.

Spoopy Poop

I've talked about Spooky Goop here before. It's one of those 'so good that I have to double dip' things. Sure to you, it may just be a make-up kit. One of many that would grace store shelves each year. I do love make-up kits (I've said that many times before as well) and Spooky Goop is a prime reason why. It's hard to ignore that packaging. I've spent lots of time just admiring the packaging for these kits at stores. In more recent years they've gotten a little bland, but in the past, they'd knock you over on presentation.

Then there's that cool coffin and test tube. Mixing together Spooky Goop is made part of the fun and if you're like me you'd been looking forward to finally mixing the concoction together after waiting all month for the big night. Make no mistake about it, they were playing off Mad Scientist. Even though that coffin was made from the thinnest plastic ever made- it was vital. Looking at this kit in the store. Then staring at it all October until it was finally time to use it. Ultimately getting thrown away as it wasn't mean to last is all part of the cycle of the goop. I know the chunky gross mixture probably fell off your face halfway through the night. The color was mostly sweated off as well. What was left was pretty hard to wash off when you got home and a little was in your hair still the next day. The memories though, are forever.

Dig That Mad Scientist Monster Kit

Smacks is a pretty good cereal, but I can't lie, it takes a good prize inside for me to get a box. I don't have to explain how badass the glow in the dark (swoon) Mad Scientist sticker set was. I've already expressed my appreciation for Mad Scientist here before, but man what a great toy line. As an adult I still love it's imagery and just looking at this ad for it just does it for me. Too gross, too yucky, too perfect.

The stickers in this set was pretty great. If you'll notice in the below back of box art, you'll see the paper insert with the perfect backdrop for bringing these freaks to life on. The stickers were an assortment of parts, enough to make three monsters with. Either with matching parts or mismatch together some real weirdos. There's no wrong way to be a Mad Scientist.

Transform Squadron the 13th

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This month Rob discusses Mad Lab minis, Cyberverse Deadlock, and shopping at his local stores for Halloween stuff before going into some of the times Transformers crossed paths with Friday the 13th. It’s ki ki ki ma ma ma and it’s the podcast of Zone Base!

Fear the Mad Scientist

One of the coolest toys of the late 80's was Mad Scientist by Mattel. Everybody loves slime and incorporating it with monsters was perfect. The Monster Lab was one of the most popular sets. Essentially you'd take a plastic skeleton, cover it in flesh, and create your monster. Then you murder it by dropping it in a vat of chemicals that melted the creature before your eyes. You gave the monster life and then took it away in morbid fashion. That is fantastic.

Just take a look at the Japanese version of The Monster Lab's packaging. I'm a fan of Japanese logos, kanji, and Asian horror as is. The straight J-Horror visuals of the box are just wonderful to me. In Japan the line was called 'The Laboratory of Mad Dr. Fear'. It's pretty hard not to love that. Unless you're some sort of monster, and we kill those horribly in this laboratory. Suddenly that names pretty amazing huh?

Another popular set was the Alien Dissection kit. If the commercial above doesn't clue you in to it's amazing nature, let me explain. You have an alien filled with internal organs and slime. Then you rip it out. That's it. The play feature of Mad Scientist was torturing monsters to death in violent and horrible ways. Dammit that's awesome. There was other play sets of varying horror and grossness. Though the last of the line was only released in Japan and worth taking note here. It's pretty great.

Ma-Ba Zombies were a sub-line that followed the initial play sets with tiny rubber freaks and monsters. The figures were hollow with the intention that you'd fill it with slime. Squeeze the monster and watch it ooze out. Pretty simple, but simple usually works the best. There were a few series of these on their own outside of the main line. Mad Scientist was a collaboration between Mattel and Bandai that often gets swept under the rug in most peoples memories. I suppose a toy line of gross monsters that you effective murder violently would be a touch too much for the more lame members of society. I do see various homages to the monsters (mostly the alien from the dissection kit) in the occasional designer toy though. I'm pretty jealous of those lucky kids of the late 80's in Japan. I'd love to have had Ma-Ba zombies.

Spooky Goop Halloween Make-Up commercial

It's never too early to start thinking of your Halloween costume. Sure, it's late August, but before you know it that same mask that's been collecting dust all season at Walgreen's will be sold out by the time you walk into buy it (and a Pepsi). I've mentioned before my affinity towards Halloween make up kits before. From the dollar tubes of generic colors, to the more elaborate kits (that you somehow end up still just using the basic colors). Then there's the kits with a gimmick, some extra concoction that sticks to your face adding in some kind of effect. A scar, warts, that weird icy crystal stuff we've all tried once. Usually the extra stuff dries up and falls off somewhere around when it's too late to go back home and fix it, but too early to clean it off. Leaving you with a giant make-up hole in your face that you end up explaining for the rest of the night (I'm looking at you Terminator 2 set).

Spooky Goop was sold more on the novelty of mixing it up in neato mad scientist type gear than the end product. Which was 100% the idea as who wouldn't want to mix up a fizzy potion to put on their face instead of just smearing that generic dollar tube of green on that smells like farts? Sure the end result looks like that weird skin mask stuff thing Mom spreads on her face before bed time (and seemingly does nothing), but you got to mix it together in a coffin and vial made from the thinnest plastic known to mankind!