Halloween Packaging Day 21 -- Tombstone Pizza

Tombstone Pizza is the official pizza of Halloween!  Yes, it's true because it says it right on the package.  I believe it was in 2009 when they started this clever slogan.  With a name like Tombstone it makes perfect sense.  You know why Tombstone is called Tombstone?  Back in the early 1960's, two brothers owned a tavern named Tombstone Tavern where they made their signature pizza pie.  Naturally, it was across the street from a cemetery.  Now to these pizza hungry monsters!  I think I was able to snag all the monster label/inserts from 2009 to 2016.   

Now if only they would have invited the Creature from the Black Lagoon and the Invisible Man.  At least we got wild eyed Grim Reaper devouring a 4 meat pizza!

Now for some pics of 'em in the wild!

Here's the commercial for the Halloween pizzas!

In 2017 they changed the design with some great artwork by Nathan Shelton of Ant Creations.  Unfortunately I only found two of the three designs and missed out on the zombie one. 

The next few years Tombstone connected with some licensed properties like Hotel Transylvania 3 and The Addams Family 2.  This year it looks like they're sitting Halloween out.  Hopefully they're planning on something fun and exciting for next year.

Halloween Packaging Day 20 -- Creepy Coffin

I was surprised to see a modern version of Palmer's Creepy Coffin Double Crisp at the store.  I believe I picked this one up in 2015ish but I remember these from my youth. Click here to see a vintage one.  

Here's Dracula out of his coffin and in search of blood!

How gross and perfect for kids to peel off the monster's skin!!

Love the detail on the side of the box.

Found this pic online of the other two in the set.  I'm bummed I missed out on the zombie and mummy.  It looks like they were discontinued in 2017.  

Halloween Packaging Day 19 -- Heinz Tomato Blood

Back in 2021, Heinz killed it with their hilarious Halloween rebranding of their famous ketchup.  I hope whoever came up with this got a big bonus that year.    

 

Halloween Packaging Day 18 -- M&M's White Chocolate Candy Corn

 

This is probably one of my favorite M&M's wrappers.  Poor Red looks super annoyed that he has to be dressed as a piece of candy corn.  Especially nowadays where candy corn shows up at the top of the most hated Halloween candy.  This wrapper is from 2011 and I remember this flavor of M&M's being way worse than actual candy corn.  

Halloween Packaging Day 17 -- Trader Joe's Ghosts & Bats

 

Trader Joe's always creates fun and eye catching packages and their Ghosts & Bats Crispy Potato Snacks bag definitely jumped off the shelf and into my shopping cart back in 2018.  Everything about this is just perfect.  A haunted house where you can see the product through the windows!  The classic expressionless sheet ghosts!  The bats and especially the one letting us know this is a gluten free product!  The font!  The green and purple color scheme! 

Plus the bag has a clever poem on the back!

But the best thing of all might be this UPC ghost!  I always love it when packages work the UPC symbol into the design.

Halloween Packaging Day 16 -- Twizzlers with Frankenstein

In 2014, Twizzlers gave us a series of neat stop-motion style commercials and one of them featured Frankenstein's Monster.  Frankie has been my favorite of the Universal Monsters since I can remember.  I even donned the classic Ben Cooper Frankenstein costume for Halloween way back when I was five. 

The same year as the commercial, Twizzlers added the big lug to their packages but in Twizzler form.  For whatever reason I missed out on snagging the 2014 style bags but managed to save the version above from 2015.  Check out CollectingCandy to see all the versions.

Now check out the clever commercial.  It will make you want to buy bags of Twizzlers so you can sculpt your very own Frankenstein.  Ooh, wouldn't that be cool!!

Halloween Packaging Day 15 -- Ghost Dots

Every time I see a box of Ghost Dots they make me happy.  Not because of the candy but for the cute little transparent ghost dots.  Tootsie introduced these back in 2007 (I think) and they've been part of trick or treat every since.

Here's a current box of Ghost Dots and this update design I like better than the original one.  This version adds more fun to the box, especially with the added artwork on the back.   

Halloween Packaging Day 14 -- Slim Jim and the Zombie Hands

Yes, my title kinda sounds like a 1960's Rockabilly band but we're still checking out Halloween packaging and in this post we're looking at zombie hands.  When I was going through my collection of Halloween packaging picking out some of my favorites, this Slim Jim box from 2013 kept clawing to the top of the list.  It's simple and perfect and a zombie theme for meat sticks was a good choice.  

Then I was surprised how many products I had that have a lone zombie hand on the package.  Let's take a look a look at 'em. 

In 2015, Red Baron Pizza had a green zombie hand rise up.  Hmm...one of the Baron's victims back from the dead maybe?   

Then in 2017 Crush soda crushed it with various monster hands crushing their logo.  Look closely and you'll notice this zombie hand is the exact same one from the Red Baron box.  Glad so see it found a job that Halloween season.

From 2015 is this Mike and Ike box.  I wonder if that hand belongs to zombie Mike or zombie Ike?

Takis made a flavor around this zombie hand and they're still available.  This bag is from 2018.

A stretchy zombie hand showed up on this 2010 box of Totino's Pizza Rolls.

So if a zombie hand pops out of the ground offering you a sour apple sucker I'd suggest you don't accept it and run away!!

Here's a gummy lollipop in the form of a zombie hand! This is part of the Zombie Bites line of gummy candy.

The zombie hand of Paul Tergeist.  Now laugh hysterically like a 5th grader.  Go ahead, it's okay. 

Our final zombie hand package is at your local Walmart now and it first appeared on shelves last Halloween.  This one is so much fun and I bet a lot of monster kids will be saving this bottle.  Btw, the hand glows-in-the-dark.  

~~~Update~~~

Just made a trip to Walmart and made two discoveries.  First up is the Monster Lab Sprinkle Mix bottle has changed.  I thought it was still available in the beaker style but to my surprise it's just a regular ol' bottle shape.  Though it does have a printed zombie hand on the label, so at least there's that.

The second discovery is about the Red Baron and Crush zombie hand and it's good news because it found work again this Halloween season.  Now it's modeling on a box of Frito Lay trick or treat bags!  Way to go zombie hand!  We're all proud of you!!!