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!!!

 

Halloween Packaging Day 15 -- Fruit Roll-Ups Mini Rolls

The vampire on this box of Fruit Roll-Ups from 2013 remains a favorite character design. I'd love to see this guy animated.  

 

Halloween Packaging Day 12 -- Peeps Marshmallow Monsters

Ah...Peeps! They've been around since the 1950's and primarily they're associated with Easter but they've been putting out their marshmallow treats for Halloween since the 1960's.  I don't remember ever getting any Halloween Peeps when I was a kid but I did save this neato cool package of Peeps Marshmallow Monsters from 2016.  I love when packages incorporate the product as part of the design.  Of course I had to keep this one intact and amazingly the marshmallow Frankenstein has stayed in good condition.  I wonder what he'll look like in 20 years.   
 

Here's a current package of Marshmallow Monsters I just picked up.  I think they need to bring back the older style from 2016 as this new one is kinda boring.  Also, Frankie doesn't look as happy living in the current style package as he does in the old one.   

Found this segment about Halloween Peeps from an episode of Unwrapped from back in the day.  Always fun to visit the factory to see where things are made.   

Halloween Packaging Day 11 -- Sleepy Hollow Coffee

 

One of my favorite Halloween stories is The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and so it was exciting to find this bag of coffee at Aldi stores in 2022.  I'm not a coffee drinker but I couldn't pass up a package with the Headless Horseman.  

Halloween Packaging Day 10 -- The Addams Family Meal At Burger King

Burger King is at it again this Halloween with a new colored Whopper bun and this time it's tied with The Addams Family, specifically the 2019 animated film.  Last night we ventured out to our local Burger King and bought everything on the menu.  Of course I was there for the packaging but the food was actually pretty tasty and we had a fun experience chatting it up with the BK staff about the kooky promotion.  

I gotta say Gomez's Churro Fries were to die for especially after dipping them in the chocolate sauce!  These need to stay on the permanent menu for sure!!

The wrapper for Wednesday's Whpper is beautifully designed to the point I want to frame this and put it in our Halloween display.

There's three sizes of Thing's Rings & other things.  I'm not sure what the other things are as our order only had the rings.  Maybe I don't want to know what the other things are.

Yay! A souvenir cup for the collection or use as a makeshift vase for rose stems with the heads cut off!

The great thing about the 2019 film is the line art for the characters are close to the original designs by creator Charles Addams. 

Of course as I was sitting their eating the purple Whopper I thought of the infamous Halloween Whopper from 2015.  I snapped these pics back when I was brave (or foolish) to try it.