In all honesty, I feel like I could've written this article about a month or two ago without anyone getting upset. But, I waited with anticipation, and now the wait is over! With that said, I'd like to venture back to a time that held some of my favorite releases and Halloween memories of all time. The year is 1993 and I am 4 years young. Between toys, movies games and my own little experiences, what a year this was for the Halloween season and building up to it. No, not everything in this list happened in October, but you can bet your ass they got me amped up for the season to come!

Grocery Store Haunted Houses

Until now (since I looked them up on google images), I wasn't sure if it was the area I grew up in or if it was done everywhere but a few of the local stores, like Walmart and Bilo, would get into the Halloween spirit by building these sweet little haunted house walkthroughs out of soda/pop cases. They weren't more than maybe 20' long but, as a 4 year old, they were actually kind of a blast. I've included a few pictures that I had found in google images for the closest references I could find. We can't see the inside from these images but let me tell you, the ones in my area decked them out pretty well. I remember the one year they had plastic bloody hand prints on the outside of the entrance on the floor and you had to walk through a bunch of those fluffy spider webs, then when you walked in there were fake body parts (arms) hanging from the ceiling. It'd be dark so you really didn't know what you were walking into. Unlike the horror VHS section at my local video store at the time, this didn't freak me out. I actually remember enjoying these little builds very much and walking through multiple times each visit to the grocery store. I don't see them done anymore but I sure would be tempted to walk through one again had they decided to do them now.

McDonalds Halloween Mcnugget Buddies

McDonald's is no stranger to Halloween (or clogged arteries). Between treat buckets (and bags) and Halloween themed Happy Meal toys, back then, we could always count on something extra special for the spooky season. These guys might actually be my favorite Happy Meal toys of all time. They had 2 different waves of figures and also a set of four glow in the dark buddies that only appeared in Australia (super jealous, and I'm having a hard time talking myself into paying $50 for 4 McNugget Buddies.....). This was back when McDonald's still did Happy Meal toys of their own franchise characters and mascots which, in my opinion, were always among the most solid toys to get. Halloween McNuggets Buddies are no exception. Only one wave came out in 1993 but I'm going to go ahead and show you them all because why not (you've seen them before anyway, I'm sure)? They made a Jack-o-lantern, Frankensteins Monster, Dracula, a ghost with a blue hat, a mummy, a witch, a spider, even a Ronald McDonald looking guy! I would basically be happy receiving just about any of these even now days. I didn't have the whole set as a kid but buying them in recent years, it felt great to build a spooky chicken nugget army. McD's should really bring these things back, or at least do some new ones. For the spooky nugget army.

They even inspired these awesome shirts you can click through to grab on etsy.

TMNT x Universal Studios Monsters

Literally everything has had either the TMNT or the Universal Studios Monsters treatment at one point or another and it was only time that stood between these two beautiful franchises before they'd clash. In 1993 the first wave of TMNT Universal Studios Monster figures hit store shelves. Wave 1 consisted of Don as Dracula, Leo as the Wolfman, Raph as the Mummy and Mikey as Frankenstein's Monster. The second wave hit a year later and consisted of Leo as the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Raph as the Metaluna Mutant, Mikey as the Invisible Man, and April.... (April? Wtf? Wheres Don?) as the Bride of Frankenstein. Ok, so I guess it's fair that Don sat out the second wave but I'd be interested to see what they would've done for him in the second wave. I personally owned Mummy Raph and Invisible Man Mike way back then. I bought these back in recent years and, to anyone attempting to buy these sets mint on card, good luck! These mofos are pricey as hell now and getting scarcer by the day (especially the second wave with the exception if April).

Zombies Ate my Neighbors

For both the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo (the SNES version is better *cough cough*) comes Zeke and Julie who race around to save their neighbors before they get eaten by zombies! I did not have this game as a kid. I did, however, have a chance to play it at a friends place on the Super Nintendo and I will say I absolutely hated this game when I first played it. For one, I wasn't very good at it. The buttons confused me; when I'd try to change weapons I'd accidentally use a health pack on full life or if I needed to use a health pack I'd change weapons by accident. Playing the game now days, it is hands down one of my favorite games of all time. This game had some sweet enemies ranging from mushroom men, mummies, werewolves, mutant plants, giant babies, aliens, clones, axe babies, chainsaw guys dressed like Jason Vorhees, lagoon creatures and of course zombies and many others! I think my favorite are the axe babies; that creepy little laugh they do is priceless. The music and sound effects are both amazing as well. When you press start on the menu screen..... "MWUAHAHAHAHA"..... so good. All around a great game to play if you haven't before, especially close to Halloween.

Hocus Pocus

How the hell did you honestly think I couldn't talk about this movie? We've all seen it before! It's the fucking equivalent to A Christmas Story during Christmas time. It's practically a mandatory Halloween ritual to watch this movie at least a dozen times before the season is over. Another July 1993 release, the Halloween movie of all Halloween movies was released to the world. A virgin named Max lights a candle (made from the fat of a hangman, eek!!) while visiting a witch museum with sister Dani and love interest Allison, which frees three notorious witches of Salem (Winnifred, Sarah and Mary Sanderson) from their imprisonment from.... well... hell I'd assume. Now, they plan to suck the life from the children of Salem to stay young and live forever. With the help of a kid turned into a cat (Thackary Binks) and a zombie somewhere down the road (Billie) they save Salems' youth from the three witches. Somewhere in between, there is a kid that laughs heavily at everything and can't seem to breath through his nose. Also, my name isn't Ernie anymore, it's "ICE". Classic. I've never been one to dwell on Sarah Jessica Parker but, for some reason, gothed up ditzy blonde Sarah Jessica Parker really did it for my young self. I had a crush on this crazy witch character for years after watching this movie.

Pillow Case Trick or Treat Bags

When it came down to actually going out Trick or Treating, it felt like choosing through an arsenal of weaponry deciding what you would use to carry candy in. The McDonald's Pails worked fine but they were still pretty small. Same with the regular old pumpkin pails; you'd get one full then have empty it out to keep snagging more candy. We've used grocery bags as well as garbage bags once but they seem to rip pretty easy. Also, it seemed like any store you went to, there would be Halloween trick or treat bags handed out but, again, a little on the thin side. Now, I'm not sure if this was a poor kids thing to do or not but, my siblings and I all rocked pillow cases. I was a Turtles kid, so my Ninja Turtle pillow case was my go to but I specifically remember having pillow cases that had ghosts on them as well. My method of switching between a pumpkin pail and a pillow case seemed to work well; I'd get the pail filled up then empty it into the pillow case. Sometimes the pillow case got a little heavy. Their would always be one or two houses that would give out cans of pop. One can of pop equaled, basically, half a pumpkin pails amount of weight. Get one or two of those and the bag is heavy. Luckily, more durable than a garbage bag.

Pumpkin Carving

Nothing quite like throwing on a good playlist or Halloween songs or spooky noises and carving a pumpkin, right? Alright, to be 100% honest, this USED TO be my least favorite pastime of the season. Aside from the music and the end result, at that point in my life Jack-o-lantern guts repulsed me. The smell and the texture and having to get your hands all the way up to your arms and elbows covered in this sludge.... it wasn't particularly my favorite. It's strange how things change. Now I wish I could smell pumpkin guts all the time.