Ghost of Mars

A couple of months ago while doing an unrelated google search, I came across an old post that Matt, from Dinosaur Dracula, had written a couple of years ago about Mars candy Halloween pails.

I have been a reader of his for a few years, but not only had I never read this article, but I also had never even heard of these pails. Since this is something that is right in my wheelhouse, and would have probably been even more so as a kid, I couldn't believe that something like this could have been existence for almost thirty years without me knowing about it.

Produced in 1989 (and 1990?, more on that in a second), there was a ghost, a pumpkin, and a goblin -- and all three of them are absolutely fantastic.

After instantly falling in love with them, I knew I had to get them in to my life as soon as possible, which of course means... eBay!

They aren't quite as plentiful on eBay as I had thought they might be, and a number of the one's that are available, seem to be missing their candy bar stickers. So far I have only gotten this here ghost, which set me back $12, and it was worth every penny.

At around 9" tall, these were made out of some really chunky plastic. You could probably concuss someone, were you to knock 'em upside the head with it.

I noticed while looking through the listings, that a couple of them seemed to have different face stickers. At first, I thought it was just a case of the stickers coming off, and then people putting sticking the faces back on the wrong bodies.

After doing some more searching though, I found an article on Euclid Boo, that puts forth the thought that they may have been released in '89 and '90. Which if correct, might explain why each of the pails seem to have two different faces. And knowing how my brain works, I am now going to have to track down the variations as well.

There is also some uncertainty has to how these were given out/sold, either way though, it was obviously a Halloween promotion of some sort.

Thanks for taking a minute to look at my page.