Collectible 2013 Halloween packaging

Like in year’s past, I have scoured store shelves for the creepiest, spookiest, most collectible candy and food packaging. For whatever reason, this year seemed awfully quiet on the Halloween front. A few contenders were disqualified due to having the same packaging as in previous years, such as M&M’s and Cap’n Crunch, but there were a few new items that really caught my eye. The criteria I use for deciding whether or not a product’s packaging is collectible, is usually based on whether or not I think a collector will want the item 50 years from now. If a product has an iconic character on it, that will usually secure it a spot on the list, but not always. So, without further ado, I present this year’s list of the best Halloween food packaging…

Halloween Fruit Roll-Ups

I have to give kudos to this Fruit Roll-Ups package for grabbing my attention with a non-licensed vampire character. The figure is excellent and would fit well in any monster collection.

Halloween Nabisco Snacks

 

These nabisco boxes made it on this list due to their presentation on the store shelf. There was a wall of these boxes stacked six feet tall. The vampire and witch faces on the box edges join together to make an awesome wall display. It will be fun to look back on this box years from now and see all those cookie logos and remember them as they once were.

Jones Halloween Soda

These soda cans were such a visual treat to find on the shelves. There is nothing else out there with this raw sort of look, and I’m pretty sure this is the only product I found with an eyeball dangling out of its socket. These cans will appeal to monster and horror collectors as well as soft drink and can collectors.

Ghoul-Aid Jammers

Oh, Yeah! What a great kick in the nostalgic pants this was! Kool-Aid’s Ghoul-Aid Jammers have made a triumphant return. Packaging with a fun kids’ activity on the back is always a good thing, and this Ghoul-Aid box offers not one, but two mini games!

Glow-in-the-Dark Cheetos

These Cheetos snack bags come in a large plastic bucket that has one of the best Halloween visuals of the year. The mummy on the bucket is creepy and awesome — something that is rare in Halloween packaging these days, especially from the big companies. The snack bags have Chester Cheetah clad in a mummy costume, and they really do glow in the dark. Sadly, the Cheetos themselves don’t glow — now THAT would be awesome!

General Mills Retro Monster Cereals

If you’ve been under a rock for the last few months, you may not have heard abut these retro monster cereal boxes. General Mills hit a home run with these, especially with their decision to release Yummy Mummy and Frute Brute — two cereals that haven’t been distributed in decades. Who could refuse these guys staring at them from the store shelves (if you could find them!)? General Mills also released these cereals in non-retro boxes. Unfortunately, I was never able to find the new boxes for Yummy Mummy or Frute Brute, or else they would surely be on this list!

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So, that’s a wrap for the Halloween packaging that impressed me this year. What did I miss? What’s your favorite package this year? Oh, and if yore curious, here are the links to the best Halloween packaging from 2010 (pt. 2, pt. 3, pt. 4), 2011 (pt. 2, pt. 3), and 2012 (pt. 2).