Spotlight on Evil: My Pet Monster

Spotlight on Evil: My Pet Monster

Sure, "evil" may be a bit too strong a word to describe My Pet Monster, but just look at that little devil. Blue fur, sharp fangs, yellow eyes, and he's chained up like the Castle Freak - I think those are all signifiers of the evil lurking inside that little bastard's black heart.

In case you are not a product of the eighties, My Pet Monster was a plush doll first produced by American Greetings in 1986 that was targeted, like the equally evil My Buddy, to boys. Eventually there was a whole line of characters put out as his companions, but who gives a shit about them? Not me.

You might also remember the terrible live-action, direct to video film from 1986 about a boy who becomes the Pet Monster after being exposed to some statue. Whenever the boy gets hungry he changes into the Pet Monster (ala The Incredible Hulk). Some baddie tries to kidnap him to perform what I can only assume to be bizarre sexual acts on him - I'm not certain I'm remembering that exactly right - and the boy's sister helps him escape. You can actually find a dub of the film, straight from a VHS copy, on YouTube here.

After the DTV movie, ABC carried a short-lived animated series based on My Pet Monster. From 1986 to 1987 the show followed Monster who lived with a boy named Max. When Monster wore his handcuffs, they turned him into a stuffed animal. Max and Monster got into a series of silly adventures, all the while trying to hide Monster from the world-at-large. Honestly, I don't remember the show too well, I was caught up watching GI Joe as often as I could, but you can actually find all thirteen episodes on DVD now.


Back in 2001, Toymax released a commemorative edition 22" talking My Pet Monster plus doll, but it seems that they are about as hard to find/expensive as the originals from the eighties. Eventually I plan on re-buying one of these bad boys for my son. They go on eBay for around $40, give or take. It seems to be harder to find them still fully in tact with their handcuffs, but I would hold out for a complete one. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane - and this Spotlight on Evil.

Enjoy the intro from the My Pet Monster cartoon:

Spotlight on Evil: Leslie Vernon!

Part Man Bites Dog, part American Psycho, and part Friday the 13th - Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon unleashed its eponymous protagonist upon the world. Leslie is the type of guys that likes to laugh at the little things, he likes to curl up with a nice book on rainy evenings, and he especially likes to hack up young girls into teeny tiny pieces.


While living in the small town of Glen Echo, Leslie took up with and became the apprentice of a retired serial killer named Eugene. Here Leslie lived for a time while he refined his skills as a sickle wielding psycho. This stuff takes a lot of practice and hard work.

Finally, in 2006, Leslie Vernon was ready to take the mantle of ultimate serial killer from the likes of Michael Myers and Jason Vorheese. After devising a very elaborate plot to trap and kill a group of unsuspecting teenagers (complete with a red herring and a final girl), Leslie enlisted the help of college journalist Taylor Gentry and her crew to document his rise to serial killer prominence. Of course, that didn't work out that well. After chasing young Taylor into an orchard, Leslie is actually killed by his own final girl.

But! Yes, there's always a but. As it turns out, Taylor's meddling may have actually done the world a grave disservice, as Leslie's body is seen rising up from the coroner's table. Could it be that Leslie has joined the ranks of Jason and Michael as an unstoppable, undead murderous psycho? God, I hope so.

I would like to formally lodge a complaint, however. There is no cool Behind the Mask swag. At least, none that I could find. Give us a t-shirt, and action figure, something, because Leslie Vernon is the great big bloody shit. That sounds grosser than I meant, but you get the picture.

Spotlight On Evil: Cropsy!

The Killer from The Burning (1981)

1981's The Burning is one of my favorite slashers of all time. It has the panache of the first couple of Friday the 13th films, but it's much more of a mystery being a one-off. Had Cropsy come back for more adventures, the luster may have worn off a bit, but as it is The Burning stands alone as a really good slasher with a great villain.


Interesting Trivia: Tom Savini turned down the chance to work on Friday the 13th Part II to work on The Burning!

Cropsy's Story: Camp Blackfoot's alcoholic groundskeeper/janitor Cropsy is sleeping in his cabin one night when some young campers take it upon themselves to teach him a lesson. The prank goes horribly wrong, and Cropsy is severely burned - having to spend the next five years recovering in the hospital. He is released from the hospital, only to return to the site of his accident in order to stalk the campers of Camp Stone Water, located across the lake.

That's right. A burnt up villain that uses sharp objects to kill his victims. I'm not implying that a certain Wes Craven stole anything from this film, Cropsy certainly doesn't stalk people in their dreams, but it is interesting. In all honesty, the movie shares much more in common with Friday the 13th (specifically part 2) than it does with A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Interesting Trivia: The Burning was one of Miramax Film's earliest successes.

Okay, so the story is a little uninspired, but this ain't Shakespeare. Besides, who needs a good backstory when you've got a sharp pair of gardening shears just itching to get bloody? Oh that's right, I've failed to mention the fact that Cropsy is responsible for one of the greatest massacres ever to be filmed - the infamous RAFT MASSACRE. Please see this YouTube video HERE for reference.

I would like to recommend that everyone head over to Fright-Rags and check out their The Burning shirt which features the subject of today's Spotlight on Evil. It's pretty great and sells for $19.95.

There's not a whole lot more left for me to say about our dear Cropsy, the guy only lasted for one film in the slasher era for Pete's sake, but he will always be near and dear to me. I hope you guys enjoyed reading a little bit about my burnt up, kill-happy friend Cropsy.

Spotlight on Evil: Reptar!

Spotlight on Evil: REPTAR!

When I was a kid, I loved Nickelodeon. Part of the first batch of Nicktoons (original programming from Nickelodeon), Rugrats really held its own against the likes of Ren & Stimpy and Doug. It was funny, cute, well animated, and surprisingly intelligent. But there was one character on the show that always stood out to me as awesomely evil: Reptar.

You remember Reptar, the Godzilla knock-off that was featured as a sometimes hero/sometimes villain on film, TV, and on ice(!) in Rugrats? 'Course ya do. For me, as a movie monster fan, it was great to see the kids in the show show such affection for a giant lizard. Maybe it made me feel less weird in my own fascination with giant monsters and shambling things that went bump in the night? I don't know exactly why, but ever since I first saw him on the show, Reptar made me appreciate Rugrats just a little bit more.

Stupid trivia: Reptar first made an appearance in a 1991 episode entitled "At the Movies".

Now, you may be asking yourself is Reptar really evil? Well, the answer is: sometimes. They played him as both hero and villain at various stages of the show - likely a reference to how Godzilla varied from hero and villain, but my favorite Reptar is the big, bad, villainous one.


And, I swear these guys aren't paying me anything (but I wouldn't object if they did), 80's Tees comes through again to bring us this badass little number to the right. That's right, now you rep Reptar anywhere you go! In the club! At the movie show! Bordellos! Wineries! Anywhere!!!! AHHHH!!!

It would seem that Reptar is actually a little more popular than I thought before researching for this post. In fact, he has his own roller coaster called Rugrats Runaway Reptar at three different theme parks (Kings Island, Dreamworld, and Carowinds). It's an inverted coaster that is specifically meant for kids. I'd say that you know you've made it when you have your own roller coaster.

I guess there's really only one thing left. Enjoy this YouTube video of The Rugrats episode Runaway Reptar!

Runaway Reptar - Part 1 (1 of 4):

Spotlight on Evil: Krang!

Welp, boils and ghouls, I thought today would be a perfect day to start a new segment on The 'Choke: Spotlight on Evil. This will be my chance to showcase some of my favorite villains in pop culture history. And what better way to kick it off than with that diabolical brain - Krang!?

Krang is one of the most excellently strange super villains to ever grace the small screen. According to his Wikipedia page:

He somehow took command of an army of Rock Soldiers under the leadership of General Traag, and stole the Technodrome, a powerful mobile battle fortress, from its creator Von Drakus. One day, an unexplained, bizarre incident occurred that caused Krang to be stripped of his body and reduced to a brain-like form, also resulting in his exile from Dimension X to Earth, along with his army and the Technodrome.

While on Earth, Krang allied himself with the Shredder, who, along with his robotic Foot Soldier army, moved into the Technodrome. In exchange, the Shredder had to design and build a new body for Krang, a human-shaped exo-suit. Shredder lived up to his part of the bargain in the season 1 episode [The Shredder is Splintered], in no small part because he was unable to deal with the Turtles and needed Krang's help. Indeed, in the season 3 episode [Shredderville], the Turtles have a dream of a parallel world in which they never lived, and Shredder had no problem taking over the world. In this world, Shredder abandoned Krang after his conquest was complete, leaving him with no body and a heavily-damaged Technodrome.

I bet you didn't know all of that. But, now I've got your interest piqued, fo' sho. Krang sure does have a lot of charisma for being nothing but grey (pink?) matter, I think we all have to give him that. Let's take a look at Krang in pop culture...

When I was a kid, I had all kinds of Turtle memorabilia, including, you guessed it, a bunch of toys. I had the Turtle Sewer Base, at least a hundred action figures, the Party Wagon, even the Technodrome...but my most prized Turtle possession? Krang in his robot body. That's right, I was the only one I knew that had it, and I felt like Ricky Schroder when the other kids would come over and gawk at my terrifically tall toy. Sure, I broke the little antenna off the top of his head, but dammit if he wasn't still a glorious sight to behold. Just look at the picture to the right and tell me that you aren't getting just a little bit jealous thinking about how much fun I must have had using that thing to break apart my Construx or trample my Gi Joes.

Of course, one of the absolute coolest things that I've come across recently is this T-shirt from 80's Tees. As you might be able to gather, the shirt is supposed to make you the android body with Krang resting comfortably, helming the controls that make you're dumbass move! How delightful! But, really, someone buy me this. Please, because I really do want it.

Also, don't hestiate to check out Paper Foldables for a sweet how-to guide on making your very own Krang origami. Which, has kind of always been a personal goal of mine...

That about raps up our first edition of Spotligh on Evil. I hope we've shed a little bit of lit on the wondeful creature that is Krang of Dimension X.