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I’ve been writing about pop culture for almost 20 years and I can’t imagine stopping any time soon. Here you’ll find all of my current articles and an archive of the stuff I wrote for my defunct site, Branded in the 80s.
Dumpster Diving for Nostalgia, Part 3
So, these Dumpster Diving pieces were not essays I had planned to write, and they're more or...
Dumpster Diving for Nostalgia, Part 2
In the last part I talked a bit about how I came to a point where I started trying to pick up...
Dumpster Diving for Nostalgia, Part 1
When it comes to collecting and nostalgia, there is almost nothing that's off the table. We all...
Is Frankenstein the Monster or the Man Who Made Him?
I love The Monster Squad. It's no secret, and if you've at all familiar with this site than...
Saying Goodbye to Warduke
About five years ago I stumbled upon an item in an antique shop that took my breath away. It's...
Micro, But Many!
The late 80s was a weird time for me, toy and collecting-wise, because I was racing into my...
Peel Here #137: Transformers Lenticular Bliss
About a million year ago, when I first started writing about stickers here at Branded, there...
Muppet Magazine, Perfect Kid Reading in the 80s
Of all the publications available to kids in the 80s I'm not sure I can find one that is so...
Peel Here #136: 80s Era Wacky Packages!
As a collector of 80s era stickers, one of my absolute favorite sticker producers has to be the...
Clearer Images of a Nightmare
When you run a website steeped in nostalgia you never know exactly where the hunt for content...
The Most Important Spreadsheet That Ever Was
In July of 1990 two essential things happened in my life. The first was turning 13 years old...
Happily Deranged
Branded in the 80s is an unapologetic, love letter to everything that I adore about the 80s, in...
Customizing My Love of the Transformers and G.I. Joe
About five years ago I wrote a piece here at Branded about my adoration for the idea of...
Scraps, an Unlikely Monster Squad Collectible
Over the last five or six years my love for the film The Monster Squad has taken me to all...
Peel Here 135: G.I. Joe Hearts You
In my quest to organize and clear out some of the accumulated clutter in my home office I been...
Shiver Me Chicken Planks!
Of all the fast food places one could eat, far and away my favorite has always been Long John...
Checking Off the Drive-In Bucket List
Though I love a ton of 80s era films, by far my favorite film of all time is the 1987 Fred...
Buy Me That!
When I was a kid I had some really weird interests. For instance, whenever my mother would get...
The Great Fruit Snack Wars of 1985
One of my absolute favorite pastimes, specifically when it comes to working on this site, is to...
Peel Here 134: The Muppet Babies Edition
With all of this quarantine time that a lot of us are mired in, I've been trying to be as...
The Other Ghostbusters
Looking back at the 80s, sometimes it can be difficult to rank the best or most influential...
The Legend of Randi Bellisario
In the world of collecting there are literally endless bits and baubles that one can...
Remember when the Madballs met the Care Bears?
We live in a time of epic super hero crossovers and comic book cinematic universes that are...
Reclaiming My Childhood, Part 7,235: The Silverhawks
Back in 1987, around the time I was nine or ten years-old and in the 5th grade, I was always in...
The Art of Coloring Books
Somehow, unintentionally, I've amassed a rather large collection of vintage coloring books over...
Peel Here #131: NES Sticker Collection!
So, while I was writing the last piece on Super Mario Bros 2 stickers that I have in my...
Peel Here 130: Super Mario Brothers!
I've been having a blast reconnecting with vintage sticker collecting in the past year or so....
4 Million Years Later…
I wanted to take a second and point to a new-ish podcast that a couple of friends of mine just...
The Saga of Scrounge
There are a lot of pop culture touchstones in my childhood that had a huge influence on the...
Everything Smells!
As is hopefully obvious based on the last piece that I wrote, I LOVE the Trend Enterprises...