Sometimes it's okay to drink the Kool-Aid.
In the early '90s, Kraft Foods upped their sugar water game by producing not only the edgiest VHS tape of all time, but wildly-creative flavors like Purplesaurus Rex, Rockadile Red and The Great Bluedini. My favorite Kool-Aid as an impressionable kid was The Great Bluedini, in no small part because I was a professional magician at the time! The Great Bluedini has never vanished from shelves. The gimmick? The powder is green, but it "magically" changes to blue when you add water. Astounding! (If you have an IQ of ten.)
At twelve years old, I was chugging these artificially-sweetened swills, and the Kool-Aid points racked up fast! I dutifully shipped them off to the Wacky Warehouse, which must have been a real place. Here's a mug that I got in a set for fifteen Kool-Aid points. And don't forget this tape, featured in full on my tribute to Kay-Bee Toys. Oh, yeah!
I was more enthused than I should have been to find these Kool-Aid retro releases of Rock-a-dile Red and Purplesaurus Rex at Ollie's, a local discount store chain. I was skeptical these sugar-free reissues wouldn't pack the punch of the vintage powders, but for pennies each, it was a safe bet. Those kooky food scientists pretty much nailed it, and downing these packets was a trip back in time. There was a very slight aftertaste on the Rock-a-dile Red, less than what you'd experience with a diet soda. As a bonus, it also turns your poop red. Juvenile? You bet!
Barney wasn't the only purple dinosaur on the block in the early '90s. The Purplesaurus Rex Kool-Aid is a flawless recreation. This flavor was released in 1993, not coincidentally during the peak of dinosaur mania spawned by Jurassic Park. The Kool-Aid packaging illustration even features a Jeep, which is decorated closely to the ones seen in the movie! Kraft was thumbing its nose at Universal Studios with this one.
Each box contains six packets of Kool-Aid to use at your discretion.
Consumer alert: Pick these up if you find them! Kool-Aid points aren't a thing anymore, so swing by the dollar store for a comparable prize to give yourself in six to eight weeks.