Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks

Welcome to the Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks 12 Days of Christmas celebration extravaganza!!! (Don't send me messages telling me that the 12 days of Christmas actually BEGIN on Christmas and end on January 6th, with the Epiphany. I know. But I'm not celebrating that way... so let us quickly move along.)

Along with more famous Christmas albums put out by favorite artists, groups, animated characters, Muppets, or as the soundtracks to holiday films... you will also find your alliterative collections of specific genre-themed Christmas albums. A couple of those that I found (and that looked tolerable to me) were these:

The first one, Jingle Bell Jazz, is (you guessed it!) a compilation of jazz Christmas music. I think the track that won me over and that made this tape coming home with me an inevitability was Miles Davis's "Blue Xmas" which is not to be confused with the song "Blue Christmas". It is a poisonously pessimistic look at Christmas through the eyes of someone surrounded by the hypocrisy of Christmas in the city. I treasure songs like these almost as much as the heart-warming ones because it reminds us that not all of the Scrooges are necessarily evil... and they aren't always necessarily wrong.

The rest of the tracks on the tape are fun, a lot of them instrumental, and almost all of them livelier, (jazzier!) versions of old favorites. I especially love the scat-CRAZINESS that is "Deck Us All With Boston Charlie".

-Side A-

1. Duke Ellington - Jingle Bells

2. Lionel Hampton - White Christmas

3. Chico Hamilton - Winter Wonderland

4. Carmen McRae - The Christmas Song

5. Pony Poindexter - Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer

6. Paul Horn - We Three Kings of Orient Are

-Side B-

7. The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Santa Claus is Comin' to Town

8. Lambert Hendricks and Ross - Deck Us All With Boston Charlie

9. Herbie Hancock - Deck the Halls

10. The Manhattan Jazz All-Stars - If I Were a Bell

11. Marlowe Morris - Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

12. Miles Davis - Blue Xmas

Next, the Country Christmas. I'll be honest here, I would NOT have bought this thing if there wasn't a Johnny Cash song included. And it is arguable not even a Christmas song. I have never heard of the story of Belshazar in relation to Christmas before... but it's Johnny Cash singing about a greedy king and a disembodied hand writing in blood. That and Miles Davis's "Blue Christmas" and this is one of the darkest Christmas's ever. I love the line "He was weighed in the balance and found wanting," in Cash's deep voice.

-Side A-

1. Roy Drusky - White Christmas

2. Jean Shepard - O Come All Ye Faithful

3. Del Reeves - I Saw Mommy Dance With Santa

4. David Frizzell - Blue Christmas

5. Billie Jo Spears - Silent Night

6. Bobby Helms - Jingle Bell Rock

-Side B-

7. Porter Wagoner - Johnny's Christmas Tree

8. Ginny Wright - O Holy Night

9. Patti Page - Holidays

10. Johnny Cash - "Belshazah" (The song is supposed to be "Belshazar" but appears to be misprinted on both the cassette itself and on the liner notes)

11. Leroy Van Dyke - Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

12. Your Country Singers - Sleigh Ride

To be honest, I haven't given many of the other tracks a try (I hunt all this stuff down on YouTube because I indeed do NOT own a cassette player on which to listen to cassettes... I just collect them mostly as objets d'art for the time being. A tape player is actually secondary in importance to the cassettes for me at this time...) so I have no idea if the rest of the tape is charming or grating or both in equal measure. Patti Page's "Holidays" is depressing in an awesome way. It's all about heartbreak... and that sort of horrorshow seems to be a running theme in today's post.

I'll be going right up through Christmas day itself posting, so be sure to join me back here tomorrow for more of the 12 Days of Christmas Cassettes celebration!!! Merry Christmas and Happy Hunting!

Today I'm featuring a couple of cassettes that jumped out at me for a couple of different reasons, not necessarily because of who performed them, or songs included... but mainly because of who was responsible for creating them.

These are two Christmas music compilations that were sponsored by folks that I would not normally associate with Christmas... at least not initially.

First up we have "Christmas with Courvoisier Cognac" performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. What we have here people, is a Christmas tape sponsored by a booze company.

The folks at Courvoisier keep it simple and instrumental here, because they know that once people get nice and boozed up they don't want a lot of confusing Christmas lyrics going on in the background to harsh their buzz.

-Side A-

1. Deck the Halls

2. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring

3. Angels We Have Heard on High

4. Adoramus Te, Christe

5. Silent Night

6. Adeste Fidelis

-Side B-

7. The First Noel

8. Gesu Bambino

9. What Child Is This?

10. God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen

11. Coventry Carol

12. Joy to the World

And finally, we have a cassette created by the folks at True Value hardware stores.

I don't know... I guess I just thought it was funny that a chain of hardware stores put together a collection of Christmas songs. AND... this thing has "The Night Before Christmas" performed by WILLARD SCOTT!!!

This guy.

Oh whoops! I meant:

This guy. Merry Christmas.

-Side A-

1. Willard Scott - "The Night Before Christmas"

2. Julie Andrews - Hark! The Herald Angles Sing

3. Bing Crosby - O Holy Night

4. Garth Brooks - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

5. The Lettermen - What Child is This

6. Wayne Newton - Silent Night

7. Air Supply - Winter Wonderland

-Side B-

8. Nat "King" Cole - The Christmas Song

9. The Beach Boys - Frosty the Snowman

10. Glen Campbell - I'll Be Home For Christmas

11. Dean Martin - White Christmas

12. Anne Murray - O Come All Ye Faithful

13. Andy Williams - Joy to the World

14. Ella Fitzgerald - It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

There's some genuinely great music in the mix here, with classics from the likes of Andy Williams, The Beach Boys, Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, and Julie Andrews. Garth Brooks makes a sort of anachronistic appearance, and let's not kid anybody about it... I bought this thing for Willard Scott. And because a hardware chain put it together.

I'll be going right up through Christmas day itself posting, so be sure to join me back here tomorrow for more of the 12 Days of Christmas Cassettes celebration!!! Merry Christmas and Happy Hunting!

So today I'm mixing up the format just a little. I'm not focusing so much on track-lists and more the state of affairs in the fictional world of Christmas Sing-along characters. Both "Frostie" and Santa Claus are present for today's post... but they've also brought along their posses (possies? that doesn't look right no matter how I spell it).

So here we have "Dancing With Frostie: Sing Along With Frostie and the Gang" and "Santa Claus & the Fun Street Gang" And here I posit this question: Which sing along "gang" comes out on top if these two decide to rumble?

Well. Let's take a look at the gangs first. First up, we have Frostie's gang. I'm not sure if they spelled his name with an "ie" to avoid some sort of copyright or what... but I find it disturbing. This gang starts off getting a few bad-ass points based on this alone. It takes one bad motherf**ker to misspell arguably THE most famous snowman's name in such an arbitrary and yet still completely homonymic way. This is how you know this gang means business. Now... in the "not-so-badass" column we have: This "gang" seems to be completely made up of woodland creatures. This, to me anyway, say more "herd" or at least "pack" rather than gang... but I'm not going to argue with however they choose to self-identify. We don't even have any wolves, cougars, bears, wolverines, or anything. We have: 2 mice, 3 rabbits, a skunk, a turtle, a deer, and what appears to be a cockroach or locust or something. Maybe a cricket? I want it to be a cockroach, honestly (it's sliding off the "h" is "with" for any of you less-eagle-eyed readers who have no f**king clue what I'm talking about) because the idea of a Christmas cockroach warms the cockles of my heart. again however, I see this as more of a stampede rather than a gang. They aren't even anthropomorphic... well.. not really. I mean, the Get-Along Gang was made up of animals... but they had thumbs so they could shiv you is cornered... you know?

Pictured: A Gang STILL more dangerous than Frostie's.
Art by @witalobenicio

The gang led by Santa Claus automatically has street cred because they have not only a name but a street name. Now, the "Fun Street" kids might not sound as tough as say... The Orphans from "Warriors" or... "The Yancy Street" kids... or those "Unholy Bastards" but you're letting the geography of this situation color you impression of the situation. Just because the kids don't live on "Broken Beer Bottle Street" doesn't mean they wouldn't still carve your nose off with one. Of course... looking at them and seeing the fact that they all appear to be Hummel figurines and/or Campbell's Soup Kids come to life doesn't help to alleviate that first impression either.

This doesn't exactly scream, "I'm going to cut you b**ch!!!"

I'm not really sure where I'm going with this whole idea to be honest. I thought it was brilliantly clever when I was holding both of these tapes in my hands at Goodwill: Some sort of epic battle between the two groups... the bone of contention DEFINITELY the spelling of Frosty/Frostie's name. There would be fantastic blood matches, with the deer goring several of the singing, happy, campfire children before being taken out by the Fun Street Gang's trained army of raptors. The skunk would spray Santa, who would retaliate by smacking Frostie's animal friends with his guitar with a vicious back-swing. Frostie would end up in the fire at some point and the Fun Street gang would win (but at what cost?) because Santa. That's why.

But that's about as far as I want to go with this whole concept, honestly. I/m tired and Christmas is too close for this kind of nonsense to be dragged out too far. So this is where we are. I am CONSTANTLY questioning my life choices. Wondering where I went wrong. But that is a ponderance for another day.

I'll be going right up through Christmas day itself posting, so be sure to join me back here tomorrow for more of the 12 Days of Christmas Cassettes celebration!!! Merry Christmas and Happy Hunting!

(YES I KNOW TODAY IS LATE. Double posting today! Yeayah!)

So today I'm just focusing on an old classic in my family: The King himself... ELVIS.

My family has been Elvis CRAZY as long as I can remember! My Aunt (the one who also loves Garfield) collects Elvis merchandise by the TON. She loves the man. So I grew up listening to Elvis in all his various different iterations and incarnations. This included Christmas Elvis to be sure.

And with Christmas comes an entire assortment of Christmas songs sung by the King himself. There is no such thing as a Christmas without Elvis. I honestly don't feel like sitting and listing off the tracks on these two tapes, but be assured, all of the classics are present and accounted for. "Blue Christmas" makes an appearance, "Here Comes Santa Claus" with its boppy, rockabilly beat... you name it, and its on one of these two cassettes.

Oops! Just tore off my panties and threw them at the screen. Guess I'll quit while I'm ahead.

I'll be going right up through Christmas day itself posting, so be sure to join me back here tomorrow for more of the 12 Days of Christmas Cassettes celebration!!! Merry Christmas and Happy Hunting!

Today is another solo tape, and so I am taking advantage of this post to share not only a Christmas cassette, but also a Christmas-y surprise I found at Goodwill just a few days ago. But first... Today's Cassette!

I desperately wanted to find the original "Very Special Christmas" on cassette tape to share with you here. This one is not as good. BUT it still has some very notable tunes included nonetheless. Tom Petty's "Christmas All Over Again" is an absolute favorite of mine,

and Sinead O'Connor's cover of Bob Dylan's "I Believe in You" while arguably not a Christmas song is another great listen.

But the winner for most bizarrely awesome song on this tape goes to Mr. Frank Sinatra and Ms. Cyndi Lauper for their duet to "Santa Claus is Coming to Town"

At the time, it was a move that would have "broken the internet" or whatever bulls**t thing it's called these days. A blue-eyed, classic, classy crooner from the gin-soaked rat-pack like Sinatra, teamed up with flighty, rainbow-muppet-come-to-life, "girls just wanna have fun" screeching Cyndi Lauper?

Yes please. And it comes off sounding pretty damn great! Honestly! The rest of the tape is a mess really. Either artists I can't imagine anyone liking, or songs that did NOT need a remake of ANY kind (No one but Stevie Wonder is allowed to sing "What Christmas Means to ME"!!!) or artists we LOVE doing stupid songs (Aretha singing "O Christmas Tree"? Really?)

-Side A-

1. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Christmas All Over Again

2. Randy Travis - Jingle Bell Rock

3. Luther Vandross - The Christmas Song

4. Frank Sinatra & Cyndi Lauper - Santa Claus is Coming to Town

5. Boyz II Men - The Birth of Christ

6. Jon Bon Jovi - Please Come Home For Christmas

7. Paul Young - What Christmas Means to Me

8. Aretha Franklin - O Christmas Tree

9. Ronnie Spector/Darlene Love - Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

10. Michael Bolton - White Christmas

-Side B-

11. RUN DMC - Christmas Is

12. Extreme - Christmas Time Again

13. Bonnie Raitt and Charles Brown - Merry Christmas Baby

14. Tevin Campbell - O Holy Night

15. Debbie Gibson - Sleigh Ride

16. Vanessa Williams - What Child is This?

17. Ann & Nancy Wilson - Blue Christmas

18. Wilson Phillips - Silent Night

19. Sinead O'Connor - I Believe in You

And now on to something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!!!

So while looking around at Goodwill the other day I found a bag of colorful cookie-cutters in the toy section. I gave them a cursory glance (there were some giant Halloween cutters in there, bats and Jack o' Lanterns, and I have a weird cookie-cutter thing going on) and since they were a buck and appeared to be ones I didn't already own, I grabbed them. I saw a reindeer in the mix, and it looked like Rudolph, so I figured a buck was worth it for a licensed cookie cutter of that character alone. But what I discovered when I got this home was that they weren't just ANY cookie cutters, there was a nearly-complete set of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer 3D cookie cutters in there! The only character missing is Sam the Snowman... and I have his butt. Just no body.

Each cookie cutter comes with a body and a leg cutter. You cut out two legs for each character, and then stand the cookie up on the leg pieces. the top of the cutter is a stamp for making the character look how they're supposed to. This one is Santa Claus (These are all from the Rankin and Bass stop-motion TV special btw).

I was VERY excited when I found Yukon Cornelius in the bag... it was at this moment that I realized I had a set of Rudolph-themed cutters.

This is either adult Rudolph or Blitzen, Rudolph's father. the expression on his face makes me kind of think Blitzen... but I can pretend whatever I want.

Herbie! The dentist elf! Have you ever noticed how un-elf-like Herbie is physically as well? Is this where the inspiration for the movie Elf came from?

Santa's sleigh. Meh. I'd rather have had Sam the snowman. But oh well.

Rudolph himself! Why they made Blitzen but not Clarice I will NEVER KNOW. They didn't even need to make her her own set of legs. She could have just shared Rudolph's!

Once I figured out I had a set of Rudolph cookie cutters, I only really cared about one thing: Did I have Bumble? Turns out I did. Relief washed over me like I'd just urinated after a long car ride. It was that satisfying to find this guy in the bag. Aaahhhhhhhhhhhhh.

I'll be going right up through Christmas day itself posting more, so be sure to join me back here tomorrow for more of the 12 Days of Christmas Cassettes celebration!!! Merry Christmas and Happy Hunting!

I'll drop in my last 2 days of the 12 Days of Christmas Cassettes tomorrow.

I hope you all had as awesome a Christmas as my family and I did.

--Derek

So I completely boned that all up... But ah well. Let's finish up my 12 days of Christmas Cassettes, and then get things back to the regularly scheduled post-holiday programming. There's a lot to get caught up on. So here goes!

Day 11: Some Rather Questionable Choices

One of the rules that I set for myself when collecting cassettes from Goodwill was this: Don't buy tapes ironically. Don't buy them for the sake of telling a joke or a visual punchline. I was only going to buy stuff that I genuinely LOVE. This Christmas countdown has been a pretty big exception to this rule in some cases, and no cassettes better demonstrate this breakdown of my personal code better than these two:

I mean, LOOK at these things!!! "Christmas Rap Music" by Crew X and "A Romantic Christmas" by John Tesh? Er. Mah. Gerd.

This thing goes so far back around from "good" that it travels completely through "bad" and almost back into "good" territory again. I'm pretty sure some of this music is going to be played in actual rotation with our Christmas playlists in the years to come. Every single track on this tape is a rap version of a classic Christmas song, with a few originals included as well.

Track List (Not sure where side A ends and side B begins because this thing is still in its cellophane and I don't plan to open it any time soon)

1. The First Noel

2. Up on the Housetop

3. We Three Kings

4. Jingle Bells

5. O Little Town of Bethlehem

6. Deck the Halls

7. Joy to the World

8. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

9. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

10. Twelve Days of Christmas

11. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

12. The Christmas Rap

Even more questionable than a Christmas Rap album however is a collection of "Romantic Christmas" songs by John Tesh. Of course the question here is: how romantic can you make songs like "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" or "In a Child's Eyes" without going straight down to creepy town? Some of the songs are even accompanied by a boy's choir. This does not scream romance at my house. Disappointingly, these all seem to be instrumentals, so I guess John Tesh just wants to set a Christmas-y ambiance for sexy-time. There is no John Tesh lustily belting out double-entendre-laden lyrics for "Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella," which just seems like a wasted opportunity.

-Side A-

1. O Little Town of Bethlehem

2. Gesu Bambino

3. It Came Upon a Midnight clear

4. The First Noel

5. Panis Angelicus

6. O Holy Night

7. Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella

8. O Come All Ye Faithful

-Side B-

9. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring

10. The Coventry Carol

11. We Three Kings of Orient Are

12. Silent Night, Holy Night

13. Gloria In Excelsis Deo

14. The Homecoming

15. In a Child's Eyes

16. The Christmas Song

Day 12: A Couple of my Personal Classics

For my final day of the countdown I was going to feature two of my all-time favorite Christmas albums:

First up is "Twisted Christmas" from Bob Rivers Comedy Corp. This this has been on constant rotation for Christmas since I first heard it back in '87 or '88. My favorites are hands down "The 12 Pains of Christmas,""The Chimney Song," and "The Bathroom Door Said Gentlemen" but some other greats involve guest stints by Jack Nicholson and Elvis Presley.

-Side A-

1. The Twelve Pains of Christmas

2. The Chimney Song

3. We Wish You Weren't Living With Us

4. Wreck the Malls

5. A Visit from St. Nicholson

-Side B-

6. O Come All Ye Grateful Dead-Heads

7. I'm Dressin' Up Like Santa (When I Get Out on Parole)

8. The Restroom Door Said Gentlemen

9. Foreigners

10. Joy to the World

11. A Message From the King

And it just isn't Christmas until I've heard "The Chipmunk Song" at least once. It is a Christmas must-have as far as our playlist goes.

-Side A-

1. Here Comes Santa Claus

2. Up on the Housetop

3. Silver Bells

4. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

5. Jingle Bells

-Side B-

6. Santa Claus is Coming to Town

7. It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

8. Frosty the Snowman

9. White Christmas

10. The Chipmunk Song

So that was it! That was the end of the countdown that was supposed to end on Christmas. Instead, I was lucky to have it up before New Year's Eve. I'm sure you all count yourselves as very lucky indeed. What's that you say? More? You want more??? All right then. ONE LAST THING:

Here is an item that I have been meaning to post about for at least 2 Christmases now, and by GUM I am finally going to do it! This 7" record stars the 6 Million Dollar Man in "Elves Revolt" Here's the plot synopsis from Bionic.wikia.com:

"Steve discovers that Santa's elves are in a labor dispute with their boss. Complaining of low wages and bad working condiions, they go an strike. Their "picket line" is literally formed by a terrorist elf named Ramat, whose scheme to bring Santa to the bargaining table involves melting the polar ice cap. Getting a report from the National Weather Service that the ice cap is melting at a rate of 1°/hour, Steve and Oscar rush to the North Pole to see if there's anything they can do to reverse the process. If not, the majority the northern hemisphere will be covered in water by Christmas. However, they are soon captured by Ramat and can do little more than talk to their fellow captive, Santa Claus, about his union problems. In the end, the foreman of the elves comes to his senses and orders his men to stop Ramat. When they do so, they are able to diffuse all the heating elements Ramat had emplaced, and the two sides of the labor dispute reconcile."

So there are union picket lines, terrorism, and global warming involved in this very special Six Million Dollar Man adventure. The copyright on this record is 1978, which is the same year I was born! I was pretty psyched to find this at Goodwill for only .99 cents, and still in the cellophane no less! Apparently there is a full sized record that contains 4 Christmas-themed Six Million Dollar Man adventures, and this is just one of them... But it's enough for me. Here. Give it a listen (It is bats**t INSANE.)

All right! Now I'm officially done for 2014! I will be back in the new year at some point with a semi-regular posting schedule, and LOTS of stuff to talk about that are literally MONTHS behind schedule. So look forward to that!

I'll be back soon enough with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies! In the meantime, Happy Hunting!

So here's a post that's loooooooong overdue:

I received a package last year that was a really nice surprise. It just showed up out of the blue, with no expectations or demands attached. I'm not going to use the sender's full name here just in case, but I want to wholeheartedly thank "Ryan," who sent me this package. It has been forever since I received this stuff, and I want to make it clear that this package did not go unremarked. THANK YOU! Let's take a look at what the incredibly kind Ryan sent to me:

I owned a copy of the Black Hole novelization as a kid. For the longest time it was the only chapter book that I owned. As a kid I had a vague idea that this was some sort of horror novel, and so while I refused to give it up and get rid of it, I also refused to actually read it. I had never seen the Disney movie, and in fact still have not ever seen this Disney movie. I am aware of it's significance as some sort of Star Wars rip-off... but beyond that I have no idea. What's cool about having this book back in my possession is the childhood memories I have of holding onto this book, DARING myself to peek inside, as if some sort of horrific creature was going to pop out and snap my face off and drag it back inside. This thing makes me feel like I'm a kid again.

Anyone who has even casually browsed this blog will already know that I am a huge lover of Choose Your Own Adventure books and their many knock-off cousins. Which-Way Books are yet another of those brand-x CYOA book series that are just as fun as the originals. And when Vampires, Spies, and Alien Beings are involved... look out!

I'm not a huge fan of 101 Dalmations, to be completely honest, but I do love Happy Meal Toys, and the toy on the left side there is one of those completely bonkers vehicles where the top and bottom of the car both have a driving character that you can flip out to play with. So these are both pretty awesome.

Also in that little package was this set of vikings from the How To Train Your Dragon bucket of Dragons set. I love that they gave these guys the little-plastic-army-men treatment! To be totally honest here too, I already own a set of these, but I genuinely love these so much that I don't mind showcasing them on the blog as much as humanly possible. The letter Ryan included with these items made it very clear that I should not feel obligated to keep anything here if I chose not to. I will definitely make sure that anything here I don't end up keeping will go on to a good home that will appreciate them the way they should be appreciated.

I hate to play favorites... but I saved the absolute best item for last. This Kermit car is the bomb! This thing is from the Corgi line made back in 1979 and... I mean... KERMIT! This toy is just a classic!

Here's one final look at the great little package of stuff Ryan sent me Another grand thank-you goes out to him for sending me this package.

I'll be back soon enough with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!

I know that there are probably people out there who call bulls**t on some of the stuff they read on this blog. Like: "No one would just find a Castle Grayskull at Goodwill STUFFED FULL of action figures, for a few bucks..." But I am telling you guys, I do not fabricate any of the stuff I write on here. I don't secretly go out and buy stuff from eBay or Nerd Rage Toys or Instagram sellers and present it on here as stuff I have found in the wild. I am always 100% honest about where I find the stuff I showcase here. If I do buy something cool from eBay, I will let you know!

I preface the following post with this statement because I realize how completely unbelievable it is going to sound. I know this, and I realize that some folks may say I have "jumped the shark" here in believability. But I need you all to know that what I am about to tell you is true.

I swear this is NOT ME.

Last summer, I finished writing a series of 5 posts about a bin of neat toys I picked up for 40 bucks at a yard sale the previous September (That went down in 2013. The five parts can be found here: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5) I had kind of slacked off writing about the bin after the second installment back in September of that year, and I didn't pick it up again until the following Summer... THIS PAST summer. July 13th is when installment number 3 went up, meaning there was about a 10 month gap between the second and third installments.

And then on July 15th, something very awesome happened to me.

If you have read any of the posts I linked to about my Yard Sale Bin of Awesome above, you will know I picked it up at a yard sale just down the road from my house. There is an older woman, a nice lady from Germany who has a house just three or four houses down from my own. She was the one having the yard sale but it was her son who was selling the bin full of toys. The rest, as they say, is history.

I bought the bin, I wrote a couple of posts about it... and then I let it go for almost a year. July 13th 2014 I started wrapping that all up. And then two days after that, on July 15th 2014, I pulled into my driveway after a day at work, and was headed into my house. It was sprinkling rain very lightly, building up to a drizzle. A toy-filled truck drove past my house just as I was about to walk inside.

Not this truck. But almost as cool.

The truck stopped. "Hey!" I turned around. "You want to buy some more toys?"

It was the bin-selling son from last year! Two days after posting about the bin I had bought from him, the guy (Arthur, I found out) was driving past my house on his way to his mom's place, with toys in the back of his truck. Said he was on his way back from a show (toy show? I don't know.) when he saw me. Remembered I bought the He-Man stuff, etc. last year. Wanted to know if I wanted to buy another bin for 50 dollars. I saw something in the back of the truck that made me want to say yes almost immediately (I will not be revealing this item in this particular post... more on it later...) except I knew that my wife would divorce me if I bought another bin of toys... for that price.

I told him this. He began dropping his price like an anvil in a Roadrunner cartoon. I didn't even dicker with him. He just kept going down, until he landed at 25 dollars.

I couldn't resist. Just the stuff I could SEE was enough to convince me. The bin was also probably twice the size of the bin I got last year. (I know this all sounds like a fish story. I promise its not. I really do). I ran inside the house to get the money and pay the man. While I was gone he tossed a few more items INTO the bin.

As I mentioned earlier, it was raining, so I grabbed the bin and brought it inside as fast as I could, to prevent stickers from dissolving right off the toys that had them... and I began to catalog the contents. Unfortunately, I didn't think to photograph the bin with the toys in it, but as I said, there was a serious water issue to deal with IMMEDIATELY. Not everything in that bin was in pristine condition, but almost all of it is a part of my collection now, with a few exceptions. For this introductory post I'm just going to show you 6 of the items from this new bin, and this first batch all share the theme of robotics.

First up there was a pair of Robo Force figures in the mix. These guys are from around 1984 and have an interesting design, basically having a suction cup for a base and drier hoses for arms. They have a sort of Dalek-y vibe to them in my opinion. The guy above is named Vulgar the Destroyer. He used to have a drill bit where that hole in his face is now. He's really not in great shape at all to be honest. His sticker's messed up (in some part due to the rain damage mentioned earlier) and as mentioned, part of his face is gone... so he's seen better days.

Next up we have Maxx Steele from the same toyline. This was the Leader of the "good guy" robots. He's missing a chest piece and his right hand. So again, not in the greatest shape... but good enough for me to be honest. This line was not one I collected and played with as a kid, but I was vaguely aware of it. I definitely like having a couple of representatives in my collection.

This handsome fella comes from the Captain Power line from 1987. He is the Soaron Sky Sentry. He is actually supposed to have a pair of wings clipped onto his back and a blaster rifle. We discussed the Captain Power television show back in August on the Geek Fallout podcast episode #91: "Top 5 Shows We Watched as Kids" That was a fun conversation.

This Robeast "Scorpious" from 1984 put out as a part of the Panosh Place Voltron line is fun but also of severely questionable play-value. Since they made the decision to make this giant, Voltron-sized robot the same size as the human figures in the line, it made it hard for this Robeast to be any kind of credible threat to Voltron. He was anywhere from slightly too short to ridiculously too short depending on which version of Voltron you were playing with. But I have a soft spot in my heart for this guy mainly because of this Robot Chicken segment:

(I especially love the moment at around 1:52 when Robeast full-on twerks in Voltron's face.)

This guy appears pretty unassuming at first, being a simple rubber robot with bendy limbs and not much else going on... but wait! That's before you get to know him! This happens to be a Mighty Bend-A-Bot, produced by Marty Toy back n 1985. This guy's name might Might MIGHT be "Umda" unless different colors of robot denoted different characters (His buddies had names like "Bongg" and "Zango") . These guys were obviously cheapy-charlie knock-off toys but have enough of a history that they can still be identified. They were packaged in two packs or single packs, and came with awesomely anachronistic knights' weapons like swords and shields.

One f my absolute favorite finds in this whole bin is this guy right here. He is a Starroid Raider from Tomland toys, produced in 1977, or possibly a Space Fighter produced in 1979. Either way, this guy's name is "Koga". These things were produced as cheap knock-offs to the Star Wars action figure line, and they were probably the bane of every child who received them, back in the day. Personally, I took one look at this guy and fell in love. He's blocky and goofy looking, has no knee or elbow articulation, and has a soft rubber head that vaguely reminds me of the soft-headed first wave of TMNT action figures that would come out a decade later. His limbs have a loose, floppy almost marionette-like quality to them that makes him a challenge to get him standing upright and I'm not sure if that came with age or if it was just how they produced them.

So here is: just the first batch of toys to come out of this second bin of awesome. I wish I'd gotten to write about this thing last year before Halloween hit, because now my first impressions and immediate passions have faded and cooled a little bit... but there was still so much neat stuff in there that I can squeeze out a bunch more posts! It'll be nice revisiting all the stuff I got on that fateful day.

That's it for tonight boys and girls! I'll be back soon with Geeky Goodwill Goodies (or more likely, goodies I got in the mail or in the bin mentioned above) very soon. Until then, Happy Hunting!

So my bud Brian "The Trash Man" of Pop Pop! It's Trash Culture fame actually sent me a package awhile back, and I thought maybe I'd finally get around to blogging about it before we all died of old age. Let's dive right into its contents without further ado shall we?

First up was this Halloween wind-up of a skeleton. LOVE this guy. I actually have a bunch of wind-ups in this same style, and he fits the gang perfectly. He is now a permanent resident of the Geek cave, on my Halloween shelf.

Brian also knows I have a geeky love for Cloak & Dagger, one of the most underrated and under-appreciated power-couples of the Marvel Universe. Included in the package was this awesome tin featuring them on the front.

Hiding inside the tin however was an awesome surprise as well! I believe this was billed as a bookmark back in the day (I actually remember having one or two of these as a kid) but either way, ANY toy that represents the great Ronald McDonald is an awesome item to add to my McDonald-land Collection!

Brian knows me well, folks. Included in the package was this CYOA book for younger readers. The Bantam-Skylark books are larger and slimmer than your average paperback CYOA books. I collect them all regardless of size or intended age group, and this one goes very well with my collection.

I remember Paul Chadwick's "Concrete" being a pretty big deal as as a compelling indie comic to follow back in the 90's. I had unfortunately never actually read any of the series. As usual however, Brian is introducing me to new and awesome titles that I've never sought out on my own.

The book that kicked off my entire Creepmas celebration originated from this package of goodies as well! "The Twelve Frights of Christmas" will probably not get read during the actual Christmas season, to be honest. More than likely I'll read it in the dead of February or something... but this is a must-read for me to be sure. Any time you mix murder, mayhem, and merriment: I'm there.

One of the most interesting items in the package was this VHS case. It does NOT include a VHS copy of Dan O'Bannon's 1985 cult classic horror film, "The Return of the Living Dead" It does, on the other hand, contain SO MUCH MORE:

Turns out this is one of the Trash Man's patented VHS surprise packs!!! If you can't see everything icluded, worry not, for we will be taking a closer look below. Just FYI, Brian likes to trade and/or sell these to interested parties. You can contact him through his blog, his Instagram, and through the PPITC Facebook page, all of which I have previously linked to in this very post!

Let's start with the collector's cards. There were some awesome loose "Fright Flicks" cards from Topps included, with scenes from "Day of the Dead,""Fright Night," and "Aliens". There were some unopened packs of "Hook" and "DC Versus Marvel" collector's cards, and a couple of Topps wax packs, featuring "Dick Tracy" and (possibly one of my favorite items from this box) a "Supergirl" wax pack!!!

Next we have some pogs and mini-stickers. Mr. Teeny! Tiny Toons! TMNT! Gideon, enemy of X-Force and immortal mutant External (except he's dead)!

There was a strong showing of "little plastic guys" too. a Marvel Handful of Heroes Green Goblin, one of those little rubber finger-puppet monsters THAT I LOVE, An Arco Ro-Gun Robot in red, and a little plastic orange dinosaur!!! Nowadays all four of these guys reside on my color coded ROYGBIV, dedicated-to-the-toys-at-the-bottom-of-the-toy-box curio shelf.

Can you find them all?

But that's not it for mini-figure madness in that VHS case!

I think by far these are two of my absolute favorite items in the entire package from Brian however. We have a Mez-Itz version of the Demon to pal around with my Batman Brave and the Bold Action League version of the Demon... and a Battle Beasts Pew Trid Skunk. I love that the guy wears a gas mask to protect himself from his own stank. Battle Beasts are a big favorite of mine. Big. HUGE.

Finally, as previously mentioned, Brian knows I'm a sucker for Cloak & Dagger, so an issue of that comic book should come as no surprise. But THIS issue there's ALSO an INFERNO rossover that features the New Mutants!!! So TRIPLE whammy. And he knows that I consider the Australian Outback era of the X-Men to be MY X-Men, so this issue featuring Longshot losing his S**T while Colossus, Havok, Storm, pre-Asian Psylocke, Rogue, and Wolvie all just chalk it up to "crazy ol' Longshot!" is a real treat. I've never read this one, and I don't already have it in my collection. Comic book GOLD folks (for me at least. Your mileage may vary).

There was also a Super Grover figure in the mix, but for some reason I Can't fathom, I either forgot to photograph him or I've deleted the photo or something. but he's here in this photo, arms raised in a 'V' (and the dead lay in pools of maroon below...) with all the other loot.

CAN NOT THANK BRIAN ENOUGH FOR THIS GREAT PACKAGE. Really very kind and generous of him as usual. He always shows a real thoughtful streak when sending stuff to folks I've noticed. He pays attention and takes note of what people really are about. Thanks again Brian!

That's it for tonight guys! I'll be back soonish or laterish with another post about Geeky Goodwill Goodies (or more stuff I got in the mail from friends, or more stuff from the new bin of AWESOME... we'll see) so until then... Happy Hunting!

Hey there everybody! For a change, I'm going to actually talk about something I didn't buy while out thrifting, but instead something I picked up on eBay. Normally I stay away from eBay talk on here, but I just love this topic sooo much I couldn't resist.

ROCK LORDS!!!

When I was a kid I collected a ridiculous number of toylines, from Star Wars, to Masters of the Universe, to Thundercats to Real Ghostbusters, to G.I. Joe, to TMNT. I was never huge fan of Transformers toys although I did love the cartoon. I ended up with a few GoBots in my toy box because they were the cheaper alternative and (in my memory at least) easier to figure out.

An offshoot of the GoBots were the Rock Lords, which were not transforming robots (with a couple of exceptions) but instead transforming creatures made of living rock. And yes, when they transformed, they turned into the rocks pictured above. They did indeed transform into (ridiculously unconvincing) rocks. This makes them one of the saddest punchlines of all 80's toy jokes because in all actuality, the Rock Lords were incredibly cool action figures that would have made more sense if they simply didn't transform at all... but in fact the transforming action just adds to their charm.

The factions of Rock Lords don't have fancy "Autobot and Decepticon" style names, so they're just good or bad. The leader of the "good guy" Rock Lords is Boulder. Boulder here is one of my all-time favorite toys period. He is one of those toys that I managed to hang onto through various cleaning purges, and as a result he managed to team up with everyone from all of my various other toy-lines over the years. He is also one of the few Rock Lords that actually resembles a rock when in rock form. One of the things I love about this line however weird it may seem is how the transformation mechanics really forced the designers to find a balance between the seeming natural elements of the rocky outer shells and the living elements inside, while still being a functional action figure. In some cases, like Boulder, this was a perfect, successful balance. In others however...

... like Magmar here, the conversion is less successful. Magmar is the leader of the evil faction of Rock Lords. He is supposed to be a bad-ass, but unfortunately his articulation is ridiculously limited due to his design. His arms move up and down but his pointless elbows don't really do much to enhance his arms posing, and his legs actually bend backwards, like a crane's. What I do genuinely love about Magmar's design are the color highlights and the mohawk. The yellow on his chest and shoulders here actually reads a much darker orange color in person (think my flash bleached it out a bit) and the green accents are pretty badass. I didn't own Magmar as a kid, and so my evil Rock Lords were led by Stoneheart (who I do not currently own, and who is therefore not in this blog post).

This weird looking fellow is Crack-Pot. As a kid I thought he was kind of creepy, and I think I ended up treating him as a villain. He is, in fact, actually a heroic Rock Lord. He was the only other Rock Lord from my collection to survive the great toy purges alongside Boulder.

This fantastic fellow is Brimstone. He was one of my absolute favorite villains from the line as a kid. He has the peculiar distinction of still having his eyes visible when he transforms into a rock (you can't see them in the picture at the top of the post because I have him flipped over on his face) and due to his hunched appearance and color he reminds me of a crab. This was always the "crazy guy" of the bunch, all hissing and screeching while he fights.

This rugged guy is Granite, and was given to me by Brian of Pop Pop! It's Trash Culture fame. Granite was always Boulder's second in command in my mind, and a loyal friend. Nuggit (the little gold robot I also haven't tracked down yet) always played the part of the sidekick, so I wouldn't call Granite that. He's more Boulder's Samwise than his Woozy Winks. He does however remind me these days of the Sontarans from Doctor Who.

Actually most of the Rock Lords look like a combination of Doctor Who creatures cross pollinated with Gwar band members, so that's not surprising.

This last figure I currently own is Styx 'n Stones. Following the "my army of evil henchmen must include a two-headed monster" trope, here we have the double-trouble threat of Styx n' Stones. I LOVED Styx n' Stones as a kid. Two-headed villains were freaky and fun! You can see there's some color coding going on to help you differentiate between the two. Styx, on the left has pink coloring, while stones on the right gets red. This extends from their eyes and mouths right on down to their... toenail polish.

And here they all are as a group, good vs. evil, all in a group. I remember obsessively transforming these guys back and forth between their warrior and rock modes. It's too bad the line wasn't more popular because I found these to be genuinely cool to collect and play with as a kid. In addition to the ones pictured in this post, I also owned the aforementioned Nuggit and Stoneheart, as well as Marbles, Slime-Stone, and Pulver-Eyes I will probably not bother to track down ALL of the Rock Lords, but I might try checking some or all of these guys off my list one or two at a time. For now though, I'm pretty happy with the six-pack I currently possess.

What about you? Do you remember Rock Lords? Or do you have some other weird toy line rom the misty memories of your childhood that you feel like didn't get the love it should have?

Well that's it for today kiddos! I'll be back soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies (or something else) soon enough, so until then, Happy Hunting!

So here we are, rummaging once more in a bin of awesome stuff that I picked up this past summer. It is of course a sequel of sorts to the bin of awesome I picked up the summer before that. What does the future summer hold in store for me? Only time will tell.

But for now, let us be content to simply explore THIS bin. Right NOW.

Buckle up buttercup because this layer of the bin is going to be very Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-heavy. Now, the LAST bin that I bought from the same guy the year previous also included some TMNT figures, and specifically a Muckman figure... so I assume the guy who sold me this bin is some sort of wheeler-and-dealer when it comes to toys.

This gives me an extra Muckman to pass on to a friend, which is completely Hunky-dorey. The pair of Genghis Frogs is fine too for the same reason. I kept the one with the belt (none of these guys were exactly rich in accessories... or retained all of their body-parts as you will soon see) for my shelf, and set the other one aside for a rainy-day.

Dirtbag here just happened to be one of my favorite figures as a kid. I have no idea why. He's not really anything to get excited about (and this one is missing his tail, which you can't see) but he was always one of the heavies when I played action figures as a kid. Maybe because he's not quite as silly looking as some of the other figures? Dunno. Next we have Scumbug, a fan favorite that I never had as a kid. You can see though why everyone likes him... he's GNARLY. Mine is unfortunately missing all of his gear, which renders him a bit useless in a fight. And I also ended up with an extra Usagi Yojimbo, which again is fine by me.

Here we have Wyrm, Tattoo, Wingnut, and Leatherhead. Possibly some of the most tragic figures in the bunch, seeing as almost all of them (not including Tattoo) are missing body parts. Wyrm's left hand, Wingnut's wings (But hopefully not his nuts), and Leatherhead's leathery head are all M.I.A. (Luckily I have a completed Leatherhead in my collection already). Wyrm is another one of those bizarre fan favorites that I never owned as a kid. As far as I know he never made an appearance in the cartoon, but he did show up in the comic book. Tattoo showed up in the cartoon, but bizarrely as a mutated hamster, which is the worst shoe-horning of an action figure into a cartoon that I have ever heard of. Tattoo in the Archie comics was just a sumo wrestler who seeks the turtles' help in rescuing his dog. And Wingnut? He's awesome but I hate the fact that he's missing his wings.

My three favorite TMNT action figure finds in the bunch had to be these three dudes here though. King Lionheart is from the later sets near the end of the line, and Ground Chuck was another of my absolute favorite TMNT action figures as a kid. I got him and Dirtbag around the same time. This kangaroo is Walkabout, and is the first one of his kind I had in my collection. I was later gifted one in better condition, including his sidekick mini-figure... but that is a story for another day.

So a total of 13 TMNT action figures were included in the bin, in various states of dismemberment and disarray. This added 9 new figures to my collection, and gave me a pile of figures that I could pass on to others. But that isn't the end of the Turtle-y goodness by any means!

The TMNT Pizza Thrower was included in the bin as well! This was another one that I had never owned as a kid, but I was more than happy to add it to my shelves now! It even had three of its pizzas included in the mix.

Included were some random loose parts as well. The eyeballs there belong to the Foot Cruiser, which I almost started hyperventilating at the prospect of finding in that bin... only to be disappointed when I didn't find it. That thing is AMAZING. The plunger gun I actually (in a bizarre coincidence) already had a random handful of pieces to already. It was this orange gun piece that was included in the awesome bin though.

I already own the sewer playset, so this one is extra for me. I never owned this playset as a kid, but now as an adult I have two (this one already has a designated home, I just need to get it there...)!!!

By far though THIS guy was one of the most exciting finds in the ENTIRE BIN. While Killer Bee is yes, technically an action figure, I think of him more as a vehicle. He's missing his grapnel gun and his chainsaw, but other than that he's mostly complete, which was VERY exciting to me.

This was one of those toys that I desperately wanted as a kid, but just never got. The colors, the expression on his face... the whole package to this guy is awesome. Seeing him in that bin in the back of that truck was just one of the factors that convinced me to pick up that bin.

So between the robots in the last post, and the TMNT figures in this one, we've now covered the first two thirds of the contents of the bin. There are a handful of items that I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to waste any time on, since they're not very exciting. But there's one more entry to go where I'll be sharing the last of the stuff I was really excited about at the very least. So stay tuned for that!

I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies soon enough... so until then, Happy Hunting!

So I'm horribly overdue on a few things, including the contents of this post... which is a package I received from a fellow named Devin Cönnörs. Devin is a fellow geeky-thrift enthusiast who approached me online with the offer to swap packages. So we did just that!

This of course took place right before the Holiday blitz last year, and I've had some trouble getting my butt in gear to report on everything that I'd been meaning to (I still have stuff from as far back as last FATHER'S DAY you guys...) so instead of me continuing to make lame excuses for the rest of this post let us just delve into the stuff he sent me, shall we?

First up are these cassette tape soundtracks for The Karate Kid Part II and Beverly Hills Cop II. These are just awesome. As I mentioned more than once during my Halloween countdown last year, I have become mildly obsessed with collecting old cassette tapes. Soundtracks, novelty albums, and stuff I listened to back in highschool mostly.

One of the most amazing items included was this 45 record of Cyndi Lauper's "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough. I am a Goonies FREAK and a Cyndi Lauper fan from way back, so this thing made me show my true colors and do the truffle shuffle.

Here's a shot of the back, which includes the classic movie poster artwork, and a b-side recording of "What a Thrill".

This grinning guy is Brick BAzooka from 1998's "Small Soldiers". I was working as a Toy Department manager for Wal-Mart back when this movie was released, so I remember the HUGE toy blitz it was represented by. This one takes me waaaay back.

His name ain't "Bazooka" for nothing. Although I never understood how THIS was less freaky than anything the Gorgonites were capable of. I mean, the soldiers were after the monsters because they were freaks right? So how is this normal exactly?

One of my other absolute favorite items in the box was this stuffed chibi Chewbacca. He now resides in a place of pride on my Star Wars shelf.

Aso included were these awesome buttons and magnets. The Monster House button is lenticular, showing the house attacking the main characters. Then there's the fantastic Freddy Krueger button and the two awesome 8bit Zombie pins (the clawed Power Glove and pixellated zombie) ALL of which ended up on the interior ceiling of my car. The magnets are all made by Devin himself, using bottle caps, art clippings, and adhesive magnets. I think my absolute favorite one is Church from Pet Semetary, and the one that had me most confused was the Freddy from an advertisement for pencil grippers.... and then there's f**ing ROBO-COP.

In the toy department we have Lisa Simpson, Goofy, Luigi in a Mario Kart racer, and a Jack 'o Lantern. I love the Lisa figure, as its from the very first set of Simpsons Burger King kids' meal toys, released back in 1989 here in the US and 1990 in Australia. I already own the Marge Simpson from the same set, so now I just need Homer, Bart, and Maggie!

I have no idea what the toy on the left goes to. I know it has something to do with the Mandalorians (it has one of their symbols) from Star Wars, and I suspect due to the color scheme, it has specifically to do with Boba Fett... but I can't figure it out. I assumed at first it went to the Boba Fett Transformer, but I can't find an image of this piece included in that toy anywhere. Even better, IMO, is this wax pack of "Baby" trading cards!!!

Finally, we have these two Muppets Christmas ornaments, that were in fact included on our Christmas tree this past year! Kermie and Piggy are very welcome additions to our tree for sure!

I can't thank Devin enough for the awesome items he included in this package! He obviously put a lot of thought into his selections, and I hope he enjoyed the stuff I sent off to him half as much. Be sure to visit his tumblr which he plans to start using to talk about items he's found.

I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies... so until then, Happy Hunting!

So we're finally hitting the bottom of the Newest Bin of Awesome Stuff to have entered my life this past summer. This last post in the series of three (find part One here and part Two here) will be a sort of random mish-mash that makes up the final pile of stuff. There's a lot of junk in this post, but there are some legitimate awesome finds as well.

I will also finally reveal the toy that caused me to desperately WANT this bin upon seeing it, and finally deciding that paying 25 dollars for the whole lot was a deal I would be CRAZY to pass up... but more on that later.

I know that one of the toys that took me crashing back into my childhood the HARDEST was Dinah here. She is a "Tinosaur" from a 1986 McDonald's Happy Meal. I owned 4 or 5 of the 8 available Tinosaurs back in the day. They were a strange collection of non-licensed PVC characters that were dinosaurs, bizarre looking creatures, and a couple of primitive looking humanoids. Dinah was one of my very favorites, though I got a LOT of flack from other kids for loving her so much. She was generally regarded as either a girls' toy, a babies' toy, or both by my peers. But now I'm a grown-@$$ adult and I can own whatever toys I want. So nyah.

This guy is named Maggot and he is from the Little Dracula action figure line, based on the cartoon of the same name. I have no idea what his background is... maybe a flasher who has a hard time getting his coat open because he has suction cups for hands? If you're into that sort of thing I guess. He's a fun little guy, but he eventually made his way on to another home.

Also included were these Aliens toys from the mid-90's. The one on the left is the "gorilla alien" and the one on the right is the "Scorpion alien" who unfortunately did not come to me complete. (he explodes when hit and some of his pieces are missing). These also had a new home destined for them as I am not a huge Aliens toys collector.

Next there were these Supernaturals action figures, produced by Tonka back in 1987. I never owned any of these as a kid because quite frankly they scared the pee out of me back then. The tall fellow on the left is a guy named Snakebite, and the shorter guy on the right is Weird Wolf. Snakebite has none of his accesories, including his headpiece, which resembles a cobra's hood, his chest piece, and his weapon. Weird Wolf, being a Ghostling pretty much came as you see him. (I found the holograms to be exceedingly difficult to photograph, so what you see is what you get... sorry).

To round out the action figure collection coming out of the bin, there were these guys from the Bucky O'Hare series. First up we have Bucky himself, and then Bruiser the Berzerker Baboon. I never owned any of the Bucky O'Hare action figures as a kid either, but they looked amazing, and seemed like they would fit in with the TMNT line perfectly. I haven't exactly become OBSESSED with this line, like I have with some others... but I definitely appreciate them and think I will be tracking more of them down in the future.

So here's the whole gang. These were the last of the action figures that I found in the bin.

But that certainly wasn't the end of the fun!!! These two Swamp Thing vehicles from 1990 were produced support the cartoon show. (None of the action figures in these pictures came from this bin... in fact, Swamp-Thing came from Goodwill and Anton Arcane came from an antique mall near here)

I didn't own the March Buggy (left) or the Bayou Blaster (right) as a kid, but I did have a couple of the Swamp-Thing action figures!

Now for a bit of weird, and in some cases almost heart-breaking stuff. This Real Ghostbusters lunchbox was a huge disappointment considering the damage to the sticker on the front. If it just didn't have that cut going right down through Winston's face, I would have actually been pretty happy even if it was a little water-warped. Sigh.

There was this ancient toy cash register and this old erector set in the bin as well. Nothing I was all that excited by, to be honest.

The accessories in the pile on the left here are all from the Sectaurs HYVE Playset. When I realized what they were I lamented like a grieving widow that the rest of the set was not including in the bin as well. I don't recognize the RC car from 1985 on the right, and I'm too lazy to spend ALL that time googling it to find out what it is... so feel free to go at it internet!

There was also this collector's case full of rusty old cars as well. Some of them are pretty neat... but most of them are just kid of junky. The items that caught my eye the most were these:

Hip-Hop Big Bird, Grover flying a rocket ship, and a Micro Machine car with monster truck wheels. After some Googling (I wasn't as lazy this time) I discovered it is a Micro Machines Chevrolet 65 Corvette 4×4 Monster Truck. There you go.

All right! GIRD yourselves. For beyond this point you will witness the two items that MADE me buy this bin in the first place. These were the nails in the coffin. The straws that bro the camel's back. These were the selling points for me.

First up we have Talking Robie from Radio Shack. Back when I was a kid, I owned a Robie Jr. and I LOVED that thing! I actually dented the bubble over his head but it did not deter my love for him in any way, shape, or form. This is not the same robot of course, but it is a direct relative, and all of these robots had a kind of uniform style and appearance that makes them lovable in the same way. This guy is proudly displayed on my shelf as a testament to childhood and all the over-hyped toys that didn't work that great but still made it magical.

And finally, this motherf**ker. Metlar of the Inhumanoids!!! I always DESPERATELY wanted to own Metlar as a kid, but for some reason I never got him. Castle Grayskull, yes. Ewok tree village, yes. Metlar... hell no. But I own him NOW!!! Metlar was a giant lava-spewing BASTARD who would flatten you as much as look at you. I remember being TERRIFIED of the inhumanoids, but watching it anyway. I mostly watched it paired up with Jem and the Holograms, and some other cartoon shorts-episodes. Fest your eyes ladies and gentlemen:

Now, full disclosure: Metlar's head is broken completely off. I have to just rest it on his shoulders and set him up for display. He is no long fit for play... but I don't care!!! I am so psyched to own this piece of 80's childhood HISTORY!!!!

So that's it folks! That's the entire contents of the Bin of Awesome. Hope you liked falling down this rabbit hole with me!

That's it for tonight kids! But I'll be back with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies soon enough! So until then, Happy Hunting!

Today's post is yet another horribly overdue post where I've waited MUCH too long to thank someone for sending me an AMAZING package of goodies. Today I'd like to focus on one of the absolute nicest guys you'll meet on the internet: A fellow who goes by the name of John Gaither. John also runs the Robot Monster Space Super Hero blog, where he features the AMAZING assortment of toys in his vast collection.

I'll blather on and sing John's praises later on in this post, but for now I want to give you all a look-see at what he sent me!

Here we have a carded "Willy Du Witt" of the Bucky O'Hare toy line. I almost ALMOST popped this little guy out of his prison to play with, but I Still haven't quite done it yet. Usually I am a "I put the PLAY in DISPLAY" kind of collector, and I always open everything... but Willy here is still stuck to his card and I can't bring myself to change that just yet. The packaging here is almost as great as the action figure itself!

Here's a look at the back of the card too.

John also included a couple of the villains from the line, the first of which is this squat, ugly little guy, Toad Air Marshall. He looks like he'd like to be chomping on a stogie right now.

And then this "Toad-Borg" is a menacing son-of-a-mother ain't he?

This fella's not a Bucky O'Hare figure, but a "Walkabout" action figure from the TMNT line. He even has his little sidekick buddy, "Kid Kanga!" This Walkabout is in MUCH better shape than the one I had found in the Bin of Awesome I bought this same summer, and he comes with his buddy, so I swapped him out for the one I already had.

These guys were some of the only GUTS figures I owned as a kid, so it was trippy seeing them again! I had all but forgotten this toy line! I had some of the ninjas too.

What HAS to be the piece de resistance however is this guy right here!!! This is No-Zone of the Toxic Crusaders! He was an absolute favorite action figure of mine in the final years of my action figure phase as a kid. All the Toxic Crusader figures were amazing actually, but No-Zone was by far one of my favorites. THIS item right here folks... this is the one that made me let out a laugh of surprise and delight! The whole package was great, but this guy made me feel 12 years old again.

So that wraps it up folks! I can't thank the awesome John Gaither enough for thinking of me and sending this great package of goodies! I have to say that John is probably one of the nicest and supportive guys I've met online while writing this blog. He is one of the best examples of how great our community of geeks and nerds and toy collectors and pop culture enthusiasts can be. He always has a kind word to say about whatever anyone has to share, and he is jut the BIGGEST kid when it comes to being excited about toys. Be sure to check out his blog, and follow him on Instagram as well!

That's it for tonight kids! I'll be back soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies (they will ACTUALLY be from Goodwill next time!) so until then... Happy Hunting!

So I'm still playing A LOT of catch-up here at Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks. The stuff I'm sharing today was actually found last October. The book Old Devil Wind got a place in the countdown, but the rest of this post is very light on the Halloween fare, so it didn't make it under the wire.

First up we have a couple of nice little Halloween books to add to the seasonal bookshelf. "Spooky Hayride" by Brian James and Bryan Langdo, and "Old Devil Wind" by Bill Martin and Robert J. Lee. These are both great little books, quick reads, and good for young listeners.

"The Practical Guide to Dragons" is set in the AD&D Dragonlance world of Krynn, and is authored by a kender named Sindri Suncatcher, a character in the "Dragonlance: The New Adventures" from Mirrorstone Books. In reality, the author is Lisa Trumbauer. I've only thumbed through the book so far, but it looks like a lot of fun.

This particular visit to Goodwill yielded some soundtracks on cassette! Here we have the 60's themed soundtracks to both Platoon and 1969. Love me some 60's rock and R&B so these are both big wins for me. Platoon has a BUNCH of Motown classics alone. So good.

I've never seen "The Commitments" but I heard it was an amazing movie with an amazing original soundtrack. Cocktail I bought JUST for "Kokomo".

Two of my favorite bands in highschool were U2 and INXS. To clarify, INXS was one of my friend's favorite bands, and sine he was constantly listening to them, INXS became part of my highschool soundtrack by default. But I do genuinely like their music. U2 has always just been a favorite.

"One Headlight" has long been one of my favorite songs from the 90's because of this part:

"Well this place is old
It feels just like a beat up truck
I turn the engine, but the engine doesn't turn
Well it smells of cheap wine and cigarettes
This place is always such a mess
Sometimes I think I'd like to watch it burn
I'm so alone and I feel just like somebody else
Man, I ain't changed, but I know I ain't the same
But somewhere here in between the city walls of dyin' dreams
I think of death, it must be killin' me"

Except back then I always thought he was singing "It smells of cheap Hawaiian cigarettes" which I actually still think sounds much cooler than the actual lyric. Checking out KissThisGuy.Com I see that I was not alone in my assumption.

I want to be this kid. So. Bad.

I am actually insanely excited to read the stories about Inspector Mantis by William Kotzwinkle and "profusely illustrated" by Joe Servello. I forgot I even owned this book until I started this blog post. I will be tracking this down very soon.

And finally, a Little Golden Book, "The Friendly Book" by the classic team of Margaret Wise Brown and Garth Williams. I love the sustained eye-contact going on between the little girl and the rabbit in the foreground. They're really intense.

So there you have it folks! Some stuff I found at Goodwill last October! I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies... so until then, Happy Hunting!

So since I am still playing catch up with my back-log from last year's posts. I thought this might be the perfect opportunity to write about this terribly over-due post about a a package sent to me by none other than Miss M of "Diary of a Dorkette" fame, and my awesome co-host over at Geek Fallout!

This was a semi-sort-of-Halloween themed package that unfortunately arrived the day after Halloween. So it didn't make it into that countdown, and it got buried under my November break, and the December countdowns for Creepmas and Christmas. But there was a hand-made card by Miss M, which I adore!

Also included were some Halloween-y accessories and decor. This awesome Trick-or-Treat sack, and ghostly bandana for example!

I handed this item off to my daughter who hung it up in her bedroom. Dig that black cat!

Some random books and other fun items included: A Wizard of Oz LGB, a Jetsons Activity PAd, and a dart and target for Boom Co.

This Mario Bros. Wii U Happy Meal set I let my boys play with, as they are both Wii U obsessed, and love them some Mario Brothers. You fire the colored koopa troopa shells out of the Wii U Remote and into the target!

Blind-bgged mini-figures! I got Scooby Doo's Frankenstein's Monster and Cylindria from Pac-Man's ghostly adventures! I think my favorite guy is the blue ghost!

Slinky dog! This is a Burger King Kids' Club meal toy put out in 1996. I honestly can't believe that Toy Story was put out in 1995... making it a 20 year old film now. 20 YEARS.

Also included were these Mortal Kombat action figures! Rayden, Sub-Zero, Smoke, Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade, and Liu Kang! All my favorites!

Then we have the Street Fighter action figures Ken, Chun-Li, M Bison, Guile, and Sagat (With a Cobra Alley Viper from 1992 on the far right).

From the old Toy Biz X-Men line, we have GIDEON!!!! armored Wolverine, and Sauron (I found a Sauron at Goodwill already, but his limbs don't move because he was a part of some display piece thing that he was glued into once upon a time. It's nice to now have a poseable one). I think I was the most excited to have Gideon since he was one of my favorite villains back in the 90's.

One of the coolest items to appear in this package from Miss M was the Toybiz Magneto vehicle, "The Magnetron". Simultaneously goofy and cool in equal measures I want you to now stop for a moment and let it sink in that Toybiz made a CAR for MAGNETO. Not only that... but a CAR with GIANT U-SHAPED MAGNETS ON IT. This thing is a work of art. A true masterpiece.

But the items that literally stole my breath away? These fellas. From the Kenner-produced 80's toy line "Superpowers" featuring the heroes and villains of the DCU... Aquaman, Lex Luthor, and (Hal Jordan) Green Lantern!!! I never owned any of these as a kid... but honestly if I could have picked out ANY three characters to track down and own now, it would probably be these three (Although Firestorm and Brainiac would round out my top 5). I always LOVED Lex Luthor in his watermelon color-schemed battle suits. Aquaman? Yes. Just yes. And I want to see Funko put together an entire set of Chromatic Lanterns in their ReAction line. Because I and obsessed with the ROYGBIV Lanterns. So any version of Hal is welcome on my shelves.

That's it for tonight kids! My thanks to the always generous and gracious Miss M for her donations to the Geek Cave! Be sure to check out her blog Diary of a Dorkette, and to listen to her on the Geek Fallout Podast! I'll be back soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies... so until then, Happy Hunting!

This used to be a blog where I occasionally just talk about stuff too. For awhile I felt like I had to do that in a whole separate blog, and I even stopped writing this one for awhile because of how I felt I "had" to produce content for Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks.

BUT.

I would like this to get back to being a place where I talk about more than just the stuff I bought this week, or stuff someone sent me in the mail. I want to put more of the "Geek" back in "Goodwill Geek" and with that in mind... I've found an interesting topic that is arguably blog related (because it is) but also just stuff I like that I want to talk about. And that topic is this:

Image courtesy of Joie Fatale

"What would your blog sound like if it was a Mix Tape?

Five songs on side A, and Five on B."

So back in May of last year, Steph over at Nerdjoy posted something awesome (she does this a LOT actually, so be sure to check out the rest of her blog too... but this particular instance informs the post you are about to read, so I'm singling that one out). She answered the question above. It was a question originally posited by Joie Fatale over at the Confessions of a Book Pimp blog, but it was through Steph that I discovered the idea.

Mixtapes were a HUGE deal for me back in highschool. I made them for ALL of my friend. I would make myself twenty or so just to listen to in the car, and I would carefully select tracks based on the kind of mood I was trying to achieve. I put a ton of thought into them, and I would often use collectible art cards as "cover art" for my mix tapes, taping them to the front of the liner notes, inside the case.

Might be why THIS resonated so strongly with me...

So making a mixtape that would represent my blog seemed like an awesome challenge that I wanted to try. So I sat down and thought about it. One really obvious song popped into my mind immediately. The rest I really had to go looking for. I discovered one of my new favorite songs by searching for songs for this mixtape. I want to clarify of course that this mixtape is supposed to represent the mood, philosophy, aesthetic, etc. of the Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks blog. IT is meant to represent my musical tastes filtered through this blog. If I were making a mixtape for a friend with all my favorite music on it... I might go with a completely different 10 songs for instance. Just wanted to throw that out there.

Below I have listed the songs, posted a video to accompany each one, and given a few brief reasons for why each was selected. I hope you don't hate them.

- Side A -

1. "Thrift Shop" - Macklemore and Ryan Lewis

This one was the one... I mean ONE no-brainer for this list. I have sort of adopted this song as a theme for my blog anyway. Making thrift-shopping cool in a song? Yes please.

2. "Raspberry Beret" - Prince

They're not aloud to have this song on Youtube
so I found this picture that I think may have inspired Price to write the song.

Now, I went with SEVERAL different Prince songs before settling on this one. I almost went with "Starfish and Coffee" just because its so fun and upbeat. But ultimately I settled on Beret because its one of my favorites in high school. I named a vampire character from Vampire: The Masquerade "Raspberry Beret". But ultimately (eye roll) it was the mention of a second-hand store in the lyrics that made me slap my forehead and add this one.

3."Birdhouse In Your Soul" - They Might Be Giants

Again, this is another band that had too many songs to count that I wanted to include. I could almost make an entire mixtape out of only TMBG songs to represent this blog... but I didn't want that. I VERY NEARLY went with "Seven Days of the Week (I Never Go To Work)" (and also the Mesopotamians, I'm Impressed, Dr. Worm, Man It's So Loud In Here, and ROY G. BIV) but I just love Birdhouse house so much more. It's been my favorite for longer and has such an upbeat message that I HAD to include it. Ignore the intentionally confusing video and focus on the lyrics.

4. "Everything is Awesome" - Tegan and Sara

Because the LEGO movie was amazing, and this song is incredibly fun and everything IS awesome. That's why.

5. "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" - Annie Lennox and Al Green

So this one I picked because I wanted someting that made me think of the holidays without being an overt Christmas song. This one comes from Scrooged and as 80's supernatural comedies starring Bill Murray go, this one's a winner. I'm justifying not having anything Halloween-y on here (Like say... "Ghostbusters") because of this song from one of my favorite Creepmas classics.

As the uplifting swell you got from "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" starts to die down you hear the tape-player click as it automatically switches directions and begins to play...

- Side B -

6. "Lonely Little Thrift Store" - Jonathan Richman

I am literally only aware of this song due to this blog post. I was curious to see if there were any other songs about thrift shopping, or antique stores, or secondhand stores out there that were also in ANY way worth listening to. And I stumbled upon this song about a lonely little thrift store. As tasteless as it is, I can't help but count "Well the avocado green appliances/with the smell of domestic violences/and the dusty Farberware/and the rust dinette chair..." as one of my favorite and most surprising lyrics ever written. Awful... I know. But you have a pretty distinct image in your head now, don't you?

7. "Hooked on a Feeling" - Blue Swede

Yes I am obsessed with Guardians of the Galaxy. But there's more to it than that. This song also says "Reservoir Dogs" to me, and that memory is ore deeply ingrained than my fondness for Chris Elliot being brutalized in an alien prison. The Reservoir Dogs ST was one of my MAIN draws for mixtape fodder in highschool. Soundtracks almost always were. (Great Expectations, The Crow, Pulp Fiction, Batman Forever, the list goes on and on for weird soundtracks with hidden gems amongst the track lists). Aaaaand... it's in the Guardians of the Galaxy (But damn if there wasn't a bit of aural inspiration in GotG from Tarentino's playlists).

8. "Frank Sinatra" - Cake

Cake is one of those weird bands that I played to DEATH. There's just not enough trumpet rock out there IMO. I had a hard time picking a song by them too... but finally settled on one that always evoked hauntingly clear pictures:

"We know of an ancient radiation

That haunts dismembered constellations,

A faintly glimmering radio station.

While Frank Sinatra sings Stormy Weather,

The flies and spiders get along together,

Cobwebs fall on an old skipping record.

Beyond the suns that guard this roof,

Beyond your flowers of flaming truths,

Beyond your latest ad campaigns,

An old man sits collecting stamps

In a room all filled with Chinese lamps.

He saves what others throw away.

He says that he'll be rich some day."

Sounds like someone I'm growing old into.

9. "On My Way" - Rusted Root

I desperately wanted to find a video clip of this song being played in the movie "Ice Age". I really liked this song back when it originally came out. It's a feel-good song. But it perfectly illustrates one of the things I loved the most about the very first Ice Age film: It was quirky and unexpected and ultimately it made you feel good without being too manic. This song appearing in a kid's movie exactly a DECADE after it was released as a popular song was bizarre and unexpected... but it fit the movie perfectly. I love this song for its carefree feeling but I kind of hate this video because it makes the band look like a bunch of douchey idiots dancing on rocks and hopping around like they're being spontaneous when they're really just not.

10. "The Rainbow Connection" - The Muppets (2011)

And I'm going to end the mixtape on the Muppets. I love this version of the song because of the way it builds and includes so many members of the cast. I almost went with "It's Not Easy Being Green" but I wanted something with a little more oomph, a little more pizzazz, a little more excitement to the lyrics. "Rainbow Connection" while still feeling a little wistful, is definitely the more upbeat of the two numbers.

So that's it! I thought this was a fantastic idea, and so I chose to grab it and run with it. I hope if you're a blogger, and you're reading this, that you'll do the same! I'll be back with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies another time... so until then Happy Hunting!

Hey everybody! time for yet another incredibly overdue thank you to someone who sent me something fantastic in the mail! This time around it's from Brian Lapsley of Awake Oh Sleeper fame. He is a blogger, podcaster, and artist extraordinaire. AND he is an incredibly generous soul who has gifted me with far more than he should have up to this point.

I have some serious catching up to do.

But for now, let's see what Brian sent me in the last parcel of goodies (and one more at the item that he sent me separately because he knew how thrilled I would be to own it...) shall we?

This package was heavy with BOOKS! And not just any books... these are all adaptations of movies! OR... books that have been adapted into movies. Either way. Movies or... TV shows as you can see from the book above. This is a Star Trek novel "Yesterday's Son". Spock discovers his own son-- living 5000 years in the past! And I thought my family had problems! HAH!

Ahem. Moving on.

Next we have perennial favorite, "Jurassic Park" by Michael Crichton. This is a case of book first movie second. But I've never read this, and I'm quite looking forward to it.

Now, "Four Past Midnight" I have read before. It's an interesting case. "Secret Window, Secret Garden" is the story adapted into a film here, "Secret Window" (and another story from this book was also adapted into a TV mini-series "The Langoliers" but the less said about THAT the better...). I have always thought that Secret Window was a weird one to choose to adapt as it was arguably one of the weaker stories in the collection in my opinion. Now "The Library Policeman"? That one was FANTASTIC and it doesn't seem like it would have been that hard to make into a movie at all. Where is my Library Policeman film you guys???

The novelization of Tim Burton's Batman film is always a favorite. I already own a copy of this one, but it is beat. So this much nicer copy is a welcome replacement. I read this as a kid because I bought and ingested anything and everything to do with Batman around this film. And I thought my family had problems! HAH!

Wait... Uhhh... moving on.

I... there are no words. This movie hurt me DEEPLY. And now I own a novelization of it. So... I'm going to read it at some point and see if the book improves on any of the stuff I didn't like about the movie (Actually, I feel like I need to go back and watch the movie again at some point... just to see if I've softened on it at all.)

And finally, THIS GUY was sent to me at a different point in time. This was ridiculously generous of Brian to give me as this is the Loot-Crate exclusive Groot Funko Pop! with a glow-in-the-dark hand and that beautiful mossy detail paint. This thing is genuinely a prized possession of mine now, and I can't thank Brian enough for him. I am OBSESSED with the Guardians of the Galaxy film, and there was just no other way I would have gotten my hands on this piece of PURE MAGIC since I am not a Loot-Crate subscriber. Oh man... I am still reeling from this one you guys.

I want to shoot one last big THANK YOU out to Brian Lapsley, and remind folks to check out his blog over at Awake Oh Sleeper. He is also one of the hosts of the Nerds of the Roundtable so be sure to check that out too!

All right kids, that's all I've got for tonight. I'll be back soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies... so until then, Happy Hunting!

Welcome to Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks! This is the blog where I talk about geeky stuff I've picked up secondhand and then wax poetic about nostalgia or the pure love I have for purely ridiculous things. This post will be no different than most, as I have some pretty exciting stuff to talk about.

And timely as ever, I would like to talk about Fathers' Day... FROM LAST YEAR. Yes that's right folks... I am just finally getting around to blogging some stuff I picked up very nearly a whole year ago.

For Fathers' Day last year, my wife took me out on a shopping spree. We hit some Goodwills, and a few other places on our way out to a town called Rockland here in Maine. We even stopped off at a Flea Market, which are kind of few and far between here in Maine, and I am sooo glad we did!

Let's take a look at what I brought home!

I was really excited to find these Return of the Jedi Burger King glasses in such great shape! The only one I'm missing now is the battle scene between Luke and Darth while the Emperor watches. Love these things! I spent many a summer drinking out of glasses just like these as a kid. I think my most vivid memories are of the Ewok glass. Man I LOVED Ewoks as a kid.

There was also this complete set of The Empire Strikes Back glasses too! I like these ones even more. They. Are. GORGEOUS. I am a Boba Fett fan in theory. I know he doesn't really do much blah-blah-blah whatever. I love the design of his suit and his helmet. I love the design of this glass. And seeing him side by side with Darth Vader makes this one of my absolute prized possessions.

This was a really interesting find. I had never heard of the "Spirits of the Earth" storyline by Charles Vess. I still haven't actually sat down and read this book.. but it is so naggingly familiar to me that I can't help but assume I've read it before, so long ago that I'd all but forgotten about it. Apparently Spider-Man is in Scotland for this tale, and he is battling the Scottish branch of the Hellfire club. I am a fan of Vess's work on books like Neil Gaiman's Stardust, and the bits of the Sandman he did were just stunning... and I know he did "The Cry of the Wendigo," a back-up story in Amazing Spider-Man #277 which I loved, so I expect no less from this book.

This was another exciting find for me as it was a book that I DEFINITELY owned as a kid. This was published as a part of the media blitz surrounding the release of Tim Burton's Batman in 1989. Love this book! It is a semi-detailed history of Batman's first fifty years. Lots of history, lots of pictures, lots of cool details inside. Again, I haven't sat down to re-read this bad boy yet, but I can't wait to!

Of all the things I found at the flea-market, it was this guy that made me the most excited! I know he's filthy, and I know he's not complete... but I LOVE HIM. The AT-AT walker, to me is one of the most iconic Star Wars vehicles of all time. I picked up the AT-AT, the seven Burger King glasses, and the two bucks for 15 bucks total.

It was later that same day that I found these "Star Wars Kids" magazines at Goodwill.

I lucked out because they had the half-price color (the green price tags) so I got them all for .50 cents! I would have usually posted these in a Goodwill post, but felt it appropriate to share them along with all the other Star Wars stuff I found on the same day. (There's my boy Greedo!)

I think I'm going to have to do a more in-depth look at these magazines sometime in the future. They're from a happier time before the the words "Prequel Trilogy" were even a thing.

I also visited a used bookstore while I was out for Father's Dayand thought I'd quickly toss those finds in here as well. It was an eventful day. I mostly found books dealing with some of my favorite newspaper comic characters, collected in book form. There was this, "The Indispensible Calvin and Hobbes" which pretty much finishes off my Calvin and Hobbes collection.

I found the third and final Outland collection, "One Last Little Peak," which also finishes off my Outland collection. (I'm a huge Berkeley Breathed fan)

And I found my first copy of "A Garfield Christmas" which is adapted from the Christmas special of the same name. I later found another copy at Goodwill, but I was SUPER psyched to find this one on this particular day. Next to the Garfield Halloween special, this is one of my very favorite holiday specials of all time.

And finally I found a copy of Bradbury's "The Illustrated Man". I've been looking for this one for quite some time now and I was pretty pleased to find it in paperback for such a cheap price. I've recently become something of a Ray Bradbury nut and this was one of the few books of his that I don't already own. So yay me!

Well that's it kiddos! I'll be back with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies soon enough... so until then, Happy Hunting!

12 Days of Christmas Cassettes: 6 A Mildly Depressing Exploration of Genre Christmas Music

12 Days of Christmas Cassettes: 7 ...and Now a Word From Our Sponsors

12 Days of Christmas Cassettes: 8 GANG WAR!!! (For Kids!)

12 Days of Christmas Cassettes: 9 The King (Not that one)

12 Days of Christmas Cassettes: 10 A (Not Quite) Very Special Christmas 2

I totally fudged it... but for all the right reasons...

FINALLY... the Last 2 days of my 12 Days of Christmas Cassettes

A Surprise Package From "Ryan"

A Whole New Bin of Awesome Pt. 1: Most of the Robots

Another Package from the Trash Man!

Rock Lords! An Off-the-Wall Post About Some Off-the-Wall Toys

A Whole New Bin of Awesome Pt. 2

A Package From Devin Cönnörs!!!

A Whole New Bin of Awesome Pt. 3: Closing the Lid

A Package from John Gaither

Cassettes and Devils and Dragons... Oh my!

A Package From Miss M!

My Blog As A Mixtape: A Completely Stolen Idea

Books N' More from Brian Lapsley

Father's Day Flea Market Finds: GEEKING OUT!!!