Quantcast
Channel: Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks
Viewing all 299 articles
Browse latest View live

Goodwill Finds: Egyptian Netherworlds, Mad Scientists, and Bubble Bath!

0
0
Hey everybody! I'm back with another pile of junk I found at Goodwill! I don't remember exactly when I would have picked up this load of stuff but I do believe it was last fall sometime. I'm going to kick things off with a board game:


"Passing Through the Netherworld: The Meaning and Play of Senet, an Ancient Egyptian Funerary Game" while being a ridiculously long name for a board game... is at least very efficient and accurate in its description.

Back when I was in high school, I was OBSESSED with mythology. I loved to read all I could about Greek, Norse, and especially Egyptian mythology. I would spend my entire study hall some days, poring over books on mythology, or reading whole sections of the ACTUAL ENCYCLOPEDIA to glean what details I could about ancient cultures and religions. I would photocopy whole stacks of pages from said books and encyclopedias to bring home with me to pore over more in my room at night. These would become the fodder for short stories, poems, role-playing adventures, comic books that I would start to write and never finish, you name it. So finding a game based on the beliefs of "the cult of the dead" from ancient Egypt...?

Yes please.


I was delighted to find that everything the game was supposed to contain was still in the box. I was less delighted to discover that absolutely no one in my family is interested in playing some creepy old Egyptian death-cult board game with me. Sigh.


Found the second collected volume of Mike Bullock's "Lions, Tigers, and Bears" from Image comics. I've never read this series, but had heard good things, so am hoping I can find the first book in the series on the cheap at some point. 

I love Love LOVE the idea of stuffed animals transforming into powerful night-time guardians of children, protecting them from bogeymen and nightmares. This idea is such a great concept. I hope it is executed well. 



I always have my eye peeled for old Sesame Street books, and this trip to Goodwill did not disappoint. "Ernie's Little Lie" is a real Raymond Chandler-style pot-boiler of suspense and intrigue as the titular protagonist digs himself deeper and deeper into a seedy world of shadows and illusions where nothing is what it seems and identities are as blurred as melting wax. Also it has a great "don't tell lies" moral for the kids. 

Harry McNaught's illustrations are the main draw for me in "The Sesame Street ABC Book of Words" This is a big, bulky, and old Sesame Street book that brings me back to the good old days. 



I don't have a TON to say about "Scrooge's Silly Day" except for the fact that it came out the same year that Ducktales was in its final season. It is certainly an unofficial but certainly legitimate Ducktales book in "Mickey's Young Readers Library". 


I discovered another of these incredible "Twisted Journeys" books, which is a hybrid graphic novel AND choose-your-own-adventure. Couldn't pass it up. And it's "Horror In Space" number 18 in the series! There are at least 16 more f these that I don't own yet! (I found another Twisted Journeys book back in 2012). Then there is the "Which Way - Secret Door Book: The Inch High Kid" which is another knock-off CYOA.


A quartet of genuine-article CYOA's including "War With the Evil Power Master,""Prisoner of the Ant People,""Hyerspace," and "House of Danger." All awesome finds, but I am especially excited about the first two.


There were two grab-bags full of toys on this trip as well. Let's take a look at the first one shall we? (There's some stuff here that doesn't make the cut...)


This Mad Scientist is from the 2003 "Stretch Screamers" McDonald's Happy Meal premiums line. In addition to the Mummy and the fin-man I now have three of the eight in the set. There is another one that looks like a brain floating in a jar with a robot body... some sort of yellow-vomiting orange creature... Oh they are all so beautiful. Looking back up at the "screamer" at hand though, if you tug the Mad Scientist's arm, it makes his pink-jelly brain expand up into the clear dome of his skull. It's very impressive.


This Halloween edition of Marge Simpson from a Burger King Kids' Club meal is AWESOME. Speaking of ancient Egypt...


And here we have Groundskeeper Willie, "The Grim Sweeper" also a Burger King Kids' Club Halloween toy. He... really seems to be stroking that broom handle. Like really caressing it.


Love the show Batman: The Brave and the Bold, but never owned a single one of the full-sized action figures. This is an interesting translucent plastic variant. Not sure if it's meant to be "stealth" Batman or "ghost" Batman... or what... but he's pretty nifty, and he looks great on the shelf with my other Batman action figures.


One of my favorite finds from this trip has to be this "Collectors' Guide to Bubble Bath Containers" Flipping through this thing just brought a huge grin to my face. I was even able to find my He-Man bubble bath bottle inside!



Here we have an assortment of "My Little Pony" books. I picked them up because I have a home in mind for them already. I have a hard time leaving any 80's licensed property books behind, even if they aren't the kinds of things I used to collect as a kid.


Same with "Pound Puppies" books. I was never a HUGE Pound Puppies fan... so these books are most likely going off to another home.


"An American Tail" and "Muppet Babies" books from McDonald's however... THESE ARE AMAZING AND ALL MINE BABY!!!


And here we have the second grab-bag of the haul, which contains just four items. But I liked all four! 


First we have Sultan Spongebob from the "Lost In Time" series of Happy Meal toys, from back in 2004. This was a truly inspired series of Spongebob figures, featuring the character as he would have appeared in various times throughout history.


This spinner toy is from a 2002 series of Burger King Kids' Club meal premiums, from the "Nintendo Superstars" series. Not really sure what it's for... but it's fun to push the button on top and watch Bowser chase the Princess around and around and around.


Here we have an Imperial Guard Star Wars LEGO keychain. I had no idea that these guys were popular enough to warrant their own keychains, honestly. But I'll take it!


And finally, a baby Po toy from the Kung Fu Panda 2 line of McDonald's Happy Meal toys. I'm a sucker for Kung Fu Panda, even if I didn't care for the 2nd movie nearly as much as the first. This toy is CRAZY cute though.


So there you have it folks! The entire haul! This was a bigger trip than I've been having as of late, and if you're still reading this thing, then kudos to you! You now have bragging rights.

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

Goodwill Finds: Turtles, Ducks, Sesame Street

0
0
Welcome once again to another fun edition of: junk I picked up secondhand!!! I can't even begin to tell you when I picked up this lot of stuff... it was a while back. BUT it all did come from Goodwill. And I was pretty excited about some of the finds in this post! Let's take a look, shall we?


First up I found a grab-bag with these three Sesame Street beanie-friend-things in it. If it weren't for Grover and Oscar this would have gotten a pass as you can clearly see that in trying to keep up his youthful appearance in today's cut-throat entertainment biz... poor Ernie had a botched rhinoplasty procedure (I did not end up keeping Ernie, sorry to say...) and will never look the same.


This was an interesting find. I'm always on the prowl for interesting-looking horror anthologies, and this one, Between Time and Terror, seems to be focusing on horror stories with a sci-fi bent. This is just what the Doctor ordered! Barker and Koontz rubbing elbows with the likes of Heinlein and Asimov??? Interesting...


This is a particularly fun find. It's an illustrated adventure detailing Flash Gordon's exploits on Mogo, the Sand World. Actually picked this one up to pass on to a friend... but it looks like so much fun! I even just love the simplicity of Flash on the cover here, his skin almost blending in with the featureless background until we get some bright pops of color in his clothes and weapons. And check out those little shoes!


I'm a sucker for Jack Prelutsky, and ESPECIALLY Jack Prelutsky's collections about specific holidays. I already have Halloween, Christmas, and Thanksgiving. Nice to add Valentine's Day to the pile.


This Duck Tales coloring book from 1987 only had a couple of pages colored on! I absolutely love the Disney Duck-verse. Duck Tales and Darkwing Duck were some of my favorite afternoon shows when I was growing up.


I am ALWAYS excited to find TMNT stuff from the times when I Would have been a kid. This book "Return of the Shredder" is waaay more interesting for its portrayal of the "Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang"


And April O'neil's brave decision to teach people about recognizing the warning signs of a stroke on TV.


Finally, I found another Little Golden Book that I had as a kid (not the literal copy I owned of course) in The Three Bears, This thing is an electric-pastel romp of colors and images that I just love.


The greens are so green! The pinks so pink! The clashing colors layered over and around each other in a chaotic yet stylish display! Love this thing!


That was it folks!  a quickie but goody. The whole pile cost me about 7 bucks and some change. I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies soon enough! Until then, Happy Hunting!

Grab-Bags from Brewer: Loads of Old Toys!!!

0
0
Welcome! I know one of my favorite things to find and then write about here on Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks is TOYS. And this post is HEAVY with TOYS. I found a couple of pretty decent Grab-Bags just a few months back at the Goodwill in Brewer, ME, and I wanted to take a minute to paw through them with you and discuss their contents. There were some cassettes that came home that day too, so I'll be sharing them as well. Let's dig in!


First up, this guy was loose on his own. He was produced by Imperial Toys back in 1983. I've been having some great luck finding fun Imperial figures like this one at Goodwill lately!


Next up a couple of AWESOME 80's soundtrack cassettes!!! First the Ghostbusters Original Soundtrack and then The Miami Vice soundtrack! Both of these made me incredibly happy to find. I LOVE how Crockett and Tubbs are GLOWING.


These three "Oliver and Company" finger puppets were in a separate grab-bag of their own. This was officially known as a BIG DEAL to me. I have owned an Oliver puppet for what seems like forever... an EXTRA Olver puppet in fact, because I made another one of them into a Christmas ornament for my wife. I also already own the Bulldog... but never have I ever found the poodle, Georgette or Dodger, the dog mentor to Oliver in the movie. So now I have the complete set of 4 characters. I also have a Tito pull-back toy that is not from this particular set of premiums.

I should also mention that I have never seen Oliver and Company in my life... so I have no idea why I should care so much about these toys... but I do. My wife loves the songs from the film because she used to watch a Disney sing-along VHS when she was a kid that had a few songs and scenes from this movie in it. BUT I AM SO SATISFIED that I now own a complete set of these finger puppets.

I can't help how I am.


All right! So now let's dig into the first of the two big Grab-Bags I brought home from this particular trip to Goodwill. Here's a shot of everything from grab-bag number 1, all piled together. But let us take a closer look... shall we?


First an assortment of PVC character figures. From left to right we have a Sahmu figurine,  couple of Richard Scarry's Busytown folks, a semi-generic teddybear playing football of the kind you might pick up at the Hallmark store back in the 80's, a Hushpuppy figure from Lambchop, and a figurine from something called "Gallavants" from back in the mid-80's. I think I was most excited about the Shamu figure and the pig driving the pickle.


Here we have double Scorpions facing off with double Rufios. I think Rufio wins one of these battles... but then dies in the other one "Zero-Hour-Green-Arrow-Style". I was actually PSYCHED to own a Rufio toy though.


These are my yellow toys. Again left to right, we have a Mr. Happy from the Mr. Men PVC series, a vintage fruit-people pencil topper from the 70's and a Hawaiian Punch figure from the Hawaiian Punch board game from 1978. These three little guys are some of my absolute FAVORITE items from this particular Goodwill haul.


Next up we have a "Snaps" toy from the Burger King Kids club, Papa Bear from the Berry Bears, a fruit-snack brand from the 80's, and a rollerskate that was also from the Burger King Kids club, and originally had the athletic girl, "Boomer" sitting in it.


This trio of beautiful rodent ladies include a Gadget McDonald's Happy Meal toy from 1989 (which I had a complete set of as a kid... along with a weird little crush on Gadget...), a Brittany from the Chipettes Happy Meal toy from 1990, and a Gadget cereal premium from 1991 (In pretty rough shape. Good thing I already had one of these.)


This is a Beaver from the Hub Bubs line put out by Mattel back in 1975. This chipper little fella clicked into his playset and then with the turn of a crank, he and his fellow Hub Bubs (all living in Happy Hollow) would move their arms or bodies and miic doing work. Mr. Beaver her has a big white pressure plate/button/thing sticking out of his bottom that you push to make him move his hammer.


This little (ahem) nugget I have been able to find nearly NOTHING about. Obviously it was a premium from Louis Rich chicken nuggets... but that's all I can figure out. But I kind of love that this thing is so mysterious. Featuring a "Nugget Dude cave-dude" there was a free translucent dinosaur to be had in this prize pack! I almost feel guilty not popping it open, but I gotta say I honestly I kind of like the package as a whole here, dino, cave-dude, cellophane and all.




There was a random pile of toy cars mixed in, including a set of old firetrucks, some stock cars, a Humvee, and some Hotwheels McDonald's Happy Meal toys. Two of them are cars with some bite! Now let's see what was hiding in that SECOND grab-bag shall we? We're already doing pretty well with this first one after all.


This mound of toys is slightly smaller than the first, but you can already spot a few exciting pieces in there I bet!


First up a couple of action figures, first up we have a Triceraton from the old TMNT line. This one is missing all of his accessories, and sadly his tail as well... but I will still toss him up on the shelf to display regardless of this fact.  And we have Batman in some sort of orange overcoat. I think the orange coat piece is from a different action figure unfortunately. One that transforms from Bruce Wayne into a weird orange-suited Batman. Putting it on this Batman is just a cruel joke. That's why I kind of love it.


Random toy furniture! Genie box, fruit juice machine, and TV featuring Sonic the-- Wait... Genie box!?


It's Jambi from Pee-Wee's Playhouse! The one from the Grab-Bag is on the right. It is a legit, real-deal vintage toy from the old playsets. The one on the left is the one I bought when they put out the reproductions around 2002 or so. Looking at them side by side like this you can really see some glaring inconsistencies... but I still think they did a good job on the repros.


A wild pack of Animaniacs toys. I wish I had found the Pinky and the Brain toy... or the Mindy and Buttons toy... those were my favorite segments on Animaniacs. Well, those and the "Good Idea... Bad Idea" segments (ie. Good Idea: feeding kittens in the park. Bad Idea: Feeding kittens in the park... to a BEAR.)


One Definitely Dinosaur Happy Meal toy (I definitely had a handful of those as a kid. The Happy Meal versions at least) and a couple of rubber alligators produced in very different styles.


HEre we have Lisa Simpson who is actually supposed to be a giant version of herself, but without the base she originally came with it's hard to tell that. She is the "Incredible Growing Girl" here, from an episode of the Treehouse of Terror (or at least a Halloween character, which Burger King and the Simpsons have teamed up to do several times) and the base she comes with originally is a drive-in movie theater with parked cars. Lisa is munching on the remains of the snack bar there in her hand. The other, portly fellow is a Dog Catcher from the Pound Puppies cartoon. I don't really have much to say about this guy honestly... but it's neat that he was in there!


I'm going to end with this devilish fellow. I had no idea what it was at first, and was really and truly enchanted and intrigued. But with a bit of internet digging I discovered that this is in fact a Loch Nerf Monster from 1983. They originally came in blue, orange and the magenta color you see above, and they had painted-on eyes. The eyes on this one have come completely off over the years, but his charm remains nonetheless. I love the fact that Nerf made some sort of devil creature for children to play with in the tub back in the 80's. THIS is another of my absolute favorite items from this particular trip to Goodwill. 


So here's the whole pile as it was when I got it home. Three grab-bags, two cassettes, and and dragon! Not bad at all if I do say o myself!

A Geek-Load of Books

0
0
All right... consider this your warning: This post is going to be LOADED with mostly books. Absolutely no toys. So if that's not your thing... turn back now. But I hope you don'! There's some pretty fun and funny book finds this time around! Stick around and check it out! 


This is everything, all piled together. Last chance to turn back!


First up a couple of cassette tapes. "The Carpenters: And Old Fashioned Christmas" and the self-titled "New Kids on the Block" cassette! Not a whole lot to say about either of these, honestly... I'll probably have more to say about the Carpenters when December rolls back around. I was never a huge New Kids fan, but I do have a certain amount of nostalgia for them since I had friends (or friends with older sisters) who LOVED these guys. Look at those clothes. And mullets!


Roger Zelazny is hands down one of my top 5 authors, so the rare occasion where I find a book of his that I don't already own is pretty great. Isle of the Dead looks to be a great read in typical Zelazny fashion. I never read SeinLanguage when it was really popular, so I'll be interested to see what I think of it when I finally crack the spine on this one. Seinfeld was one of my favorite sitcoms (as it was for most folks I guess) at a certain point in my life.


Choose YOur Own Adventures very rarely DON'T make it home with me, so Grave Robbers should come as no surprise... and although I am a self-avowed X-Men fanatic from waaay back, it is rare that I pick up comic book novels. This one, Prisoner X, is written by Anne Nocenti and involves the Mojoverse however... so it's just a no-brainer this time.


I realized I don't already own the Little Golden Book version of Mickey's Christmas Carol. So... fixed that finally. Phew. I also found this HILARIOUSLY racist copy of Bugs Bunny and the Indians which is also a Little Golden Book which has been stripped of its Golden spine. How racist is it?


It's THIS racist.


A couple of Muppet-family books to be excited about: a Muppet Babies paper dolls book, and Imagine... Big Bird Meets Santa Claus which I feel is a bit wishy-washy honestly. I get that they're trying to be "honest" here by going with the whole "IMAGINE" concept... but if you want to avoid having to acknowledge the existence of beloved mythical holiday characters (by having them interact with your "real" giant bird puppet character. Ahem.) maybe just try not cashing in on them at all?


Sorry for how blurry this one came out... probably the very best finds out of this lot and I got a crummy picture of them which I didn't realize until much later. Ah well. There's a Real Ghostbusters Pop-Up book The Birthday Ghost, and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles junior novel, Sky High. I'll go way more in-depth into the pop-up book in the future sometime. It's in good shape, but the pop-ups are really low-effort and kind of lack-luster honestly. But still a fun find! And anything TMNT is always welcome!

Well that's it kids! That's all he wrote! See, that wasn't too bad was it? Some pretty neat books in the pile, right? I thought so. I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!

A Tour of the "Geek Cave": This one's a doozy folks!

0
0
Welcome to a very special edition of Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks!!! Today I'll be walking you through the Goodwill Geek Cave as it currently exists (I've done this before... but the cave has had SOOO many facelifts and other cosmetic procedures since then that it's overdue time sharing the new look with y'all...). Because this post is going to be so VERY picture heavy, I'm actualy going to try to keep my comments brief so I don't end up writing something A Game of Thrones in length here. 

So let's get started! 


First view here is one of my favorites. It's the corner of the room I spend most of my time gazing at from my desk. This is definitely the bulk of my collecting space, though there are SEVERAL other shelves that you can't see from this angle.


Turning slightly to the right you can see the shelves where I keep my personal collection of DVDs, my boxes of comic books, and some other various sundry collectibles that we'll get to in a bit.


Keep turning to the right, past the entrance to the cave, and now you're looking behind where I sit at my desk. More shelves and more toys, all over every surface!


Final big shot of the corner where my desk resides. As you can see, my desk actually houses even more shelves full of toys, and is surrounded by tiny curio shelves on the walls, filled with even more.


Next to the desk I keep a DVD player and TV if I feel like having a move going in the background. This is also the current home of my Adventure Time and Doctor Who toys. Below the A.V. setup are various games I have found at Goodwill, been given, or collected from other sources. Bigger games lean against the shelf to the left, and a few have even invaded the bookshelf to the left of that.


Speaking of, here's a shot of that shelf. As you can see, the top shelf is dedicated to my vintage Masters of the Universe collection.


Here's a closeup of what I think of as my "Random 80's" shelf. Not everything there is legit from the 80's, but everything there celebrates the 80's, and that's what really matters to me. 


Here's my G.I.Joe Shelf... with several different versions of the Joes (and Cobra) from several different toy lines. 


Down on the very bottom shelf we have mostly toys from the 90's. Other miscellaneous, homeless toys hang out here too.


Up above the TV you'll notice some of my Halloween goodies, and an assortment of art and cards and things from my family and online friends.


Creeping now over to the desk territory, we have curio shelves packed with Toy Story Buddies and my ROYGBIV shelf dedicated to toys that get found at the bottom of the toy box. 


Next to that is my Monster 500 collection. So sad to see these discontinued. They had such plans!!!


Here's a full bore shot of my desk. Let's take a closer look at some of the collections that live here, shall we? 


Tipp-top shelf we have LEGO movie, and a handful of other random favorites. Shelf below that has some kick-ass vintage toys, including a TON from my very own childhood!


California Raisins and The Simpsons (plus some random Army Ants and Food Fighter toys).


On the very bottom shelves (behind my laptop) an even more random assortment of toys, including my Perry the Platypus collection, my Wall-E collection, and too many awesome toys to recount them all. 


Scooby Doo Mystery Mates, Ghostbusters Mini-Mates, and Green Lantern Action League toys! 


Some of my absolute favorite Halloween toys, Christmas and Creepmas toys, Ice Age toys, and mini figure Avengers, TMNT, and Astonishing X-Men! 


This corner of my desk is again, kind of random. Funko Fabrikations, and a bunch of other objets d'art. 



Window dressings above the desk include Halloween decorations and the Christmas stocking I used as a little boy. (You can also get a better look at my Rock Lords, Battle Beasts, and various other action figures here!) 



The top of the shelf right next to my desk is dedicated mostly to Halloween, but any horror toys are welcome. 


Right below Halloweentown you will find a shrine dedicated to one of my favorite films in recent history: Guardians of the Galaxy! I absolutely adore these guys. Below the shrine is my cassette collection, which is in part inspired BY GotG, so they go nicely together.


Directly ABOVE Halloweentown is my Star Wars collection. This is something I am constantly reworking and refining, and trying desperately to unclutter. I just recently made a semi-formal rule of "no prequel toys" on this shelf. I gave those all to my kids to destr-- play with. It may be controversial I guess, but I've decided I'm an "OT Man all the way". I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the new movies will be good, but if not, there's not exactly a dearth of Darth to keep me interested in collecting the original stuff.


The shelves above Star Wars are all dedicated to Marvel. Up top we have the near-entirety of my SHS collection (believe it or not, there are a couple of items still in storage that just don't fit... like the Helli-carrier), and the shelf below that has everything else, including my Marvel Mighty Muggs, my vintage Toy Biz X-Men, Funko Pops, and other stuff. You can see my Hot Wheels collection has sort of crept in behind the Marvel shelf... which brings me to:


The wall of Hot Wheels! I prefer to keep my toy cars carded. I like the packaging, and I like that they don't constantly roll off onto the floor like when I set loose cars up on shelves. You might notice a heavy focus on Batman related cars, and that's not by accident.


Corner shot of my various other little collections... robots, pirates, little plastic men, kaiju, Sesame Street, Transformers, and Scooby Doo! The Scooby Doo shelf is another one that has kind of become a home to other toy refugees, like Monsters Inc, Archie, Tailspin, Stretchy Screamers, and The Walking Dead Funko Pops. I feel like there's a nice sense of logic to the assortment that works though.


Thundercats, a handful of AD&D and other 80's toys too big for the other shelf, and advertising mascots all get squished down into this corner. This is also where all of the Batman and DCU toys end up, because I don't love them nearly as much as I love Marvel (but don't tell them that).


I hate Hate HATE the way these two shelves lean away from each other... But it's either because the floor is uneven or the shelves themselves are warped... not sure, and I can't fix it... so oh well. Up top there is another collection of misfit toys, stuff to big or too weird to go on the other shelves. We then have my Big Hero 6 action figures, my Bumble (from the Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer special) collection, four-- count the FOUR shelves all dedicated to Spongebob Squarepants, a shelf dedicated solely to Pixar PEZ dispensers, a Nick Jr./PBS shelf (I would love to blame this on nostalgia for my kids, but I honestly just like some of the characters, and the riot of colors) and well as a knights/castles shelf, and another sort of random shelf at the bottom.



Top shelf is almost completely dedicated to vintage TMNT from the late 80's or early 90's. The shelf below is TMNT from the current show or from the early 2000's.


The vintage shelf stretches on the left.


Below that, Real Ghostbusters toys and books!


Below that Fisher Price Little People!!!


And to the right of that... McDonaldland Happy Meal Toys!


And finally, my wall of PEZ.

Hoo boy! That's it for tonight guys! I hope you liked taking this ten-cent tour of the Goodwill Geek Cave! I'll be back soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies to share, so until then... Happy Hunting!

Goodwill Finds from Last June???

0
0
Wow. I am just getting further and further behind in my blogging. Maybe I'll have all this posted and shared with you guys before it's time for me to hit the holiday season and get behind all over again. This is a pile of stuff I brought back from Goodwill in June of last year, and it may be a bit anti-climactic after the last post touring the Geek Cave... But let's take a look anyway! 


My movie novelization collection continues to grow as I add things like Benji to the mix. Apparently Benji's adventures are not only heroic... they're spooky too! I distinctly remember being expected to enjoy Benji movies when I was a kid. But really I only kind of cared about them in a very general "I'm a kid so I-guess-a-movie-about-a-dog's-adventures-are-okay-at-least-it's-not-sports-again" kind of way. 


I've thought this series looked interesting for a while, so I thought I'd pick up the first book in the series. Picked it up LAST JUNE. Still haven't read it yet. Sigh.


I TOTALLY FORGOT about the TV special starring Puff the Magic Dragon!!! So this adaptation of it into book form (with a TON of stills from the show) was a real blast from the past. REALLY bizarre deja-vu nostalgia from this one, I tell you. The whole thing is available on youtube if you want to track it down.


This was a genuinely exciting find for me. A storybook by Gary Larson of "The Far Side" fame! There's a Hair in My Dirt! is a ridiculously unromantic take on fairy tale tropes that injects a healthy (or in some cases extremely UNhealthy) dose of both science and (dark) humor into the proceedings. I cannot recommend this book highly enough for any fans of Larson's work out there.


Look at this amazing toy! This is a beautiful piece, and was put out by the fine folks at Illco once again. I believe this is meant to be a version of Oscar's "Sloppy Jalopy" which went through several different face-lifts on the show over the years. There is no date on the toy, but researching similar toys on the Muppet wiki tells me this was probably produced somewhere between 1988 to 1992.


Found this Donatello TY Beanie Ball for .99 cents and let my son have it because Donatello is his absolute favorite.


This book looked interesting. It's a sort of catalogue for obsessions. There's a whole collection of things for people to geek out about. I was kind of hoping it was going to be an exploration similar to Shari Caudron's book Who Are You People? which I found endlessly entertaining, even when she was talking about fans of Josh Groban, messenger pigeon trainers, and competitive ice fishermen. This is a bit more dry, but still fun to flip through.


A Choose Your Own Adventure book about The Haunted House? Uh... yes!!! This is designed for younger readers than the typical CYOA, sure, but that doesn't make it look any less fun! R.A. Montgomery, you are missed!


I'm a little less excited about my find of this "Ghost Dad" Novelization this year than I was last year... but hey! Cheesy 90's supernatural family comedies... right?


And finally... THIS. A "Rover Dangerfield" frame-tray puzzle from the merchandising STORM that was the 1991 film of the same name. This has got to be one of the weirdest and most wondrous things I have ever found at Goodwill (maybe not but I'm in a good mood).

That's it for tonight kids! Hope you enjoyed this look back in time to last summer! I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!

Golden Books and Plastic Dinosaurs!

0
0
Alright so it's another fine edition of "Look What I Picked Up Sometime Last Year Everybody!" This post is going to be about a trip where I brought home a pile of Little Golden Books, some cassettes, and most importantly, some bizarre old plastic dinosaurs! Be sure to check those out at the end of the post! So let's get to it shall we? 


Before I delve into the LGBs, I'll point out I brought a couple of kids' chapter books home as well. The book on the left, The Christmas Tree That Ate My Mother, you might recognize from my 2014 Creepmas countdown extravaganza... if you read that. If not... well, there' this book about a mother-eating Christmas tree. And since I've been trying to track down Ramona books, I was delighted to find this old copy of Ramona the Brave with a Joanne Scribner cover! 


All right! I happen to be koo-koo for Little Golden books! The older the better honestly, and I found some oldies-but-goodies this time around for sure. First we have Mad Hatter's Tea Party from Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland. This is an awesome little book that focuses on just this one part of the story. Next we have The Lone Ranger Little Golden Book. I think I was most excited to find this particular book as it is really the only piece of vintage (antique?) Lone Ranger merchandise I now own. 


I was a little less excited (but still please) by these older Golden Books that I also brought home... an adaptation of Cinderella (A "Little Golden Activity Book" that once included paperdolls), Count to Ten, and Hi Ho! Three in a Row which sounds more inappropriate than it actually is. Trust me.


Finally, I was excited to find this very old copy of Hanna Barbera's Cindy Bear featuring Yogi Bear, and a not-a-Little-Golden-Book-but-just-as-exciting Mickey Mouse Club book, Goofy: Movie Star. Which was put out around the same time as the rest. 


As usual, I also picked a couple of old cassettes to bring home as well. This time around I brought home Billy Idol's self-titled album and U2's album, "War". Billy Idol's song "Hot in the City" always makes me laugh, especially when paired up with its video... the feel of the song is so NOT bad-ass. It just feels really old-fashioned to me... like a shoo-wop song or something... but then the video has Billy in usual fashion, snarling, punching holes in walls, stripping off his clothes, etc. It's all just so incongruous with the feel of the song itself. It feels like a song by Huey Lewis or Billy Joel or someone.



The only songs off of "War" that I'm really familiar with are "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "New Years Day" and they're both pretty punchy, high-energy stomp-and-kick ind of songs... but they're probably waaay more political than I really want to dwell on.


Finally, there were these weird plastic dinosaurs! There were doubles of everyone, and two of the designs even look like really dinosaurs! I'm less interested in the brachiosaur or the dimetrodon however, and want to tell you how much I love "Opera singing but can't stand on my own" dinosaur, and "patient bulldog puppy with a spike-nose sitting" dinosaur. They are by far my favorite dinos in this pack.


So that's it! That's all I had on that particular trip. Some fun stuff by and large however! I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!

A Couple of Grab-Bags, A Couple of Cassettes

0
0
Hey all! Today I'll be focusing mainly on some toys I found in a couple of Grab-Bags I found at Goodwill... and then talking about a couple of cassettes I found. 

And my feelings. 

So you have that to look forward to. 

But first... TOYS!


All right, here's the first grab-bag, with all of it's contents already freed. Let's pick through the relevant items, shall we?


Here's an Animaniacs Happy Meal toy from 1993 that features Slappy, The (now retired) Slap-Happy Squirrel and her nephew, Skippy. Not in love with the design of this particular run of toys, which had the weird, extending accordion tubes as a feature in every toy. I would much preferred to have found the Mindy and Buttons toy as they were a couple of my favorite characters from this show.


Here we have a Fozzie Bear as Squire Trelawney in Muppet Treasure Island. The toy says it's from 1995 but the movie came out in 1996 so I'm not sure what to believe. Either way, it's Fozzie, and it's from Muppet Treasure Island, which I'm not a huge fan of so on one hand... meh. On the other hand... Muppets!!! So that side wins out. I really love the octopus stuck to Fozzie's barrel's left side.


A wind up Thing 1 and Thing 2 toy? Back in 2003 when they put out the GODAWFUL Mike Meyers Cat in the Hat movie, they did a series of toys at Burger King. Luckily, the toys resemble the characters from the BOOK not the MOVIE. So they're all pretty awesome honestly. These are no different.


This is a Lowly Worm toy from Burger King back in 1995. I'm not a huge fan of Richard Scarry's Busy World or anything... but Lowly Worm is a children's book icon in my mind, and the image of a worm driving a car made of a half-eaten apple has always resonated with me.


This is the first Gadget from Chip n' Dale's Rescue Rangers McDonald's Happy Meal Toys I ever found. I found more of this exact toy (in better shape) later, but this is my first. Had a whole set of these as a kid, and LOVED Chip n' Dale's RRs!!!


Next up we have a Burger King Kid's Club "Bug Rider" toy, this one being Kid Vid riding a scorpion. These were put out in 1998, and the whole gang got in on the action. Sort of a BIZARRE concept, honestly, but hey those are some of the best, right?


Finally, there was this PVC figurine of the kid from "All Dogs Go to Heaven II". I never saw that movie.. but I found this kid's existence in toy form here to be somehow significant. Apparently there was a set of these released by Subway back in 1996. I think this kid is named David (Google confirms this for me) but I would have been a WHOLE LOT more excited to find Anne-Marie or Charlie or Carface... or just about any of the characters that show up in the original movie. Sigh.


Here are the contents of the second grab-bag. I'm not going to bore you to tears with all of the contents, instead...


I'll just focus on these ones. There's a Goof Troop toy that I passed on to a friend, a Birdie the Early Bird pull-back car from 1985, a Koopa Paratroopa toy from back in 1989, and the BEST TWO ITEMS: A McDonald's Employee Barbie from 2001, and an... old looking Big Bird Toy from I-don't-know-when (there are no markings). But I LOVE HIM IN HIS LITTLE SAILOR HAT.


All right... when I picked up these tapes, it was before the big Bill Cosby controversy had hit. I was genuinely exited about these comedy tapes starring Mr. Cosby. But now... I don't know how to feel. Have you guys found yourselves soured on things like the Cosby Show? Or Ghost Dad? Or Jell-O Pudding Pops? What do you think? Do we look past the artist and still love the art? Myself, I'm having a hard time doing that, and frankly, a BIG part of my childhood is withering in my heart because of it. C'est la vie I guess.

Well that's it for tonight kids! I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies, so until then: Happy Hunting!

Funny Books and Comic Books... Sort of.

0
0
Hey! Here's some stuff I think I actually bought sometime this year! There's an almost-but-not-quite-theme running through this post... with a couple of significant exceptions that greatly just f--k things up for me trying to write this. 

GEE THANKS A LOT, AWESOME STUFF I FOUND. 


Well here it all is. As you can see, there's some pretty fun stuff in this pile. Let's get started so we can get with the fun... right?


So, based on the stuff I found in this haul, the theme I thought I'd go with was "Funny Books and Comic Books" and for the most part, I succeed. This MAD Power book is one of those rare gems that I love to find: A MAD Magazine comics print collection. These are ALWAYS a sure take-home item for me.


The holy triumvirate of 80's newspaper funnies for me are "Calvin & Hobbes,""The Farside," and "Bloom County" (along with "Outland" and "Opus" which are just continuations of Bloom really). While I am a fun of Garfield, it's mostly his animated adventures that catch my attention. Although many a happy hour were spent as a child poring over my Aunt's VAST Garfield collection, which included EVERY Garfield stri ever collected in book form. 

What was I talking about? 

Oh yeah! Bloom County! This copy of Billy and the Boingers Bootleg still has the plastic record-sheet inside that came with every copy of this book. 



Here. Give it a listen. 


The last book in the pile that without a doubt, unquestionably follows the theme that I am more than a little bit unhealthily obsessed with tonight is this one. Work is Hell by Matt Groening of "The Simpsons" fame. Many do know, but just as many don't know that Groening did a series of funny books back in the 80's starring a bunny named Binky and his zany cohorts, Sheba, Bongo, Ackbar and Jeff. I find these strips fantastically amusing, so any opportunity I have to pick some up for cheap is... a good opportunity that I take right away. Huh. Not sure where I was going with that, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't where it actually ended up. Anyway... I like this book! 


All right... my theme starts to get a bit shaky here. With Choose Your Own Adventure book You Are Invisible we could TECHNICALLY argue that the kids in this young-reader book by Susan Saunders actually have COMIC BOOK superpowers... but I'm not really going to fight that hard to convince you, honestly. These younger-aimed CYOA's are actually a LOT of fun. 


I really love the film based on Everything is Illuminated by Safran Foer, but I've never read the book. Here I also want to point out that I have abandoned my theme entirely. But we'll get back to it. The movie of Illuminated came out in 2005 and starred Elijah Wood. It is wondrous, heartbreaking, ethereal and yet groundedly REAL at the same time. I hope the book is as good. I've been let down in some cases, so I hope this isn't one of those times.


Finally we have this "X-Men: Crisis in the Danger Room" board game, that had me picking my jaw up off the floor when I spotted it! Almost all of the pieces and tokens are present and accounted for, and the construction of the Danger Room play area is intact and fairly easy to construct.


The game includes pawns of Wolverine, Cyclops, Beast, and Gambit. I cry foul that Storm or even Rogue or Psylocke were not also included... but c'est la vie I guess. It would also have been nice to see Cyclops touching his visor, readying himself to fire his optic blasts... but I guess I'm just a stickler that way...


This is one epic build of a board game! The platforms and balance beam still go in nice and snug, and look great put together! I love that we get Professor X there in the control booth, overseeing the proceedings.


There's a couple of towers that are a part of the build too, and I'm including them here just because I can basically. I was SOOO excited to bring this home you guys! This is LOOKs like such a neat game! Maybe when my kids are a little bit older I'll even get to play it!

Well, that is ALL for tonight kids! I'll be back with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies in the near future! Until then, I suggest you enjoy some Happy Hunting!

Books and a Grab-Bag (More Than) Two Bits!

0
0
Hey there guys and gals! Today I'm just doing a little one. Focusing on one grab-bag and some books I picked up a while ago. 


Here's the obligatory "pile pic" so let's get digging in shall we?


A couple of lovely Halloween-themed Little Golden Books... which you can never have too many of! Here we have Scooby-Doo! The Haunted Carnival and Walt Disney's Mickey and Friends Haunted Halloween! Yes, Scrappy makes an appearance in the Scooby-Doo book... But I've decided finally that I do NOT hate Scrappy-Doo the way most of the population seems to. I never had a real problem with Scrappy. I think it's funny how much of a punchline he's become these days, sure... but I don't think he deserves all of the ire he seems to inspire. I have no real strong feelings about Mickey and Friends to share with you at this time. Sorry.


This is quite possibly the most exciting itme I picked up at Goodwill on this particular trip. A "Hawaii Five-O" novel Top Secret! No idea if I will EVER read this book, but look at how GORGEOUS IT IS. Hawaiian Crime is better than ANY other crime. Because it's prettier.


Here are the contents of the grab-bag. Pretty junky as you can see, but I picked it up for .99 cents specifically for one item and one item alone. (Not the Spongebob, I already had that one...) There's a bunch of this junk you're not even going to get a closer look at... and I apologize in advance if that's really what you find disappointing about this post.


Nope, not this army of plastic bugs... though they are pretty sweet.


Nope. Not this AWESOME bubble watch with a dinosaur floating around in what is undoubtedly "dino-brine" as we watch a chuckling crowd of dinosaurs in the background certainly awaiting their extinction level event to erupt. (My fingers. They are wrinkly.)


Not... this stuff... either. (Although Star Wars slinky? I ain't complainin'!)


It was this cold-hearted bastard that I was after!!! Mr. Freeze from the LEGO Batman Happy Meal toy line! Doesn't he look just exquisite? I LOVE him! Totally worth the .99 cents just on his own, nevermind the other tchotchkes in the bag! Not bad for a little quicky post huh!?

That's really it kids! All I've got for now anyway! I'l be back soon enough with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies though! So until then, Happy Hunting!

Stuff I Found While I Was Looking Where I Don't Usually Look

0
0
Gotta say, now that I'm past October-December, it is nice to go back over all of the stuff I found in the past few months and finally get a chance to write about them. Today's post is a pile of Goodwill loot that I found because I took a dive into a few sections of the store that I don't usually bother with (aaaand some stuff in the sections where I usually do... because I won't NOT look where I usually do too). 

First up, I found some great vinyl records: 


First up we have this incredible Mickey Mouse Disco record. I love this idea of Disco being represented by a bunch of the Disney characters back in the 70's. This album was put out in 1979 so really Disco was pretty much done by this point... but still.


Seeing Horace and Clarabelle cutting a rug here beside Chip n' Dale and Donald and Daisy warms the cockles of my heart to be sure. I have not bothered to search it, but I am curious to see if the version of "Chim Chim Cher-ee" included on this album is some sort of Disco remix (in which case... weird) or is simply included in its original form (in which case.. weirder... right?).


Now let's jump ahead to 1982 and get into a little Mousercise!!! As we saw with the Disco phenomena, Disney gladly jumped aboard the Jazzercise wagon.  Again though, with a song selection called "Tweedledee and Tweedledum" I have to beg the question if the song is the original from Alice in Wonderland, or a "jazzed up!" version.


I find it hilarious that there appear to be a pair of Silly Symphony bugs Mousercising at the bottom of the picture on the back.


When I come across a Sesame Street Album, I can't pass it up. It's just not in my DNA. And this one looks so familiar that I would ALMOST swear I owned it as a kid. I know I had some Sesame Street Albums.


Then there was this even older Sesame Street record with an included book. On the cover there you can see Mr. Hooper, and Matt Robinson as Gordon!


The book inside is in HORRIBLE condition, but here's one of the better page, depicting the lyrics for the song "Green" and shows an interaction between Kermit and Grover. I MISS the days when Kermit was a Sesame Street Muppet as well as a Muppet Show Muppet.


Here is a later Sesame Street Album "Sing the hit songs of Sesame Street" which features yet another Gordon, Hal Miller this time, on the cover! All-total, four different actors have portrayed Gordon on Sesame Street.


Finally there was "Merry Christmas Sesame Street" which I definitely had as a kid. I distinctly remember being SO disturbed by the gold beads in Bert's mouth.


Here's the interior of the gatefold cover. LOVE this spread! The illustrations are so great, and Roosevelt Franklin makes not one, but TWO appearances!


I also found this Playmobil Pirates Take-Along Dungeon. There were no pirates inside, but that's okay because I really just wanted it for:


These guys! You may recognize them from the League of Extraordinary Bloggers Post I did about pirates back in 2013... If not, you should click that link and give it a read, I give the complete background of these awesome pirate dudes there.


As per usual, I found a few kids' books as well. Here we have a book based on the 80's cartoon adaptation of the Littles, "The Little Winner" and Darkwing Duck's "Clean Money". 


"Safe All Day With the Happies" is a horrific book of consequences. I LOVE THIS.


Here's a picture of a kid falling down the stairs after playing on them. "The Happies do not like broken arms!" HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! 

Love it. 


I usually give the DVD section a cursory glance and then move on. There's usually not much there except for old copies of the third disc from a boxed set of Friends season seven box set... or "The Period of Purple Crying" informational dvds (look it up for yourself... but I see A LOT of these at Goodwill) but I was shocked to discover some stuff I actually wanted to buy in this section this time around! First up I found DVD copies of "The Dream Team" and "Mallrats" which had me VERY ecstatic! I don't know if you remember Dream Team, but that movie was once upon a time one of my very favorites. It made me think that crazy people could team up like superheroes and achieve ANYTHING. Mallrats is a Kevin Smith classic, and I haven't seen it pretty much since it came out. But I'm looking forward to revisiting it.


But wait! There's more! TV movie "Gargoyles" which looks like stupid, schlocky TV-PG horror at its finest! I will probably throw this on as a part of some sort of Horror marathon when Fall gets here. I also found the complete Third season of "The Batman" which I never watched even once when it was on, and don't own the first two seasons of... but you gotta start somewhere right?

...Right?


And finally, "Garfield and Friends: Behind the Scenes" which is a nice way for me to pay homage to the cartoon series from when I was a kid without actually having to buy the entire series on DVD. I loves me some animated Garfield all right!

Well that's it kids! It really paid off for me to check the records and DVDs with a bit more enthusiasm than I usually reserve for those sections because I found some pretty neat stuff! That's all I have to show off for tonight, but I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies, so until then: Happy Hunting!

Giant Storm Shadow and an Alternate Reality Flintstones Family

0
0
I've had a good run of luck lately finding a handful of books here or there at Goodwill and then a couple of Grab-bags full of fun little toys to boot. This always makes me happy, as it feels balanced. And when all is balanced, all is right in the world. 

It is possible I am making more out of this "finding some books and grab-bags at Goodwill" thing than I should. 


Here's a quick look at the pile as a whole before we move forward. Now heeeere we go!


These knights are produced by Papo I believe. I myself don't really care about these kinds of toys, but my Aunt collects them, and so I keep an eye peeled for her when I'm out on the prowl. These guys and their horses were in a bag by themselves for a buck. Their weapons are completely destroyed, one snapped completely off, and the other appears to have been (ugh) chewed. Luckily, the weapons are interchangeable, so I removed the handles from their little hands before passing them on to my Aunt.


I already own a Sword of Omens from the 2011 animated reboot of the show, and mine is in much better condition because I bought it on clearance instead of secondhand. BUT in a judgement call I may question myself on for the next couple of decades of my life, I bought this sword for my sons to beat each other with. It went about as well as you'd expect.


This is not my first Sigma Six Stormshadow either, but this one is in MUCH nicer condition, and has his sash, pants, and scabbard intact. Unfortunately, none of his swords or other awesome weapons were included, except for the big stick thing with holes in the ends for... what? blades maybe? The other stuff in the bag were not Stormshadow's accessories. I'll find some substitute weapons for him at some point, I'm sure. Right now he stands proudly on my G.I. Joe shelf!


HEre are the contents of the bigger grab-bag in the set. Let's take a closer look.


The aforementioned Aunt also collects Hex-Bugs of any shape, size, or origin. So I knew as soon as I saw these Happy Meal toys that this bag would be coming home.


Also included was an assortment of Mario Brothers toys! I kept the Bob-Omb but most of the rest of these went to my kids. I only have a very tiny collection of Mario Bros. toys at this point and that's how I plan to keep things.


Plastic army men! The one I found to be significant is that one big guy near the middle. He's HUGE and I feel like he might actually be from a set or something? Anyone out there recognize him? I'm curious.


I already have a hula-dancing Spongebob, so the fact that this one has a broken nose is just fine. This is actually a set of cake toppers that goes along with the plastic Pineapple House I found back in 2012. So now I have the complete set! Man... I'm creeping up on my third blog-aversary! I've been doing this blog since July of 2012!


Here's a shot of the happy trio, with the unbroken nose-Spongebob included. 


Finally, here are some other random toys included in the bag as well. A Pirates of the Caribbean watch, and a couple of quarter-machine monsters that ended up on my ROYGBIV shelf of tiny plastic toys (They're on the "IV" shelf. I know skull guy looks red, but he's more magenta, so I place him in the violet category. Indigo and violet share a shelf.)


To add to my cassette collection: Blondie! "Parallel Lines" This is the one with "Heart of Glass""One Way or Another" and "Hanging on the Telephone" on it.


A couple of action adventure stars this time around in the book-haul... Batman in The Stone King, and Tarzan in The Return of Tarzan. I don't have a whole lot to say about either of these books as of yet... but I look forward to reading them.


A couple of Holiday books made it home as well! A kids' book adaptation of the Christmas movie, Elf and the Goosebumps book: Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns.


One of my all-time favorite books (and I love the film as well) The Outsiders. My bromance with this book begins waaay back in middle school. I actually already own a copy of this book, but I saw this one with the movie adaptation cover and I reeeeally wanted it.


Finally, I found this bizarro "Flintstones" Little Golden book. In this story there are no Pebbles or Dino, and instead Fred and Wilma have a sone named "Junior" and they get a pet dinosaur named Harvey that looks a lot like Dino, but grows to... well... dinosaur size over the course of the story.


This is bizarre. Did this book come out before the cartoon? I don't think that's possible honestly, but I can't otherwise explain the presence of Junior and Harvey. I'm sure I could figure this out if I did even a cursory Google search... but I like to pretend sometimes that I'm living in the 80's and that every answer to anything I'll ever have a question about doesn't exist on the internet somewhere.

Anyway! That's all I have for tonight kids! I'll be back with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies so until that tie arrives... Happy Hunting!

Cyborg, Beatniks, and Blood

0
0
Again with the books and grab-bag magic! This one comes with yet another Imperial monster toy as well! I could keep talking and talking and talking and... well, you get the idea, but instead let's take a look at what I brought home this time, shall we? 


Trotting right out to the front we have this Imperial beauty which, after a little bit of research turns out to be their idea of a Pegasus... but I call bulls--t and say this thing is a Jersey Devil!!! It's meant to stand on its back-legs with the tail propping it up, but when I found it, it was broken off, and so had to be super-glued back into place. I was lucky to even find the tail if we're being honest. Usually that stuff is nowhere to be found, and alas, that would have precluded me buying this guy at that point. But here we are dear reader! Tail glued firmly back in place, this guy looks downright MAJESTIC posed with the rest of my Imperial toys in the cave.


Now let's pick through that grab-bag. HEre are the total contents. We will NOT be going over the entire contents, as there were only a handful of things I even wanted. There was a ridiculous overabundance of Night at the Museum knight/top toys from Wendy's (oh how the mighty have fallen...) and though I don't feature it here, I did end up keeping the Easter Bunny toy because there is a disturbing lack or representation for the Easter Bunny here in the cave. But let's look at the other stuff now:


First, flying out of the DCU animated television universe, we have a "Beware the Batman" Happy Meal toy and a "Teen Titans Go!" Cyborg toy. Both of these dudes were judged "worthy" of positions on the Batman/DCU shelves, even if Cyborg is missing his projectile fist.


Let's be honest. The reason I bought the grab-bag was for Maxwell the pig here. He's one of the apparently hundreds of spokes-things for Geico insurance. He's somewhat lost his charm as they've begun to overuse him... but back when he first appeared in the "Wheee! Wheee! All the way home." ad... he was HILARIOUS:

"MAXWELL!"

And what I originally took to be some sort of bootleg Sesame Street merchandise (Can you tell me how to get to "Sesame Place?") actually turned out to be merchandise from a Sesame Street THEME PARK that I had previously not been aware of. Sesame Place is my Graceland folks. 


I also found these, which I found fascinating, in the cassette section. "The Beat Generation" vols. 1 & 3 (I did end up finding vol. 2 on another day). Thee include everything from readings from books, songs, and interviews that have to do with the Beat movement. Artists include Kerouac, Burroughs, Gilespie, and more. This is one of those situations that I genuinely regret not actually owning a tape-player to play this stuff on.


More cassettes include "Captain & Tennille's Greatest Hits", and "Creedence Clearwater Revival". I'm a sucker for music from the late 60's-70's.


To kick off my book finds from this particular trip, we have the horror anthology, Psychos which I promptly added to the Halloween read pile for this fall... and Tales of the Cthulu Mythos which is really interesting to me because it is an anthology containing not only H.P. Lovecraft's tales, but stories from other writers who have borrowed Lovecraft's concepts for their own, building on them.


I found an extra copy of Spaceballs: The Book and the strangely appropriate companion volume of Star Wars: Tales of the Bounty Hunters which is a Star Wars anthology of EU fiction that I just couldn't pass up. I've mentioned my disinterest in most Star Wars EU stuff here in the past, but The Mos Eisley Cantina, Han Solo, and Lando Calrissian have all made me contradict that in the past, and no so have the Bounty Hunters.


I found these novelisations of Jaws 2 and Jaws: The Revenge and almost peed a little. My friend Miss M over at the Diary of a Dorkette blog (and podcasting companion on both Geek Fallout and Eclectic Mayhem) is a big fan of all things Jaws, and that interest has infected me as well. Her favorite was Jaws 3 and I was disappointed not to find that particular volume... but still. 2 Jaws books are pretty great. But I have to be honest... I was even MORE excited to find the NEXT two novelizations:


Gremlins and The Return of Swamp Thing!!! Again, potential urination threatened. And Peter David wrote the Swamp Thing one!!! Can I just say how much I adore the Swamp Thing live-action costume? Man that thing is gnarly, both literally and figuratively.


So that's it kiddos! Between that Jersey Devil toy, the Geico-pig toy, and those kick-ass novelizations, I was pretty pumped to bring home this particular haul!

I will be back (hopefully sooner rather than later...) to share more Geeky Goodwill Goodies with all y'all! Until then, Happy Hunting!

Another Trip to Scottie's Books

0
0
So last year sometime I went back to "Scottie's Books" a little used bookstore (that I have a feeling may be getting ready to let out a death-rattle within the next few months... man that place just never seems to be doing business) in the area where I occasionally find some fun stuff in. Here's a link to last October's countdown post featuring some face-meltingly cool finds I made there. Anyway, this was just your run-of-the-mill trip to Scottie's, but I STILL managed to make some fun finds. So let's check them out! 


I brought home second copies of both Ray Bradbury's "The October Country" and Roger Zelazny's "Doorways in the and" for a friend. I love both of these books. Actually both of these authors. I have an extensive Zelazny collection, and my Bradbury collection is also picking up speed. I have certain authors that I consider to be "collectible," meaning I pick up books by them any time I spot one I don't already have, regardless of what I have or haven't heard about the books themselves. Both Zelazny and Bradbury are on that list for sure.


Another type of book I collect is movie novelizations. I rarely ever read them, but if the movie is good enough... or weird enough.. iconic enough... or just mind-numbingly bad enough... then I want a copy of the book they based off of that screenplay. Here we have a copy of X-Men 2, novelized by the one and only Chris Claremont. That actually has a pretty good shot of being read at some point. "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," even though it IS written by Steve Spielberg himself... is probably not going to get read any time soon.


This book is straight up WEIRD. Which is why I love it. It's not a comic-STRIP book per se, but a series of gags and one-liners, mostly illustrated. Maybe I'll explore this one more in-depth sometime in the future, and let you see the pages. It was an interesting find, and apparently, its just one in a series of this kind of ALF book.


Finally here are some 80's cartoon/toy inspired picture books I found. "Meet My Pet Monster" and "Wuzzles: Eleroo's Big Surprise," both of which I read to my kids that same night. I miss My Pet Monster so much! Yet another great creation from "Those Characters in Cleveland" who brought us Care Bears and Madballs!


So there you have it! 7 neato-cool books I found at Scottie's Books! I will of course be stopping in there for my annual "spooky books" hunt for my October Halloween countdown again this year... but just in case they permanently close their doors before fall gets here, I may want to make the trip sooner rather than later.

That's it for tonight kids! I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies in the near future! Until then, Happy Hunting!

A Package from Tintod!

0
0
So awhile back I set up a trade with the writer of one of my favorite blogs out there right now. Tintod of the Junk Fed blog fame! He and I are buddies on Instagram while also kind of knowing each other through the blogosphere. His blog is an amazing patchwork quilt of essays that reminisce and ruminate on different aspects of childhood and nostalgia. The posts on Junk Fed never fail to either touch my sense of sentimentality or make me think long and hard about how I see my own past. 

Great. Read. All around. 

Check Junk Fed out. 

So! Long story short, (too late) we set up a trade, Tintod and I. I'd like to share the sweet haul I received from him as a result. This is another case of a post long overdue, but better late than never. So let's take a look at what I got from him, shall we? 


First up, some shameless self-promotion on Tintod's part... but he's earned it. As you can see he's tossed in a couple of his business cards, promoting both his blog and his services as an illustrator. The guy is truly talented folks, so be sure to check out his work! 



On the backs of both the larger postcards is this ad for Tintod's "Space Madness" (click the link to check out Tintod's Store) custom action figure lineline:


A series that's had me drooling for some time now. But enough about how awesome Tintod is! Let's talk about how awesome Tintod's package is! (Wait...)


The whole trade was inspired by this Burger King Kid's Club Universal Monsters Frankenstein figure. This one completed my set of four! And funny thing is, all four of these guys came from online friends! 


(Dracula courtesy of Laura of Boobobby Blog, The Creature courtesy of Erik Johnson, Illustrator, and The Wolfman courtesy of Stacey Rader, the Geeky Vixen!) So now I have the complete creep quartet and I couldn't be happier! The trade extended waaay past ol' Frankie here though...


Tintod told me he wasn't sure if all the 150 pieces are here for this 10x14 jigsaw puzzle starring Evel Knievel and his Ring of Fire. But it doesn't matter either way, because he could have sent me the empty can and I would have been just as excited!


Next up we have this "The Fantastic World of D.C. Collins" VHS tape. I vaguely remember this film from my childhood, when the world was hitting the peak of its Gary Coleman FEVER. I'm not a VHS collector as many of my online friends are, but this one has a place of honor on my 80's shelf in the cave, alongside ones given to me by other blogging buddies. Any film starring "A Little Bitty Walter Mitty" has to be amazing.


Last but definitely not least, we have a Hotwheels Carvel Ice Cream Truck featuring Fudgie the Whale! Next to Frankenstein's Monster, this is probably the item that most tickled my fancy out of the whole lot. This baby was added to the wall of pop-culture Hotwheels IMMEDIATELY.


So here's a final peek at all of the contents of the box I received from sir Tintod, and I think you'll agree it was a fun bit of mail to receive indeed! Be sure to check out Tintod's blog, and be sure to listen to his recent appearance on the Nerd Lunch Podcast, where he waxes poetic about Doctor Who!

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

Another Trip to the Old Schoolhouse Antique Mall

0
0
There's an antique mall out in Brewer, ME that I've only dropped in on a couple of times now, and this post to follow reflects the second visit I've made out there. It's a fun place to check out once in awhile, as the stock doesn't really change frequently enough for me to make the trip out there more than maybe once or twice a year. But when I do, man the finds are fun! 


Here's a quick glimpse at everything I brought home from The Old Schoolhouse. But let's take a closer look, shall we?


First up, I already had a capeless version of this same Shadow action figure. But since this one HAS the cape, I couldn't pass it up, This is pretty much the one action figure from the line put out to support the 1994 Alec Baldwin film that actually just looks like the character without any weird bells or whistles. Would I love it if I had the pistols that go along with this shadowy hero? Yes I would. But at least now I have an action figure that represents the character as he should look.


This Miss Piggy in repose is a Benjamina Gunn Muppets Treasure Island Happy Meal toy from 1996. I love the look of this toy, and the colors are amazing. So far I have Piggy and Fozzie from this set, and I honestly wouldn't mind tracking down the rest. I made the mistake of finding and passing over a Gonzo toy from this same line about a year before this, and have been kicking myself ever since!


This little Green fellow is an "Outer Terrestrial Creature" toy produced by Marty Toys back in 1983. This guys name is "Mooky" and on top of being a bendy toy, he's preternaturally top-heavy due to a special "Somersault Action" that these toys had, which basically meant that if you toppled them over, they flipped. I absolutely ADORE weird old toy lines like the one Mooky here comes from. It's precisely these kinds of discoveries that keep me picking through old junk as a hobby.


This might not strike you as ridiculously exciting... but for me, finding this 1996 Burger King wind-up "Scud" toy from the original Toy Story movie was a dream come true. I've been eye-balling these things on eBay for years now, and all because I wanted a Scud toy of an approximately appropriate scale to display with my Toy Story Buddies collection:


And this Scud fits the bill perfectly. (P.S. If anyone has an extra Etch-a-Sketch with Chickenman, Snake-and-Robot 2-pack, or any mini toys of the mutant toys from the first film... contact me. There's only like 5 toys left that I want or need to finish this collection off).


I used to religiously track down the M&M tubes every Christmas JUST for the ornaments on top. I don't do it anymore because they don't really make them either a.) new every year... they just recucle old designs repeatedly... or b.) they don't make them at all. Couldn't spot any M&M ornament tubes at ALL this past year... -sob-. So finding this little brown M&M skier really made my day!!! I feel like the brown M&M's are seriously underrepresented in toy/ornament form, since the reds and yellows and greens are so much more festive... so this guy really stands out!


I am now 1/6th closer to having a complete set of Fisher Price Little People to represent each of the Village people. I could literally NOT be more excited than I am about this fact. Look at this guy! I apologize if this toy is seen as horrifically racist. I really do. But it came from a time when toys like this were beloved.

And I belove him.

Please don't hate me.


I am not afraid to admit that I adore Marge Simpson. Probably to an inappropriate degree. And disturbingly, there is a whole LOT of inappropriate material out there on the internet (please, for the love of all that is good... do NOT Google it, as some of it will just make you lose faith in humanity) to support a man with my kind of carnal cartoon lust. Fortunately, I don't need to go looking because my collection of Marge Simpsons toys is growing healthily, (can the jokes you pervs) thank you very much. I now proudly own two of the toys from this, the very first line of Burger King Kids Club premiums to feature the Simpsons.


There was also a handful of fun books to be had while I was picking around the Old Schoolhouse too! This Bugs Bunny's Adventures copyrighted from 1948 is practically an illustrated chapter book. I picked this up with a friend in mind.


I will never not buy illustrated adaptations of Garfield TV specials. This one is from Garfield On the Town, which was the second special to star Garfield. In this one, he meets his mother and the rest of his extended family, and learns to be (somewhat) thankful for the life he leads with Jon and Odie. If this was being produced today, you wouldn't see the cigarette butts on the ground near Garfield's feet. Just a random observation.


Have I mentioned my undying love for Punky Brewster on this blog before? I think I have. So finding a kids' book dedicated to one of her animated adventures (with Glomer in the mix!) would obviously be a Holy Grail for me. So I brought it home. 



So that's it for tonight kids, but I'll be back soon with Geeky Goodwill Goodies before you know it! Until then, Happy Hunting! 

Giant Bots and Legs from Butts.

0
0
So here's a pile of loot from last fall or early last winter, sometime shortly after Thanksgiving, from a trip to the Brewer, ME store. It's a nice haul, and it's waited a while to finally be seen. So let's dig in! 


Right off the bat, I am ALWAYS on the lookout for these Napa Valley CD cases, because they so perfectly work as little knick-knack shelves to display toys in. So bringing home my THIRD case was pretty exciting. All of these are on my desk, facing me, so I make sure to put all my very favorite toys on them so I can look at them all the time.


I brought home a pretty big grab-bag too, so let's see what's inside.


Here are the contents, all piled together, and as you can see, there was a pretty diverse collection of good trapped in this bag, waiting to be set free.


First up a couple of Animaniacs toys. I like Animaniacs toys, don't get me wrong... but I'm not a huge fan of those weird, plastic accordion tubes that are holding these together. They're weird, and as a kid, any toys that had them attached would ALWAYS get stretched out too far and destroyed. So as much as I like the characters, I passed these along to a new home.


These are from 1993's "Makin' Movies" Happy Meal toy line. They weren't a licensed property, so this was just one of those McDonald brand sets of toys that I absolutely ADORE. I missed these as a kid, mainly (probably) due to the fact that I was 15 when these came out and was past caring about Happy Meal toys (for a while). But I can love them now. I do love them NOW.


There were four... FOUR of these Dr. Robotnik (or Dr. Eggman or whatever) Burger King toys in the bag. That is all I have to say about that, really.


These are quite possibly my two favorite items from the bag. The first one is "Rhino" (no not "Rhinox" apparently...) and despite not being even a LITTLE BIT of a a fan of Beast Wars Transformers, I have a ridiculous affection for all of the Happy Meal Beast Wars Transformers toys. It's true! I currently own three of them, and I have no idea who the heck they are, but they are all so impossibly awkward in their design that I can't help but love the ever-loving HECK out of them. THIS ROBOT SPROUTS ITS LEGS OUT THE BUTT OF A RHINOCEROS. Your argument is belong to us.

Ace Ventura: Beast Wars Edition
Beside that beautiful and artfully designed Transformer, I also found a Z-Bot in the bag! This fellow's name is Buzzsaw, and he is yet another one of the Z-Bots from Burger King, in other words: one of the 5 Z-Bots ever produced that I am actually interested in owning. (I have Turbine, Jawbreaker, Skyviper, and Buzzsaw here. I only need Bugeye to complete the quintet).


I so completely remember the first half of this commercial (before the Z-Bots are introduced)... it's downright creepy. 


Creepy Pocahontas head in a basket, like some weird Disney Native American version of SE7EN, and Phoebus from the Hunchback. The random Disney characters Happy Meal toys portion of our program is now complete.


Another HUGE highlight of the bag is this little guy right here. This is Doodle Bug. He's from the Glo Friends line that accompanied the Glo Worm line of toys, who all additionally starred in a cartoon. I used to have a Glo Worm. The original. The long green Mr. Hanky shaped toy from the 80's.

The guy on the... ri-- no the left. The guy on the left.
I LOVED MY GLO WORM. So much in fact that I was constantly running through batteries and in need of another glo-fix. It got bad man. But I got help. And now I'm the man I am today and I am not defined by my Glo-diction. Except now here's Doodle Bug. 

And I'm back to square one. 


I am a sucker for these wooden push-puppet toy things, especially when they are holiday themed. I didn't notice when I took the picture, but the black thing on its underarm is not a weird mole that needs attention. It's actually a crow that should have been flipped up the other way so it would be facing us.


Now for the books!


A couple of nice Thanksgiving themed books to read to my kids when the holiday rolls around.


I picked up this copy of Lloyd Alexander's The Black Cauldron specifically for the cover art. It is amazing. That's part of what convinced me to pick up Adventures in Time and Space as well, because I liked the cover art so much... but I also hope that one's a good read as well. I already know the Black Cauldron is a good read, as this is like... the 3rd copy I now own, and I've read it almost as many times.


These were both nice surprises. I have a long-time love of Garfield because of my childhood association with it. So finding a copy of the very first collection of Garfield strips was a must-have. The Batman digest is nice because if you flip it over, there's a Superman comic book on the other side! These are both done in the style of their respective animated TV serieses as well.


How can you lose when it's a Bugs Bunny Little Golden Book? You can't. That's how.


I never knew that the Iron Giant was a book by Ted Hughes and Dirk Zimmer before becoming one of my favorite animated films of all time.


However, the book has a MUCH different skew to it than the movie did. I much prefer the movie, I must say, but this is an interesting story too, In the book there is a monster that is giant even when compared to the Iron Giant. So there's that to deal with.


Finally, I found a couple of cassettes. These are some excellent, EXCELLENT cassettes to have found. Joe Cocker is f**king amazing. He just is. If you don't think so then you listen to music wrong. And the Eric Clapton edition of Unplugged is easily on of the best sessions to ever come out of the "Unplugged" concept. So... I was pretty happy to have found these.

Well! That was quite the journey, but we got through it together, and now it is time to rest our weary heads. So... that's all there is for tonight kids! I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies. So, until that time Happy Hunting!

Another Package from Miss M!!!

0
0
I have a good friend, Miss M, whom I often podcast with (on both the Geek Fallout podcast and the Eclectic Mayhem podcast) whose blog, Diary of a Dorkette, is a MUST read, and with whom I also often exchange packages of pure FUN with on a semi-regular basis.

So another one of THOSE showed up a while ago, and in typical Goodwill Geek fashion, I have put off blogging about it for MUCH too long. So let's take a look at what Miss M sent my way, shall we?


First up there were some Star Wars toys included. The loose figure there is Zam Wessel, a shapeshifting bounty hunter whose right arm is removable as she gets it light-sabered off apparently? (Thanks Wookie-Pedia!) still on the card there is Jabba the Hutt lackey, Bib Fortuna! I freed him from his carbonite prison and quickly added him to my Star Wars shelf.


Here we have a Toothless and a Dragon trap from the series of toys put out to promote the second film (or the second film put out to promote the toys, depending on how cynical you feel like being...)


A few previous packages from Miss M had included X-Men characters that were missing some of the accessories. Miss M thoughtfully held onto these for me and included them here!


And finally, what I think are my absolute favorite items of the pack, this Miss Yvonne figure from the Pee-Wee's Playhouse line, and the Christmas card (this was meant to be a Christmas gift LAST YEAR... did I not mention that... since it is now MAY???) which definitely evokes Pee-Wee's Bicycle from the Pee-Wee's Big Adventure film. Miss Yvonne immediately started hanging off the shoulders of all the Masters of the Universe figures, which immediately made them all very uncomfortable, except for Prince Adam, who seemed to really get along well with her. 


Here's one last look at the box of pure FUN sent to me by Miss M! I want to make sure I send out a heartfelt THANK YOU to her, and make sure everybody knows what a great person and friend she is!

Well that's it for tonight kids! But I'll be back soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!

A Package from the Trash Man!

0
0
You may have noticed by now that I have a habit of waiting waaay too long to thank people for stuff they've sent me. If you haven't noticed this, then you are about to notice. Maybe you're new here. 

So this post is going to be all about a package sent to me by my good friend Brian Farrell, otherwise known as the "Trash Man" curator of the Pop Pop! It's Trash Culture blog. He sends me stuff from time to time, and I return the favor from time to time. Let's dig in and see what he sent to me this time, shall we? 


First up, Brian and I try to help each other out as much as we can. Since he knows I don't frequent comic shops (there are none easily accessible in my area), and this Nebula MiniMate was a comic shop exclusive, I asked Brian if he would snag one for me if he could and save me the cost of going eBay-diving for it. As usual, Brian came through and really did me a solid. I am super appreciative, as this completed my GotG MiniMates collection.

My one complaint with this MiniMates line is that they made a duplicate Sakaar Trooper when they could have made the Collector, Korath, Corpsman Dey or even Nova Prime. There were several criminally overlooked characters that could have been packed in exclusively with Nebula. Oh well, at least the Sakaar Trooper is an army builder, so it works.


Also included was this View-MAster circa 1980-something, and some slides to view, starring none other than Toy Story, Knight Rider and the Muppets!!!


It would be weird if there were no collectors' cards included in a package from Brian, and he did NOT disappoint. I suspect very strongly that this Fright Flicks wax pack was hand-picked for me due to my absolute adoration of Pumpkinhead. I have not opened it. This is one of the wax packs that I will be keeping unopened and intact as an objet d'art.

I DID open the Marvel Universe Series II pack so I could see what characters I got. This series has always stood out in my mind due to some of the cards being illustrated beautifully by Arthur Adams. Thanos, Dr Doom, Speedball, and a battle between the Thing and the Hulk all have Mr. Adams's distinctive art on display.


Brian also knows of my weakness for Choose Your Own Adventure books. So he knew that Museum of the Living Dead, which is a "Plot-It-Yourself Horror Story" and Demons of the Deep which is a "Fighting Fantasy Gamebook" (Steve Jackson of Gurps and Munchkins fame???) would be right up my alley!


Also included were these issues of the (in my opinion) BEST Cloak and Dagger comic book series of all time: Strange Tales Featuring: Cloak & Dagger and Doctor Strange!!! This one even features Power Pack! Three more issues to put towards completing my run!


This Goodebumps-style book may not seem remarkable to you... but if you look closer you see there's just nothing right about this cover at all.


Gah, I bet it smells awful in there. 


Some of the absolute BEST and surprising items in the box were this Battle Beast, "Tarsier Tyrant" and this Monster in My Pocket, "Bigfoot". Both of these toy lines were ones I collected as a lad. Here you can see Tarsier Tyrant about to pimp-slap Bigfoot. 

He owes him money. 


But my absolute FAVORITE items above all else in the box were these three items right here. A 1988 issue of MAD magazine, featuring the California Raisins on the cover, the first California Raisins cassette "The California Raisins Sing the Hit Songs," and a "it-just-occured-to-me-how-weird-this-is-as-an-adult" pin-on button of the California Raisins all climbing into a hot tub together, that I actually owned as a kid. I am a HUGE California Raisins fan. There are few properties that I have such strong and clearly remembered nostalgia for the way I do for the C.R.'s. As a kid, I was obsessed.

So that was the entire package sent to me by the Trash Man, and as usual, he knows what makes me geek out. I wanted to send a proper thank you out to him, for being such a good friend on top of the cool swag.

Be sure to listen to us, along with our buddies Miss M of the Diary of a Dorkette blog, and Jason Roberts of the Nerdy Life of Mine blog on our fledgling podcast Eclectic Mayhem. At this point we're only a few episodes in, but we make up for it with pure insanity.

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

Goodwill Finds: King Kong, Star Wars, and More!

0
0
Welcome friends! I have such sights to share... So without further hyperbole or ado, let us begin. 


Here we have the entire haul in one shot. So let's dig in, shall we? Let's get a closer look at all this stuff.


First up, a Sly and the Family Stone Greatest hits compilation. I love, Love, LOVE 70's funk music, and Sly and the Family Stone is one of the greatest bands to come out of that era (for me anyway, I'm not going to pretend to be a music historian by any means). But there are SO many great songs on this cassette you guys.


Terry Pratchett has passed away in the time between me buying these books and writing this post. I still have a hard time processing this. Mr. Pratchett's stories are just so good, and full of wry humor, and life, and heart, and genuine warmth, and a sharp eye and tongue directed at everyone and everything equally. It is hard to believe he's gone now. Hard to believe the door to Discworld will be permanently closed and that what we've got is all we've got. But that's life I guess.

I don't even ponder whether or not I should pick up Terry Pratchett books when I see them. They never disappoint.


This is my second of Stephen King's crime thriller stories under the Hardcase Crime banner. I still haven't read Joyland either. and now I have The Colorado Kid to add to the pile. That's sort of my M.O. though, right? Always adding to the pile?


Speaking of... here's a copy of Blackbeard's Ghost with the Disney movie cover, which is technically not a novelization... but is close enough. It's about a ghost pirate. C'mon now.


This is where I picked up my copy of Garfield's Thanksgiving! This is the comic adaptation of the TV special, and as usual, there are a slight, strange variations in there. I've never been as much of a fan of the Thanksgiving special as I am the Christmas and especially the Halloween special... but it's still right up there. We watch it religiously every year.


THIS GUY. I mean whoah. This is am Imperial Toys King Kong toy! I love finding classic imperial toys at Goodwill. Nothing brightens my day in quite the same way. This toy is so cool. This was definitely the highlight of the trip. Everything else is downhill from here I'm afraid.


Which is really too bad, because all I have left is this big grab-bag full of toys...


And here are the contents. Let's get with the closer look already!


Included in the bag were a BUNCH of Mega Bloks pirates mini figures. The majority of these are just okay in my opinion, but there were three truly stand-out figures in the bunch:


And those three are right here. First of all, we have a skeletal pirate. I'm no stranger to this line, as my daughter picked out one of the mini skull playsets for me for father's day back when these were a brand new thing (maybe 7-8 or more years ago?) so I'm no stranger to how neat-o cool these can be. Starting on the left we have the skeleton, and then the pirate captain, with a peg-leg, ring in his beard, and an eyepatch. Finally, we have arguably the very best character of all: Some sort of witch doctor islander with scary eyes, a rooster comb, and a skull painted on his face. I love these things SO MUCH.


There were also a couple of random LEGO mini-figs in the mix. Not 100% sure who these guys are or what they're from. I ended up giving them to my son.


Also given to my sons to play with were these half-dozen Star Wars Attactix toys. I'm not into the prequels so I didn't want any of the clone troopers, and I honestly didn't care about the Tie Fighter pilot either. Nothing says fatherly love like handing over a pile of toys that fire tiny hard projectiles with alarming force to a couple of young boys who can barely go 5 minutes without getting into a fight.


Also in the bag was this broken Electro figure. He's sad, so we won't talk about him anymore.


What was NOT given over to my sons? These guys. Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader figures that both ended up on my Star Wars collection shelf. There's a lesson in here somewhere about father/son relationships... but for the life of me I couldn't tell you what it would be.

Moving on.


This thing.

It was in the bag.

Don't know what it is, what it comes from, what it's for.


There is a grey pressure plate inside it, that when pushed, snaps the whole thing shut. Sort of like a trap... but it doesn't really scream "IT'S A TRAP" like you-know-who. Mainly because there's also what appears to be some sort of handle-bars inside it as well. So part of a vehicle maybe? I've been trying to investigate this for a while... and still nothing. It's baffling. If you know anything about it, let me know in the comments below.

UPDATE: This toy belongs to a Robots (as in the animated film called Robots) playset. Mystery solved.

Well kids... that's it for tonight! I'll be back with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies soon enough! But until that happens, Happy Hunting!
Viewing all 299 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images