Update on the Toxicity!!!

So, just the other day, I posted about the Toxic Crusaders Poster Book I found (where else) at Goodwill.

I was waffling back and forth about whether to pop open the plastic and take out the poster book. The back cover clinched it for two reasons:  1. There was apparently a story to go along with the posters... and 2. There was an advertisement for the poster book on it's own back. a "Look for this other title we sell" sort of add, but it showed the exact book that was on the front cover...

This seemed too odd to simply be a print error on what was surely a pretty cheap piece of obscure early 90's merchandising. Then looking closer at the spine of the book I let out a gasp of the kind of astonishment that the Wright Brothers must have felt when their first airplane actually swept up into the air instead of crashing to earth.

So I shucked that puppy like an ear of corn and found:

(find out more after the jump!)

A Road Trip

So I have just recently joined the League of Extraordinary Bloggers, and this week's assignment:
Plan out the Ultimate Pop Culture Road Trip! Sounds pretty easy right? Hmmm... Where do I want to go? Well, for me, it's not so much the destination... it's the journey.

I think I would want to travel across the US and see all of the best and wackiest roadside attractions, and hit a few out-of-the-way Goodwills while I'm at it.

See all my stops after the jump!

Today's Toxicity

Popped into the Ellsworth, ME Goodwill today during Family Laundry Day (just yet one more observance that we'll never have to mess with again after our move...) and picked up a nice little pile of loot.

More details after the jump!

Fartsy Arts

So I have a soft spot for quirky art. Velvet paintings of Dogs playing poker... Images of theLast Supper starring breakfast cereal mascots... sculptures built from old army men and spray painted gold.

If it's weird... I appreciate it.

So in my meanderings, is it really a surprise that I would find and love and collect a few quirky art books?

Today's entry is dedicated to books collecting some quirky art subjects... but just a fair warning, not all of them were bought at Goodwill. In the spirit of this site though, they were all bought either second-hand, at salvage/surplus stores, or I just can't remember where I bought them, and I'm sharing them anyway.

In Maine there's a chain of surplus and salvage stores called Mardens and three of the books I'm sharing today came from these stores. In fact, there will very likely be further entries on this blog dedicated to things I've found at Mardens, because the deals are so good, and the shopping is so random, it sometimes feels like a thrift store with a few notable exceptions.

So here is a shot of my collection as it stands so far. A nice, weird assortment of various different topics.

For more details, hit the jump!

Why be a Geek?

I hide it to a degree when in mixed company... at work I cringe when someone points out that they know I collect action figures/comic books/role playing games/PEZ dispensers/geeky graphic tees... I try in smaller ways to let my freak flag fly, or take larger steps like writing this blog...

But wouldn't it be easier to just not be a geek?

Let me tell you all about it, after the jump.

A Wild Goodwill Weekend

So this is the story of four (count them, four) different Goodwills here in the good old state of Maine.

This past weekend my daughter went out for the weekend to Portland, ME with her aunt, and hit the plus-sized Goodwill. While she was down there she bought these:

She picked these up as a gift for me, knowing how much I love the Gremlins. These guys are from 1991, measure in at about 9.5-10 inches (depending if you count ear height...) and cost her a measly .99 cents apiece. I flipped out when she brought these home for me. She's a good kid. But that's not all! She brought home a big rubber dinosaur for her youngest brother (not pictured)... but for our middle child she brought home the toy of his dreams:

My son has just recently been introduced to the Transformers through Transformers: Prime (he's 3), and he has a general idea of who Unicron is. My daughter brought this home and gave it to my son, and he was ecstatic. I was blind with envy. I was extremely impressed with my daughter's Goodwill savvy. She paid 2.99 for this hulking guy (price tag still attached), who was produced back in 2003, and measures about 14 inches tall from head to heel. His right hand still flashes a red light, so he's still functional, electronically. He's missing a handful of snap-on parts, which is one of those risks when one hunts for geeky goodness at Goodwill... but my son didn't care. GIANT ROBOT!!! 

After my daughter's trip to Portland with her aunt, she went for a girl's-day-out with her mom, to look for school clothes and do other girly things. While she was out, I took my two sons out on a trek to three different local (and semi-local) Goodwill stores: Ellsworth ME, Brewer ME, and Bangor ME.

Here's a highlight shot of just some of the haul:

I say highlight because this is only a small sliver of the books I brought home, but these were the most immediately exciting, and the ones I chose not to pack away so I would have something to post on this blog (We're in the process of a move in the next few weeks). There were also some toy cars and things I picked up for the boys, but those would mostly bore you. 

I'll talk about the books first, as Ray Bradbury's "The October Country" is a book I have been HUNTING for for months now. It's out of print currently, and I have been desperate to find a copy. I think I let out an audible gasp in the book section of the Bangor Goodwill when I found this book. It is hailed as a masterpiece for fans of Halloween (and of Ray Bradbury) so I've been trying to track it down. .99 cents baby!

The Dungeons and Dragons Endless Quest books were found in the Ellsworth store. I looove these old books, and I always pick them up whenever I see them. If I find duplicates, I pick them up for the kids (my copies are mine, sorry kids). These were .99 cents apiece. 

I never turn away a Madball either. Only the second Madball I've ever found by chance while out hunting, this is the real deal, "Crack Head" as he was originally named, from 1985 (it's stamped on the back). This was another find where I'm sure someone else in the store probably turned around to see whose little girl was squealing in joy. Between this and the copy of October Country, it made Bangor my favorite Goodwill of the day. another .99 cent purchase. 

Here we have an Astro Boy Happy Meal toy from 2009, and a Sigma 6 Sky B.A.T. from 2006 (also missing all of his clip-on accessories, which frankly, I can live without. He looks awesome without them to the point where I think I prefer him wingless and without the weird fire-extinguisher-looking things that go on his elbows. He kind of reminds me of Scud the Disposable Assassin just the way he is.) I just really liked the Astro Boy toy, especially the half-cutaway view where we see his robot guts. These guys were .99 cents apiece at the Ellsworth store. Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto!

This is a Sesame Street Honker bean bag toy from 1997. I bought it because I love Sesame Street, and because this is a weird character to have produced. It's not Oscar or Elmo or Grover or Cookie Monster. He's a Honker. And that's awesome. .99 cents from the Ellsworth store. 

Last but not least, I found this bag of plastic guys. I can't figure out why blogger won't let me put the picture in here sideways... so tilt your heads to the right please. You may or may not be able to tell that these are mostly astronaut figures in red, white and blue. There are a handful of other little plastic figures mixed in too, such as an odd yellow dog, a little pink cowboy guy, and a red plastic camel with a palanquin on it's back. I got the whole plastic pack of them for 1.99 at the Brewer Goodwill. There were no date stamps on any of these, so I have no idea when they were produced. 

So that entire pile of loot above cost me less than 10.00 and since I have a discount card (yes, shit just got real) it cost me even less than THAT. 

I'm just beginning to scratch the surface here people. You have no idea what second-hand  nerdy goodness is hiding out there if you're just willing to go Goodwill Hunting. 

The Calm Before the Storm...

So I am officially going to try and make a foray into the realm of Collector's Blogging. This blog will focus mainly on what I pick up in my weekly to bi-weekly trips to Goodwill, but will expand to talk about anything I choose to add as the mood strikes. My trips to Goodwill focus mostly on toys and books, and I really want to show how a Geek on the prowl can procure some truly awesome items second hand. This post is mainly just a place-holder card so my blog isn't empty... but I'll give you a little taste:

Here we have 9 tiny E.T. figures. They are all solid tan plastic, no paint at all, a little over an inch tall, with a 1982 copyright with “Universal City Studios, Inc.” stamped on the back. I notice they all have numbers on the back, down between the feet, ranging from 1-9, but some of my 9 figures have duplicate numbers.

I picked these up in a plastic baggy at Goodwill for 99 cents.

Now, I have no idea where these figures originated. A boardgame? Movie theater giveaways? I've been trying to research them for a while now, and I can find a few folks trying to sell them, but no real origin story.  I'll keep you all updated as information comes in.