Goodwill Quick Stop 08-09-2013 Toys! Comics! Cool Stuff Galore!

On my way home from work on Friday I decided to stop in to Goodwill for one of my patented "quick-stops" this means I breeze through the departments I'm most likely to find something good without really digging much. I hit the toy department, scan the books, and look at the case at the front of the store. 

GOODWILL GEEK TIP #765: Always check the glass case or cases near the register. You NEVER know what they're going to stick in that case... sometimes its all just old costume jewelry but it could be old game cartridges, or steak knives, or vintage action figures, or sex how-to books, or anything they think may be valuable and/or dangerous for kids to get their hands on for whatever reason. Some of it may be obvious, but some of it will probably have you scratching your head. 

In the many glass cases of the Goodwills I frequent I have found: a bag of Masters of the Universe action figures, a bag of McDonalds vintage Happy Meal Cars, a can of Duff Beer from the Simpsons that turned out to house one-sixth of a dice game... the list goes on, but I will not. In fact, two of my quick-stop finds in this post were out of the glass cases by the registers! ALWAYS CHECK THE CASE

For instance, I found is set of 1991 Archie toy cars from Burger King in the case. I'm not a huge Archie fan, but this was a cool set, and I do enjoy have icons of different sorts in my collection. Plus the cars are all very cool. 

I love that the "big 4" of the Archies are all represented here, and that each has a distinct looking automobile that seems to match their personalities. Archie in his old-fashioned fun-loving jalopy, Betty in her classic Cadillac, Veronica in her suped up sports car, and Jug-Head in something that says Volkswagen to me, but I really don't know for cars... so feel free to enlighten me.

 

They have General Motors markings on the bottoms in addition to the Burger King and Archie stuff so I am led to believe these are genuine car models. I never liked them much as a kid but as an adult I'm becoming a sucker for any kind of old-school Fast Food premium with a famous character driving a toy car.

I paid 1.99 for each of these, making the set just under 8 bucks, and less than that with my discount card... but I still had this twinge of feeling like I was over-paying. I really fell in love with them though so I went ahead and brought them home. 

The next item I found was sitting in with the board games and puzzles in the toy department. It's a 2001 Dexter's Laboratory Coloforms playset! I've read enough blog posts from fellow bloggers to know how much fun Colorforms can be, so I snapped these up for .99 cents without hesitation. I was worried that when I got them home some of the pieces might be missing or damaged...

But I was relieved to discover that was not the case! All 32 Colorform Pieces were present, whole, and accounted for! They still stick to the background included like magic too! I was kind of disappointed by the selection of Colorform pieces to play with, as I know there were more crazy events and experiments that could have been represented rather than say... a loose lightbulb or a grandafather clock. I find it hard to believe kids would have had much to "play" with this set. But I still love that it reminds me of my childhood, and the Colorforms I had back then. They feel just the same. And I'm a big Dexter's fan so I can't complain. 

Kicking around loose on the shelf is yet another Dexter item, and I can only assume he was shucked from a grab-bag (This happens a lot. People pop open grab-bags and leave the contents strewn everywhere. It drives me insane) because he had no price tag so they just charged me .99 cents for him. The weirdest thing about him? He's a Subway Kid's Meal toy! I never thought Subway had anything worth bothering with in their kid's meals! This was of course from 2001 so it's been like, 12 years... they've probably had quite a few hits and misses in that time. 

Here's Dexter in his new home with some other fellows. I sort of see Dexter either teaming up with or facing off against Inspector Gadget. It just feels right. 

I cannot explain why I bought this book. It is a Perry Mason mystery/crime novel. It is "The Case of the Mythical Monkeys" I think... I think that the image of the monkeys and the title... juxtaposed with the hot "ready-and-waiting" red-headed bombshell... just got me. I will never read this book, just to be clear. I could easily just tear off the cover, frame it, and hang it on the wall. I won't do that because it causes me physical pain to deface books in such a manner... but I need to display this awesome piece of ridiculousness SOMEHOW. I only paid .99 cents for it, so I don't feel TOO guilty.

And of course, I can never leave a Choose Your Own Adventure book behind if I spot it. This one is particularly old, and is only #4 in the series. "Space and Beyond"" looks a little silly to be honest, based off the illustrations alone. The hero of the story has a chin that is larger than the rest of his head. I got this for .99 cents. 

And last but not least I found a parcel of comic books in the glass case up front! At first I sighed because the pack was 9.99 and I'm SO tired of Goodwill over-pricing old comic books... and then when I asked to see the pack and realized it contained sixteen issues of Power-pack... and THREE of them were Inferno tie-ins... I decided I would buy! That's like .63 cents per issue, and I'm okay with that. Not only that, but if you look above, there's a guest appearance by Nightcrawler and I suspect the Morlocks. 

I've never really followed Power Pack. I think I have a couple of loose issues somewhere in my collection (none of the ones I picked up here). I know a little bit about the characters and their powers, and some of their history That's only because I used to make it my business to know anyone and everyone in the Marvel Universe. But I've never really read any stories. These will be my first official foray into Power Pack territory. Hey look! The New Mutants guest star in one of these too!

Here's a three-issue story-arc featuring Galactus! The far right comic in the far right picture there is a Holiday special that came out in '93. "An All New Story from the Original Creators!"

I mentioned a while back that I've been having a bit of a dry spell at Goodwill. AND THEN... I run in for a quick-stop and I come home with some pretty cool stuff like all this! This was a fun little handful of great stuff and I walked out whistling!

Well, that's it for me today! I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!