I made a quick trip to the Ellsworth Mardens just the other day...
I was kind of hoping I'd find some of the Masters of the Universe Classics figures I've been hearing about lately showing up at Big Lots. After all, I a few years back I found the only-released-in-Canada third wave of the GI Joe Combat Heroes there:
And it's also where I found those Marvel Family and Justice Guild Justice League Unlimited Matty Collector exclusives that I mentioned back in May:
So I was actually thinking my chances were pretty good considering that track record. I don't have any Big Lots in my vicinity so I take what I can get. Mardens is a Maine-based chain of surplus and salvage stock stores... sort of a local clone of Big Lots, hence the weird exclusive toys that show up from time to time.
Unfortunately I was out of luck. BUT I didn't leave empty handed. I made some really great finds that almost-but-not-quite had me as excited as if I had!
First up they had a pile of these Spiderwick books. I really like this series by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi, but the books are a bit light, and I've been saying for years that they should have just collected all five volumes into one big book and call it good. Well lo and behold, they did just that! I picked myself up a copy for 2.99. There's a lot of great extras included in the back, including a series of other artists' renditions of characters and moments from the series! The stories themselves are good. It's DiTerlizzi's illustrations here that make the world of the book really feel earthy and amazing. The movie that came out in 2008 just didn't do it justice. I think if Henry Selick ever got ahold of this and did a stop-motion version inspired by DiTerlizzi's illustrations... it would be EPIC. Not literally the movie EPIC... which is also about fairies... but the traditional use of the word.
I found a couple of these great, MEGO-esque McDonaldland Characters from Huckleberry toys. These were produced in 2008 and I kind of LOVE THEM. They only had two out of the five figures available in the set. No Grimace... No Hamburglar... No Captain Crook... But they did have two! Ronald was the first one to catch my eye. To be honest, I'm not as huge of a fan of Ronald here with his rooted Barbie hair, as I am...
Mayor McCheese!!! I decided I would not be taking these guys out of their packaging as I really like the over-all effect of seeing them in there. Entombed. In plastic. Forever. I miss the old McDonald Gang... I wasn't around for the full-fledged trips to McDonaldLand with the Apple Pie Trees and the Burger Patch... but I remember Mayor McCheese and Officer Big Mac playground equipment! I especially loved Hamburglar and Grimace and Birdie the Early Bird... Sigh. Those were the days. Of course, I've already displayed my love for McDonald's themed Happy Meal toys on here before... and these two McDonaldLand characters look great on that shelf right alongside!
Anyway... I like Mayor McCheese here SO much that I picked up an extra one to give away! Yes! That's right! I'm doing my very first bona fide contest here on Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks! Mayor McCheese can be yours!!! All you have to do to enter to win is recount your favorite McDonald's memory in the comments below! It can be a commercial, a toy, an awesome visit to one of their restaurants... whatever you want. Just give me a memory and you're entered in the drawing. (And I'm sorry, but "I don't like McDonald's, so let me give you my favorite -insert other random food chain here- memory instead" won't cut it. If you don't like McDonald's wait for the next contest. What would you even want this for?) The cut-off is August 31st Midnight, Eastern time. THEN on September 1st I will draw someone who submitted a favorite McDonald's memory at random from the list (TRULY at random! I will NOT play favorites here, I promise) and notify them here on my blog that they have won their very own MAYOR MCCHEESE!!! It's that easy! OH! And I will mail this internationally if need be, so Hobgoblin of the Monster Cafe Saltillo (and any other readers I have outside the states)... feel free to enter this contest!
Well, I'll be back soon with more actual Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then Happy Hunting! And Good luck McDonald's Geeks!
My favorite McDonald's memory is when I was a little kid in elementary school. My mom took me to McDonald's for lunch and I was always a big fan of the Filet 'O Fish sandwich. It's the only thing I ate there. That all changed on this memorable day. Some of the McD's staff was walking around with a large tray of a new food they were offering to people to try. It was a giant tray of Chicken McNuggets and various dipping sauces. I remember them coming to our table and explaining what they are and letting us try some with the dips. Once I had a McNugget w/ honey sauce I never wanted to have anything else at McD's. That was my go-to food there for years and years. Eventually I stopped eating them completely and just having their burgers, but why I switched is another story. ;-)
ReplyDeleteIf I don't win I will be so sad. I already did a post about Mcdonalds in one of my blogs. If I had not opened the Monster Cafe, I would have done a retro Mcdonalds. I love those characters as well. I had them all as a kid, including the train set.
ReplyDeleteI hate it that HR PufnStuff won a lawsuit that makes these characters disappear. I was thrilled when Huckleberry toys was doing them again. They even showcased a second series with the professor and fryguys. I have it saved and look at it from time to time. My favorite was Officer Big Mac though. When I was a kid I climbed into the jailcell mouth of his at the Mcdonaldland playground and stayed for quite awhile. Dad had to coax me down. Years later at an Atlanta auction site I found one of the Mcdonaldland trees for sale. I had NO money but always wanted it.
Last week in fact Wifey and I went to Mcdonalds here in Saltillo only to discover that the ronald Mcdonald figure had been moved. They were phasing him out. I rushed the counter to get the bad news. I pulled out a Monster Cafe business card and gave it to the girl begging for the manager to call me if they ever decided to sell it. Alas, it has been a week and nothing. Mcdonaldland was a magical place for me as a kid. The playground was so awesome. Kids will never know what it was like. These characters were like friends. If I never do get one of the Mcdonaldland characters that were original on the playground I WILL have my guy make one for me in all of it's Fiberglass glory.
Ronald, Hamburgler, Professor, Fry Guys, Birdie, Mayor McCheese, Officer Big Mac and Captain Crook. If I had the money I would resurrect you! I would HAVE the playground so kids could have a ball. Eh, one day....
Do you want me to check Big Lots here?
ReplyDeleteOh, no thank you Anne, although your offer is very kind. I've just been looking for a Leech figure, but don't need one. I was just kind of excited I might stumble on one.
DeleteOk first off, I wish they had made more series of those McDonalds toys because I really wanted a Birdie from that line. I know a second line had been planned, but they just never really did anything else with it. So sad.
DeleteSo I have tons of McDonalds memories, but as I have gotten older, the one that tends to be my favorite is that I am old enough to remember the play spaces being outside and made of metal. Once you got inside the tower to the slide, you never wanted to leave, because sliding down that hot metal slide in the summer Texas heat was essentially a death wish. The whole thing was fun but mixed with a bit of fear.
Anyways, I love that you are doing a contest! That is so cool. I hope you are doing well, talk to ya later!
Also, Miss M, you can't forget another Texas Play Place fear.... rattlesnakes in the ball pit.
DeleteUnfortunately, it wasn't just an urban legend.
Our kids have nothin to get the adrenaline goin nowadays...
I actually google-mapped to see how far apart the two of your towns are in Texas... and it's about 40 miles.
DeleteThat's not scary at all. Nope, not at all..... ;)
DeleteBut for real, maybe one day there will be a random Wal-Mart run in. Cuz all Texans always go to Wal-Mart.
Aw... I live in Maine. I just wanted a frame of reference between the two people I know in Texas. No stalking I promise.
DeleteAnd I go to Wal-Mart like... Twice a week!
I have several memories of our local "Mac Shack" from my younger years when my granddad would take me there for lunch every other weekend(It took the place of our Burger Chef that sadly had closed up shop) and we would just talk which i miss having those chats with him and the other memory i have was when i was i High School and it be came the local hang out for all of us on Friday nights man i took a few dates there in my awkward years and we thought we were so cool back then. Looking back we were not lol.
ReplyDeleteOh and Derek am still hunting for MOTUC Leech for you buddy and have been hitting every Big Lots i can find with no luck. Either they didn't get any figures at all or they were all bought up by someone as fast as they hit the shelves sorry to say.
Honestly it's no worry. It was a sort of "It would be cool if..." kind of thing. Nothing I needed.
DeleteHey it's no problem i enjoy the hunt. : )
DeleteFavorite memory....When Oliver and Company came out, of course Happy Meals had the toys. I still remember how excited I was to get the poodle! I thought she was soooo posh. Now that I'm grown I realize her character's quite the female dog.
ReplyDeleteWorst memory bonus....Does 15 count as a "kid"? If so, it's me hangin out in the play place ball pit, waitin on a buddy to get off work so we could hang out. All the meager money I had in my pocket was forever lost in that pit, ALONG with my beloved Brian Froud Fairie book Good Fairies/ Bad Fairies.
My favorite memory was my first big mac I swear I ws full for a week my mom said are you sure you can eat one and we all know what I said LOL!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite McDonald's memory is playing at their playground in the early 80's. Didn't they have some cool stuff there?
ReplyDeleteAround the time that McDonald's introduced the Chicken McNuggets in 1983, my best friend and I would ride our bikes to the end of our street, which let out onto a main boulevard. Our destination was the local McDonald's which had undergone recent renovations, including a the addition of a train car on the facade of the building. The exterior of the train car was polished chrome with yellow and red accents. The interior was accessible from the dining room, and offered diners additional seating options. With our bikes tilted against the walls of the train car, we'd sit inside digging our prizes out of our Happy Meals. My favorite prizes from those days were mini Playmobil play-sets. I also recall loving the Chicken McNuggets, perhaps because they were a new "exotic" menu item compared to the regular McDonald's fare. Though truthfully, I think it was that they mainly served as a delivery system for the McDonald's Sweet 'n Sour Sauce (I'm unconvinced that there isn't an addictive narcotic in that stuff). We'd ride back home with our Happy Meal boxes and prizes. My friend collected the boxes, and had accumulated a swaying stack over the years. Sadly, I've heard that the train car isn't open to diners anymore, and is set to be moved to a train museum.
ReplyDeleteHere's a photo of the McDonald's train in Fall River, MA by Alyssa Webster: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alyssawebster/4920572400/
I have a couple of favorite McDonald memories. As a kid, we didn't really get to eat at McDonalds very often. It was kind of a big deal to get a Happy Meal. When I was 5 years old, my mom planned to have my birthday party at McDonalds. I went nuts because we were going to McDonalds, we would get to play on the playground, and my friends from Kindergarten were coming. It was like the best birthday ever! Happy meals, presents, cake and ice cream! We even got a special appearance by Ronald himself.
ReplyDeleteMy second favorite memory is in the late 80s, early 90s my dad worked for a company that did restaurant equipment work. He had several McDonalds that he did work for. OMG! he would bring home all kinds of Happy Meal toys and coupons for free food. One of my favorite guilty pleasures is chicken mcnuggets with sweet and sour sauce mixed with the hot mustard sauce. Like someone above said, I think there is crack or something in the sweet and sour sauce. I completely agree with them. I hated when my dad changed jobs we lost our McDonalds hook up
What a thrill to win! I forgot one memory just as I found out the good news. My best friend at the time would do mall day. Spend all day at the mall checkin out the chicks etc. but invaribly we would wind up at Mcdonalds for lunch. We used to have pickle races. Because as kids...THEY ALL hate pickles! So we would fling ours up at the window equal distance and have a pickle race seeing which pickle would travel the fastest down an oozing slime of ketchep hoping to god the Mcdonalds staff wouldn't notice...
ReplyDeleteShoot, I missed the cut off date! No Mayor McCheese for me. :.[ Oh well, I'll share my fav McDonald's memory anyway.
ReplyDeleteI was 19 years old, serving a mission for my church in the Philippines, and my mission companion takes me to the local "McDo" for lunch. Inside the McDo restaurant everything looks just like an American McDonald's except that in the Philippines there are a few extra menu items, namely fried chicken with rice! So I ordered me some fried chicken with rice and it was pretty good! I also remember a family was celebrating a birthday there at the time and it was an all out party with streamers and presents and everything! McDo is the place to be in the Philippines! Love ko to!
I actually find it really interesting hearing about menu items from McDonalds in different countries. Sometimes they really have to shake things up to make it relevant to the local cuisine. Like, for example, the McDonald's in India serves no beef items on the menu but a ton of chicken and vegetarian burgers/wraps/etc. http://www.mcdonaldsindia.net/burgers-and-wraps.aspx
DeleteI get the reasoning behind the menu choices, as cows are sacred there, so that's not what surprises me... it's just the culture shock of seeing the kind of menu so completely redressed. I'd love to see what kind of Happy Meal toys they're getting over there too.
Looking through the German and Japanese web-sites too, I still find the branding to be pretty consistent, but the menu items are all bizarro. Checking out the Phillipines site: http://www.mcdonalds.com.ph/ourfood/view/chicken_spaghetti I found your Chicken McDo AND McSpaghetti! Weird! But I love I'm lovin' it!
Thanks for sharing your McDonald's memory! It gave me a lot to look up and explore!