Saturday, November 16, 2013

Goodwill Grab-Bag: Monsters and Mayhem!

It has been a while since I have focused an entire post on just one grab-bag found at Goodwill. And I'm kind of excited. This one was a nice one. First off, for everything I'm about to show you, I paid a grand total of .99 cents! And it's a healthy little pile of toys! Take a look:


Eagle eyed observers will already recognize a few familiar forms in there, struggling to free themselves. So let's not make them wait. Let's dive right in and see what this grab-bag had in store for me shall we?


First up, we have this little set of Angry Birds Star Wars toys. I don't think this is a Happy Meal toy... but I'm not 100%, and I haven't Googled the sets to see where these came from. I will note that I had pretty much sworn not to get tangled up in the whole Star Wars Angry Birds fad, and now I'm finding that decision REALLY hard to stand by. I think I can make this statement and not be considered a liar: I will not buy any brand new Star Wars Angry Birds sets. I will ONLY buy them second hand. Obviously we have R2-D2, Leia, Luke, and Chewbacca all lined up there in the front. Also included was a light-saber-catapult and a couple of blocks to knock over. There were no signs of any other parts or pieces to this set. 


Next up are these two BEAUTIFUL freaks... who I think we can all agree are not just your average, typical members of a cheap, bagged assortment of dinosaurs. These are SPECIAL, in all the ways that may be interpreted. Look at the bulging eyes! Look at the interpretive-dance, jazz hands! Look at the slack-jawed Goober expressions on those faces! Look at the eye-blisteringly bright colors! These are amazing! 


No idea where these could have originated from, but I think we can all agree that it is/was a magical, wonderful place full of magical wonders and wonderful magics. And finally... 


A couple of toys from the Aaahh! Real Monsters line. I was never a fan... or really even a casual viewer of this show, but I supported it in spirit as a show about monsters. I saw that the complete series has just recently been released on DVD, and this, like the claymation series "Bump in the Night", is the kind of show I would like to discover that I would have loved all along if I had watched it way back when. So I may pick that DVD set up sometime soon. I do know enough about the show to tell you that Ickiss and Krumm, the two seemingly "main" characters of the series are not the two I found. These are The Gromble and Oblina. And that... as the say... is that. These toys were originally put out in 1995 by Mattel, and they each have an action feature. Oblina's head raises so her mouth opens and a purple tongue pops out. The Gromble has a "chewing feature" which you use on the student figures apparently. 

So that's my Goodwill Grab-Bag post! I'll be back with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies soon enough! Until then, Happy Hunting!

16 comments:

  1. I needed this post. I am just as excited about those monsters with you! They are like the more advanced cousins of the finger monsters who's arms are doomed to be pulled off by small children. They needed that awesome, run on sentence full of magically magic description. And you posted two shots, you were so excited ;) I love it.
    Bump in the Night was really, really cool. I have had a fascination with claymation/stop motion/puppetry since I can remember and when that show started coming on Saturday mornings during cartoons I was soooooo amazed. I'm going to see if it's on Youtube or netflix and show it to my kids :)
    Great post! Got my Geeky Goodwill fix.

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    1. I aim to please Laura! You could easily chop the lower half of these dinosaur guys off and MAKE those same finger puppets! (Not that I will. It's too terrible to think of).

      Have you ever seen the Wil Vinton Christmas special? It has the Raisins in it for one sequence, but the rest of the special is fantastic. It's fun and funny and in man parts beautiful and inspirational. If you've never seen it, you should. The "Joy to the World" segment alone is amazing in it's creativity and originality: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL42GCy5YeA I beleive it's done in some sort of finger-painting animation... or sand-art... I can't tell.

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    2. Oh man, I'm so glad you posted a link for this! I remember watching this as a kid, so awesome! I'm totally in the Christmas Spirit now. :D AND, you just helped me find Wil Vinton's Claymation Comedy of Horrors!!! I remember seeing it as a kid but had no idea what it was called, and googling "Halloween Claymation Pig" was getting me nowhere. Thank you!

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  2. Sweet grab bag! I especially like the mystery freaks! I will be scouring the interwebs for hours trying to figure out their origins! I love freaky toys like them!

    As for Aaahh! Real Monsters, I never really watched it, but I grew up on Bump In The Night! I would love to own the series on DVD, I highly recommend it! I'm a total sucker for stop-motion animation and I really like the fact that the characters are toy-sized monsters living in a residential home. Subway actually released some Bump In The Night kid's meal toys back in the day that I wish I knew about when I was a kid.

    Anyways, I will not rest until I know the story behind those wonderful little freaks! Those are prize winning toys!

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    1. I was more aware of Bump in the Night as the short commercial bumps during the ABC morning. I think they evolved from those into a show... or something like that. Recently bought a compilation of Halloween cartoons that two episodes of BitN were supposed to be on... but the audio tracks were messed up. Only on those episodes... and of course that was what I initially bought the DVD for!

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  3. These little guys look like they're related:

    http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-RUBBER-JIGGLER-MONSTER-DINOSAURS-GODZILLA-FRIENDS-SCARY-OLD-CREATURES-/131011257659?nma=true&si=oGGQzPKBnhgCkbWgbQZM0u2sC5c%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

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  4. I think but am not for sure but those Star Wars Angry Birds were the "Early Bird" Special ones that came in box that was ment to be nod to the original Star Wars Early Bird Special from back in the day but again am not totally for sure.

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  5. Those happy freaky things - there's no origin story for them, just cheap monster toys made somewhere in China and sold all over the world. I've got four of them! You should be glad to have them though - they're BEAUTIFUL.

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    1. Yeah, I figure they are remolds of remolds of remolds, several times over. The kind of thing you find in a mesh plastic bag with random... ninjas or something at the Dollar store.

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  6. dude love the real monsters figures that bag was full of awesome

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    1. Thank you! I was pretty excited when I found it.

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  7. Those Dinos are amazing. I just started my own blog, please check it out. I love thrift store toy shopping and started to do the same thing as you
    Robbiegoeasyonthepepsi.blogspot.ca I love your blog and id like to hear from you

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