THIS is why I love Goodwill so much. THIS EPIC FIND.

I'm on vacation this week. I have so many things that I should be blogging about... but I'm not getting around to yet. Instead, I want to talk about something I found TODAY. At Goodwill.

What's hilarious to me is that the League of Extraordinary Bloggers' topic for this week is Wishlists. We did the same topic a year ago at Christmas time, and in fact, we posted stuff we were looking for this past October as well. The items I'm looking for have stayed pretty consistent... but I can FINALLY cross one of my holy grail items off that list. And how.

My wife had to go observe a classroom today for one of her college classes. So I was home with the two boys. I took my older boy to preschool and then asked the younger boy what he wanted to do. He wanted to go to Dunkin' Donuts. So we did. And I almost just drove home right then and there. Almost. But any time I'm in town and I have the opportunity, I like to go to Goodwill. I almost didn't though. Just want to point that out.

Michael Caine did a much better job of explaining this in Mr. destiny than I am right now. 

Today could have gone so much more different than it did is my point. But instead, my two-year old and I went to Goodwill and browsed around. I didn't find much at first. We went to the toy department first. Not much there. I did find a Homer Simpson's Head Rubiks Cube that I picked up, then I browsed the case and hit the books. It was around this time that my 2-year old started whining that he wanted to go home. I didn't blame him, so I told him we would soon. I took a stroll through the rest of the store, checked the glass-wares aisle to see if any other McDonalds glasses had sprouted up, and then my son asked me the magic words: "Can we go look at toys again?" 

So we did. Can you SEE all the what-ifs in the paragraph above? What if we had left right then? What if we hadn't gone back to the toy department? What if what if what if. 

So we went back to the toy department, and I let my son get out of the cart again so he could paw through all the junk we'd already pawed through. I didn't mind, and it made him happy. And then one of the girls who works at Goodwill rolled up one of the carts they use to stock the shelves. And that cart? It contained this:

Castle Grayskull for me, is one of those things that represents my early childhood. Some of my earliest memories involve Fisher Price Little People, Star Wars Action Figures, and Masters of the Universe. I had an Aunt that would sit with me for hours and play He-Man. I would ALWAYS choose the bad-guys and make her be the good guys. I would spend hours alone, looking closely at every detail of Castle Grayskull, tracing my fingers over the face of the skull and looking at the teeth on the drawbridge. I look at this toy now and I remember it as clearly as I do the skin on the palm of my hand. 

Not me. Or my toys honestly. But you get the idea. Isn't that kid a TV actor?

I saw the girl coming, and I saw that castle, and my heart STOPPED. I mean, I started eye-balling other customers in the vicinity to see who I was going to have to wrestle to the ground or "shiv" in order to take this thing home. I also held my breath waiting to see what the price tag would say. If it was in the double digits, I was going to have to think hard before I brought it home (I still would have brought it home, I would just have had to think hard about how to explain it to my wife). And you know what that price tag said? 2.99. That's right folks. 3 measly dollars for the Castle Grayskull, one of my personal Holy Grails. Before she had the chance to even pick it up to stock it, I asked her if I could look at it. Looking at it consisted of putting it directly into my cart. I remember vaguely hearing her, in the background of my mind as it screamed inside my skull like a train whistle, warning me to be careful of the bag, because it wasn't taped or something. SO I look back down and what do I see? This:

You may notice right away (if you are familiar with MotU stuff) that there are Castl Grayskull accessories right there in that bag. And some weapons. And some Moss Man. And some G.I. Joes. Wanna see what else was in that Grab-Bag for 1.99? Let's take a look:

First up there was this pile of MotU accessories. Battle Cat armor, weapons and items that belong in the Castle play-set. Various other sundry weapons and accessories. Awesome. 

Then there was a random assortment of G.I. Joes in that bag as well. I owned the two on the left when I was a kid though I can't remember either of their names (and in fact, I now have a duplicate on the second guy on the left). But I recognize Tiger Force Dusty at least! The two on the right are completely unknown to me, and I was too lazy to Google them before writing this. But the REALLY exciting Joe in that bag? Here he is:

Sergeant EFFING Slaughter!!! I loved Sgt. Slaughter as a kid!!! After the G.I. Joe Movie especially. He was one of my favorite "good-guys" in general. But besides the weapons and the Joes there were also these two jokers:

Moss Man and Rokkon! I actually love the look of both of these figures, even though I understand Rokkon is not exactly a fan favorite. Moss Man's flocking is in amazing condition as well, though he does NOT smell like pine. Of course, the castle and the grab-bag were not the only things the girl was putting on the shelf. There were these for .99 cents APIECE!!!:

Roton! I loved this one as a kid, and this one is only showing some minimal damage. Mostly just the fact that a couple of the spinning red spines have broken off. He even still has his evil red eye stickers!!!

And again, lazy blogging... for starters I forgot to get pictures of just the two vehicles on their own, and secondly, I didn't bother to search and see what these vehicles even are. There was another one that I left behind simply because it looked like it was actually missing more pieces than it had intact. As I mentioned above, all three of these vehicles were .99 cents apiece. So far, that brings me up to about 8 dollars total for the castle, the bag, and the three vehicles. I had some books too, but I'll feature them later in another post. 

I played it so cool you guys. I was all like: I am going to calmly take my purchases to the front like a grown-ass adult and pay for it all calm-like. But once I had my purchases in the van? And my kid was safely bucked into his seat? And we were on the road? I started SCREAMING LIKE AN INSANE PERSON. I hooted. I hollered. I cheered and whooped. I laughed. I cried. I made a fool of myself. My son cheered right along with me, never knowing why. He was just happy I was happy. 

With trembling hands I carried my purchases in the house. I am not making this next part up, I swear. I swear to you on all I find important in my life that I am not lying about this. I cannot stress this point. I had not once opened the castle while I was at Goodwill. I had not seen inside it. I didn't do this until I got it home. And this is what I found:

The bag that the girl stocking shelves had been warning me about was not the one in the cart. I had assumed she was warning me not to rip the grab-bag as I was handling the castle, lifting it off or whatever. What she was REALLY warning me about was the open bag of action figures INSIDE THE CASTLE. When I opened the castle and this spilled out, I started MANIACALLY CACKLING. Wanna see what was in there? Let's take a look:

This is everything that was contained in the castle. Prince Adam, Modulok, Clawful, Trap-Jaw, Orko, Man-E-Faces, Stratos, Roboto, Thunder-Punch He-Man, and Two-Bad!!! Now, I already own 6 of these figures. So really, only 4 of these are new to me. BUT some of these guys (like Stratos and Clawful) are in much better condition than the ones I already own, and have more of their accessories, so it's like I'm upgrading a little bit. Plus, throne, ladder, and a few other parts. Turns out, a lot of their accessories had also ended up in the other grab-bag, like Trap-Jaws belt, Prince Adams sword, and Thunder-Punch He-Man's shield, among other things. 

Here's a shot of ALL the MotU stuff I brought home today. I pad 6 dollars for this whole pile of loot. SIX DOLLARS YOU GUYS!!! (Maybe even technically 5, if you want to split hairs, because I'm not counting the G.I. Joe figures, which was sort of half of the grab-bag). 

GASP!!!

So for about 8 bucks, I reclaimed a healthy portion of my childhood and walked away from Goodwill screaming and laughing like a lunatic. I think that was a pretty good way to spend day 5 of my vacation. I've spent the rest of today with a big, dumb grin on my face, looking at these toys over and over again, expecting them to evaporate. Expecting them to disappear like this is just a dream and I'll wake up any second. And to get them for such an amazing price? I almost passed out. The weird thing about this castle, unlike most toys I have tracked down from my childhood... it seems bigger than I remember! It's strange how so many old toys always seem tiny compared to my memories, because I'm not as small as I used to be. Castle Grayskull has some bulk to it, some height. It's just as impressive if not more so than I remember. And by the power of you-know-who, that is pure magic. 

This battle feels... unbalanced somehow.

I also wondered if there weren't other toys out in the back room, waiting to be processed and stocked on the shelves... but that way lies madness. I could have hung out all day, being a nuisance and waiting to see what else got brought out... but I decided that was a) creepy and b) greedy. It just wasn't necessary. I got a LOT of great stuff. Anything else I MIGHT have missed out on? I'll find it some other day in some other Goodwill, for some other price. Right now, I'm still just reeling from the fact that I now own a Castle Gray Skull and didn't have to pay 40+ dollars for it on eBay. And it has a lot of the accessories! It's missing a portion of floor, but I can live with that. 

That's it for tonight guys! What a find! Don't know if I can top this one really. It's the kind of find that keeps me addicted to Goodwill though. I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!