Halloween Countdown Day 9: A Nice Pile of Finds... some of which are Halloween-y...

WARNING: Only a very small portion of this post is Halloween related at all. I just want to clear the air before we move forward here. BUT. There is a ton of awesome stuff that I found at Goodwill in this post. So there's that. If you're here for JUST the Halloween stuff, just check out the first three items or so. But if you want to see some awesome cassette tapes or old toys from the 80's? Keep. Going. 

There. You have been warned. No lies between us. I won't misrepresent. 

This witch's head is on the end of a light wand. The wand doesn't matter. I only wanted the head. It is GORGEOUS. Look at that witch! The green is perfect, and she's blow-mold, so she'll look a lot nicer without the wand than with. In fact, I plan on revealing exactly where this little lady ended up in a different post to come this month. So... if the question of "What did Derek do with that cheap plastic witch's head?" keeps you awake at night... rest easy dear readers. Time will tell. 

They actually had a PAIR of these skeletal-claw-clutching-an-eyeball candles... but I felt like one was enough, honestly. Leave the other one for some other Goodwill Geek. But for a candle, the details and colors here are pretty nice! This bad boy is set up in the dining room on the built-in bookcase that we decorate for every Halloween. 

I'm placing this mug firmly into the "Halloween stuff" camp because it is spooky as f**k. The cracked and stained glaze on the mug, the chipped facial features, even the pose of the angel herself all kind of put off no-no vibes. There is not a detail of this mug that doesn't give me the heeby-jeebies. So what did I do with it?

I am now using it to store pens and other desk-items in my Geek Cave! I am sure that there is NOT a curse of haunting on this thing that I have to worry about. And it isn't going to move around when I'm not looking at it like some Doctor Who villain. I'm perfectly safe.

All right... we've crossed the town lines of Halloweentown, and the welcome sign is fading in the rearview as you read this. We are now onto some of the non-Halloween stuff I discovered. As you can see above, I found the soundtracks to The Breakfast Club, Pulp Fiction, and Stand By Me. Not coincidentally, these are all old favorite films of mine. I've mentioned a couple of times on the blog now that I have begun collecting old cassette tapes. I don't care if the tapes are first-production-run or whatever the term is... I just want old tapes of things I like. Soundtracks are a big score for me, as are artists I listened to back in highschool, and golden oldies tapes featuring artists of yesteryear that I hear growing up. Blame Guardians of the Galaxy. The Awesome Mix really took me back. 

I also found this gorgeous little Betty. A spinner rack for my cassettes! It only holds 20 cassettes, so I'm going to start by storing only soundtracks or absolute FAVORITE artists in it. Like... Prince. 

The Thing Happy Meal toy, circa 2010. He yells A LOT if you don't turn off the switch in his back. Amazed the battery isn't dead, to be honest. 

These are not the F4 toys he actually goes with, as they are from 1996... but I like him better than the Thing toy from back then, and I like them better than the F4 offerings from 2010. If I want all four characters I may have to track down Mr. Fantastic from the 2007 Rise of the Silver Surfer set... but I don't know how desperate I am yet.

Next we have this Jolly Green Giant ragdoll from the 60's. I was VERY excited to find this. He is SO AWESOME. Believe it or not, he's not worth much money, but LOOK AT HIM! He's beautiful. And a FAR CRY from the Jolly Green Giant we all know and love today. He's got those blank polka-dot eyes, and a round green nose. I love finding advertising mascots in toy form. He even still has his sticker: 

So awesome. .99 cents for this guy!!!

I've never read the Dark is Rising sequence from Susan Cooper. But now I intend to because I found the whole series in a boxed set. 

In movie novelization news, I found "The Abyss" and "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" for .99 cents apiece.

David Sedaris's book Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk is one I don't have yet. Big Sedaris fan here.

And now onto the really exciting stuff! I found two grab-bags packed full of plastic goodies! LEt's take a look at the first one. 

A riotous explosion of colorful plastics! Let's look at the specifics:

Fisher Price Little People! I already have one of the kid on the left hand side, but other than him, all of these are new to my collection! I'm especially excited to have the "Dad" figure in the green shirt because that was the guy I had in my family set as a kid. The train he's sitting in is awesome as well (one of my circus clown figures took it from him as soon as it hit the shelf). I like pouty kid in the front too. Not much here I wasn't pleased to add to my collection. 

Do these look familiar? They should. They belong to Baby Kermit and Baby Fozzie, from the old Happy Meal toys!

I have Baby Kermit and Baby Fozzie in my collection already. Here they are reunited with their respective ride-ons! 

Wonder-Pet vehicles! (More on these a little later)

Random loose vehicles! I have no idea what the bug riding in the walnut shell is from, but the scooter and the wheelbarrow will be revealed shortly. The bigwheel however... 

Is from the mid-80's toyline, Nerfuls! 

Image from the En-Broc blog, NOT my image. 

There were no Nerful characters in today's purchase... but seeing the above image online brought me WAAAAY back! I think I used to own this guy as a kid!

A vintage PVC Mr. Men figurine and a Flintstones movie Happy Meal car topped off the contents of the first grab-bag. NOW... let's take a look at grab bag #2!

Already looks promising, right?

Here are the contents. (You may notice a couple of familiar-looking Muppet Babies in the mix. That's right! I got extras of Fozzie and Kermit! I won't be showing them off later, but there they are) Now, closer look time. I didn't bother to show off some of this stuff, like the Littlest Pet Shop stuff or the Hotel for Dogs stuff... but the interesting stuff (to me) is all here.

First up, it's pretty obvious that whoever donated the first bag also donated this one, because here are the Wonder PEts that go along with those vehicles from the first bag. I'll probably keep these packed away somewhere. All three of my kids like the Wonder PEts at one time or another, and these give me great memories. I'll stash them.

Here are the animals the Wonder Pets are out to rescue! 

I have no idea if these are the correct sets all together, but I'm too lazy to Google it and find out. You get the idea.

Some snoop toys. Remember the wheelbarrow from that first grab-bag?

Together again!

A California Raisin that I already own, a Kung Fu Panda II crane figure (to take the place of the Kung Fu Panda I crane figure I have that's posed in a really awkward position). And a Scooby-Doo figurine that is obviously supposed to slide on his butt... but where? In a game? A playset? A fast food toy? Not sure. But he's Scooby-Doo, so he lives with me now.

A trio of 80's toys, a Little Miss figurine to go with my Mr. Man up above (don't know their names, sorry) and a couple of Strawberry Shortcake toys for my wife.

A set of Disney's Winnie the Pooh figurines. I am NOT a fan of Disney's version of these characters. I am a classic A.A. Milne fan all the way. The original books are brilliantly written. These are just mockeries of those.

These are Arby;s Looney Tunes figurines from the late 80's. Bugs and Roadrunner are from '87. (Not sure why they look so blocky though) Porky and Pepe are from '88. I really like these!

Donald and Mickey have seen better days...

An Oliver between two Flowers...

And what I consider to be two of the BEST finds in this bag... An Alvin (from the Chipmunks) figure from 1984, and a Brother (of the Berenstain Bears) figure from McDonalds, circa 1986! Alvin's missing his Big A but we still know who he is of course... and Brother Bear (who was hairy, and I cleaned him up later...) is missing his scooter of course... but wait!

There it is! The scooter from the first grab-bag!!! I used to own this toy as a kid, and I loved Berenstain Bear books as a kid too! (I'm not as much a fan these days, but we still do some of the Halloween and Christmas books with our kids)

But by far, I think THE best items in that bag were theseguys! A pair of Figment, the dragon, figurines from the Epcot Center attraction at Disney World. One of him in a spacesuit, and one where he's lifting weights! I owned the one on the right as a kid too, although since I've never been to Disney, I couldn't tell you where I picked it up.

So there you have it! A well-stocked post about a recent Goodwill Haul! That's all I've got for tonight kids! But I'll be back with more Grim Goodwill Goodies, so until then, Happy Haunting.