A Package From the Trash Man!

So on the exact same day that my package from Miss M arrived, ANOTHER awesome package from another of my Podcasting comrades (and honestly one of my very best friends) Brian Farrell, of Pop Pop! It's Trash Culture fame, arrived! 

So here's a preliminary glance at the contents of said package. But as usual, we shall plumb these depths together! Dive! Dive! 

Brian knows that I am an educated gentleman of some distinction. So he always includes reading materials that will educate and elucidate. In this case, he sent me a Choose Your Own Adventure gaming book, "Return to the Cave of Time" (which is the 50th book in the series, and a sequel to the very first book in the series, "The Cave of Time") AND "HOBGOBLIN," a HORROR NOVEL that combines HALLOWEEN and ROLEPLAYING GAMES. This has given me an idea for next year's Halloween countdown... Let's just see if I actually remember to carry through with this plan as next October creeps towards us. 

Included were these licensed books as well! Check out this awesome vintage Go Bots coloring book! Brian knows my INTENSE loyalty to the Bots. I think it's mostly due to the fact that I realized as an adult that all the toys I owned as a kid and loved, and had been told were Transformers... were actually GoBots. So they're what I know. 

I have a very clear and distinct memory of my Grandmother buying me a Turbo as a kid (one of the red car robots) and breaking him on the way home from the store, She exasperatedly turned the car around and exchanged him for a new one, which I got all the way home before breaking him a second time, at which point my Grandmother told me I was s**t out of luck. 

I know that I got Baron Von Joy, Leader 1, and Flip-Top as gifts at some point... and I think Future Machine. And of course I had (and LOVED) a crap-ton of Rock Lords, which I may have mentioned in passing once or twice or a MILLION times. 

Another toyline I was obsessed with back in the 80s was the California Raisins! I loved the Raisins. I had their cassettes, I had their Commodore 64 video game, I watched their clay-mated Christmas special and actual please-buy-raisins-to-eat-them-PLEASE commercials with a kind of rabid fanaticism I can only describe as "Intense". I also had a veritable army of the PVC figurines put out by applause. I did not however, EVER own a California Raisins comic book (put out by Blackthorne Comics in the late 80's) which had me nearly peeing my pants when I pulled it out of the box! 

Also in the package were these They Might Be Giants cassettes! FLOOD is probably one of if not THE ONE favorite album put out by TMBG for me. With songs like "Birdhouse in Your Soul," "Particle Man," "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)," "We Want a Rock," and the self-titular "They Might Be Giants," you really can't go wrong with this one. 

Apollo 18 is not as EPIC in scope, but the cover art is AMAZING and with songs like "I Palindrome I," "Spider," "Dinner Bell," "Which Describes How You're Feeling," and "Hypnotist of Ladies," you definitely get some hardcore TMBG classics. 

Now we're into the toys! Going from right to left (as people do...) we have a Big Boy Caprice action figure from the Dicky Tracy line put out by Playmates in 1990! I really enjoy this line, probably more than I liked the actual movie itself. I mainly liked the hideously deformed villains in the line, like Lips Manlis, Flattop, The Brow, Rodent, Pruneface, and of course, everyone's favorite, Steve the Tramp. I basically used these guys as extra villains for my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to fight. Big Boy here is one I never actually had as a kid. But boy does he look swank on my shelf next to Flattop! 

On the left we has Sully from the Spinmasters line put out (I believe) to promote Monsters University. I am a BIG fan of the first Monsters film, Monsters Inc. And this figure is deee-luxe! Take a look at him compared to the Happy Meal version of the character: 

And you can see why I'm struggling with whether I should toss my old Sully for this one (I settled on keeping them both because I am a hoarder and will most likely be found dead under a giant pile of collapsed toy shelves someday... IF I'M LUCKY!!!) 

Next up... THESE guys. I've already gushed over the California Raisins, so that giant bendy guy should come as no real surprise as something I would love.

The Ronald McDonald hijacking a United Airlines plane is also a gem, as I love random cross-pollination of brandings when it comes to my Happy Meal toys! I've seen message boards that claim back in the mid-to-late 90's these were served in-flight First Class in branded McDonald's Happy Meals. Other sources say they were from restaurants in the airports. I want to believe these were given out on the plane, as a bizarre version of a kids' mile-high club.

But let's all face facts: The real star of this picture is that carded Ms. Pac Man toy from Tomy, circa 1982. That s**t is the BOMB. "Wind her up and she gulps, gobbles, and wiggles around. She's got cute little shoes and the biggest mouth in town," Now THAT is a write-up my friends!!! Once again, I will remind everyone that I wrote my very personal feelings about Ms. Pac Man in a post on this very blog about two years back... and I will leave it at that.

 Finally, we have these guys. I think these may top the list of favorite items in the box, believe it or not. These, for your information, are two action figures from the old 80s Advanced Dungeons and Dragons line. The tallest and blondest of the lot is Northlord, who was a giant (literally a giant, that was his race) barbarian. He was one of the "Battle Masters" of the line. I've seen pictures of this guy with all of his included gear, and have to admit I prefer him the way he looks above. The helmet he originally had looks a bit silly in my opinion. The horny short guy is a dwarf named Elkhorn. The dino on the far right is not actually from the same toy line. He's a hollow plastic dinosaur from Marvel Trading Corp. There was a whole series of these put out, but this is by FAR the most gorgeous one of the line. Look at his color! Look at his eye! He actually looks like a perfect fit to fight these brave warriors. Here's a look at my entire AD&D action figure collection, including some of the solid rubber monsters I've collected as well:

 They really put out some fantastic (and fantastically weird!) toys for this line back in the day!

A big HUGE thank you to Brian for the great package! Be sure to check out his site at Pop Pop It's Trash Culture, check out his Facebook Page for the site, and be sure to listen to us say witty and amazing things to each other (and our friends Miss M and Jason) on the Eclectic Mayhem podcast!

Welp! That's it for tonight kids! And probably that's it for September! I'll be dropping one more post the day after tomorrow for October Eve, and then with October 1st I will be full-on into my Halloween countdown for the month. So it might be a while before I'm back with the "Geeky" Goodwill Goodies (at least until November) but I won't be gone, that's for sure. Until I talk to you again kids, Happy Hunting!