Randomly Received: Trade With Mason of D.I. Treasures

All right... the time has come. I am officially getting ready to delete the content from Really Rather Random Guy (dot blogspot dot com) and in preparing for that, I wanted to import a bunch of the content that I know will then be lost forever, by bringing the posts over here to Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks (dot blogspot dot com). So, with that in mind, I thought I would preface these entries with the fact that they are indeed OLD blog posts from an OLD, now DEFUNCT blog, and cross my fingers and hope that folks will still want to read them.

This post was originally published back on January 20th, 2014.

A while back, before the Holidays... I set up a trade with Mason of D.I. Treasures fame. He noticed that I had an extra mace that I had picked up in a recent MotU find at Goodwill, and he wondered if we could trade that mace for a battle-ax he had for He-Man. This sounded acceptable to me, but then I upped the ante to make this interesting: I asked Mason to pick 5 other small items for trade and I would do the same in a sort of blind-box package swap. You can see what I sent him over at his blog, since he did a good job of actually posting what he received before Christmas got here. The reason this is significant is that the items that Mason sent me were all sort of subtly Christmas-themed. Let's take a look at what he sent me: 

Here's a group-shot of everything he sent me to start. A nice, colorful lot to be sure, you can already see the holiday cheer bleeding through. 

I mace ax you a question? Mace I ax you... no... I give up. Puns are hard.

First up let's talk about what got this whole thing kicked off. Here is the beautiful baby-blue battle-axe that Mason sent me in exchange for a mace for his Moss-Man. It is now in the hands of He-Man as he sits astride his loyal Battle Cat. And all is as it should be. 

Next up we have a Z-Bot! This is Turbine and he was actually a Burger King Kid's Club meal premium from 1994. I don't remember Z-Bots from when I was a kid... but they would have come out right around the time I was ending my love-affair (for awhile) with mini-figs. Which, knowing me, is kind of a shame because these look like they would have been right in my wheelhouse. At roughly the same size as Battle-Beasts a collectible line of little robots seems like something I would have obsessed over. I love the look of this little guy in particular, and it isn't hard to see why Mason included him, since the color scheme not only screams Christmas with all that red and green... but that drill arm looks like it could literally be a Christmas tree. Mason also knows how much I enjoy collecting little robots as well, so this is perfect. 

Next up we have a Rock 'Em Sock 'Em robot thumb wrestler. This guy fits down over your thumb and one can only assume that there is a blue counterpart out there somewhere for an opponent to wear. This guy is great! Again, since I love robots, it makes sense that someone would give me one of these... and in this festive red it's no wonder that Mason included it. 

This is Lenny, the wind-up binoculars toy from Toy Story. Specifically, it's a picture-viewer toy from a Toy Story 2 Happy Meal premium. This one hits on many different levels for me, such as the Toy Story connection, the fact that it's a view-master-style toy, and the fact that it's a Happy Meal toy. The one thing I couldn't figure out was why Mason might have considered it "Christmas-y" and I came up with nothing. I think this one was just included for the neat-o factor. 

The penultimate toy of the pack is this Power Rangers Megazord figure. I'm not a Power Rangers fan at all, but I can appreciate a nice giant robot toy. messing around on Google I see a lot of references to this megazord being called "OhBlocker". It doesn't take a lot of imagination to figure out why Mason included this one, as there's a giant star in red, some green and gold highlights, and overall, he feels pretty Christmas-y. 

Finally, we have Mr. Strong from the Mr. Men series! This is a kid's meal premium from Arby's whom I absolutely adore. The Mr. Men and Little Miss characters are all pretty geometric and basic in design, and that kind of aesthetic is just awesome to me. I could see myself tracking down more of these. And of course, Mr. Strong here is done in red and green, because Christmas!

So, I'd like to finish up by first apologizing to Mason for not getting this up on a blog for people to see before Christmas got here... but also a HUGE thanks to him as well for obviously putting so much time and thought into his selections. I had such a fun time discovering the contents of this package! Be sure to check out Mason's blog over at D.I. Treasures.

I have a couple of other packages to feature here in the coming days, so keep your peepers peeled here folks!

Randomly Received: The Trash Man Giveth

All right... the time has come. I am officially getting ready to delete the content from Really Rather Random Guy (dot blogspot dot com) and in preparing for that, I wanted to import a bunch of the content that I know will then be lost forever, by bringing the posts over here to Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks (dot blogspot dot com). So, with that in mind, I thought I would preface these entries with the fact that they are indeed OLD blog posts from an OLD, now DEFUNCT blog, and cross my fingers and hope that folks will still want to read them.

This post was originally published back on January 23rd, 2014.

I know this budding blog appears to be turning into the repeated tales of a blogger being showered with gifts from folks all over the internet... but these posts are LONG overdue. The folks who sent me all this great stuff really deserve a big thank you, so I'm dedicated to making sure they get it. 

I want to take a moment to thank the Trash Man over at "Pop Pop! It's Trash Culture" for the awesome package he sent me shortly before Christmas this past December. I felt like such a heel because not only did I not get him anything... I snuck into his house and stole his last can of Who-Hash on Christmas night. FYI Trash Man looks like this when he wakes up in the middle of the night:

"...there's a light on this tree that won't light on one side.
So I'm taking it home to my workshop, my dear.
I'll fix it up there, then I'll bring it back--
You know what? Just shut up and get back in bed." 

But that is neither here nor there. What IS here? This pile of goody-goody-goodies:

As you can see, he was yet again very generous to me, and intuitive to boot as to what would make me squeal like a little girl with bladder control issues. Let's take a closer look shall we:

First up, Trash Man always knows that one of my greatest weaknesses is Choose Your Own Adventure Books. And so, here we have CYOA #66: Secret of the Ninja. In the same vein, we also have Wizards, Warriors, and You Book 2: The Siege of the Dragonriders. I am a HUGE fan of gaming books in general (gaming books = books that require you to make choices and turn to corresponding pages ala CYOA) and I've never read a WW&Y book before so I am intrigued to be sure. Nothing takes me back to my childhood and/or teen years better than a good gaming book. Nothing says "I have maturity issues" like an overweight 35-year-old reading a CYOA on the bus during his morning commute. Like a BOSS. 

Next up... another particular obsession of mine (of course) Golden Books! And not just any Golden Books, but Darkwing Duck and Sesame Street Golden books! I received two copies of "The Silly Canine Caper" starring Darkwing, and "The Day Snuffy Had the Sniffles". I'm not going to go into great detail over why I've become so obsessed with Golden Books right now, as I have a planned upcoming post about them... but suffice it to say that Trash Man has me dead to rights. Because that's what makes this the hottest blog on the NET. Golden books. 

Probably one of my absolute favorite themes in the package was the small collection of Garbage Pail Kids stuff! Trash Man sent me a pair of vintage GPK buttons featuring Crater Chris and Janet Planet. These are destined for the ceiling of my car where all of my other buttons live. There was also a 4-pack of GPK MiniKins which are sooo reminiscent of the old GPK Cheap Toys (With Crummy Candy) that I've made it my life's mission to own them all. I... don't have a lot of legitimate goals like most people. 

Speaking of... Trash Man also included THIS!!! I'm almost 100% sure it's some sort of bootleg... but that just makes it COOLER. This is Petey Graffiti (or New Wave Dave if you're into that sort of thing) from the old Cheap Toys line in a rubbery yellow that I'm certain the toys were never officially produced in. I'm showing him side-by-side with my flesh-colored Petey (He's not actually smaller... I just suck at scaling photos). The yellow is vaguely reminiscent of something produced by the human body... like phlegm or ear-wax or pus or something vaguely upsetting of that nature. I LOVE IT. 

Next up, Trash Man included a cannister of Trash Pack figurines. My two sons collect these like CRAZY so I actually let them have the figurines while I kept the packaging for myself. While I do have a handful of these of my own... I can't afford to go whole-hog into collecting them or I will literally drive my wife insane. But I appreciate their pedigree, to be sure, with ancestors (or at least inspiration) including Madballs and MUSCLE Things certainly. They're like the bastard descendents of Monster in My Pocket and Garbage Pail Kids. They are a welcome addition to my family, THAT'S for sure. 

Here you see a set of ghosts with the most! The two viloently purple and orange fellows in the front are a pair of Real Ghostbusters toys from when I was a kid. These are actually spring loaded traps that bite down on Ray, Egon and the others. Open their mouths to set them and then touch their tongues to snap the trap. I used to torture myself as a kid by snapping them on my fingers repeatedly. I was some sort of pain freak at an early age. Man those suckers left a mark on my knuckles. ANYWAY. Then we have Beetlejuice there in the middle. I remember Trash Man posting about this guy on his own blog at one point, and being fiercely jealous of him. Now he's MINE. This is Beetlejuice from the animated series, and he appears to be "snake-charming" a Sandworm. I love this rubber figurine with a fearsome passion that rivals the love of a mama bear and her cubs. Is that weird? It doesn't feel weird. It feels RIGHT.

Probably the most AMAZING item to come out of that box was this INTACT piece of glassware. Another of my fatal flaws is a deep love for all things McDonaldLand, and the collector's glasses are a HUGE piece of that. GRIMACE YOU GUYS. I don't even care that he seems creepily somnambulant in this image, in a sort of "I'm approaching you like a Romero Zombie but with NOSTALGIA" kind of way... I love this glass with every fiber of my being. I actually know right this moment where I can go and find a Hamburglar glass for 3 dollars... and now that I own Grimace and Ronald... I may need to make the 1.5 hour pilgrimage out to buy it sometime this weekend. Or actually next weekend. 

After I get paid. 

And I get permission from my wife. 

This motley trio from left to right: Plutor from the Trash Bag Bunch, a Two-Face vehicle Happy Meal premium, and a Battle Beast that has been painted in some sort of bizarre black and gray camouflage pattern. I was convinced at first that the guy on the far left was a Z-Bot to begin with... and it turns out I was close. Galoob was responsible for both the Trash Bag Bunch and the Z-Bots lines. In fact Plutor here was produced in 1991 and the Z-Bots debuted in 1992. I'm genuinely shocked that Galoob didn't reuse the mold for the Z-Bots line. In fact, a number of the Trash Bag Bunch figures (yet ANOTHER mini-fig line that I failed to collect for some reason, and that would have been PERFECT for me... I mean I collected the HECK out of Monster in My Pocket, and they came out in 1990!) would have made perfect Z-bots. The Two-Face vehicle actually transforms a little so you can flip over the front and rear of the car to show good and evil qualities. Aaaaand... I'm seriously thinking about trying to strip the paint OFF of this Battle Beast... but I'm not sure I can do it without ruining the original paint job. I hope that Brian didn't paint this thing specially for me because I would hate to think that I am stifling his artistic voice. But hey. Omelet. Eggs.  

Who is the most adorable Anti-Life equation hunting lord of Apokolips? This Darkseid from the Funko Pop! line, that's who! What is hilarious about this you ask randomly without really knowing why except for narrative reasons? Let me tell you! I stood in Hot Topic the first week of December and AGONIZED over whether or not I should buy this guy for myself. I ultimately decided not to at that time because I don't have a ton of DC Funko stuff (or didn't at the time anyway) and even though he's a Jack Kirby boy and ultimately one of if not THE baddest BAD-@$$ of the DCU... I just wasn't sure where he'd fit in with my collection... and I wanted some Funko Horror Classics figures more. So I bought those instead. But I have never been so excited as I was the day I heard the BOOM and saw my package from the Trash Man drop from a tube in the sky because I knew that Darkseid was here to STAY. I have to say, he is beautiful. I plan on buying a Funko Hordak to go up with him and the two shall have an EPIC friendship to last the AGES!!! Plus, Darkseid rocks that go-go girl outfit pretty nicely. He looks like an Austin Powers fembot a little bit.

And HOLY COW IT'S... that OTHER... transforming... Masters of the Universe... rock guy... (Googles for a moment)... Stonedar! Now I have the pair!!! I have a pair of stones!!! They really have a great heft in my hands. This is actually, seriously one of my favorite things in the box (not counting all my other favorite things in the box) because I LOVE tracking down old MotU toys! And Trash Man gets that! I love that he gets that! And I love that I have the TWO transforming MotU rock guys now! (I recently found Rokkon in my HUGE MotU/Goodwill score back in mid-December) I love how stoic and disinterested he appears to be... as if he had a hard made of... something... hard and cold... I got nothing.  

And last but definitely NOT least... a Funko Horror Classics Mini-fig! This came sealed and they are blind-boxed, so Trash Man didn't know he'd sent me Jason Voorhees... but I couldn't be happier!!! There were only a very small handful of these that I really felt were MUST-haves... and Jason was one. I can now add him to my collection including Pennywise the Clown and Sam from Trick R' Treat! I wasn't initially a huge fan of what they'd done stylistically with these characters, but I have to admit having them in hand, in person, they look VERY cool. Jason here looks ready to go menace some of my other mini-figures, like the Indiana Jones crew or whomever... Ch-ch-ch... Ah-ah-ah...

So Oh MY GOSH that about wraps up this post! What a haul! The Trash Man is an incredibly generous gift-giver, and I will have to find the time and the resources to put together a fitting thank you package sometime in the future. Be sure to check out his blog over at Pop Pop! It's Trash Culture, and keep your eyes peeled for our future plans for a big Gremlins blogging event coming up this Summer! ALSO at the time of this posting, he is currently starting up another one of his EPIC Trash giveaways... which are filled with ANYTHING BUT TRASH!!! Go enter the contest right away!!! I really can't begin to thank him enough for all he's given me, stuff-wise and blogging-buddy-wise as well. I truly appreciate his humor, his heart, and his... h... he... haiiir...style...? Some other h word. Thank you man. I truly mean it.

The next post I plop on here will be about the package I received from a certain Texan Lady who I also adore... so keep your eyes peeled dear readers! It's gonna get random up in here.

Randomly Received: A Package from "Dave"!

All right... the time has come. I am officially getting ready to delete the content from Really Rather Random Guy (dot blogspot dot com) and in preparing for that, I wanted to import a bunch of the content that I know will then be lost forever, by bringing the posts over here to Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks (dot blogspot dot com). So, with that in mind, I thought I would preface these entries with the fact that they are indeed OLD blog posts from an OLD, now DEFUNCT blog, and cross my fingers and hope that folks will still want to read them.

This post was originally published back on January 17th, 2014

So back in May of last year I was contacted by a gentleman named "Dave" via e-mail. It was all very clandestine and mysterious... but what it boiled down to was that he wanted to sort of set up a "Toy Karma" trading system. So he'd send me a bit of stuff and I'd send a bit of stuff back. I'm still working on my bit of stuff (there's a handful of stuff he's asked me to keep an eye out for and I am diligently doing so (Not sure if I ever sent Dave his package of stuff, to be honest... Dave... Dave? Did I send you your stuff?)). Dave doesn't have a blog of his own so he asked that I keep the details on him light, personally, but I definitely plan to show off the great stuff he sent me this past November:

Honestly, when Dave contacted me to let me know he's sent out the package, I had forgotten about our agreement. So it was with great curiosity and profound excitement that I tore open the box. As you can see from the picture above, it was an eclectic mix... but not one so hard to figure out. Dave obviously paid close attention to the things I've featured over on the Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks blog, such as Sesame Street stuff, McDonald's toys, and various other sundry items. 

First up was this AWESOME advert for the Sesame Street movie, Follow That Bird! It looks like it may have come from a press junket or maybe just something handed out an movie theaters to get people jazzed about the film? I don't know but it is awesome. I love little pieces of promotional history like this that remind you of a time when films that NOW have been around for ages were still something "COMING SOON". 

Two particularly exciting items were this Ewok PEZ dispenser and a LEGO Batman McDonald's Happy Meal toy! I'm a big Star Wars OT fan, and PEZ enthusiast... so Wicket here is a welcome addition. And LEGO Batman is absolutely one of my favorite games of ALL time. LEGO Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter... pretty much ANYTHING LEGO is my favorite game of all time.  But Batman ESPECIALLY. This was VERY exciting for me. I'm... not really a gamer.

Here is an assortment of mini-figs that Dave tossed into the mix as well, knowing that I ADORE mini-figs. I think my absolute favorites of the bunch are the bendy Ronald McDonald, the Adventure Time BMO figure, and the absolutely AWESOME washing-machine/robot figure in the middle there, who, when rolled back and forth, agitates the teddy bear inside it. I was also particularly excited to add the Flash's ring to my collection of DCU rings (even though it was technically just a Lantern Corps ring collection before now).

Next up, this Ghostbusters mini-book, right out of an 80's Scholastic book order. (I have no idea if that's where it came from, but that's all it makes me think of) this went up in a place of honor on my Ghostbusters' shelf. 

Then there's this 6 hour-long DVD of "Old School" highlights from Sesame Street years 1979-1984, which would actually account for a pretty large chunk of my actual viewing years as a child. I haven't popped this in yet, but I can't wait to sit down and watch it with my smallest boy, who is my one true Sesame Street convert out of my three kids. 

And finally, I have the first volume of the Sesame Street Treasury. This is a later version of the Sesame Street Library, both of which were sold serialized in supermarkets. Since there were so many reprinted stories from the "Library" books in the "Treasury" books, I've never taken the time to track them all down... but after looking through this first book, I may just need to change my position. 

Well, that's it folks! I can't thank Dave enough for the great goodies, and I can't wait to get a package together and off into the mail for him. I have a HUGE BACK-LOG of exciting stuff that has been sent to me from fellow bloggers so I'm going to be focusing on that for a little while here on RRRG... but soon enough I'll be posting some other stuff in other... more random areas that I'm pretty excited about as well! So keep your eyes peeled here dear readers! 

Randomly Received: A Timely Valentine's Day Post

All right... the time has come. I am officially getting ready to delete the content from Really Rather Random Guy (dot blogspot dot com) and in preparing for that, I wanted to import a bunch of the content that I know will then be lost forever, by bringing the posts over here to Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks (dot blogspot dot com). So, with that in mind, I thought I would preface these entries with the fact that they are indeed OLD blog posts from an OLD, now DEFUNCT blog, and cross my fingers and hope that folks will still want to read them.

This post was originally published back on February 28th, 2014.

There's nothing like posting about Valentine's Day two full weeks after the fact. And the sad thing about this particular post is that I received its contents BEFORE Valentine's and I honestly had plenty of time to get it up on the blog days before V-Day even GOT here. But erm... I seem to making a habit on this new blog of posting about holidays waaay after the fact. (I assure you that my Halloween Countdown will NOT be taking place in November)

So anyway, I received this in the mail from Tommy Day of Tophat Sasquatch fame: 

He had posted on his site that he'd tracked down a bunch of old vintage Valentine's packs, and he wanted to give them away! I signed up immediately. He even gave the option of selecting the properties I wanted included. There were a LOT of great properties to choose from so I tossed a few ideas his way and promptly forgot about it. Then the envelope above appeared in the mail just a few days later! (Take a moment to appreciate Tommy's pixelated self-portrait on his address labels). 

First up is this AWESOME Top Hat Sasquatch (.com) sticker! Someday when I find a beat-up old Trapper Keeper at Goodwill, I'm totally going to cover it with all the cool sticker's I've collected from sites like Tommy's! 

Next, a Valentine from the Rescue Ranger, Gadget! I was SUCH a huge Rescue Ranger fan when it was a part of the Disney Afternoon. It took second place only to Dark wing Duck when that came along. And Gadget? Well I'm not going to ADMIT to having a weird little crush on an anthropomorphic mouse now am I? Let's just say I was a fan. 

I specifically requested a "Muppets TONIGHT" Valentine because I genuinely feel like it was under-appreciated in its time, and there are a lot of great characters that we've forgotten about from it. When I asked for a Muppets TONIGHT Valentine I was secretly wishing that Tommy would send me one with Clifford (The host) on it... and HE DID!!! In fact, it has both Clifford AND Kermit together!!! Awww KMUP TV... I miss you. 

For some folks, Charlie Brown, Snoppy, and the Peanuts in general define their Holidays. For me, it's Garfield that defines my holiday childhood experiences. The Halloween and Christmas (and to a much lesser degree, Thanksgiving) specials are force-fed to my children absolutely EVERY year. So getting a Valentine with this stripey orange guy on it is especially awesome. It's a great, iconic shot of him too, so I LOVE this one! 

Here's one with just Kermit, which as regular readers of mine probably know, is one of my absolute favorite Muppets and characters in general, of all time. 

And finally, here's a Californian Raisin Valentine, which just BLEW MY MIND. Again, regular readers of my old Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks blog probably already know, the C.Raisins are one of my absolute favorite childhood properties. There is NOTHING I don't love about this valentine. 

So a BIG thanks to Tommy Day, who always has something cool going on over at his Top Hat Sasquatch site. And Happy Valentine's Day everybody!

That's it for tonight kids, but keep your peepers peeled here for more randomness to come!

Random Buys of a Random Guy: Old toys!!!

All right... the time has come. I am officially getting ready to delete the content from Really Rather Random Guy (dot blogspot dot com) and in preparing for that, I wanted to import a bunch of the content that I know will then be lost forever, by bringing the posts over here to Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks (dot blogspot dot com). So, with that in mind, I thought I would preface these entries with the fact that they are indeed OLD blog posts from an OLD, now DEFUNCT blog, and cross my fingers and hope that folks will still want to read them.

This post was originally published back on February 12th, 2014.

Just a quick post to show off some vintage finds I made at Goodwill over the past weekend: 

I think I paid a total of 5 dollars for the three items you see here, and I was pretty happy to find all three. Let's take a closer look, shall we? 

First up was a pile of girly-girl stuff for my wife. A grab-bag of vintage Barbie clothes (which included the pair of baby My Little Ponies) and a vintage Strawberry Shortcake trolley. My wife's not huge into collecting vintage toys, so I may even end up passing these all along to a good home. I especially found the Ken-Doll Cosby sweater in the bottom left corner to be hilarious. The whole pile was pretty ridiculous though. 

First up, is this See 'N Say from Mattel. I was all agog when I saw the date stamp on the back said 1964. So I was a little disappointed when I saw the date on the large animal sticker running around the front of the toy said 1978. I don't typically make my old toy purchases based on age or value, I just buy stuff I like, or that bring me back to childhood, or that I think someone else might like. But the idea of this See N' Say being from the 60's really did get me excited. But still, it being from 1978 was pretty awesome too (I was born that year so... it was a good year). Then I noticed the copyright on the Zoo Keeper sticker in the center had 1983 on it. Sigh. I still smiled when I bought it. I actually had one of these as a kid, and THAT was why I wanted it anyway. 

Next up is this Fisher-Price Fire Engine which looks like it has a little person sitting in the front, but really just has a head attached. I've seen these for sale in antique shops in MUCH better shape... but I really love the look of this thing, and don't mind how beat up it looks. The ladder is missing, but the wild shoestring hose is still attached! This little guy is from 1968. And finally, drum-roll please...

A Fisher-Price Kermit THE Frog hand-puppet from 1978 (again... a good year). I've stuffed his head full of tissues to keep it from crumpling for display purposes, and honestly, it sketches me out a little bit sticking my hand in a hand-puppet that is 35 years old (it FEELS sketchy) but it was the item I was most excited to find. Now when I sing karaoke in my best Kermit impression, I can have a Kermit puppet to lip-synch with. (This is not a joke. It is something I actually do. I once did a version of the Carpenters' "Close to You" as Kermit the frog at my company picnic. I followed it up the next year by singing Dolly Parton's and Kenny Rogers' "Islands in the Stream" as both Kermit AND Piggy... I'm not bragging... but it was a pretty epic performance. Let's just leave it at that.) 

ANWAY! That's it for tonight kids! I've got some Valentine's Day goodies that arrived in the mail courtesy of Tommy Day over at Top Hat Sasquatch that I want to share tomorrow... And I'm currently working on a MASSIVE post about Scooby-Doo... but for now, this is all you get. Keep your peepers peeled here for more randomly random randmoness!

Random Buys of a Random Guy: Murder, She Wrote the Game???

All right... the time has come. I am officially getting ready to delete the content from Really Rather Random Guy (dot blogspot dot com) and in preparing for that, I wanted to import a bunch of the content that I know will then be lost forever, by bringing the posts over here to Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks (dot blogspot dot com). So, with that in mind, I thought I would preface these entries with the fact that they are indeed OLD blog posts from an OLD, now DEFUNCT blog, and cross my fingers and hope that folks will still want to read them.

This post was originally published back on January 31st, 2014.

So even though the blog is no longer Goodwill-centric, (Ha ha ha! Goodwill Geek, you ignorant fool!) I definitely plan on continuing to showcase the many finds and buys I've made there. Today's post focuses mainly on this beauty:

I like how it's billed as a game of strategy and PURSUIT,
and then you see the murderer running in the back, gun in hand,
while Jessica just toddles towards us smiling vacantly in the foreground.

Murder She Wrote, the Board Game!!! This beautiful boardgame is circa 1985 and stars Jessica Fletcher out-wiling a murderer. I was going to make a joke about her catching a killer who's gone off the deep end while simultaneously trying not to leak through her Depends... but making fun of elderly incontinence is just low-hanging fruit, insensitive... and I will not stoop so low. I am however tucking a "Taking a bite out of crime" dentures/Poligrip joke in my back pocket for later, so keep our eyes peeled for that. 

As a kid I remember reading a spoof of Murder, She Wrote in MAD Magazine. At the end of the spoof they take Jessica into police custody because it's glaringly obvious that everywhere this woman goes, someone gets murdered and she's prime suspect number one. In retrospect I wonder why people didn't make this connection on the show more often. Even if the police didn't have the evidence to arrest her, I don't think anyone would be inviting Jessica Fletcher out to their island resort. Murder follows her around like old people smell. 

Here's a shot of the game board, which is nicely illustrated and colorful. They did a pretty good job with this one. M,SW was so ubiquitous when I was a kid it felt like it was on for a solid block of six straight hours during day-time TV. Or maybe that's just because it was in a block with Matlock and I get the two confused. 

I have no idea if this game is "complete" or not, but it looks to be pretty close. I see copies of this game up on eBay and Etsy for around 25-30 dollars. So I feel like the 1.99 I paid for it was a pretty good deal. This is just one of those finds that you can't turn your nose up at, whether you're a fan of Murder, She Wrote, or not. Just the sheer weird factor alone was enough to make me pick this up. Actually... now that I think about it... maybe I shouldn't have picked this up. Maybe even just having a game with Jessica Fletcher represented in it is enough to put me in danger...?

You're going to be quite dead, you know.

That's it for tonight folks! I'll be back soon with more random stuff, so keep your eyes peeled here!