Not Dead... Just not Blogging Much Right Now

It has been... a rough year so far. And I don't mean the "Man it sucks that David Bowie and Prince died..." kind of rough (although aaarrrggghhh!!!). I mean the "Wow, I may be changing absolutely everything about my life in the next few months and my entire future is uncertain..." kind of rough.

My collection has taken a major hit as my lifestyle has changed, and so has the cave. I would say I have dumped a good 65% of the collection that once stood here in the Goodwill Geek Cave. My trips to Goodwill have dropped off significantly. In fact, in the past almost-four-months I only started going back out thrifting in maybe the last two weeks or so at all.

If you've been following my Instagram account, you'll know that I've certainly still been collecting toys (I know it's lazy blogging to just screen capture my Instagram pics and repost them here... but I'm cutting myself some slack... Please follow suit.):

I've certainly been adding more Funk POPS! to my current collection. Roller-Derby Harley Quinn, April O'Neil, Snakeyes, Cobra Commander, Ms. Pac-Man, FN-2187, Watson, and Sherlock all came home within the last month or so. Other recent additions not pictured here: Pinhead, Twisty the Clown (from American Horror Story: Freakshow), and the Crow. 

My daughter and I have started collecting Tsum Tsum toys together. These little guys are addictive! She loves them and there are characters that I consider must-haves like Perry the Platypus, Eeyore, Stitch, and Baymax. Since I had a HUUUUGe crush on the Little Mermaid when I was younger, I wanted hers, and Dumbo, the Chesire Cat and Bing-Bong were too cool upon noticing them that I decided I NEEDED them. The classic Disney characters like Minnie, Mickey, and Goofy don't really do much for me, and neither does Olaf from Frozen... but I gotta have complete stacks of three. It's a weird thing for me with these toys. Also not pictured are recent additions, Hiro (Big Hero 6), Flounder, and Scrump (Lilo's doll from Lilo & Stitch)

I'm more in love with these two new Bebop and Rocksteady action figures from the new movie line than I care to admit. I genuinely feel like these are the Bebop and Rocksteady that we DESERVED on the Nicktoon. The Nicktoon and I are not currently speaking anyway. My interest dropped off intensely when the Turtles took off into space and left behind everything they've spent the last few seasons developing. I am in no way interested in seeing either of the recent live-action TMNT movies, but I'm developing a taste for nice looking action figures based on moves I have no intention of seeing (more on this later).

I like the new Force Awakens Galactic Heroes figures from Hasbro. They don't go well with my classic Galactic Heroes figures from years ago... but I don't feel like they all need to interact anyway. New generation of Star Wars heroes... new generation of minifigures to represent them (not pictured are Captain Phasma and the First Order Stormtrooper figures I also own... and I am still hunting for the Kylo Ren single pack).

I've started a new love affair with Marvel Legends figures too. Until recently, I only owned a handful of figures, mostly gifts from friends or stuff I found at Goodwill. I tracked down a complete set of the Guardians of the Galaxy figures when those came out, but haven't really felt the need beyond those. And then... I got Captain Marvel sometime last year... and then Spider-Man 2099 was a MUST HAVE. And then the beautiful Spider-Gwen! After her, I picked up The Scarlet Witch and Machine Man on clearance. And at this point I own 14 of these things.

I am verrrry selective when it comes to what characters I want to add to the flock however. But I think if they do a 6 inch Spider-Man Noir, I will have to own that puppy.

Also pictured here are a couple of Wonder Woman toys. As I mentioned with Bebop and Rocksteady above, I've been falling in love with some toys that represent movies I have no intention of seeing. All of the Wonder Woman toys from the new Batman vs. Superman lines fall firmly into this category. I love Wonder Woman, and I really love the design of the character in these toys. I even snagged a PEZ dispenser!

I haven't completely lost my will to thrift... I hit the antique mall a couple of times in the past few months, and found some really fun stuff, like these puffy Michale Jackson stickers, and this old Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: Dragonlance Adventures Hardcover! (I also got REALLY vicious trimming down my roleplaying manual collection... maybe a little too vicious. I'm regretting some of the stuff I dumped... but I think I'll be fine in the long run.) 

I still haven't lost my taste for random crap either! I love this little Teen Titans GO! minifigure pack, and as Poe Dameron demonstrates here, I am still collecting Star Wars Action figures. I picked up the Kroenen and K-9 figures the same day as the puffy stickers and Dragonlance book above.

Even with all the adapting I've been doing to events in my life recently, I've managed to have an adventure or two. I didn't go to Monster Mania in New Jersey this year, even after purchasing my tickets, but I did get to go to a local comic convention in Bangor Maine. 

 It was my very first convention ever, and it was a blast!

 My friend Brandon came along for two reasons: 1) He is a classic game collector! NES, Super NES, Genesis, you name it, and Brandon collects it. I have a weekly date with him at his place where we play old games and bitch about our problems. (I'll fill you in on reason #2 in a bit)

 I loved the geeky photo opportunities! Here I am with the TARDIS and R2-D2.

There were Mandalorians in greater numbers than I expected in attendance...

 As well as different chapters of Ghostbusters.

Brandon was determined to meet Troy "Mini-Me" Verner. The above picture (the best shot I got IMO) is of Troy warning me not to take the picture yet because Brandon's card had not been run through yet. 

 Here's the official, "legal" shot. Brandon had had high hopes that he could get Troy to hang off his arm or sit on his shoulders or something... but he immediately got the vibe that these requests might be frowned upon. I also sneaked a shot of Troy from afar TOTALLY BY ACCIDENT while taking shots of the convention floor.

This booth was magical. It featured several vintage roleplaying game accessories, including the mounts for the Warduke and Strongheart vintage action figures, the "Good Destrier" and "Evil Nightmare" toys. 

I had to physically peel myself away from this table! Of course, when the guy saw me ogling his supplies, he let me know he had a box full of action figures under the table that he would let me pick through (more on that later...).

There was a healthy but-not-overwhelming amount of cosplay. Lots of Whovians because Colin Baker (the 6th Doctor Who) was in attendance... but still a lot of cool costumes and ideas.

I was particularly infatuated with this table of custom designer toys. I was severely tempted to buy this 40 dollar Muck Monster... but ultimately couldn't pull the trigger.

In the end, I walked away with this one eyed fellow from the same table. He was 5 bucks and adorable so he came with me. Limbless as he may be, he helped me wave goodbye to good old Paul Bunyan as I headed to Chili's for lunch with Brandon. 

This was the pile of stuff I ended up bringing home with me from the con... some respectable loot. Some Secret Wars figures, a Robo Cop with his helmet... a Super Powers Flash, a vintage Lando Calrissian, a Sectaurs figure, a Dreadnok, a pile of TPBs and dollar bin comics... AND a Hook Horror action figure to add to my D&D vintage collection!!!

I'm going to end this here because I've already gone way longer than I had planned to. Don't know when I'll be back again... or IF I'll be back again. I'm not going to quit blogging... but in the near future my blogging goals may be changing. My life goals certainly have. We shall see. No promises then, about being back soon with more Goodwill Goodies. But I will certainly still wish you Happy Hunting!

A Trade With Adam Nori!

You know how I'm always cracking wise about how "timely" my posts are... like when I post about Christmas a month after the fact, or Valentine's Day in April or some crap? Well, yet again, this is one of those posts that are WAAAY past due, and this time it is almost criminally negligent. 

I received a package from Adam Nori of Who Ya Gonna Collect, as well as the author of a book, Adventures of a Ghost Hunter, in which he details some of his career as a professional Ghost Hunter! It is safe to say that Adam has a bit of an obsession with 1) ghosts and 2) Ghostbusters. 

I don't originally remember what put Adam and I in contact, but as happens with the many folks I interact with online, a trade of goods was discussed at one point. So we sent each other packages full of junk, and you can see what Adam ended up with over on his blog. 

So I received my package from Adam sometime last SUMMER. Like in JUNE. So this one is WAAAY overdue. I genuinely owe Adam an apology because this one got forgotten about and I hate to think that he for a second thought that I wasn't INSANELY grateful to receive this package:

First off, kudos to Mr. Nori for repurposing his Nerdblock box for this package! He made a lot of stuff fit in this space! Let's explore.

Comic books, trading cards, and VHS tapes are all standard-issue staples for these sort of trades. A lovely assortment was included, and if I'm playing favorites, that pack of Rocketeer cards had me drooling at first sight!

There were some awesome fast-food and cereal premiums in the box, including this Guardians of the Galaxy bag from Subway, and these Dinosaurs toys from McDonald's! In an ultimate act of heresy, I removed the hoses from Fran and Earl and used them as figurines on mt Henson shelf (they go back in pretty easily, so I'm not too worried).

So many toys!!! Here's the first of three pics detailing all of the toys included. If I had a gun to my head and had to pick some faves from the picture above, I'd single out bendable Shaggy, the Inspector Gadget figure, and the two Busy Town cars in the very front. But there's so much here! Muppet Babies! Toy Story! LEGO!

This fleet of vehicles is AMAZING! from some awesome Hanna Barbera characters, to Fraggles, Rugrats and Robin... But again, if I'm being super honest, my absolute FAVE in this shot is Snaps of the Burger King Kids Club riding a purple cricket/grasshopper/locust/something. I already have Kid Vid riding a scorpion and I/Q riding a millipede, so now that I have Snaps, I only need two more toys to complete the set! (Jaws riding a Spider, and Boomer riding a dragonfly, if you're curious...)

Finally, I sorted out some of the crème de la crème of the package for this final shot. I now officially own one of the movie-Turtles which I've been eyeing but not pulling the trigger on. The C3-PO is a bobbler and looks great on my Star Wars shelf. Solomon Grundy, Snap from Rice Krispies, a McDonald's Changeable, Snoopy in his flying Ace outfit, a Rizzo Disney Vinylmation Muppets toy, a Mr. Burns from the Burger King Treehouse of Horror line, and a couple of DC Scribblenauts, Blue Beetle and Bizarro are all welcome additions to a bunch of other collections I have stacking up in the Geek Cave.

This package was SUPER generous, and full of fun! I can't thank Adam enough for sending me these things in exchange for the box of junk he received!

I'll be back soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies to share! So until then, Happy Hunting!

The Christmas Post That Almost (Not Almost... ACTUALLY) Wasn't...

So yeah... I said I wasn't going to blog during the Christmas season... and I was fine with that... I stuck to it. Then I realized I would have to share all the Christmas stuff I've been saving up for my December posts... when exactly? 

Next year? No thank you. I decided I'd drop this in early January for some unknowable reason.

So here we are. This is where my life choices have led us. 

Here are a couple of piles of Christmas junk I wanted to talk about on my blog. 

First up we have some decorative items. Some pretty neat stuff, right? Let's explore them together...

Just you and I.

First up we have this "Santa on Summer vacation" Pepsi glass. This bad boy is from around 1990, when they were also producing cans with this design on them. Chad over at the Horror Movie BBQ and I have an ongoing, almost competitive, Pepsi glass-spotting fetish that seems to be going on a lot longer than most normal people would find appropriate.

I post this here for him.

I am probably more excited about finding this Sugar Bear Christmas ornament than anything else in this post. This guy was produced back in 1993 and Just. Look. At. Him.

Of all the crap in this post, this was one of the few items that got me to burst out with a loud, "Oh!" in the vicinity of other humans with ears capable of hearing my childish exclamation.

I would not have bought this Lindt Snowman tin if the donated Christmas decorations had not been half off. But they were, so I did. He's fun... and so fancy. Now people will think I'm classy and I buy Lindt. (But between you and I, dear reader, I am in fact completely UN-fancy. I am much more prone to the vulgar world of second-rate CHEAP chocolate than any other... to my utter shame.)

Another ridiculously exciting item in this lot is this boxed Dodger ornament from Oliver and company, from back in 1988. I find myself getting ridiculously enthusiastic about these Disney collectible ornaments. I found a Sebastian the Crab from The Little Mermaid awhile back, and this guy had me almost as excited as that. On a sidenote, I could not BELIEVE that Oliver and Company is actually an older movie than The Little Mermaid. I checked and double checked that fact a few times before I let myself believe it. Why does Oliver and Company feel like it was a 90's movie?

I find myself wishing I had written about this tin Santa ornament/figure/thing earlier in the post. Get that crap out of the way earlier. I mean... I liked it enough to buy it but there's not a lot of material here to work with honestly. So here's this tin Santa ornament/figure/thing. Enjoy!

Now on to the media items. Some books, a comic, and an... 8-track!?!? I don't collect those!?!? Let' dig into this pile.

Take my hand.

First off, we have this precursor to the animated television special, "Mickey's Christmas Carol". This one is performed by the "Walt Disney Players".

The only real major changes to the cast are Merlin as the Ghost of Christmas Past, and the Witch from Snow White as the Ghost of Christmas Future. I'm trying to imagine those characters in the place of the ones in the TV show... and I find them lacking. I'm just so used to Jiminy and Pete at this point that anyone else in those positions seems like sacrilege.

Apparently the televised animated special also spared us the pain of MANY musical numbers. There were quite a few on this tape. Goofy's song, "Being Tight Is Not All Right" seems like it belongs in a different kind of show.

Found this awesome book, "Snow Party" for the Christmas kids' book pile. It's not a Christmas book per se, and it was probably very carefully crafted to be a winter holiday book for folks not celebrating Christmas... but I'm not worried about "The War on Christmas," so this beautiful little book is a nice addition to our holiday season.

This is a book where snowmen get together to hold a huge celebration on the first snowy day of winter. The celebration is beautifully illustrated.

Such a fun and simple little book with a nice feel to it. My kids liked it quite a bit. This will definitely be added to the rotation every year.

I also found this beat up copy of the Beetlejuice "Horror-Day" special. In which Delia's and Beetlejuice's Christmas celebration gets sidetracked by a pickle he's gotten himself into with a ghostly engagement to be married.

Here are some of the more notable panels from the comic, the most holiday-themed ones, and a couple of VERY questionable panels from the story.

This final book is honestly something I've been trying to track down for YEARS. I LOVE Christmas mythology, and any reading materials I can find that describe traditions and myths from around the world pertaining to Christmas are must-haves. I also really enjoy the Time/Life series of books entitled "The Enchanted World." And I've been keeping an eye out for "The Book of Christmas" ever since I discovered that my high school library had a set of these books and this was included in the collection.

It wasn't all I dreamed it would be, if I'm being strictly honest. It was nice to cross this one off the list finally though. And a lot of the illustrations are really fun. They don't delve into the darker corners of the Christmas mythos as much as I would have liked. No appearances by Black Peter, the Yule Cat, or Krampus for instance. But the Kallikantzaroi make an appearance! Although, they do make the mistake of confusing/blending the name with the Callicantzaroi which were a sort of Greek Christmas Vampire if I'm not mistaken.

And last but not least, I did actually put together a 2015 Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks Toy Nativity Scene. I was not even remotely happy with how it came out, so I didn't give it ANY fanfare and I look forward to doing a better job next year.

The Three Wise Men are Han Solo, Mal Reynolds, and Peter Quill. They come bearing gifts of Gold (Nuggit), Frankenstein, and MURDER (CLUE). Murder was a last resort honestly. I wanted it to be Gold, Frankenstein, and Murray... but my minimate version of Peter Venkman is strictly the animated version which was voiced by Lorenzo Music, whose portrayal of the character Murray famously decried. So I just couldn't say he was "Murray". (On a side note, I got the Ecto-1 Ghostbusters LEGO set for Christmas so next year, look out! It's the movie version of the 'Busters and this Venkman is ALL MURRAY BABY!!!)

The shepherd is Bo Peep from Toy Story. She's played this role in years past, and I was kind of kicking myself for not finding an original character for my shepherd... but she's literally the only shepherd character I own who comes with her own mutant, three-headed sheep. I have a few pig toys I added just for the heck of it, and to round out the animal population I added the Gladys and Buster figures (or the figures I INSIST represent those two characters) to the creche.

The energizer bunny plays the role of my little drummer boy this year, and a Weeping angel watches from above.

That leaves only the starring family left to describe, including Mumm-Ra as Joseph, the Wicked Queen from Snow White as Mary and Bill Cipher of Gravity Falls infamy as the center of the tableau. I went with a slightly evil bent for some reason. I have no explanation as to why I did this.

So... welcome to January 2016 everybody! We're like a week in, and things seem to be going fairly smoothly.

In other news, my good buddy Brian Farrell of Pop Pop! It's Trash Culture fame has been interviewed by the NEMMC (New England Media & Memory Coalition) about the concept of "Trash Culture". It's a great read, Brian makes a lot of great points, and I really urge you all to go check it out if you're a collector of literally ANY sort.

2016 should be a fun year! I'm going to try and mix things up here a little bit, and while I'll still be posting lots of "Hey, look what I found!" kinds of posts, I would also like to tackle a few specific topics as well. Things I like and love, people on the internet I find interesting, reviews of things, I dunno, whatever strikes my fancy. So look forward to all of that, I guess.

I also want to remind all y'all reading this that I co-host a podcast with three of my good friends from these very internets! The aforementioned Brian Farrell, the both wondrous and wicked Miss M of Diary of a Dorkette fame, and Jason Roberts of the Nerdy Life of Mine blog. Together we are the Eclectic Mayhem podcast! YOu can dowload us on iTunes, so please be sure to subscribe and leave us a review!

Aaaand... since I haven't mentioned it here previously, I want to take a moment and congratulate Jason Roberts on his 2015 Halloween wedding to Carly Roberts!

And with that dear readers, I bid you a good night! I'll be back soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies to share! Until that time, Happy Hunting!