You know it's bad when...

I don't really have much to write about right now, to be honest, but I wanted to make myself do it anyway. I can't think of a better reason to start blogging right now than the fact that we're experiencing some terrifying stuff, hiding from a virus in our homes while the world seems to be literally trying to destroy itself. 

So here it is. A return to the blog. This may not end up being what it ever was before, but I am not the same person I was when I was writing this blog before anyway. Be gentle. I'm just dipping in my toes here. It will take me some time to focus up and get some good ideas for actual posts. Until that happens, I thought I'd just share some fun pics from my Instagram account. 

I really just wanted to post some fun pictures today and be able to say: "There, I did it. I blogged again." So that maybe I will keep doing it and keep adding a bit of positivity to the world instead of being scared of it. Here are my two potato heads. They were both Goodwill finds. The one on the left LOOKS like he's super old, but he's actually a reproduction released somewhere in the early-to mid aughts. The guy on the left is practically BRAND NEW and I bought him mainly because I wanted one that looked more like the guy in the Pixar Toy Story films. They look ridiculously happy together and that's what I wanted. I don't ever really remember caring all that much about Potato Head toys when I was a kid, but they have so much nostalgia wrapped up in them anyway!

Here we have a couple of the NECA "Toony Terrors" action figures. These guys were NOT thrift finds. Sometimes I buy new if the item is exciting enough, and boy do I love these figures. They are colorful and goofy and menacing in all the right ways. I own Pinhead, Leatherface, Jason, and Freddy as well, but this one pic encapsulates everything I love about this line.

When Amazon finally put the Luke Cage/Claire Temple 2-pack on sale for 20 bucks, I snapped it up. Then I promptly bought Luke a tiny hooded sweatshirt to wear like he does on the show. He looks great up here with Matt and Jess. Jessica Jones was absolutely my favorite show out of these three series... but Daredevil and Luke could hold their own for sure. I've kind of made it my goal to stop collecting so many different scales and versions of characters... and to star focusing MOSTLY on 6 inch scale figures like the Marvel Legends and Star Wars Black Series figs. It makes it harder for me to track down the figures I like... but I think in the long run it will help make my shelves look nicer. 

There was a classic Fisher-Price wedding at my apartment! Two of my Fisher Price Husky Helpers have discovered that they are more than just co-workers or even friends. There was a huge Fisher-Price celebration with all kinds of Adventure People, and a few other Fisher-Price characters in attendance. What's funny is that I had to travel to a Maryland fleamarket to find one of these construction workers in order to unite him with the other that I found here in Maine. So it's a true story of love and triumph. 

Whelp. I think that's enough dipping my toes in for now. I'm shaking off dust and stretching muscles I haven't exercised in quite some time. So I'm striving more for repetition and habit building than quality right now. I hope you guys will be patient with me. 

But I'll be back sooner rather than later this time, with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until that time... Happy Hunting! 

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 Reads: Starlog Magazines from 1984!!!

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 7th, 2014.

I've mentioned Scottie's Books on more than one occasion in the past, and almost never fail to find something fun when I go in there. A few weeks ago I stopped in and found a couple of issues of Starlog magazine for a few dollars apiece. 

Back in the day I was never a fan of Starlog as I associated it too much with Fangoria which scared me so badly as a child that it made me physically ill to even see on the newsstand. That last sentence probably sounds like an exaggeration, but I assure you it was not. I was shocked when I googled it to find out that it actually only went out of print in 2009 which feels way too recent. 

Since I normally wouldn't have been interested in Starlog in the past, I didn't even pick these up when I initially saw them, and then finally I saw the word "Gremlins" on the covers of both magazines, and that pretty much did it for me. Upon closer examination I saw features inckuding Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones, The Neverending Story, Cloak and Dagger, Muppets Take Manhatten, and the Last Starfighter. And this was all just from a cursory scan of the covers. (Completely ignoring the Buckaroo Bonzai and Conan the Destroyer photos on the covers) I didn't even open the poly-bags on these until I got them home. 

Now, I'm going about this a bit bass-ackwardsly because I'm actually featuring shots of issue #86 first (with the cover shot of Buckaroo) and then I'm going to get to #85 second. Honestly, I don't even have a particularly good reason for that. But look at the fold out poster in the front of issue #86! Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom! or, as the kids nowadays are wont to call it, "STARLOG Science Fiction Classic #20". And check out the facing-page ad! A Star Trek III tabletop paper-and-dice game that is "a simulation of Starship combat in the final frontier" which I highly doubt could possibly be as intense as they are hoping you'll think it is. 

You guys... YOU GUYS. A Cloak & Dagger article! Now admittedly, it's a pretty light piece, being a plot synopsis, list of actors in the film, and a mention of the inspirations and creative team behind the movie... but YOU GUYS. Once upon a time, people could just go out and buy magazines with articles about Cloak & Dagger in them??? I want to go to there. 

Then this. "Dan O'Herlihy: Full-time actor, part-time iguana." Actually, the other issue I picked up had a Starfighter article in it as well, but in a crushing moment of disappointment I realized that the issue had somehow been printed without a page #59/60! It was a pretty in-depth article, too! In fact, page 59 was the second half of an article about Robert Zemeckis trying to turn "The Shadow" into a feature film... in 1984!!! Instead we got the Alec Baldwin version (which I am actually a fan of) 10 years later. But I can't help but wonder... Anyway... Yeah... Dan O'Herlihy. Moving on. 

There was a pretty great feature on the special effects behind the Rancor... This stuff has probably been archived and bandied about by die-hard-hardcore Star Wars fans for decades now, but did that awesome concept art up in the top left corner! 

An interview/focus piece on "nebbish, ner, & famous hoser" Rick Moranis! I love the caption under his photo: "Moranis as nebbish in Ghostbusters". Which pretty much sums it in the weirdest way possible. I like how the photo also seems to be Moranis in a very out-of-character moment. No trace of Tully in there at all, even though he's obviously in costume. 

And article about "The Brother from Another Planet" Someone honestly tell me if this was worth watching. I think it's on Netflix right now. That's... all I've got to say about this. 

GREMLINS!!!! That is all. 

Aaand an article on the Neverending story. I can rest in peace now. 

Okay, so onto issue #85 (With Conan on the cover and tragically missing a VITAL page...) here we have a very nice gatefold Bladerunner poster or as it is known more commonly, "STARLOG Science Fiction Classic #19".

Not surprisingly, there was a big Conan the Destroyer article. With lots of greasy half-naked people flex-posing. This didn't really do a lot for me (also, I hope, not surprisingly). 

Aaand then I pooped my pants. In this article, Jim Henson is talking about a little film called "Labyrinth" which they are currently developing with Brian Froud. None of the cast members have been cast at this time. It boggles (Hoggle!!!) the mind to think back on a time when Labyrinth was still just... just... an IDEA. 

There was a Harlan Ellison article that would not have made sense to me before I started watching Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated with my boys. As Harlan Ellison has just always looked like this to me:

And nothing like this:

Because Harlan Ellison is EXACTLY the kind of Scooby-Doo celebrity guest
that the kids these days are going to feel is relevant.
(I know, this one was for the adults... but still, weird, right?)

The article is all about Harlan Ellison's effect on the sci-fi landscape, not just as an author, but as an editor, as a personality, as an educator, and as a bona fide creative genius celebrity madman. It was a nice read. 

MORE Gremlins!!! This time focusing on Joe Dante instead of Chris Columbus. 

And to wrap it all up, a nice Ivan Reitman piece with lots of focus on Ghostbusters. Phew! 

All in all, I never knew what a great treasure trove of old pop-culture goodness a couple old issues of Starlog could be... but I will definitely be keeping my eyes peeled for more copies in the wild from now on!!!

That's it for tonight kids, but I'll be randomly popping up on here in the future, so keep your peepers peeled! 

League Post: My Life in 1X1

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.

I should also point out that the "League of Extraordinary Bloggers" is also OLD and DEFUNCT. This post was originally published back on March 29th, 2014.

Wow, I've been out of the blogging loop for a little while now... since the last post on here is from a League post... the week before last. 

I can't even begin to tell you all that's been happening here in Really Rather Random Land... but suffice it to say I've barely had time to catch my breath. But enough about all that for now. I'm here to write about this week's League of Extraordinary Bloggers topic! And as you can see above the topic is an interesting one. We have a photo challenge this week!

Arrange items that describe you within a 12″ x 12″ space and take a picture. 

So here you have it. Now... full disclosure... this is not EXACTLY a square foot. The surface I grabbed to set everything up on was slightly shorter than a foot up and down and slightly longer side-to-side... so it's not a true square foot... but I was in a hurry so you'll have to forgive me for being close-but-not-quite. 

Some of the highlights:

1. Anything Halloween or Horror related. You'll find Jack Skellington, Sam from Trick R' Treat, Garfield from his Halloween TV special, and various other little Devils, skeleton pirates, zombies, and Horror Icons in the mix. I am such a big kid when it comes to Halloween and Horror, both for similar but sometimes different reasons. Halloween is all about darkness and light melting together like orange candle wax, blurring identities and swirling danger and fun together like autumn leaves on the wind. Horror is all about tension and relief, shock and electricity, and reminding yourself that you're alive. The best horror and the best Halloweens are a perfect balance of wry humor and fear and the sense that when it's all over you'll still be (mostly...) safe and sound. 

2. Anything Comic book or Super-Hero related. Imaginext Harley Quinn is a new (and beautiful) acquisition in my collection, and you'll also find a custom-painted Red Lantern Dex-Starr done by Reis O'Brien (of the now OLD and DEFUNCT Lair of the Dork Horde blog) a Super-Hero Squad Iron Man figurine, and of course one of my all-time favorite and personally iconic issues of Uncanny X-Men, #234. Comic books saved me as a child. I rode out some of the hardest, loneliest, horrific and painful times of my childhood with my nose (and the rest of my face... and let's face it my brain) buried in a comic book. They allowed me to celebrate my otherness, my misfit nature in a way that no other medium did at the time. Comics play out in your mind like reading a book does, but it also bolsters the imagination with visuals that support and enhance the experience. 

3. Saturday Morning Cartoons! Well... cartoons in general. You'll see some classic in there, like Velma from Scooby-Doo, Egon from Real Ghostbusters, Darkwing Duck, Finn from Adventure Time, Lil' Leo from TMNT, Scrat from Ice Age, and Emmet from the recent LEGO movie. Bert from Sesame Street is in there, and I lovingly include Garfield in some of my warmest childhood cartoon memories too. Animation is sooo important to me, as is anything created with a child's imagination in mind. 

4. Toys! So many toys are represented here, (too many to talk about ever single one) including my burgeoning love of LEGOs, my fondness for old action figures and mini-figures from my youth, and pretty much any cool, plastic representation of any character I have loved. Cheap toys, expensive toys, bootleg toys, licensed toys, vintage toys, brand new toys, it does not matter... I just LOVE toys. You may notice I have included every single one of the old gang that I used to play with almost exclusively, including Petey Graffiti, Chicky Baby, a green LEGO man, a yellow Ghostbusters Ghost, a gray and purple robot, and a blue MUSCLE man... their story can be read here. They were six of my absolute favorite toys of all time. Fisher-Price Little People, Construx, Adventure People, Battle Beasts, Dino Riders, Funko Minis, Imaginext figures, Mini-Mates, cereal premiums, fast food premiums... they're all represented. 

5. Books, science fiction, childhood, nostalgia, Goodwill... you name it. I have a couple of examples of Star Wars toys in there, one fairly old, one relatively new. California Raisins which were an obsession that branched out to many other food-related mascots... I even have ol' Ronald McDonald in the mix as well as a mini PEZ dispenser, childhood obesity be damned. Petey Graffiti is in there to represent a dual love of the toy itself but also Garbage Pail Kids in general, which I collected like an ADDICT as a child. I have a flyer from a Goodwill store (you guys do know I like shopping at Goodwill, right?) and while not my favorite book from the Borderlands/Bordertown series, definitely my favorite cover from that series... which is quite possibly my favorite book series of all time. 

This foot by foot picture is a snapshot of the geek me. There are lots of other square feet I could fill with my family, or my job, or the secret wishes that I make in the night of what I wish my life could be. But one square foot can't hold all of that, so I just went with the geeky stuff. 

Let's see what the other members of the League have squared away:

- D.I. Treasures

- AEIOU and Sometimes Why 

- Cool & Collected

- Achievements in Gaming

- Happy Haunted Sunshine House

- Stunt Zombie

- Jathniel

- The Nerd Nook

I guess it's hip to be square! Anyway... I'll be back soon! Keep your peepers peeled for more randomness right here!

Random Buys of a Random Guy: Dream Catcher Finds!

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 on February 24th, 2014.

I've mentioned before, more than once, that there's an antique mall in downtown Ellsworth, ME called the Dream Catcher. It's three stories, and the top floor has one area that is solely dedicated to comic books, lunch-boxes, toys, collectibles, magazines, ANYTHING a geek might like. I don't go there nearly as often as I do Goodwill, simply because the guy who runs it doesn't get new stock in that steadily (or it seems that way at least).

Anyway, I've strolled around in there before and taken pictures of things I've been drooling over in the past, mainly the collection of vintage lunch-boxes that I (mostly) REFUSE to start collecting. Yesterday I found a bunch of boardgames I also (mostly) refuse to start collecting, but thought I'd share.

But wait! There's more! Down past all the boardgames in this post there are a few other shots from the store, and then a few shots of the loot I actually brought home.

First up Bonanza, which is less a game based on a show, and more a game based on a game they play in the show. I LOVE how they've shoe-horned in the chip-tray from this game awkwardly into the photo on the cover of the box... because everybody knows cowboys had plastic poker chips and plastic blow-form trays to keep them in. Don't look at it too long because the perspective starts to hurt your eyes. 

I kind of wish I'd taken more time to open these up and see what the game mechanics were... but here is a game based on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. No idea what the gameplay is like.

A "Medical Game For The Young" because kids needed more excuses to play doctor with each other. Starring Thorn-Birds-sexy-priest Richard Chamberlain. Because just having a doctor game isn't enough to get the blood all riled up and pumping. 

The Ewoks were Green before it was cool. They were hippie, hipster, tree-hugging, teddy bear, jerks. 

I apologize for the crap quality of these photos, which were taken with my iPod. This one is just the worst, and it's too bad because the Hair Bear Bunch deserve better. 

Happy Days! This (according to the box) is "Fonzie's Real Cool Game" which is all I really need to know. 

The Legend of Jesse James. Too lazy to Google if this is based on a specific film or show about Jesse James, or if it's just about the "real" Jesse James. I used quotes there not because I question the reality of Jesse James. He is neither the Loch Ness Monster nor is he Santa Claus. I used them because undoubtedly the Jesse James depicted in this game is nothing like his real-life counterpart. I mean, look at that Brady-Bunch lookin' mother-f**ker on the cover of the box. Nope. 

I am probably just going to go ahead and buy this the next time I go. I didn't want to blow half of my cash on just a board game today... but I WILL own this in the near future.

Same with this one. For no other reason than the fact that they made it. If you look right below it you can also see an Ewok paint set that I forgot to get a shot of on its own. 

If I recall, this game was featured on an episode of Toyhunter. I remember it being a big deal if all the pieces are included and it still works. I'm not a board game collector for the most part, so I didn't mess around with it too much. 

If I were to buy this it would only be so I could set it up and display it out of the box. Again, I did a really poor job of investigating these games, so I don't know when this copy was produced, but it looks old. Like... IDEAL games old. However old that is. 

Raggedy  Ann! Nothing else to say really. Except that horse has no legs, which means Ann and Andy are running (awkwardly, because there's a stick between their legs, to help maintain the illusion). 

This looks cool from the front. I don't know how it plays or what's in there, but it looks cool from the front. Not the first time I've seen this game there, either. 

Posting this last one without comment. I just know that at some time in the past, there were people in various states of being naked people handling this box, around it, potentially ON it... and that is terrifying to me. 

This cross-eyed duck was nearly as big as me. I kept my distance. Seems like it's either a knock-off Donald Duck, or a really cheaply made official one. Either way I wanted it far away from me. 

Keebler Elf cookie jar. Can't think of a more fitting and appropriate form of merchandising, honestly. Too bad this one appears to be missing its lid. 

On the other hand, this Mr. Peanut peanut butter maker seems to make sense at first glance, but then a bit sadistic upon further reflection. I mean, yes, who else would you rather get peanut butter from but a anthropomorphic peanut, right? But let us not forget what must happen to peanuts to make them into peanut butter. And you force Mr. Peanut to be complicit in the grinding of his people by pouring the peanuts into his head to grind them up. Chilling. 

If this on-the-card American Gladiaors Turbo is still there for purchase the next time I go I am probably going to bring him home. I just didn't have the funds this time around, and it would have been a novelty buy, plain and simple. But he brought back many a teenage late-night, watching a muscle-bound freak shooting tennis balls at his victims. 

And finally, I'd like to show off the stuff I actually brought home from Dreamcatcher with me. Surely, in comparison to the magical wonders I have shared thus far, the items I brought home must be truly wondrous right? Well... I'll let you decide:

Here's the entire pile. I'm not going to wax poetic over the two Scooby-Doo plates, because I mainly bought them for my boys and they are only special because we're going through a Scooby-Doo phase right now and they will be excited to see these at supper-time. The Grover's Own Alphabet was also a fun find because... well, y'know... Sesame Street and Golden Books... Let's take a closer look as some of the other items, shall we?

First up is this Officer Big Mac glass to go in my McDonald's collectible glasses collection. They actually had a Hamburglar glass in another part of the Mall, being sold by a different vendor for WAY TOO MUCH money. So I settled for just the one. But look at it! Isn't it GLORIOUS???

Just as I was checking out, I had a question about an action figure I had found (see below) and it reminded the guy behind the counter that he had just put together a box of action figures he hadn't put out for sale yet. He offered to let me go paw around in there and see what I could find... which I gleefully did. Most of it was a let-down to be honest. Old Phantom Menace figures and armless 90's Batman figures. But there was this nice trio that I picked up (plus the Shaggy figure you can see peeking from behind the Shredder's shoulder pad in the first picture). I never owned Sergeant Bananas when I was a lad, but I was happy to add him to my collection now (he even still has his snake belt!)... and while I am not a huge fan of the weird costumed TMNT figures, I couldn't NOT buy this Davey-Crockett inspired Raphael figure. Between the Raccoon hat, the fringes on his sleeves, and the bolo tie... I was smitten. But I was by far the most excited about finding a Super Shredder figure from the second movie line. I really did NOT like the original Shredder from the first TMNT line, so when this guy came around, he pretty much just became my "default" Shredder figure. The scale was off so that he wasn't all that "super" anyway, and he looks waaay more bad-ass than the geriatric Shredder we were given before this. All-in-all, I was happy to add these three to my collection. 

Finally, I  found this guy. I almost didn't buy him because when I found him he was missing his left arm. Then as I was rummaging around the bottom of the bin I found him in, I discovered the arm was still in there! So I popped it on and took it. I had no idea who he was at the time, but using the "1983 Filmation" stamp on his back, it wasn't long before I was able to Google him up. I discovered he is "Neptul" a villain from the Blackstar series. He's one of those guys that comes with one of those weird looking little gargoyle/gremlin/demons that every kid in the 80's seemed to own at least one of, even if they didn't know where it came from: 

This image belongs to Littleweirdos.net
follow the link to read their article about these little guys!

And the one that came with Neptul here is STILL THERE! I remember seeing him (in fact, if you follow the 'before' link waaay back at the top of this post (or that one... right there), there's a picture of him in the linked post!), so I'll be going back for him. I love a good toy reunion. The Blackstar line is a REALLY fun line, and according to Shawn Robare of Branded in the 80's fame (follow the link for more Blackstar love), the show was a kick to watch as well. I think I may start trying to track both the toys and the show down in the near future. 

So that's it folks! I may be headed back to the Dream Catcher sooner rather than later to pick up a couple of items... and if I do, you'll surely read about it here first (because who else would write about that... nevermind)! Keep your peepers peeled here for more random randomness!