RETURN of the BIN OF AWESOME!!! 2015 Summer (Canadian) Edition!!!

So for the past two Summers, I have been ridiculously lucky to somehow have a bin of toys almost drop into my lap. And every year I try to chronicle the contents of the bin over the course of several blog posts, (Part 5 of the FIRST bin can be found here, with links to the previous 4 entries, detailing the rest of the bin... and Part 3 of the SECOND bin with links, etc, etc) with limited success... And both of those Bins Full of Awesome came from the same neighborhood guy who sold them to me.

You always remember your first... Bin of Awesome...
(I never got a photo of bin #2 because it was partially filled with rainwater
and time was a factor in salvaging some toys.)

This summer I was lucky once again to receive a Bin of Awesome... but this time from a very unexpected source: CANADA. 

Yes, I have altered the shipping labels to obscure my address.
That's why it looks like that. Just relax. 

Yes... you read that right... CANADA. I have a podcasting friend, Chris Gaida, from my days on Geek Fallout, who I THOUGHT I was trading just a handful of comic books with. I sent him a small parcel of comic books and a couple of months later... this thing lands on my doorstep. From CANADA. Thus, saving me from a Bin-of-Awesome-Less Summer! Let's rip the lid off this sucker and see what was inside it shall we? (Oh, and FYI, I'm going to cover everything in this one post and skip the multi-part nonsense because the Halloween season is drawing near, and I'm limited in the number of posts I can crank out between now and September 30th. So you get it all one-and-done, baby!)

Right after wrenching off the lid, a gust of cold, Canadian wind puffed out in my face, temporarily blinding me. But then I was greeted by the sight above. Goodies!!!  I'll reveal the layers of the bin as they were revealed to me. I had my camera in hand as I went through everything, so you are seeing pictures of the first moments I laid eyes on everything in the bin myself.

So, without further ado, let us dig in!

On the topmost layer, I was greeted by a crossover issue of the X-Men, featuring Power Pack (more on "The Pack" a bit later) an issue of "Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen" AND an issue of Amazing Stories ("Watch the NBC TV Series...") this is all EXACTLY up my alley so far... Let's keep on digging.

This was... unexpected... to say the very least. Not ONE... but TWO carded Dr. Killemoffs from the Toxic Crusaders action figure line. These were put out by Playmates back in 1991 and they were a very close rival to the TMNT in my heart. I was actually collecting these when I was 12 going on 13... so I was growing long in the tooth for action figures... but damned if I cared! One of these Doctors' blisters was separating from the card back so I shucked him and have since placed him proudly on my shelf! Dr. Killemoff was a high-ranking general in Hordak's army.

Aaaaaand theeeeen... A boxed set of the first four books in the Doc Savage novels set!!! This was one of my favorite items in the bin! I SHOULD have photographed the individual book covers because they are all AMAZING... but I'll feature them sometime in the future. There was also a news paper/magazine thing from the "Invasion" DC event, and a DVD of "Comic Book Villains" which I have never heard of but CANNOT WAIT to watch (Well, I actually can and will wait to watch it because all my spare viewing time is currently devoted to watching horror films for my October Countdown... But come... Novem... Decem... maybe January? I'll be popping this bad boy in right away!!!)

Chris also included this copy of "Star Trek: The Magazine" which features Jeffrey Combs! Chris knows I love me some Combs! Then I saw this "The Art of Star Wars Galaxy" book, which collects the art from the TOPPS trading cards. Oh man I LOOOVE me some Star Wars, and a lot of the artowork from those cards was ridiculously kick-ass.

So of course he included volume 2 as well! Chris proves several times throughout this bin that he's the kind of guy who pays attention to detail. He tailor suited this stuff to me PERFECTLY (which was the point, I know, duh... but it bears pointing out!) case in point being "Sesame Street Unpaved" which is an incredible behind-the-scenes book detailing one of my all-time favorite kids' shows. I've only had the opportunity to kind of flip through these books so far, but I'm planning a Sesame Street blog event for the future, and this book is just PERFECT.

MORE TOXIC CRUSADER ACTION FIGURES!!! This time around we get two of our verdantly virile hero, Toxie! and Dr. Killemoff's Major Domo, Psycho! I left one Toxie on his card and shucked both Psycho and one of the Toxies so they could join Killemoff on the shelf. It felt kind of wrong but it also felt kind of right. I just love playing with toys so much, I couldn't leave them trapped. Now I only have 4 or 5 more of these guys to track down before I have a complete set! But once those action figures were cleared out of the way... the most amazing thing was revealed unto mine eyes:

THIS THING. There have been hints as we've been digging all along. His purple body, his gloved hand... his.. be-spatted foot... all pointing to a California Raisin! But oh what a colossal Raisin it is!!! This thing is a monster! This is obviously one of those huge fair prizes that are almost impossible to win. Weird thing is... I think I remember these kinds of toys hanging from the ceilings of the dart games and whatnot at our own local Blue Hill Fair from when I was a kid! For those of you that don't know, the Raisins were a BIG DEAL for a few years back in the 80's. They were EVERYWHERE. SO it's no wonder that there would be questionably-licensed versions of the characters being given out as fair prizes back then. Good GAWD this thing is beautiful. And ridiculous-big. I have no idea where I will be displaying him, but its been mostly wherever he's least in the way for the time being.

But wait! We're still not done! The bin of awesome has yet deeper... depths... to plume! There was this gorgeous art print/poster of Mumm-Ra, the Ever-Living! The glare on the protective plastic sheath definitely steals some of the impact, but I assure you this thing is awesome.

Also included was this awesome Joker t-shirt! Is it worth anything? I don't know! I yoinked it out of the plastic and started wearing it the next day! I feel like I'm a terrible collector sometimes... but when somebody gives me a Joker shirt I wear that s**t. 

Ugh I didn't realize how blurry this photo came out when I took it... but I DID realize I was too lazy to go tracking these back down to re-photograph them, so you get what you get. "Power Pachyderms!" "Blip!" And two... count them TWO issues of "Sectaurs!!!" Because Sectaurs KICK ASS.

Sooo... now we're getting into the Power Pack neighborhood. I. LOVE. POWER. PACK. These issues here, "Skrulls vs Power Pack," are from a relatively recent mini-series put out around the "Secret Invasion" event back in 2008. I say relatively because the original Power Pack series was put out back in the mid-to-late 80's and early 90's. It had a bit of a renaissance under the "All Ages" series of books Marvel did from 2005 to 2010, in fact this one was the 8th miniseries out of 11. These are not really part of the mainline continuity of the Marvel Universe (like that even matters anymore), but they're still an excellent read. But honestly, they pale in comparison to...

Original Power Pack!!! Chris is actively trying to help me complete my original run of Power Pack. And thanks to this handful of comics (Including #1!!!) I'm finally down to the last 8 issues I need to have them all! This was such an incredibly AWESOME package to have received! Chris Gaida's generosity was ridiculous here, and I really can't thank him enough. I can only say that I owe him MAJORLY and I will do my best in the future to repay the gesture.

Well, that's it for tonight kids! I want to thank Chris Gaida one more time for being such an awesome friend and sending me my Summer of 2015 BIN OF AWESOME!!! Be sure to listen to him and some of my other good old podcasting friends over at Geek Fallout (They are also on iTunes so be sure to subscribe and leave them a review)! You can also follow Chris on Twitter. As per usual, I'll be back very soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies, so until then, Happy Hunting! (Only 19 more days until October Eve!!!)

A Whole New Bin of Awesome Pt. 2

So here we are, rummaging once more in a bin of awesome stuff that I picked up this past summer. It is of course a sequel of sorts to the bin of awesome I picked up the summer before that. What does the future summer hold in store for me? Only time will tell. 

But for now, let us be content to simply explore THIS bin. Right NOW. 

Buckle up buttercup because this layer of the bin is going to be very Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-heavy. Now, the LAST bin that I bought from the same guy the year previous also included some TMNT figures, and specifically a Muckman figure... so I assume the guy who sold me this bin is some sort of wheeler-and-dealer when it comes to toys.

This gives me an extra Muckman to pass on to a friend, which is completely Hunky-dorey. The pair of Genghis Frogs is fine too for the same reason. I kept the one with the belt (none of these guys were exactly rich in accessories... or retained all of their body-parts as you will soon see) for my shelf, and set the other one aside for a rainy-day.

Dirtbag here just happened to be one of my favorite figures as a kid. I have no idea why. He's not really anything to get excited about (and this one is missing his tail, which you can't see) but he was always one of the heavies when I played action figures as a kid. Maybe because he's not quite as silly looking as some of the other figures? Dunno. Next we have Scumbug, a fan favorite that I never had as a kid. You can see though why everyone likes him... he's GNARLY. Mine is unfortunately missing all of his gear, which renders him a bit useless in a fight. And I also ended up with an extra Usagi Yojimbo, which again is fine by me.

Here we have Wyrm, Tattoo, Wingnut, and Leatherhead. Possibly some of the most tragic figures in the bunch, seeing as almost all of them (not including Tattoo) are missing body parts. Wyrm's left hand, Wingnut's wings (But hopefully not his nuts), and Leatherhead's leathery head are all M.I.A. (Luckily I have a completed Leatherhead in my collection already). Wyrm is another one of those bizarre fan favorites that I never owned as a kid. As far as I know he never made an appearance in the cartoon, but he did show up in the comic book. Tattoo showed up in the cartoon, but bizarrely as a mutated hamster, which is the worst shoe-horning of an action figure into a cartoon that I have ever heard of. Tattoo in the Archie comics was just a sumo wrestler who seeks the turtles' help in rescuing his dog. And Wingnut? He's awesome but I hate the fact that he's missing his wings. 

My three favorite TMNT action figure finds in the bunch had to be these three dudes here though. King Lionheart is from the later sets near the end of the line, and Ground Chuck was another of my absolute favorite TMNT action figures as a kid. I got him and Dirtbag around the same time. This kangaroo is Walkabout, and is the first one of his kind I had in my collection. I was later gifted one in better condition, including his sidekick mini-figure... but that is a story for another day. 

So a total of 13 TMNT action figures were included in the bin, in various states of dismemberment and disarray. This added 9 new figures to my collection, and gave me a pile of figures that I could pass on to others. But that isn't the end of the Turtle-y goodness by any means!

The TMNT Pizza Thrower was included in the bin as well! This was another one that I had never owned as a kid, but I was more than happy to add it to my shelves now! It even had three of its pizzas included in the mix.

Included were some random loose parts as well. The eyeballs there belong to the Foot Cruiser, which I almost started hyperventilating at the prospect of finding in that bin... only to be disappointed when I didn't find it. That thing is AMAZING. The plunger gun I actually (in a bizarre coincidence) already had a random handful of pieces to already. It was this orange gun piece that was included in the awesome bin though.

I already own the sewer playset, so this one is extra for me. I never owned this playset as a kid, but now as an adult I have two (this one already has a designated home, I just need to get it there...)!!!

By far though THIS guy was one of the most exciting finds in the ENTIRE BIN. While Killer Bee is yes, technically an action figure, I think of him more as a vehicle. He's missing his grapnel gun and his chainsaw, but other than that he's mostly complete, which was VERY exciting to me. 

This was one of those toys that I desperately wanted as a kid, but just never got. The colors, the expression on his face... the whole package to this guy is awesome. Seeing him in that bin in the back of that truck was just one of the factors that convinced me to pick up that bin.

So between the robots in the last post, and the TMNT figures in this one, we've now covered the first two thirds of the contents of the bin. There are a handful of items that I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to waste any time on, since they're not very exciting. But there's one more entry to go where I'll be sharing the last of the stuff I was really excited about at the very least. So stay tuned for that!

I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies soon enough... so until then, Happy Hunting!

A Whole New Bin of Awesome Pt. 1: Most of the Robots

I know that there are probably people out there who call bulls**t on some of the stuff they read on this blog. Like: "No one would just find a Castle Grayskull at Goodwill STUFFED FULL of action figures, for a few bucks..." But I am telling you guys, I do not fabricate any of the stuff I write on here. I don't secretly go out and buy stuff from eBay or Nerd Rage Toys or Instagram sellers and present it on here as stuff I have found in the wild. I am always 100% honest about where I find the stuff I showcase here. If I do buy something cool from eBay, I will let you know! 

I preface the following post with this statement because I realize how completely unbelievable it is going to sound. I know this, and I realize that some folks may say I have "jumped the shark" here in believability. But I need you all to know that what I am about to tell you is true. 

I swear this is NOT ME.

Last summer, I finished writing a series of 5 posts about a bin of neat toys I picked up for 40 bucks at a yard sale the previous September (That went down in 2013. The five parts can be found here: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5) I had kind of slacked off writing about the bin after the second installment back in September of that year, and I didn't pick it up again until the following Summer... THIS PAST summer. July 13th is when installment number 3 went up, meaning there was about a 10 month gap between the second and third installments. 

And then on July 15th, something very awesome happened to me. 

If you have read any of the posts I linked to about my Yard Sale Bin of Awesome above, you will know I picked it up at a yard sale just down the road from my house. There is an older woman, a nice lady from Germany who has a house just three or four houses down from my own. She was the one having the yard sale but it was her son who was selling the bin full of toys. The rest, as they say, is history. 

I bought the bin, I wrote a couple of posts about it... and then I let it go for almost a year. July 13th 2014 I started wrapping that all up. And then two days after that, on July 15th 2014, I pulled into my driveway after a day at work, and was headed into my house. It was sprinkling rain very lightly, building up to a drizzle. A toy-filled truck drove past my house just as I was about to walk inside.

Not this truck. But almost as cool. 

The truck stopped. "Hey!" I turned around. "You want to buy some more toys?" 

It was the bin-selling son from last year! Two days after posting about the bin I had bought from him, the guy (Arthur, I found out) was driving past my house on his way to his mom's place, with toys in the back of his truck. Said he was on his way back from a show (toy show? I don't know.) when he saw me. Remembered I bought the He-Man stuff, etc. last year. Wanted to know if I wanted to buy another bin for 50 dollars. I saw something in the back of the truck that made me want to say yes almost immediately (I will not be revealing this item in this particular post... more on it later...) except I knew that my wife would divorce me if I bought another bin of toys... for that price. 

I told him this. He began dropping his price like an anvil in a Roadrunner cartoon. I didn't even dicker with him. He just kept going down, until he landed at 25 dollars. 

I couldn't resist. Just the stuff I could SEE was enough to convince me. The bin was also probably twice the size of the bin I got last year. (I know this all sounds like a fish story. I promise its not. I really do). I ran inside the house to get the money and pay the man. While I was gone he tossed a few more items INTO the bin. 

As I mentioned earlier, it was raining, so I grabbed the bin and brought it inside as fast as I could, to prevent stickers from dissolving right off the toys that had them... and I began to catalog the contents. Unfortunately, I didn't think to photograph the bin with the toys in it, but as I said, there was a serious water issue to deal with IMMEDIATELY. Not everything in that bin was in pristine condition, but almost all of it is a part of my collection now, with a few exceptions. For this introductory post I'm just going to show you 6 of the items from this new bin, and this first batch all share the theme of robotics.  

First up there was a pair of Robo Force figures in the mix. These guys are from around 1984 and have an interesting design, basically having a suction cup for a base and drier hoses for arms. They have a sort of Dalek-y vibe to them in my opinion. The guy above is named Vulgar the Destroyer. He used to have a drill bit where that hole in his face is now. He's really not in great shape at all to be honest. His sticker's messed up (in some part due to the rain damage mentioned earlier) and as mentioned, part of his face is gone... so he's seen better days.

Next up we have Maxx Steele from the same toyline. This was the Leader of the "good guy" robots. He's missing a chest piece and his right hand. So again, not in the greatest shape... but good enough for me to be honest. This line was not one I collected and played with as a kid, but I was vaguely aware of it. I definitely like having a couple of representatives in my collection. 

This handsome fella comes from the Captain Power line from 1987. He is the Soaron Sky Sentry. He is actually supposed to have a pair of wings clipped onto his back and a blaster rifle. We discussed the Captain Power television show back in August on the Geek Fallout podcast episode #91: "Top 5 Shows We Watched as Kids" That was a fun conversation. 

This Robeast "Scorpious" from 1984 put out as a part of the Panosh Place Voltron line is fun but also of severely questionable play-value. Since they made the decision to make this giant, Voltron-sized robot the same size as the human figures in the line, it made it hard for this Robeast to be any kind of credible threat to Voltron. He was anywhere from slightly too short to ridiculously too short depending on which version of Voltron you were playing with. But I have a soft spot in my heart for this guy mainly because of this Robot Chicken segment:

(I especially love the moment at around 1:52 when Robeast full-on twerks in Voltron's face.) 

This guy appears pretty unassuming at first, being a simple rubber robot with bendy limbs and not much else going on... but wait! That's before you get to know him! This happens to be a Mighty Bend-A-Bot, produced by Marty Toy back n 1985. This guy's name might Might MIGHT be "Umda" unless different colors of robot denoted different characters (His buddies had names like "Bongg" and "Zango") . These guys were obviously cheapy-charlie knock-off toys but have enough of a history that they can still be identified. They were packaged in two packs or single packs, and came with awesomely anachronistic knights' weapons like swords and shields.

One f my absolute favorite finds in this whole bin is this guy right here. He is a Starroid Raider from Tomland toys, produced in 1977, or possibly a Space Fighter produced in 1979. Either way, this guy's name is "Koga". These things were produced as cheap knock-offs to the Star Wars action figure line, and they were probably the bane of every child who received them, back in the day. Personally, I took one look at this guy and fell in love. He's blocky and goofy looking, has no knee or elbow articulation, and has a soft rubber head that vaguely reminds me of the soft-headed first wave of TMNT action figures that would come out a decade later. His limbs have a loose, floppy almost marionette-like quality to them that makes him a challenge to get him standing upright and I'm not sure if that came with age or if it was just how they produced them.

So here is: just the first batch of toys to come out of this second bin of awesome. I wish I'd gotten to write about this thing last year before Halloween hit, because now my first impressions and immediate passions have faded and cooled a little bit... but there was still so much neat stuff in there that I can squeeze out a bunch more posts! It'll be nice revisiting all the stuff I got on that fateful day.

That's it for tonight boys and girls! I'll be back soon with Geeky Goodwill Goodies (or more likely, goodies I got in the mail or in the bin mentioned above) very soon. Until then, Happy Hunting!