Countdown to Halloween Day 2: Body Wars, Spider Wars, Mars Attacks, and More!

So this post is going to sort of serve as a dumping place for a BUNCH of Halloween stuff I've found in previous weeks but wanted to share in October. This was, for the most part, not all bought at the same time, although much of this is probably all from no more than about three different trips to Goodwill total. There's a good mix of toys, spooky books, games, and other junk, so it'll probably be a nice assortment with a little bit of something for everyone. Let's check it out!

I found this "Mars Attacks!" claw-machine refugee for a dollar about a month or so back. He looks great with my stuffed Walking Dead "Well Zombie" sitting around gnashing their teeth at one another.

These guys were a couple of awesome finds in a grab-bag with some other toys (there's Batman, a Gorilla, and a horse I think? Just out of frame here... but these two guys were the Halloween-iest) the fella on the left is a Kaiju by the name of Gigan. I have had a lot of really great luck either finding or being given a bunch of these Trendmaster figures featuring Godzilla monsters. These are exactly the scale I want these in, and since watching even a single Godzilla/Kaiju film is still an item on my bucket list, this level of commitment it perfect for me. I am in LOVE with the character designs, and have a bit of a crush on Mothra if I'm being honest.

Next to Gigan we have Shan Yu, the villain from Disney's Mulan. I'm not really a Mulan fan per se, but I am a fan of this huge, gray, imposing, zombie-looking warlord with a giant buzzard on his shoulder. Shan Yu's eyes in the movie are actually a thousand times more disturbing than they are right here on this toy... but I think if they had accurately reflected the depths of soulessness in Chan Yu's creepy peepers, kids would have been crying into their Happy Meals and defecating uncontrollably (and not just from the McDonald's food). He is currently menacing my Scooby Doo action figures, because honestly he looks like someone from a Scooby Doo episode, right?

"Creatures" is a collection of poetry compiled by Lee Bennett Hopkins and illustrated by Stella Ormai. I have vague memories of this book from when I was a kid, which was why I picked it up, honestly. But it was disappointing. I was expecting more monsters and less gnomes, fairies, and sprites. This book desperately wanted to appear to be a Halloween book (I mean look at that cover!) but unfortunately there are only about 4 or 5 poems in the whole book that fit the bill.

Some Scooby Doo Chapter books! The first one is the novelization of the second movie, which I felt was wholly superior to the first live action movie, although neither of them was truly what I considered to be "good" Scooby Doo. The monsters in Scooby Doo 2 were the really fun part. I've been compiling a collection of chapter books to share with my boys and, as is the case with "The Case of the Glowing Alien," Scooby Doo pretty much always comes home from Goodwill as my kiddos genuinely adore ol' Scoobs.

I brought these two books home together. I plan on giving Bruce Coville's "Book of Monsters" a bit more attention in this very countdown, so let's ignore it today. Instead, I want to talk about "The Haunting of Derek Stone: The Red House" by Tony Abbott. I found a book that collected the first two Derek Stone books together in one volume sometime last year and FELL IN LOVE WITH THEM. This is a great example of me picking up some random book by some random author at Goodwill and discovering a new series of books that I just fall in love with. Derek is facing the threat of an undead ghost army overtaking the land of the living, and even though this is a YA series, it makes your flesh CRAWL. I'm shocked at some of the stuff Abbott gets away with in these books! Great read, highly recommended.

This isn't a horror collection. It's a collection of sci-fi stories about... sci-fi story writers I guess? But the cover is absolutely horrifying. So I'm including it here. Behold and be afraid.

Here's a fun one! Spider Wars by Milton Bradley circa 1988. This is a nice looking game with fun pieces and a really fun looking web-style playing surface/thing. Check out those spiders on the cover, and the awesome spider-figures in the game! This thing screams Halloween in black and neon orange and green. This one came complete with the whole shebang, except for one vital thing:

I really desperately need to get my hands on a copy of the directions! There are some very basic mechanics of the game that don't make sense when we're trying to play. I have in fact play tested this with my 6 year old son and we did have fun, but I feel like there are some rules we are not observing that we probably should have to make this game a little less one-sided?

Twisted Sister, and Dee Snyder specifically, gnawing on his raw meat, scared the CRAP out of me as a kid. This cassette has "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "I Wanna Rock" included, which are great songs.

This is a collection of vampire lore compiled by Daniel Cohen called "Real Vampires," which I have to contest the title of a bit... but check out that cover art!!! Anyone know who this is? I can't find reference to the cover art in the book anywhere. Anyone recognize this work? I want to see more!

No Halloween season would be complete without a couple of cheap Ghost Story collections! We can see Mr. Daniel Cohen hard at work again with "The World's Most Famous Ghosts" and a Watermill Classic collection: "Midnight Fright: A Collection of Ghost Stories" I probably won't be reading either of these before next Halloween, but I've added them to the potential Halloween Read Pile materials.

This was a fun find! From "Those Characters From Cleveland" (The creators of Madballs, My Pet Monster, Popples, Strawberry Shortcake, and many more) an on-again-off-again subsidiary of American Greetings, comes Body Wars!

These were Mighty-Max/Polly Pocket style fold-out mini-playsets, featuring germs and anti-bodies fighting each other for control of various internal organs that folded out into battle stations! Unfortunately this stomach I found didn't come with any of its characters or accessories, but I still found it be be gross and endearing. Had Body Wars come along when I was a bit younger (These came out in '94 when I was about 16 and in highschool so no dice...) I would have been OBSESSED with them. This is exactly the kind of thing I loved as a kid.

I never say no to horror movie novelizations. It kind of irks me looking at this picture that I have the books out of order. Ugh. Who does that? Me I guess. But anyway. I love the original Jaws film, and because my friend Miss M loves the whole franchise with a level of passion bordering on public indecency, I have learned to appreciate the other films as well. This will not be the last time you see a Jaws novelization during this countdown. We're going to need a bigger blog.

And that folks, is where I leave you on this, m second post of the countdown to Halloween! I'm doing this as a part of the official Countdown to Halloween, so be sure to pop over there and look and see who else is participating this year. As always, I will be back with some more Garroting Goodwill Goodies sooner than you'd like... so until then Happy Haunting!!! 

Goodwill Finds: April O'Neil, Snorks, and Freaky Chipmunks

Oh! I'm editing this to add: A of July 17th, 2015 my blog is officially 3 years old! I'm still toddling along, and occasionally pooping myself, but I'm starting to get the hang of this, and as long as I don't pick up some tiny item from the floor and get it lodged in my esophagus, you might all see me turn this thing into something worthwhile... at some point. I'll keep you posted. 

ALSO: this is my 403rd blog entry, which means I breezed past the 400 mark a few posts ago and just never noticed! So yay me! 

- And now back to the regularly scheduled blog! - 

Here's a fun little pile a' stuff from a trip I took to Goodwill awhile back! A handful of REALLY great retro finds here from the days of my youth! 

First up there was a grab-bag. Here are the contents:

With the exception of the Moshi Monster happy meal toy (sorry if you're a fan, but I am not), there weren't any real duds in here! LEt's take a more in depth look.

First up we have a Toonsylvania Burger King Kids' Club toy. This is from an Animaniacs-esque monster-themed cartoon from the very late 90's. Toonsylvania has appeared here on the blog before, although I had never heard of this show before that, and am unfortunately still no more familiar with it than I was, past the fact that I obviously know there are fast food premiums (and a wikipedia page!) based on the property.

Arguably the biggest win in this grab-bag is this lady right here. An April O'Neil from the original TMNT action figure line! If I'm not mistaken I believe this is the figure that became my "default" April because the one I had before was not in this good of a condition. I may have mentioned this before on the blog, but if not... here goes: My April O'Neil had Dazzler's powers when I was a kid because I was obsessed with the X-Men. (She's aiming a photon blast right at your face now)

Next up is this Goofy PVC. I'm not a huge Disney fan myself, in that I don't really care all that much about Mickey or the gang, but occasionally I come across a fun toy that catches my eye and represents one of the iconic characters well. This is a pretty nice figure. I think I may have sent this guy off to someone else in a trade or something, but I'm pretty sure I don't own him any more in any case.

Here's a really fun find! This is a Snork pvc figurine of Allstar from 1983! While I HATED most of the Smurfs-style shows that followed the lives of some strange tribe of creatures living somewhere in an adorable community (Biskits, Paw-Paws, Mon-Chi-Chis, the actual Smurfs) the Snorks got a pass for some reason.

This was one of the best finds in the bag as well, even though I have no idea what it's actually supposed to be. It looks like it might be some sort of cheap, hollow dinosaur, but it gives off way more of a "kaiju" vibe than a dinosaur one. Adversely, it looks more like some sort of tub toy or baby toy than anything else. So... anyone recognize this as anything that's actually something? Or are we looking at a dollar store reject here?

In the cassettes department we have the Danny Elfman score to the '89 Batman film. Back in the days of having to own EVERYTHING Batman because the film was so popular, I did in fact own both the score and the Prince soundtrack, so this find was a real trip down memory lane for me.

What was especially delightful to me was rediscovering the liner photos. I had forgotten these were even in there, although back when I owned this as a kid I pored over these to the point that they started falling apart.

Next up we have this bizarre looking Golden Book from the 1950's. It's bizarre to see them before the more standardized versions of the characters showed up.

Instead of steadfast Dave as the leader of the song, we have the wise Mr. Owl keeping the Chipmunks on track... which is kind of weird if you consider the fact that he'd actually be a natural predator for them.

I almost didn't pick up this Dick Tracy graphic novel. To be honest, the most interesting thing to me about Dick Tracy has always been the freakish villains (mostly in ation figure form), and the movie didn't really age all that well, IMO. BUT I flipped through the artwork in this thing and found:

INSANELY cool Kyle Baker artwork!!! So I snapped it up after all. This thing is just freaking GORGEOUS. I mean look at Flattop! Look at Pruneface! Lips Mannis is insane here! Steve the Tramp looks like a nightmare monster from the black lagoon! I hope I stumble across the other two volumes at some point!

And finally, I thought I'd end on some classic Sesame Street. Can't remember now (without going and finding this book which, let's all fact facts: I'm too lazy to do) but I'm wondering if this was some sort of "Follow That Bird" tie-in? Anyway, Big Bird returns from SOMEWHERE a bit earlier than expected, and instead of finding everyone on Sesame Street moping around ready to slit their wrists over missing him, Big Bird is dismayed to find out no one really cares... and in fact all his friends seem to be celebrating something. If you've already figured out what they're preparing for, then you're smarter than the big yellow bird in this book.

What I especially liked about this one is the fact that Forgetful Jones plays a semi-prominent role. He's the one who has the idea of throwing a party for uh... whoever it is. He's so goldurn forgetful! I don't distinctly remember Jones being portrayed as an actual resident of the Street back when I watched the show. I thought he was always in puppet saloons or out on the range with Buster or Clementine. 

Anyway. 

That's it for tonight kids! I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!

Liberace, The Frighteners, and Ice Age, Ice Age, ICE AGE

Not a huge one tonight kids, but some fun finds nonetheless. Only one major toy find, and the rest is all cassettes and books. But let's take a look and see what we shall see, shall we? 

Here's the pile of loot that I brought home. A few details may jump out to begin with, but let us take a closer look.

First up, the cassettes. We'll probably take a closer look at the Halloween Songs and Sounds from Walt Disney Records when October hits. Likewise, I'l probably wait until December to dissect Liberace: A Christmas Medley. So that leaves the one in the middle: the "Working Girl" soundtrack. It's really most significant for Carly Simon's "Let the River Run" which is a pretty great song if I'm being honest. Chris de Burgh's "The Lady In Red" is on here too, which I absolutely adore. I really need to go watch Working Girl again sometime.

Speaking of movies I want to revisit soon, I found this novelization of Peter Jackson's "The Frighteners" I think I may add this movie to my Halloween watch-pile for this year, since it's been years since I've seen it.

Or maybe I should just add this novelization to the ever-growing Halloween read-pile? I dunno. I always felt like this movie was a bit of an underrated gem. Seeing some great horror/genre vets like John Astin and Jeffrey Combs hamming it up always does my hear good. "I like it when they lay still like that..." and "My body is a road-map of pain!" are lines I quote to my wife on a regular basis to this day. Classic.

I feel like I overpaid slightly for this Ray Bradbury collection of short stories, by Goodwill standards anyway. I would have paid waaay more in a used book store I guess, so thanks for small favors. I buy Bradbury books as "collectible" now without hesitation.

The grab-bag you saw above is really what had me most interested honestly. It was packed with a huge variety of Ice Age Burger King Kids Meal toys from 2002, based off the first movie in the franchise. I'm a complete nut for the first film, and don't really care for the others in the series AT ALL as  I may have mentioned in a post on another blog, a long.. long... time ago.

What's funny is that if you read that post from my other (now defunct) blog, at the very end you'll see me struggle with trying to remember what is is that the tiny Sid the Sloth toy was originally encased in at one point. This find answered that question! It was one of the ice-block toys you can see on the bottom left of the picture above.

This picture, by the way, shows that the grab-bag contained almost 15 whole sets of toys from that series of Burger King Toys. Funny thing is these are all duplicates of 5 toys out of a set of 10 different ones. So even though I have 15 sets here, I still only have half the set!!! It's kind of interesting looking back at the toys they were putting out 13 years ago compared the toys they do nowadays.These things are elaborate in and of themselves:

I won't go into great detail about every single toy, but I will take a moment to say how excited I was to finally track down a "Pinky" toy (the human baby, who is technically named "Roshan") to go with my other Ice Age Toys.

Each set has several pieces to put together and features a character from the movie, doing something from the movie. It's pretty awesome. If I had room to set these up somewhere all the time, I totally would.

But here's the REALLY excellent part: They connect together! I know this is nothing new but back in 2002 it was still a kind-of/sort-of relatively new concept in Happy Meal toys. The Inspector Gadget set from 1999 really kind of revolutionized the idea of collectible/connectable sets, and they were still refining the concept with this one. 

So not only do each of the toys have a cause-and-effect pay-off, you can connect them all in one glorious chain of chaos. It works with mixed results, but for the most part I got this thing to trigger off flawlessly 3 out of 5 times. I dabbled with the idea of taking a video of the whole Rube Goldberg affair... but it was too unpredictable and quick moving to even attempt it. Again, keep in mind, this is only half of the Ice Age set BK was offering that year. So if I had all 10 can you imagine!?

Well that' it for tonight kids! I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!

Goodwill Finds: She-Ra, More KISS, More Strangers in Paradise, and Donald Duck

Welcome back to Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks! This time around there are some weird call backs to my last post that I'll point out when we get to them. In the meantime, let's take a look at the group shot:

Intriguing no? Let's dig in shall we?

First up, here are a couple of nice Donald Duck finds. I'm not exactly a huge Donald Duck fan myself, but this 50 year anniversary book and the figure to accompany it were definitely coming home with me.

This picture is from before I cleaned up the figure, so imagine this guy with a bit less grime packed into his sculpted detail lines. For now they kind of help to make him a little easier to photograph. This guy was produced by Marx toys back in 1971. He's not worth a ton of money or anything, but I absolutely adore this guy. He has this awesome classic toy vibe. It's hard to tell scale from the picture, but he's about 6 inches tall.

I passed this She-Ra book on to a friend after finding it, but not before getting an awesome photo of some of the Horde:

I don't know how much I've talked about my adoration of both Hordak and Leech here on the blog, but I had those two action figures long after all of my other Masters of the Universe action figures were long gone. The picture of Leech here is sort of awkwardly terrifying, like his mouth was sawed out of his head by a cartoon coyote.

Here in the cassettes, we have the KISS tape "Asylum" which, just like my LAST visit to Goodwill, I found and purchased this for the cover art. Then we have the soundtrack to "The Princess Bride" and the Bangles tape "Different Light" both of which are perennial favorites.

I know a lot of the internet focuses on "Creepmas" and the creepy Christmas stuff that helps fight back against the invasion of Halloween by Christmas earlier and earlier every year... but this year I thought I'd make it my mission to try and find some creepy Thanksgiving books too. I'll probably do a post on whatever I find sometime in November before Turkey Day.

This detective story spoke to me. I have no idea if I'll like it considering it stars a cat... but I can hope.

Apparently this book was a part of the Age of Conan video game marketing campaign. It has some gorgeous interior art and information about different phases of the character's life. I haven't explored it completely, but it looks fun.

And finally I brought home some more of Terry Moore's Strangers in Paradise! This one isn't a collected pocket book edition, and honestly, I'm not sure if I'll be ready to read it after the other one I got last time around or not. But I've got it. It's mine.

Well that's it kids! I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting.