A Package from the Trash Man!

You may have noticed by now that I have a habit of waiting waaay too long to thank people for stuff they've sent me. If you haven't noticed this, then you are about to notice. Maybe you're new here. 

So this post is going to be all about a package sent to me by my good friend Brian Farrell, otherwise known as the "Trash Man" curator of the Pop Pop! It's Trash Culture blog. He sends me stuff from time to time, and I return the favor from time to time. Let's dig in and see what he sent to me this time, shall we? 

First up, Brian and I try to help each other out as much as we can. Since he knows I don't frequent comic shops (there are none easily accessible in my area), and this Nebula MiniMate was a comic shop exclusive, I asked Brian if he would snag one for me if he could and save me the cost of going eBay-diving for it. As usual, Brian came through and really did me a solid. I am super appreciative, as this completed my GotG MiniMates collection.

My one complaint with this MiniMates line is that they made a duplicate Sakaar Trooper when they could have made the Collector, Korath, Corpsman Dey or even Nova Prime. There were several criminally overlooked characters that could have been packed in exclusively with Nebula. Oh well, at least the Sakaar Trooper is an army builder, so it works.

Also included was this View-MAster circa 1980-something, and some slides to view, starring none other than Toy Story, Knight Rider and the Muppets!!!

It would be weird if there were no collectors' cards included in a package from Brian, and he did NOT disappoint. I suspect very strongly that this Fright Flicks wax pack was hand-picked for me due to my absolute adoration of Pumpkinhead. I have not opened it. This is one of the wax packs that I will be keeping unopened and intact as an objet d'art.

I DID open the Marvel Universe Series II pack so I could see what characters I got. This series has always stood out in my mind due to some of the cards being illustrated beautifully by Arthur Adams. Thanos, Dr Doom, Speedball, and a battle between the Thing and the Hulk all have Mr. Adams's distinctive art on display.

Brian also knows of my weakness for Choose Your Own Adventure books. So he knew that Museum of the Living Dead, which is a "Plot-It-Yourself Horror Story" and Demons of the Deep which is a "Fighting Fantasy Gamebook" (Steve Jackson of Gurps and Munchkins fame???) would be right up my alley!

Also included were these issues of the (in my opinion) BEST Cloak and Dagger comic book series of all time: Strange Tales Featuring: Cloak & Dagger and Doctor Strange!!! This one even features Power Pack! Three more issues to put towards completing my run!

This Goodebumps-style book may not seem remarkable to you... but if you look closer you see there's just nothing right about this cover at all.

Gah, I bet it smells awful in there. 

Some of the absolute BEST and surprising items in the box were this Battle Beast, "Tarsier Tyrant" and this Monster in My Pocket, "Bigfoot". Both of these toy lines were ones I collected as a lad. Here you can see Tarsier Tyrant about to pimp-slap Bigfoot. 

He owes him money. 

But my absolute FAVORITE items above all else in the box were these three items right here. A 1988 issue of MAD magazine, featuring the California Raisins on the cover, the first California Raisins cassette "The California Raisins Sing the Hit Songs," and a "it-just-occured-to-me-how-weird-this-is-as-an-adult" pin-on button of the California Raisins all climbing into a hot tub together, that I actually owned as a kid. I am a HUGE California Raisins fan. There are few properties that I have such strong and clearly remembered nostalgia for the way I do for the C.R.'s. As a kid, I was obsessed.

So that was the entire package sent to me by the Trash Man, and as usual, he knows what makes me geek out. I wanted to send a proper thank you out to him, for being such a good friend on top of the cool swag.

Be sure to listen to us, along with our buddies Miss M of the Diary of a Dorkette blog, and Jason Roberts of the Nerdy Life of Mine blog on our fledgling podcast Eclectic Mayhem. At this point we're only a few episodes in, but we make up for it with pure insanity.

Well, that's all I've got for tonight kids! I'll be back soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies, so until then, Happy Hunting!

Books N' More from Brian Lapsley

Hey everybody! time for yet another incredibly overdue thank you to someone who sent me something fantastic in the mail! This time around it's from Brian Lapsley of Awake Oh Sleeper fame. He is a blogger, podcaster, and artist extraordinaire. AND he is an incredibly generous soul who has gifted me with far more than he should have up to this point. 

I have some serious catching up to do. 

But for now, let's see what Brian sent me in the last parcel of goodies (and one more at the item that he sent me separately because he knew how thrilled I would be to own it...) shall we? 

This package was heavy with BOOKS! And not just any books... these are all adaptations of movies! OR... books that have been adapted into movies. Either way. Movies or... TV shows as you can see from the book above. This is a Star Trek novel "Yesterday's Son". Spock discovers his own son-- living 5000 years in the past! And I thought my family had problems! HAH!

Ahem. Moving on.

Next we have perennial favorite, "Jurassic Park" by Michael Crichton. This is a case of book first movie second. But I've never read this, and I'm quite looking forward to it.

Now, "Four Past Midnight" I have read before. It's an interesting case. "Secret Window, Secret Garden" is the story adapted into a film here, "Secret Window" (and another story from this book was also adapted into a TV mini-series "The Langoliers" but the less said about THAT the better...). I have always thought that Secret Window was a weird one to choose to adapt as it was arguably one of the weaker stories in the collection in my opinion. Now "The Library Policeman"? That one was FANTASTIC and it doesn't seem like it would have been that hard to make into a movie at all. Where is my Library Policeman film you guys???

The novelization of Tim Burton's Batman film is always a favorite. I already own a copy of this one, but it is beat. So this much nicer copy is a welcome replacement. I read this as a kid because I bought and ingested anything and everything to do with Batman around this film. And I thought my family had problems! HAH!

Wait... Uhhh... moving on.

I... there are no words. This movie hurt me DEEPLY. And now I own a novelization of it. So... I'm going to read it at some point and see if the book improves on any of the stuff I didn't like about the movie (Actually, I feel like I need to go back and watch the movie again at some point... just to see if I've softened on it at all.)

And finally, THIS GUY was sent to me at a different point in time. This was ridiculously generous of Brian to give me as this is the Loot-Crate exclusive Groot Funko Pop! with a glow-in-the-dark hand and that beautiful mossy detail paint. This thing is genuinely a prized possession of mine now, and I can't thank Brian enough for him. I am OBSESSED with the Guardians of the Galaxy film, and there was just no other way I would have gotten my hands on this piece of PURE MAGIC since I am not a Loot-Crate subscriber. Oh man... I am still reeling from this one you guys.

I want to shoot one last big THANK YOU out to Brian Lapsley, and remind folks to check out his blog over at Awake Oh Sleeper. He is also one of the hosts of the Nerds of the Roundtable so be sure to check that out too!

All right kids, that's all I've got for tonight. I'll be back soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies... so until then, Happy Hunting!

Halloween Countdown Day 14: My Birthday!

10 days later and I wasn't even going to bother with posting anything about my birthday because I didn't really get anything Halloween-y for my birthday anyway... Until today. Wanna see what I got? Let's take a look!

Out of the gate we're starting with the non-Halloween-y stuff, of which the MAJOR gift this year was this set of Disney Infinity Marvel: Guardians of the Galaxy figurines! Before anyone asks: No, I do not own the game... or even a system to play it on. But I LOVE Guardians of the Galaxy, and I LOVE the animated-style of these figures. They are simply stunning, and make a great addition to the shrine I am currently building to the GotG.

Slightly more Halloween-y is this Scooby-Doo PEZ set, which I mentioned during my tour of the Halloween aspects of my Geek cave... so I won't go into great detail here again. BUT PEZ + Scooby-Doo = AWESOME!!!

My daughter got me this book The Infinite Sea which is the second book in the 5th Wave series by Rick Yancey. This author is currently one of my favorites and this series is just GUT-wrenching. 

This set of TMNT PEZ dispensers was a last minute purchase by my wife the night of my birthday. Again... PEZ + Almost anything = AWESOME.

NOW. The inspiration for this post was the fact that when I arrived home today my wife's cousin gave me this awesome pillow from www.Horrordecor.com the creators of the Horror-Buddies line. This Handbook for the Recently Deceased from Beetlejuice is perfect for the chair in my Geek-Cave!!! Gorgeous AND functional!

The pillow came with a bag of (biohazardous) random goodies as well, including a Betelgeuse business card, a postcard of the Farmer from Motel Hell, a banana Laffy Taffy (which I promptly ate) and my favorite part: a random toy evil-clown head.

My wife greeted me with a late birthday present as well. A "Freddy vs. Jason: Forest of Fear Game" from Neca! She found this for four dollars at Mardens, a local chain of salvage and overstock stores here in Maine. Marden's doesn't always have awesome stuff... but when it does... It's INSANELY awesome stuff. Like this.

Here's a look at the Freddy Krueger pieces from the set. I'm loving all three, but if forced to choose I think the Freddy on the right is my favorite. I like worm-Freddy too, but I'm almost always more of a sucker for the iconic versions of characters vs. some sort of gimmick.

Again, if forced to choose my favorite Jason Voorhees, I would probably go with the Jason on the left this time. Although, the Jason in the middle is carrying Freddy Krueger's head, which is pretty badass in its own right. (I apologize for the crummy photographs throughout the post. Not even gonna make excuses.)

On a side note, another MAJOR birthday gift from my wife was a road-trip to three different Goodwills on the day of my birth, as they give you 25% off your purchase if its your birthday and you have a discount card with Goodwill. So I went on a Goodwill SPREE too.

That's it for tonight kids! I'll be back with some Ghostly Goodwill Goodies soon enough. Until then... Happy Haunting!