Oh No. It's a Book One (But there are Ewoks! And Gobots! and Muppet Babies!)

Alright: Full disclosure. This is a book post. Bear with me though, there are some pretty good finds in here. 

Here's a quick look at the first half of the pile.

Here's a quick look at the second half of the pile. LET'S RIDE!!!

First up, the nearly obligatory Little Golden Books. I have SERIOUSLY been thinking about purging my collection for awhile now and really prioritizing what I keep... but I will NEVER not want adaptations of Pixar films. It seems like Toy Story 3 is very divisive amongst the Pixar fans... I personally loved it and thought it made for a perfect wrap up of the series. 

That was of course... before they announced Toy Story 4 was a thing. 

A couple of chapter books in Lloyd Alexander's "The Beggar Queen" and Peter Abrahams's "Behind the Curtain," an Echo Falls Mystery. I still haven't read the first Echo Falls Mystery, "Down the Rabbit Hole," but these look interesting. Lloyd Alexander books that I don't already own are always a must-buy.

Next up a couple of kids' adaptations of 90's films near and dear to all our hearts. Home Alone and Jurassic Park! I don't really have a ton to say about these two... just really liked finding them!

A Casper and Wendy book that I plan on passing along... maybe... if my kids don't like it... and "The Littles and the Missing Cat." I always forget how much I actually liked the Littles cartoon as a kid. It went some weird places for sure.

A couple of Don Bluth books here, was have "All Dogs Go the Heaven: Charlie's Friends" and "An American Tail: Tony and Fievel" I must say again... I really have nothing majorly important to state about these guys. I did LOVE most Don Bluth films with all my childhood heart though... the storytelling, the bizarre characters, the interesting twists. All Dogs Go to Heaven especially was a weird one, but one I loved nonetheless. It is a movie that just couldn't get made nowadays. It's too distressing, too blunt in places. Too raw and real while also being bizarrely fantastical.

And "The Land Before Time," man this one was amazing. The heyday of Bluth animation was distilled in this set of three films plus The Secret of NIMH. Do I own all of these movies? If not I gotta track them down. 

Next up was this nice set of "Monster Chronicle" books, one about werewolves, one about Vampires. I'll probably be digging a bit deeper into these two as a part of my countdown to Halloween next month, so keep your eyes peeled for that!

I have already read "Would You Like To Play Hide & Seek In This Book With Lovable, Furry Old Grover?" about 40 times since this trip to Goodwill. My boys (especially my 4 year old) LOVE it! They interact with the book as expected, and laugh almost all the way through. This one's a classic. Interactive Sesame Street books with incredibly charming artwork, like "There's a Monster At the End of This Book" were pretty prevalent back when this came out. Aaaaand... I kind of hated myself IMMEDIATELY after buying this adaptation of "Herbie Rides Again!"

"Sesame Street: A Celebration of 40 Years of Life on the Street" was an incredibly awesome find for me! Just looking at the cover makes me smile. You have the likes of Frazzle and Farley and Don Music rubbing elbows with modern characters like Zoe and Murray. That's pretty awesome. This book resides in a place of honor on my shelf. 

It blew my 6 year-old, Star Wars-obsessed son's brains out his ears when he found out that there were two movies based solely around the Ewoks. He's an Ewoks fan, so this was kind of big news. He was even more excited to see that I had brought home a BOOK based on the first film! 

A BUNCH of Muppet Babies books! I really loved the Muppet Babies as a kid. This was one of my favorite shows. I probably got more of my initial exposure to the Muppets from the Babies cartoon (and the movies) than I did the actual Muppet show. 

GOBOTS BOOKS!!! I was a Gobots kid, meaning I owned more Gobots than Transformers as a kid (And I'm not even getting into the Rock Lords, which I've discussed here before... and which will probably be discussed again veeeery shortly...). I was not a Transformers kid at all really, except in that I occasionally watched the cartoon. So finding not ONE but TWO books based on the Gobots made me mist up just a little bit. And finding out that the interior art was done by Steve Ditko? Even if it wasn't exactly his greatest work ever... was a fun treat! 

Finally, I have sad TIME and TIME AGAIN that I DO NOT COLLECT VHS tapes. But when you encounter "Gobots: Battle of the Rock Lords" and "MTV: Liquid Television" VHS tapes just sort of kicking around the ol' Goodwill... and you have friends that collect VHS... you buy those things. You buy them HARD. Honestly, I kind of wish I'd kept these now... at least the Rock Lords one, even though I DON'T COLLECT VHS!!! But I know they are in a good home with someone who values them. So I try not to obsess. 

All right kids! That's it for tonight! I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies (and October Eve is on its way!!!) so until that time, 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!

Yardsale Bin Pt. 5: The Very Bottom of the Bin

So this is where it ends. 5 posts I managed to wring out of this one Sterilite tote I picked up from a yard sale last September. You can still check out parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 if you haven't already done so. 

Here is the very last time you will have to look at this thing. Let's take a look as I scrape the bottom, shall we? 

First up, there's this intrepid trio. I had no idea what to make of them at first. Too small to be G.I. Joes... these are more the 3 inch scale rather than 3.75... I guess... eyeballing them? 

Well, turns out these are The Real Adventures of Johnny Quest action figures from 1998! Heeeeeere's Johnny! "X-Treme Action" Johnny, to be exact (which sounds dirtier than it's supposed to... I think). 

Here's "Drop Zone" Race. He still has his gun in his holster!!! So badass. 

Here's "Desert Stealth" Hadji. I thought this was just some sort of generic ninja action figure until I noticed the matching symbol on both Hadji and Race's shirts. I didn't get they were supposed to be the letter Q. 

Next up there was this motley trio. 

I actually had to get some help from a shout-out on Instagram to help me identify this armored fellow, as he didn't fit the profile of any action figure line I was aware of. Turns out though that he's General Hawk from the 90's G.I. Joe Star Brigade line. He's missing a helmet and a giant hot pink machine gun. So sad. 

This is a Tarzan action figure from the Tarzan: The Epic Adventures line. Apparently it was based on a Hercules-style live action adventure show? But from all appearances, the characters in the action figure line are all related to a storyline where Tarzan conquers mars...? Anyway, I researched the figure and found out this guy is severely stripped down, since he has a set of golden armor and a red cape that I think I donated instead to my Brimstone Love action figure from the fourth installment of this little Yardsale Bin exploratory series. 

This is a Conan action figure from yet another failed Hercules-style live-action TV series "Conan the Adventurer". That's not important though. You know what is important? The cod-piece. Look at that thing. The size and shape of it. Next? The pull string in Conan's back that makes his arm jerk sporadically up and down. Look at that arm. It all looks EXACTLY as you might imagine it when set in motion. I am never giving this toy up for ANYTHING. 

On the left and right of this pic we have a couple of cavemen from Playskool's late-eighties toy line "Definitely Dinosaurs". Apparently there was initially some doubt about whether they were dinosaurs or not... but Playskool laid those to rest when they named the line. The guy in the middle I'll talk about a little further down who I lumped in with the cavemen for size reasons. Sometimes themes are hard.

This fellow's name has been lost to history (or at least the history of Playskool as known by Wikipedia) and was originally packed in with the Psittacosaurus of the series. I am pretending that he is "Shipwreck Survivor Tyrion Lannister". 

This guy's name is Brin and he was originally packed in with the Triceratops. I'm not pretending he's anything. He's just Brin. 

This figure used to be another one on my "unknowns" list where I was putting out pleas to see who could help me figure out what line it was from. It looks pretty obviously cheap. Come to find out it is a bootleg wresting figure of Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, a WWF wrestler from back in the day. I have to admit... since I'm not a wrestling fan, I was a bit disappointed that this wasn't from some sort of bootleg swords-and-sorcer line. He certainly looks the part. 

Next up are these Power Rangers action figures. I am absolutely in LOVE with the pig-thing guy. I I have featured him once on the site already because I brought one home from the Dreamcatcher Antique Mall in August of 2013. So you won't see him featured below. 

Here is a bendy ranger wearing a niqab. Why I don't know. I suppose it was explained in the movie? This looks a little bit like Jinx from G.I. Joe... but I suspect it's a dude. 

Here is a hybrid shark/huggy-bear monster. His action feature is in fact hugging. Again... No idea why. 

Raven lady? Bendy? Power Rangers movie? 

Plastic monsters lurked in the deepest depths of the bin! They're all pretty fun, but only two of them truly stole my heart:

The two I was most excited about were the Mothra toy from the 1994 Trendmasters line, and this cheap old two-headed dragon. For some reason the perspective of this picture makes him look HUGE. he isn't. See the picture above this one for a more accurate scale. 

This King Kong ornament and Aston Martin Goldfinger display case went on the a better home, with Brian over at Cool and Collected. Yep. These were just... in the bin. 

Next up was this trio of TMNT action figures. We have a General Traag sans left hand, Splinter sans clothes, and Muckman sans his trashcan and Eyeball Joe. We're going to skim right on over armless and naked and take a look at:

Muckman! Even without his accessories and sidekick, this figure looks pretty amazing. He was introduced at the very height of the TMNT action figures-as-Garbage Pail Kids phase of the line. He's even got a clothespin on his nose to answer the age old question of: How do you stop Muckman from smelling? 

There was this night (From empire toys) and his squire (unidentified brand) hiding at the bottom of that bin too!

And a plastic baggie full of kniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiights!!! Not sure what I'm going to do with these guys, but they are most likely not going to live here much longer. 

This horse belongs to Batman. Dark Rider Batman to be exact, from the Legends of Batman line. Instead of being Batman's horse, this guy now stands next to my Headless Horseman action figure and looks pretty awesome. 

As we draw nearer and nearer to the very last bits of plastic in the bottom of the bin, we finally strike some Transformers! I believe both of these are from the Beast Wars line... but I didn't research it deeply, to be honest. I am also 90% sure that they are both missing limbs or other vital body parts. Which is a shame, because the scarab-beetle guy on the right is pretty awesome. The one on the left? He's just insanely complicated and tangled and I have no patience for Transformers and I just don't care and ugh.

And this is it! These are the last four toys to have come from the seemingly BOTTOMLESS yard sale bin I picked up almost an exact year ago. I genuinely didn't mean to drag this thing out over almost an entire year (I picked it up shortly before September 19th of 2013). First we have not one but TWO Tim Murphy action figures from the Jurassic park lines. The first one is from the second series, and the second one is from the first. Weird... I know. What I find hilarious is that they merely swapped the head out for a more movie accurate (IMO) head for the second edition of the figure. I feature my two Tims here because it truly highlights the feeling of mediocrity and buyers remorse I started to feel as I discovered what I had paid 40 dollars for in total. I mean... there was some good stuff in there... but I wasn't feeling so great in the pit of my stomach when I pulled these Double-Mint twins out. And then we have the Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves action figures... which... didn't really disappoint me the same way that the Tims did... but finding that Azeem had none of his cloak included in the bin was more than a little disheartening. Azeem, being Morgan Freeman, is my favorite character in that film. Gods how I love that man. And now I have a unitarded Azeem in kinky boots.

So that's the end of the Saga of the Yard Sale Bin. It ends with more of a whimper than a roar... I admit. I hope that's not less than you were expecting... Except... I have a secret to tell. It's true I bought this bin last September... and just as Halloween countdown season began I kind of petered out writing about it after the second installment. THEN in July of this year I finally picked up the strand and started finishing the final three posts. It was shortly after the third Yard Sale bin post went up that something AMAZING happened:

I bought another BIN.

No, not this one. But almost as cool.

I'll tell the whole story soon, but let me suffice it to say: I was approached by the same guy I bought the first bin from. APPROACHED. And by "shortly after" I mean "two days" because that post went up on the 13th and this second bin showed up literally in my front yard on the 15th. I CANNOT WAIT TO START BLOGGING ABOUT IT. But my friend Brian over at Pop Pop! It's Trash Culture reminded me I hadn't even finished blogging about THIS bin. And I was so much less excited about what I had to share about THIS bin than I am about THAT bin!!!

Almost this excited.

So look for posts about that soon. (If I can squeeze it in before October 1st, along with a TON of really cool packages folks have sent me recently, that I NEED to give shout-outs for!)

But for tonight? That's all I've got kids! Goodwill has their Halloween section up! I brought some goodies home that I will be (of course) saving for my countdown. I'll still be back with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies before that starts up! So until I return... Happy Hunting!