Countdown to Halloween day 30: The Very Last of the Halloween Goodwill Finds Posts for 2015

Well... this is it folks! The last Goodwill Finds post of the 2015 Countdown to Halloween! I'm not too sad though, because there's always next year to look forward to, and with the end of the Halloween season I get to go back to looking for items in general that tickle my fancy. Halloween, like all good things, must come to a close. 

I have to say too, that I think for a post I wasn't sure I'd even be writing, since I just found all this stuff last weekend... I kind of saved the best for last. Here's a shot of the whole pile, (anything that was actually in with the Halloween merchandise was 50% off) so let's dig in!

First up this little folding screen-thing made up of three black cats. I kind of wish they hadn't done two pumpkins and a skull. Wouldn't a skull, a pumpkin, and a witch have been cool and colorful, and reminiscent of Halloween III? Either way, I think these cats are cool. Serene, majestic... almost stoic.

When I picked this up I thought it was a night-light, but then I realized it was actually an air freshener. I love that he's got an eye patch! He's practically a pirate jack o' lantern!

I think they sell the filling for these at Bath and Body works. I'll have to see if they have some pumpkin spice ones.

This was a surprise! I was really hoping to find the entire set of KISS band members in vinyl toy form... but all they had was The Demon, Gene Simmons! He's pretty much the one you want to find if you're going to find one though, so no complaints. Ever since seeing KISS on the Paul Lynde Halloween special this season, I can't NOT think of KISS as a Halloween band!

This is Ghost Rider's red-headed step-child, Vengeance! He's on one of those bikes that is supposed to have a ripcord to rev up the bike before you set it off on the floor. As an unabashed lover of s**tty 90's comics, there is a soft spot in my heart for ol' vengie here. He's one of the Midnight Sons characters, and he's basically Ghost Rider on bath salts. Plus the colors here are just perfect for the season!

I was pretty excited to find a McDonald's Halloween pail that features the McDonaldLand gang circa 1999. I was pretty chuffed to see that the lid is intact, the handle was on there... and this thing is in great shape!

While I'm not a huge fan of the pails as they creep closer and closer to modern day, THIS bucket features both Birdie and Grimace in that animated style they were doing for the "Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald" at the time.

I know next to nothing about vintage Halloween masks. Like how to even tell if they are, in fact, vintage. But these two masks just look way too old, and way too oddly familiar for me to leave them behind. I'm using the McDonald's trick or treat pail here as a model, which I think lends an appropriate level of eeriness to the eyes that I really like. This green guy is just absolutely gorgeous.

I should mention that both masks do actually have markings near the bottoms that should be telling me what the companies are that made these. This might make it easier for me to trace them to a specific time period... but unfortunately they are impossible to read. So... no dice. This devil guy's mouth opens up sideways I guess? Not sure. I love the use of blues and yellows here to make the red look crazy bright. Both of these masks stink like old Halloween masks should. Just smelling their weird cheesy gasoline odor takes me back to the Halloween section of Ames as a kid.

This is another interesting looking book about monsters that I may save for next year's Halloween Read Pile... or I may just read it now. Not sure. But "Scare Scape" by Sam Fisher looks like fun.

I was pretty excited to find this comic book, which is a cheap, indy comic done by creator "Madman" and is touted as:

"Eternity's Halloween Special" which I realize now is the name of the publishing company. "Lunatic Binge" is kind of fun, but kid of rough around the edges. We're talking super cheap end of the old indy comics pool here. It's mostly fun to own for the novelty's sake.

This was another fun find! "World's Worst Monsters & Villains" is another of those weird compendiums that collects monsters from movies, cartoons, myths, fairy tales, video games... whatever, and includes them all with equal fervor... and a equal lack of correct information.

But it's fun to flip through and look at! Here are some particularly monstrous entries in Cthulhu himself and something vampire-y called a Camazotz. If you're an RPG enthusiast like I am, these kinds of books are our bread and butter.

Well that's it kids! I'll be back one more time for this countdown with a final wrap-up post to see us out of the countdown! I won't be hibernating this year during November before my Creepmas and Christmas countdowns in December... so I'm not really going anywhere! Ummm... anyway...

I'll be back soon with more Goonie Goodwill Goodies! So until then, Happy Haunting!

Countdown to Halloween Day 26: Goodwill Finds AND Scottie's Books!

Welcome back! So I have been able to hit up a few more Goodwill stores this past weekend so I now have enough posts to get me right to the end of the countdown, and still do my anthology (and other) posts as well! 

So let's take a look at the Halloween goodies I brought home from the Ellsworth store, and then I want to share a handful of books I brought home the same day from Scottie's Books.

Halloween or not, my 6 year old son has been bitten by the Goosebumps bug, and so now any time I see Goosebumps at Goodwill, I pick them up. There never seems to be any lack of Goosebumps at Goodwill, so I think this one will become a running theme over the next few months. What I found particularly funny is that the "Planet of the Lawn Gnomes" book was printed so recently that it is actually promoting the new movie! Someone got done with this book pretty recently. I don't know if that's a glowing endorsement. 

Just in case there was any confusion as to what Goosebumps movie was being promoted on the cover there... 

This is a glow-in-the-dark skeleton hand on a stick, used for pointing. I actually use a dry erase board to teach things at my place of work, so I think the next time I have a class I have to give, I will whip this guy out for effect. 

Once thing gets a good washing, it will be filled with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. I considered Candy Corn but then I remembered...

So peanut butter cups it is! 

I never watched Aah! Real Monsters on Nickelodeon... but I LOVE the concept, and the character designs. So I never pass up a chance to bring something home if it has the characters in or on it. The book, "School Lunch" looks like fun, and I may just read this one to my kids.

I love the look and color of this mask! Had it been yellow instead of green I would be fashioning a Skeletor costume out of it for a party I have to go to on Friday night. Instead I think I'm actually going to go with a different concept, but this thing is gorgeous. I'm actually considering painting it yellow for next year, but I'm not sure I want to risk messing it up.

This little candy dish (pretty sure it was meant to be a coffee mug, bug I am 100% sure the paint is not warm beverage resistant so...) is cute and fun and since I don't have enough witch things in the Halloween collection, I knew she had to come home.

Her goofy, cutie little face is really what sells the whole deal.

And here, ladies and gentlemen, is the small pile of books that I picked up at Scottie's books. I've talked about Scottie's here a few times before, and I even sort of began a tradition of looking for books for the Halloween season each year. But alas, alack, Scottie's will be closing its doors for good in just a month or so. ANOTHER USED BOOKSTORE BITES THE DUST. 

But at least I got to pop in there one last time to find some Halloween-y treats before the doors shut for good. The book on the left here is "Whipping Boy" which is a horror novel written by John Byrne. Yes, THAT John Byrne. Comic books John Byrne. And if you look carefully at the blurbs on the cover, you'll see that one of those is by Chris Claremont. Yes THAT Chris Claremont. I don't even remember now what this book is even about. I just knew I WANTED it. The other book, "The Beast Within: A History of the Werewolf" is a history of werewolves. Plain and simple. And I have loved werewolves since I was a kid. So this was a no-brainer. Plus the author's name is Adam Douglas, which is technically NOT Douglas Adams... but is close enough for me to get confused and excited.

Ugh. I hate it when I start editing pictures that I've taken for the blog, and I realize one of them is fuzzier than I originally thought... and I realize that I'm too lazy to actually take another picture of the thing in question. This thing is that thing in question. "Monster Museum" is another one of those oversized Alfred Hitchcock Anthologies. I plan on talking about this particular collection in a later post, so I won't go into great detail now, but I owned it in paperback before I brought this thing home. I LOVE this collection. LOVE IT. And in the next few days, hopefully you will read about all the reasons why this is.

For now, that's all I got folks! I'll be back soon with more Gloomy Goodwill Goodies, but until then, Happy Haunting!

Remember, I'm doing this countdown 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.

Countdown to Halloween Day 22: Darling Pumpkinheads, Devil's Brew, Deathnote and Darth Vader Too

Hey! Welcome back! I'm finding the Halloween Goodwill finds to be getting a little sparse at this point, so hopefully I'll have more to write about in another couple of posts... otherwise I'm going to be getting very creative! But luckily, I have this armful of stuff right here still left to write about! 

Gaze at the riot of wonder and color that is this post's loot pile! Let's dig in.

I love pumpkin-headed ghosts. And when they're as cute as this guy is? There was no way this thing wasn't coming home. You don't see enough of these guys these days. There's something very victorian-greeting-card about the design of a jack o' lantern with a trailing ghost-sheet-body beneath. 

I almost didn't pick this pumpkin-headed flashlight thing but I just love that vintage, blow-mold looking face. It's so lumpy! I had a reeeeally hard time getting a non-shiny picture of this thing too. I'm trying to decide if I'm going to keep the head on the black handle or if I will remove it and stick it on top of another jack o' lantern to make them look like piled up pumpkins. We will see.

Found these two in a baggy for a dollar. I probably overpaid but I wanted the Frankenstein's Monster more than anything. There are no markings to tell me when these were made, (there is a 50 cent price tag from Brooks drug on the side of each tube) but the UPC stickers on the tubes don't look old at all so I have a feeling these are fairly recent... but it doesn't matter. They have that cheap, fun feel to them that Halloween should have.

They make great finger puppets too! I love Frankie's sideways little grin here.

This bad boy also has no markings whatsoever. He looks like he's meant to evoke a little bit of Casper the Friendly Ghost but the resemblance is does not seem to be official. There does seem to be a piece missing off the top of the ghost's tail, but I can't seem to find this thing online so I can't begin to tell you what could have been there.

I have no idea if this thing will be worth reading or not, but finding a "Mars Attacks!" novel titled "Martian Deathtrap" was pretty exciting. I don't think I've ever read anything by Nathan Archer before, so I'm going in pretty blind. May toss this in next year's Halloween Read Pile... or I may just pass on it entirely and send it along to someone else.

I'm not a Manga person, like AT ALL. But I when I saw the first two volumes of DeathNote for a couple of bucks apiece, I thought I'd give it a shot. And what better time of year to find a manga about a guy using a magic notebook to kill people, and having to deal with death spirits? I have no idea if this is the gateway book that will lead to my addiction with manga, or if it will just enforce all of the reasons why I've never really gotten into them.

There was also this fun looking activity book "The Halloween Grab Bag" which is your typical "Book of Tricks and Treats" with recipes, crafts, costume ideas, games to try, puzzles to solve, etc. Here's an example of why I picked this one up though:

Look at this s**t! Don't you want to try atomic fireball flavored apple juice with ginger ale mixed in? I know I do! Heck, swap out the apple juice for hard apple cider and you got me going! Devil's Brew indeed!

There was also this little four pack of sort-of-papercraft masks you fold and assemble to wear. I'm giving these to my kids, but I'm not sure when exactly.

I really wanted to get a close up look at the example on the bag to show you how not cool these things are probably going to be. But I bet my boys will love them either way. 

Finally I found a nice Halloween themed anthology. It says "Tales of suspense" but I'm not sure exactly what that means. I doubt many of these will be supernatural in nature... but a guy can hope. It includes Peter Straub's "Pork Pie Hat" which really is an incredible Halloween story, but still not one that has any real ghosts or ghouls in it. So I'm guessing crime stories. This one is definitely on next year's Halloween Read Pile for sure, but I'm goig to keep my expectations managed properly.

Well that's it for tonight kids! I'll be back with more Gremlinish Goodwill Goodies soon enough! Until then, Happy Haunting!

Remember, I'm doing this countdown 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.

Countdown to Halloween Day 20: Clones, Campbell, and Costume Contests

Welcome once again to the Countdown! Day 20 marks our final descent into the bottom third of the month, leading us into the final 10 days before Halloween arrives. Since this is such an auspicious occasion I thoight I'd show you some more junk I picked up at Goodwill in order to celebrate! 

Here is the pile of loot in all its glory. Shall we tuck in and see what there is to see? Very good.

A heavy Attack of the Clones theme running through this lot of stuff, and I'll open it up with this Jango Fett mask and inflatable jetpack combo that had my boys pretty excited. They know Jango mostly from the Star Wars LEGO game, and one chapter book I read to them about Boba Fett's childhood that features Jango prominently as his dad through the first half. They know this guy is the Dad to one of the most prominent Star Wars villains of all time... and they love him for it.

Also in the mix were this Clone Trooper helmet and General Grievous mask. There were a few other offerings to be had, such as a hard plastic Anakin Skywalker mask and an incomplete rubber Cad Bane mask, both from the Clone Wars cartoon... but I decided enough was enough and picked up these four items. These were the ones I knew they'd appreciate anyway. I've never seen Attack of the Clones to be honest, and only a couple of clips from Revenge of the Sith... so I've never seen Grievous in action in the films... but I have watched some of the Clone Wars with my kids and I have to admit to like Grievous at the very least as a visual. The prequels era had some distinctive looking villains going for it, even if they were all criminally misused. Maul and Grievous, and I am a fan of the previously mentioned Cad Bane as well. Not enough to love the prequels or anything, but enough to wonder what could have been had the plot, writing, characterization, acting, and EVERYTHING been as equal to some of the awesome visuals.

I almost passed on this book, even though it's a Ramsey Campbell novel, and I have in recent years grown to appreciate his work... the cover just looks kind of dopey to me if I'm being honest. But then I read the back cover...

A horror novel based around a cursed, never-released Karloff/Lugosi film? Say what? I knew as soon as I read this that if I did not bring this home I would regret it forever. This is probably going in next year's Halloween Read Pile, if I can wait that long. 

This stinking thing is hilarious but also incredibly hard to photograph clearly. I think the two shots I have of it here are clear enough to get the point across though. This is a Best Costume trophy that features a decapitated skeleton holding its own head!

It's like a Halloween Oscar! I felt a little weird buying myself a discarded trophy... but it's just so clever that I had to have it.

And speaking of costume contests... I picked up this piece for my Halloween village! And the good news: It works perfectly! There are lights, an announcer's voice ("Featuring Our Emcee Sir Robin Graves!") introducing all three of the contestants on stage, and all three characters move on stage! The vampire and mummy pivot left to right back and forth, while the witch spins in a circle, round and round. This thing is probably the biggest piece in our Halloween village, and it really classes the whole thing up. (There'll be more of the village featured in a future post)

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

Remember, I'm doing this countdown 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.