Goodwill Finds: Egyptian Netherworlds, Mad Scientists, and Bubble Bath!

Hey everybody! I'm back with another pile of junk I found at Goodwill! I don't remember exactly when I would have picked up this load of stuff but I do believe it was last fall sometime. I'm going to kick things off with a board game:

"Passing Through the Netherworld: The Meaning and Play of Senet, an Ancient Egyptian Funerary Game" while being a ridiculously long name for a board game... is at least very efficient and accurate in its description.

Back when I was in high school, I was OBSESSED with mythology. I loved to read all I could about Greek, Norse, and especially Egyptian mythology. I would spend my entire study hall some days, poring over books on mythology, or reading whole sections of the ACTUAL ENCYCLOPEDIA to glean what details I could about ancient cultures and religions. I would photocopy whole stacks of pages from said books and encyclopedias to bring home with me to pore over more in my room at night. These would become the fodder for short stories, poems, role-playing adventures, comic books that I would start to write and never finish, you name it. So finding a game based on the beliefs of "the cult of the dead" from ancient Egypt...?

Yes please.

I was delighted to find that everything the game was supposed to contain was still in the box. I was less delighted to discover that absolutely no one in my family is interested in playing some creepy old Egyptian death-cult board game with me. Sigh.

Found the second collected volume of Mike Bullock's "Lions, Tigers, and Bears" from Image comics. I've never read this series, but had heard good things, so am hoping I can find the first book in the series on the cheap at some point. 

I love Love LOVE the idea of stuffed animals transforming into powerful night-time guardians of children, protecting them from bogeymen and nightmares. This idea is such a great concept. I hope it is executed well. 

I always have my eye peeled for old Sesame Street books, and this trip to Goodwill did not disappoint. "Ernie's Little Lie" is a real Raymond Chandler-style pot-boiler of suspense and intrigue as the titular protagonist digs himself deeper and deeper into a seedy world of shadows and illusions where nothing is what it seems and identities are as blurred as melting wax. Also it has a great "don't tell lies" moral for the kids. 

Harry McNaught's illustrations are the main draw for me in "The Sesame Street ABC Book of Words" This is a big, bulky, and old Sesame Street book that brings me back to the good old days. 

I don't have a TON to say about "Scrooge's Silly Day" except for the fact that it came out the same year that Ducktales was in its final season. It is certainly an unofficial but certainly legitimate Ducktales book in "Mickey's Young Readers Library". 

I discovered another of these incredible "Twisted Journeys" books, which is a hybrid graphic novel AND choose-your-own-adventure. Couldn't pass it up. And it's "Horror In Space" number 18 in the series! There are at least 16 more f these that I don't own yet! (I found another Twisted Journeys book back in 2012). Then there is the "Which Way - Secret Door Book: The Inch High Kid" which is another knock-off CYOA.

A quartet of genuine-article CYOA's including "War With the Evil Power Master," "Prisoner of the Ant People," "Hyerspace," and "House of Danger." All awesome finds, but I am especially excited about the first two.

There were two grab-bags full of toys on this trip as well. Let's take a look at the first one shall we? (There's some stuff here that doesn't make the cut...)

This Mad Scientist is from the 2003 "Stretch Screamers" McDonald's Happy Meal premiums line. In addition to the Mummy and the fin-man I now have three of the eight in the set. There is another one that looks like a brain floating in a jar with a robot body... some sort of yellow-vomiting orange creature... Oh they are all so beautiful. Looking back up at the "screamer" at hand though, if you tug the Mad Scientist's arm, it makes his pink-jelly brain expand up into the clear dome of his skull. It's very impressive.

This Halloween edition of Marge Simpson from a Burger King Kids' Club meal is AWESOME. Speaking of ancient Egypt...

And here we have Groundskeeper Willie, "The Grim Sweeper" also a Burger King Kids' Club Halloween toy. He... really seems to be stroking that broom handle. Like really caressing it.

Love the show Batman: The Brave and the Bold, but never owned a single one of the full-sized action figures. This is an interesting translucent plastic variant. Not sure if it's meant to be "stealth" Batman or "ghost" Batman... or what... but he's pretty nifty, and he looks great on the shelf with my other Batman action figures.

One of my favorite finds from this trip has to be this "Collectors' Guide to Bubble Bath Containers" Flipping through this thing just brought a huge grin to my face. I was even able to find my He-Man bubble bath bottle inside!

Here we have an assortment of "My Little Pony" books. I picked them up because I have a home in mind for them already. I have a hard time leaving any 80's licensed property books behind, even if they aren't the kinds of things I used to collect as a kid.

Same with "Pound Puppies" books. I was never a HUGE Pound Puppies fan... so these books are most likely going off to another home.

"An American Tail" and "Muppet Babies" books from McDonald's however... THESE ARE AMAZING AND ALL MINE BABY!!!

And here we have the second grab-bag of the haul, which contains just four items. But I liked all four! 

First we have Sultan Spongebob from the "Lost In Time" series of Happy Meal toys, from back in 2004. This was a truly inspired series of Spongebob figures, featuring the character as he would have appeared in various times throughout history.

This spinner toy is from a 2002 series of Burger King Kids' Club meal premiums, from the "Nintendo Superstars" series. Not really sure what it's for... but it's fun to push the button on top and watch Bowser chase the Princess around and around and around.

Here we have an Imperial Guard Star Wars LEGO keychain. I had no idea that these guys were popular enough to warrant their own keychains, honestly. But I'll take it!

And finally, a baby Po toy from the Kung Fu Panda 2 line of McDonald's Happy Meal toys. I'm a sucker for Kung Fu Panda, even if I didn't care for the 2nd movie nearly as much as the first. This toy is CRAZY cute though.

So there you have it folks! The entire haul! This was a bigger trip than I've been having as of late, and if you're still reading this thing, then kudos to you! You now have bragging rights.

I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!

Payday Friday: Oh Thank the Gods for Toys

Last Friday was payday for me at work. As regular readers of the blog may already know, I try to make it to Goodwill every Payday Friday. It usually turns into a pretty intensive visit, lasting sometimes well over an hour or two. This is because instead of quickly scanning the toy section and book section, I search more in-depth, and I comb every section of the store for Geek-tastic items. The last couple of visits were a bit of a let-down, and I still have yet to make another epic find like the bag of vintage Masters of the Universe figures... but this payday Friday wasn't a total dry-hump either. 

First I'll get the Little Golden Books out of the way. Almost every single one of these books is older than me or from the early 80's. I was able to get all of the old price tags you see in the picture off without any damage. These were all .99 cents apiece. 

To wrap up the books I also picked up the fourth book in Garth Nix's Seventh Tower series: Above the Veil. Plus The Chocolate Touch which is the cover I remember from when I was a kid. Loved it back then, might try reading it to my sons to see what they think of it when they're a little older. 

BONUS! Found this bookmark inside The Chocolate Touch. I've mentioned before how much I like finding little personal touches in the books and things I buy at Goodwill. This was a nice surprise. 

Moving on from the books to toys... I picked up a grab-bag containing these 4 items for just .99 cents. I did NOT buy it for the Owl figurine or the plastic peach. They will be returning to Goodwill. Nope, I actually bought it for the action figure. There was however an unexpected surprise: 

This green plastic boat is a TOMY toy from 1978. It is as old as I am. Once upon a time it had a wind-up outboard motor on the back, but I don't mind that it's missing. Check out that kick-ass swordfish decal on the side!

Meet Bane. Not Bane from the Dark Knight Rises of last year... but the Bane from the 1996 Batman & Robin movie. For such a crappy movie version of the character, the figure kind of rocks. And if Google is any indicator, it's pretty hard to find this toy anywhere. He's not the standard version of the figure, but instead came in a Brains vs. Brawn 2-pack with a Batman figure. This version of the character looks like he's had extensive work done on him by both Poison Ivy AND Mr. Freeze, if the translucent limbs on both sides of his body are any indicator. He's all icy translucent blue and silver on his right side, and vine-y translucent green on his left. There's a part of me that LOVES this guy... and I couldn't begin to tell you why. 

Next... ANOTHER GRAB-BAG!?!?!?!? Whoah. And this one is truly cool. Just look at these for a moment. Soak 'em in. Again, this grab bag also only cost me .99 cents. 

  

First up we have Red the Fraggle in a Radish car. McDonalds did this series of Fraggle cars back in '88. 

She goes great with the Wembley and Boober car that I talked about back in September. I've never been as much of a Fraggle Rock fan as I was the Muppets or Sesame Street, but I still love them as a Henson creation. 

A Spike the Dragon from the vintage My Little Pony line. This is going in my wife's craft room with the other vintage MLP's I've managed to dig up for her in my travels. Having a hard time pinning down exactly when this particular version was produced, as the eyes are wrong for him to be the original version. 

This is Francis the Bulldog from 1988's Oliver and Company. It is also a McDonalds Happy Meal finger-puppet for children with fingers as thin as knitting needles. He's cute, but not anything I really care about. He's probably going to get turned into another Christmas ornament for my wife because she loves the movie, but does not love having a ton of old toys (other than MLPs) cluttering up her craft room. 

This is probably the most intensely exciting toy in the grab-bag, even considering how excited I was about the Fraggle car. This is an All Dogs Go to Heaven toy!!! This is King Gator, the Alligator that sings a duet with Charlie in the New Orleans sewers. He originally came from a Wendy's kid's meal back in 1980. I LOVED ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN. I was fully drinking the Don Bluth Kool-Aid back then, and I loved A.D.G.T.H. along with the Secret of NIMH, The Land Before Time, and An American Tail. What was weird was that I understood even as a child that these were NOT Disney films. These were Don Bluth films, and that seemed like a serious competitor for Disney to me back then. King Gator was one of the best and weirdest sequences in a DEEPLY WEIRD movie, and I am so crazy glad I have a figurine of him to add to the cave. 

   

Last up, I found this Mr. Peanut Christmas tin from last Christmas as I knew I ultimately would when I debated buying it at Wal-Mart last Christmas when it was something like 15 dollars full of exotic nuts that I did not care about. 

As I mentioned in my recent California Raisins post, I love the new Mr. Peanut (and dedicated a whole post to him last Christmas when I talked about both of the tins pictured above). So I don't really feel the need to gush over it... but the fact that I got it for .99 cents, saving myself something like 14 dollars or so (I can't remember how much it cost honestly) makes me pretty glad that I frequent Goodwill so much. The new Mr. Peanut hasn't done any more TV ads lately that I know of, but he's been keeping busy:

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