My Trip to the Belfast ME Goodwill, Memorial Day Weekend

So over the Memorial Day Weekend, my family and I took a trip out to Belfast, ME. This is where one of my favorite Goodwills in all of Maine resides. 

I'll be honest, this wasn't my most productive visit to the Belfast Goodwill, and considering the length of the trip out there, that was a bit of a disappointment. I didn't find any toys that really got me all that excited, but I did find a couple of game items that were pretty fun... and the rest of my finds were mostly book related. (It occurs to me now that this was not the most compelling way to sell this post and keep you reading on the edge of your seat. But... let's take a look anyway. 

I found this adaptation of RAMBO First Blood Part II for .99 cents... which to be honest, I'm questioning why I even brought it home. I think I just get excited any time I find movie adaptations nowadays... and this felt like it shouldn't be left behind. I've never seen a Rambo film in my life... nor am I really interested in seeing one. But here we are. 

I was completely surprised when I pulled this "Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck" off the shelf... and ecstatic! I've always wanted to break into the old-school Disney comics stories that the Duck Tales series were drawn from, and I hear that this volume is not only an excellent entry point... but an excellent book in and of itself. I paid 1.99 for this collected edition from Gemstone! 

A couple of great Choose Your Own adventure books! I seriously doubt I'll read through Playoff Champion... but I'm a collector so you know... gotta have! Heh... heh. But Beyond the Great Wall? I'll give that one a test-drive for sure!

More CYOA! This time the Mystery of Chimney Rock, which looks excellent, and old-school... and a "Find Your Fate Adventure" starring none other than Indiana Jones in the Lost Treasure of Sheba. Indy in a CYOA (style) book!!! I'm on a roll with the licensed gaming books baby! Especially since I found that Star Trek Which Way book last Payday Friday!

And closing out the CYOA craziness are these two "Dragonlark" Choose Your Own Adventure Books, Your Very Own Robot, and Indian Trail which are much more recent books and contain full-color illustrations. At first I was going to turn my nose up at these Dragonlark books, but I've actually found them to be pretty fun. All of my CYOA finds were .99 cents apiece.

Also .99 cents apiece were these three Little Golden Books. A couple of Richard Scarry classics in Duck and His Friends and Chipmunk's ABC. I was kind of a sucker for Raggedy Ann and Andy as a kid so I also snapped up this copy of Five Birthdays in a Row. Blame it on the nostalgia, blame it on obsession, or even blame it on the shiny spines I guess... but my LGB collection just keeps growing and growing.

Random assortment of other things here, the most exciting for me being The Count's Number Parade which is yet another old Sesame Street book I didn't already own. The Nestle Nesquik "It's Legendary" comic was put out by DC and was apparently a free giveaway at Wal-Mart in 2012. It's a truly bizarre little story involving an airship driven by anthropomorphic milk cartons and the Quik Bunny. They get attacked by sour milk air pirates. Garfield's Scary Tales is a book I may already own in paperback, but I couldn't pass up a hardcover copy of it either way. 

I can't figure out exactly how old this Snoopy and Friends Sticker Album is... because all of the trademark info inside it is from the 60's. But my guess is that its actually from the 80's? Not sure. Either way, I've done some soul-searching recently and I've discovered something: I'm really not a Snoopy fan. Not a Peanuts fan in general. Nope. They just don't do it for me. I know that's the nearest to sacrilege a geek can get... But they just don't do it for me. "Why did you buy this thing then?" You may ask... and I will tell you I may not be a fan of Charlie Brown and co... But I AM a sticker album fan. I miss these things! I can't find anything like these out in stores anymore! I used to have about a half-dozen of them as a kid. I'd love to have a couple for my boys to keep stickers in. They must be out there somewhere, right? Specialty shops, or craft stores, or educational toy stores or some other nonsense... I'll keep my eyes peeled. 

One of my absolute FAVORITE finds of this trip: Max Headroom: 20 Minutes Into the Future which is a sort of storybook/novelization of the TV movie of the same name that kicked off the old TV series starring the Titular Max Headroom. I was a big fan of Max when I was a kid. LOVED him. I was much more aware of him as an advertising mascot than as a sci-fi A.I. character... but that was enough for me. This was one of the few finds I made at the Belfast Goodwill where I gasped a little when I picked it up.

Next up we have this USA for Africa "We Are The World" 45. 

This single came out in 1985 and I remember hearing it A LOT. It brings me crashing back into my childhood in a big way. For those of you who may not know what the deal with this is... it was this incredible collaboration between a WHOLE LOT of artists including Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Cyndi Lauper, Tina Turner, and most of the Jackson family, just to name a handful. Even actor Dan Aykroyd pitched in and sang. It was all in an effort to raise money for African famine relief. It was most notable though for being a crossover of talent so huge that it has since only been rivalled by the Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue anti-drugs special. Yeah. It's that big.

I almost left this package of Hildebrandt Brothers art collectors cards behind. But I honestly really like these cards, and I had a bunch of them back in the 90's when they were originally released. Plus anything with a pink tag on it was half off! So I got these for .99 cents. 

I wasn't disappointed! There's a lot of really fun art featured in these sets. There are a couple of different serieses mixed together in this pile but they're all from the Hildebrants. Really love the giant cat-whale thing in the front-most card there. Also pictured are some Star Wars, Ravenloft, and Greek Mythology artwork. 

My son actually discovered these Shirttails ball-in-the-hole puzzle/game things in the package. I have no idea if these are actually vintage or not, (the packaging seems to sort of indicate not...) but since they feature an assortment of characters from a show I really enjoyed as a kid... it didn't matter to me one bit either way. Which leads to to the final and most exciting find of the day... this "board" game: 

Hangman from Milton Bradley, circa 1976! And look who graces the cover of the box with his spooky presence! Vincent Price!!! I have literally not even untaped the cover of the box to check the contents. That is how much I love this box art. I would have bought the box empty. There's a commercial on youtube starring Mr. Price himself, that is embedding disabled... but you should check it out here.

Look at this sinisterly smarmy man. Look deep into those confidently creepy eyes. He wants to see you dancing on air... swaying in the breeze. 

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

Random Handful: Action figures from the Dream Catcher!

I recently made another trip to "The Dream Catcher" Antique Mall in Ellsworth, ME. I mentioned The Dream Catcher back in February when I wanted to post some pics of items I've been drooling over there. But this time, I didn't just go to drool. I went back with a specific purchase in mind: a couple of old CRACKED magazines that I had seen there the last time I'd visited. But I ended walking out of there with so much more!

After running upstairs to quickly grab the magazines, I headed back downstairs to find a box of mixed action figures that had caught my eye on the way by. This is the complete pile of stuff I brought home with me after my visit.  

I've been hitting a bit of a dry spell at Goodwill lately. I have to admit. I'm just not finding the vintage goodies in there like I used to. So I thought I'd visit the Dream Catcher, pick up the issues of CRACKED and then see what else they had for cheap. As I pawed through the box of old action figures, I asked the guy behind the counter how much they were, and he said "A buck apiece" which got me pretty excited. 

Now, this first item I actually did not find in that box of action figures. This is a He-Man Soaky bubble-bath container from 1985. It cost me 5 dollars. And honestly, I can't think of ANYTHING I would have rather spent 5 dollars on. Look at this craftsmanship. It looks like an Academy Award from the Hyborian Era. 

ALL RIGHT!!! Let the 1 dollar goodness begin!!! First up straight out of 1986, we have this John Rambo action figure in his all his Rambo and the Forces of Freedom glory! I like your sleeveless sweat-shirt John, because your shirtless figure makes me very uncomfortable feeling. 

This is the action figure that actually drew my eye to the box. This is a Windhammer from the Silver Hawks line, from 1986. He is next to useless, even if I had his tuning fork accessory. But I like his colors, and he looks pretty bitchin' next to the vintage Thundercats figures I've managed to accumulate so far. He sort of looks like a medieval surfer-dude werewolf, right? 

Oh my ever loving F**K. I had NO IDEA what this figure even was when I picked it up. I just knew it was a bizarre pig-ball character with a Roman helmet and sexy legs. And, I might add, nothingh covering his crotch-ital area. Turns out this is a Pudgy Pig Power Rangers figure from 1994. I am not even a little bit of a Power Rangers fan. Sorry. But I F**KING love this toy. I reminds me of something straight out of MadBalls. 

Pawing around in that box, my face LIT UP when I saw this Anton Arcane and Weed Killer from the 1990 Swamp-Thing toy line. I found a color-changing Swamp-Thing at Goodwill last year, and even though these guys are missing their monstrous accessories that "transform" them into monsters, it's nice to have some of Swampies villains to menace him with. I love how Anton's head sort of just looks like a raisin. Weed Killer is the typical Toxic Crusaders/Captain Planet type villain... as eco-aware superheroes were the trend at the time. 

I almost didn't pick up this Strong Guy action figure from 1993. It's a little plain, and while I'm a HUGE fan of Strong Guy, I'm not a huge fan of this action figure... then I was like: "Hey, it's a buck, and what are the odds I'll ever find another Strong Guy toy of any kind? I NEED this." So I bought it. 

This Rocketeer PVC figure from 1991 was not actually in the box, but he was still just a buck. I found him while I was meandering through the upstairs area of the mall, where I picked up the CRACKED magazines. There was a suction-cup version of the character too, meant to cling to a window... but I ain't got time for that. 

Finding this 1993 Batgirl Happy Meal figure from Batman: The Animated Series put a huge grin on my face. For a simple, barely articulated Happy Meal figure, she's pretty great looking. She looks so... peppy, right? 

Finally, there's this guy. I have no idea where he came from. I've Googled and Googled and Googled. I picked him up at first because I though he was a Mummy figurine, possibly from the old Marx Universal line. I was disappointed to discover that was not the case, but he's still pretty cool. He's a larger-scale solid plastic playset style figurine. It looks like he was supposed to maybe have a helmet? And something plugs into his gut there, where you can see a hole. I've posted before and after cleaning shots because he was sort of caked in... clay I'm hoping? He looks like he's supposed to be an astronaut, but I have to admit, his dead-eyed face has a kind of creepy quality. If anyone can help me identify this guy, I would much appreciate it!

UPDATE: My inter-friend Anne Packrat did some research and came up with some other plastic astronaut toys. They aren't the same guys, but they are exactly what kept coming up every time I tried searching. I own a few of them, so I'm posting this next picture for reference/scale/whatever so folks can see how BIG this guy is. Keep in mind the guy on the left is about the size of a green plastic army man where my big blue guy is somewhere around 5 inches tall or so. 

UPDATE to the UPDATE: Well, Anne was right! Or at least very VERY close. MPC makes both figures. They put out the little guys but they also put out the 5 inch line as well, which had accessories. I found a picture of some more of them over at AngelFire.com. Here it is:

Image Courtesy of Angelfire.com

That's my guy in green there. The gray guy on the end is an example of a re-release and you can see how the accessories were pegged to the figure and then twisted off for play later. 

That's it for right now. I'll be talking a bit more in the future about the CRACKED magazines I picked up, but I wanted to dedicate a whole post to those. I'll be back soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!