Goodwill Geek Mailbag: A Package from Steph at Nerdjoy!

So... I recently set up a trade with Steph over at Nerdjoy! She had seen some toys on the blog that she liked and I told her I was willing to part with them if we could send each other a small package of items apiece. This is how I like trading. It lets people surprise me, and it lets me surprise them. I LOVE surprising packages in the mail. 

Arthur! That's a Disney Princess you're back-handing! Honestly!

So this showed up and knocked my socks off! Let us explore this box (which just so happens to be a Loot-crate box! Ha!) in greater detail. 

I expected a spring-loaded snake to pop out of the tin. I don't know if I was relieved or disappointed. 

First up we have a couple of Star Wars-themed items. A Boba Fett PEZ dispenser, which hits me with the one-two of Boba Fett and PEZ... both of which pull at my heart strings. Second there was this AWEOSOME tin that contains a New Hope digital wristwatch. This thing makes me think of the watches I used to wear when I was a kid, that made my wrist sweat like crazy but made me feel like I was SO GROWN UP. I never fastened them very tight because I sucked at buckles and so I would slip my hand out of the wrist-strap without undoing it. At that age it wasn't about wearing a watch to tell time... it was about wearing a watch you could constantly take off and put back on because of course that's what they were for. Until you lost it. 

I have nothing funny to say. I'm so terribly sorry. So ashamed.

Here was have some awesome figures. A LEGO Joker Happy Meal toy, a bendy Pokey the horse, and an Arthur figure from the Tick action figure line. Can these two sidekicks take on the clown prince of brick-crime??? Stay tuned Geek fans! (I will probably not pursue this, so you don't really need to stay tuned.) 

I've lost my gift for gab. Don't even pay attention to these captions anymore. SOB.

Steph warned me that she might lay some girly toys on me... but this is as bad as it got. And I have to say, I'm not that put off by this Snow White figurine from McDonald's because now my Evil Queen has someone to hunt down and tear the heart out of... or poison... or whatever. I'm definitely not a huge Beanie Baby collector so this froggie friend will probably be headed on to another home... but let's all take a moment to swim in the cute, sad, and slightly derpy pools that are this frog's eyes. 

Something about dinosaurs... or monsters... made of rubber... I've got nothing. I'm so depressed.

Finally, we have the three items I definitely place on a pedestal above all the other items that came in this package. The little frilled lizard/dino figure is AWESOME, and though I can't find any Jurassic park markings on it, it makes me think of the spitting dino that takes out Wayne Knight. Then of course there's the rubber finger-puppet guy who reeks of cheap rubber and childhood. I LOVE THOSE THINGS!!! And finally Steph sent me a figurine of RODAN MOTHERF**KER!!! RODAN!!! I am really digging all things giant-monster lately, and this beautiful little guy from the 1994 Trendmasters line is right up my alley! 

I had such a great time setting up this trade and then seeing what showed up when the package arrived! Steph has an incredible blog over at Nerdjoy  where she explores not only fashion trends inspired by her favorite geeky-properties... but enough cool stuff to have any fan from any fandom drooling over her collections and general outlook on geek-culture. Be sure to check out Nerdjoy! 

That's all I've got for tonight kids! I'll be back soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting! 

So Finally, My Trip to Bangor a While Back...

So just a while back I talked about my most recent trip to the Brewer, ME Goodwill. That had a couple of nice finds. I like getting out of the local store from time to time and seeing what shows up at other stores in the hour radius around my home.

But then that same weekend, I actually went to the Bangor Goodwill, and I found the following loot:

Little Golden Books! There were actually a TON of Little Golden Books I was tempted to bring home... but I didn't want to spend 20+ dollars on a bunch of them that I wasn't really sure I actually wanted. I ended up paring down to a couple of Sesame Street books (always a must-have), some Disney and Looney Tunes books, and some oldies but goodies I remember from when I was a kid. All of the Golden Books (and similar ilk) were .99 cents apiece.

Of particular note, were these three. The Raggedy Ann book I had as a little boy and I loved it. I think I remember having both the Benji and Wizard of OZ books as well, but how cool is it that Benji has a LGB? The one that really stands out of the three was the Wizard of OZ book, which looks like it was actually manufactured incorrectly. As you can see from the picture above on the right, the back cover was attached upside down. I don't think it makes it worth money or anything, I just thought it was really weird and interesting. 

I was particularly excited to find this little piece of history: It's not a Little Golden Book but a similar concept: It's a Rand McNally Elf Book from 1956: Sergeant Preston and REX. The best way to describe the condition? Beat up. It's been written on a bit, and the price tage took off some of the foil spine-cover... grrr... but it's still a great little treasure from days gone by. 

Just some random YA books here. The Island of Time is a CYOA book from 1991. I like the concept behind sort of rebooting Tom Swift (he's a Jr.) as a daredevil modern day inventor/adventurer... And Tentacles is the second in a series of books about Cryptozoologists I've been meaning to read. All three of these books were .99 cents as well. 

The cover of this "Grimm's Ghost Stories" is pretty darn creepy. I LOVE IT.

Saw a bunch of pretty cool old comic books while I was there... but boy, if Goodwill has one really weak-spot price-wise it has to be comic books. They seem to think people can't just go buy old cruddy comic books for .50 cents apiece anywhere else. 

The ones for sale at the Bangor store were all 1.99 apiece! So, sadly, even though there were a bunch of kind of semi-cool old books I thought about picking up... I only ended up leaving with the 2 pictured here. These 2 just called out to me to buy them. I don't care if those books were worth a FORTUNE (I'm telling myself) I just wasn't paying that much.  

QUIK BUNNY COMIC BOOK!

So Quik Bunny and Grimm's Ghost Stories made it home.

Yes. I paid 2 dollars for a comic book about the Quik Bunny. Spider-Man does make a guest appearance. 

All right, we're officially past the books (Mostly. I have one more to share later) and into the toy department. THIS set of four toys was in a grab-bag together and was only priced .99 cetns! The Jetson's Toys are Wendy's premiums from 1989. 

The Evil Queen from the 1993 run of Snow White Happy Meal toys is EXCELLENT. She has an old lady up her skirt. I wish everyone in the world had this feature.

Not necessarily an old lady I guess. We could keep plumbers down there, or tax accountants... or whomever. You have to admit this toy is cool as heck though. I keep mine in Queen mode right now, but the old witch is sure to rear her ugly head sooner than later. 

Up next is a grab-bag of die-cast cars I found for 7.99 on regular price... but because it was the half-off color, I got it for 3.99. You'll notice some of the Tail-Spin vehicles in there (which I already had) and some Barney and Baby-Bop cars in there too... And a Minnie Mouse... But the real reason I picked up this bag was for these:

From 1984, the four pull-back cars are in slightly rough shape, but still fun. There were 3 of the Big Mac cars included, one missing a tire. And the really cool part is, I have vague memories of actually owning some of these when I was a little boy. I think these were the exact sort of toys that were pulled back, let go of, and promptly lost forever under my Grandmother's stove. The dragster on the left is from 1993, from Hotwheels. I love this car. It's got a bit of paint wear... but it just looks so money baby. I paid under a dollar for each of these guys (since I did not really want the other cars in the bag).

Finally... there was one last find I made that day that REALLY had me excited. And here it IS:

A copy of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back Pop-Up Book from 1980! I paid .99 cents! I thought this book was a genuinely exciting find that left me hopefully digging for the other 2 books for the next 20 minutes. To no avail. But still... Yay! The genuine "pop-ups" are actually kind of scarce in this book, including only the title page with Luke on a tauntaun, and then a ship flying past Cloud City later in the book. The rest of the book is of the interactive "pull here" or "slide tab" variety. But they're all fun! A favorite of mine is Luke retrieving his light-saber in the wampa's ice cave. I took shots of every single spread in the book (and two of Dagobah because it's pretty cool to see both versions of the pages). I'm not going to comment on them. I'll just let them speak for themselves. 

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