A Package from Tintod!

So awhile back I set up a trade with the writer of one of my favorite blogs out there right now. Tintod of the Junk Fed blog fame! He and I are buddies on Instagram while also kind of knowing each other through the blogosphere. His blog is an amazing patchwork quilt of essays that reminisce and ruminate on different aspects of childhood and nostalgia. The posts on Junk Fed never fail to either touch my sense of sentimentality or make me think long and hard about how I see my own past. 

Great. Read. All around. 

Check Junk Fed out. 

So! Long story short, (too late) we set up a trade, Tintod and I. I'd like to share the sweet haul I received from him as a result. This is another case of a post long overdue, but better late than never. So let's take a look at what I got from him, shall we? 

First up, some shameless self-promotion on Tintod's part... but he's earned it. As you can see he's tossed in a couple of his business cards, promoting both his blog and his services as an illustrator. The guy is truly talented folks, so be sure to check out his work! 

On the backs of both the larger postcards is this ad for Tintod's "Space Madness" (click the link to check out Tintod's Store) custom action figure lineline:

A series that's had me drooling for some time now. But enough about how awesome Tintod is! Let's talk about how awesome Tintod's package is! (Wait...)

The whole trade was inspired by this Burger King Kid's Club Universal Monsters Frankenstein figure. This one completed my set of four! And funny thing is, all four of these guys came from online friends! 

(Dracula courtesy of Laura of Boobobby Blog, The Creature courtesy of Erik Johnson, Illustrator, and The Wolfman courtesy of Stacey Rader, the Geeky Vixen!) So now I have the complete creep quartet and I couldn't be happier! The trade extended waaay past ol' Frankie here though...

Tintod told me he wasn't sure if all the 150 pieces are here for this 10x14 jigsaw puzzle starring Evel Knievel and his Ring of Fire. But it doesn't matter either way, because he could have sent me the empty can and I would have been just as excited!

Next up we have this "The Fantastic World of D.C. Collins" VHS tape. I vaguely remember this film from my childhood, when the world was hitting the peak of its Gary Coleman FEVER. I'm not a VHS collector as many of my online friends are, but this one has a place of honor on my 80's shelf in the cave, alongside ones given to me by other blogging buddies. Any film starring "A Little Bitty Walter Mitty" has to be amazing.

Last but definitely not least, we have a Hotwheels Carvel Ice Cream Truck featuring Fudgie the Whale! Next to Frankenstein's Monster, this is probably the item that most tickled my fancy out of the whole lot. This baby was added to the wall of pop-culture Hotwheels IMMEDIATELY.

So here's a final peek at all of the contents of the box I received from sir Tintod, and I think you'll agree it was a fun bit of mail to receive indeed! Be sure to check out Tintod's blog, and be sure to listen to his recent appearance on the Nerd Lunch Podcast, where he waxes poetic about Doctor Who!

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

Goodwill Geek Mailbag: A Package From Erik Johnson, Illustrator!

Blogging, for me, has had the unexpected side-effect of letting me meet a large and much-varied group of individuals whom I would certainly not have met otherwise. Of that large and much-varied group is an individual named Erik Johnson, Illustrator. He has a blog... but its not a "Hey! Look what I bought over the weekend!" type of a blog, it's a "Hey! Look what I made myself! And... here, let's take a detailed look at the process I went through to make it!" sort of blog, which I find completely fascinating. Take a look at some of his artwork (you should be able to click on these to go back to Erik's blog and find some relevant info on the creation of each piece):

"Party of Two"

This piece is called "Party of Two" and the coolest thing (for me) about this piece, beyond what you see above, was watching as Erik went through the creative process on his blog, developing it from rough sketches to the final result. 

"A Gift, From My Home to Yours"

This was Erik's 2013 Christmas card, and I was lucky enough to receive one of these myself! What was interesting after the fact was reading Erik's notes on where the idea came from, but also looking at the step-by-step process of how this card was made.

"Action Figures"

And finally, let's focus on the image in the top left corner of this image, which is a promotional image for Erik to advertise his services. The piece in the corner was done specifically for Cool & Collected magazine, and it was cool to pick up that issue and see Erik's work inside. 

I am in awe of Erik's versatility and talent, and he never fails to impress when he presents his work, whether it's a finished product he's meticulously polished, convention sketches, or just practice doodles from a brainstorming session. I've also come to count Erik among my online friends. He chimes in with encouragement when he looks over my blog, and we've chatted a bit on facebook, etc. In the process, we decided to send each other some packages of goodies... and Erik's was an amazing little doozy of a package, filled with some true nostalgia. 

Recently, I've made a few Goodwill finds from my childhood, and one in particular was a book from a library I frequented as a child myself, and that I believe I actually checked out and read. Well. The exact same feeling of familiarity swept over me as I opened the box that came in the mail from Erik, and I pulled out this stack of Crestwood House Monster books. Except, obviously these books hadn't come from the Bar Harbor, ME library. Still there was a set of books IDENTICAL to these there, and when I was a lad I pored over them as if they were religious texts in a dead language needing to be translated. As you can see in the image above, these have also come from a library, and are well worn and well-read. AS THEY SHOULD BE!

The set covers lots of different monsters, and there are actually quite a few more in the series that I will be keeping an eye peeled for as I hunt in the future. The first one here is "Dracula". I loved Bela Lugosi's Dracula. It was one of the first Universal Monster movies I ever saw (I think the Creature was #1, but I was very young so it sort of doesn't count...) and Lugosi's coy and macabre grin and demeanor really floored me, even as a youngster. 

My dearest obsession as a lad was werewolves. The wolfman was probably the book I remember most from this entire series. The idea of becoming a half man half wolf was such a cool concept to me. 

I wasn't much of a King Kong fan until I was much older, which is a shame. You would think that this book would have cured me of that at a much younger age!

The Mad Scientists tome is filled with all of the usual suspects, from Fu Manchu on the cover there, to Dr. Jekyl. 

And finally, Godzilla! With all the Godzilla hype out and about right now, this book couldn't have fallen into my lap at a more opportune moment. These books are a real blast from the past, and it was incredible of Erik to pass them along to me. But wait! There's more. He also sent me these:

A 1997 Creature from the Black Lagoon toy from Burger King! BK did a great promotion for Universal back in '97 that included a bunch of monster kid's meal toys. The creature here now brings my total up to 2! 

Here he is chilling out with my BK Wolfman. They look right at home in from of those Crestwood House books... and this:

A VHS copy of one of my absolute favorite horror movie remakes from the 80's, the BLOB!!! I love this remake for the practical effects used throughout. Erik didn't know at the time that I was GONZO for this film, he just sent it because he thought I'd like it! In fact, he heard me talking on the Geek Fallout podcast about my love for the Blob remake AFTER he sent out this package! While I am not a VHS collector in any way shape or form, I treasure this thing, and have it placed reverently next to the VHS of the Superman movie that the Trash Man sent me on my 80's nostalgia shelf. Having 1 VHS tape from 2 of my best internet buddies is actually a kind of neat tribute to them, I think. The "Booga!!! Booga!!! Prepare for a scare!!" artwork is his own piece, and it was included in the VHS box as an extra spooky treat! Can you tell Erik knows I like Halloween and horror?

And speaking of Geek Fallout, Erik has also recently become a contributor to the Geek Fallout podcast, joining in on the Hanna Barbera episode (Ep. #81). I haven't gotten to actually talk to him on the podcast personally yet... but as long as he continues to contribute, our paths will cross eventually.

I want to thank Erik wholeheartedly for this awesome box of goodies. I hope he had as much fun putting this stuff together for me as I did putting together a package for him! He's a great artist and an even better person to talk to, bounce ideas off, and pal around with online. Thanks Erik!

Well. That's all I got for tonight kiddos! I'll be back really soon with ALL KINDS of awesome Goodwill Goodies (I have a queue of something like 11 posts saved in draft form, full of photos just waiting for me to write about them, so keep your eyes peeled!) so until then, Happy Hunting!   

Halloween Countdown Day 27: Last of the Spooky Books!

This will most likely be my last Halloween book related post for the season so I'm tossing a bunch of stuff in here I just didn't have the time or inclination to include in earlier posts. 

First up The Dancing Skeleton which tells the tale of an ornery old man who nobody likes when he's alive and everyone likes even LESS when he's dead. Because he stubbornly refuses to stay in his coffin! His poor widow (who didn't like him that much either) has to deal with her dead husband sitting in a rocking chair, refusing to get back in his grave. Luckily a gentleman suitor who happens to play the violin helps her find a solution... and this story is just great. It made it into our regular rotation just this year and makes for a great Halloween tale. It's not really scary at all except for the inclusion of the skeleton, and my kids laughed when the story was resolved at the end. I paid .99 cents for this one. 

I made it through the first story in this book before setting it aside. It was kind of disturbing. I've read one anthology of stories written by Ramsey Campbell in the past, and his stories are pretty scary. These stories are supposedly ones that he collected into an anthology because they scared him. I kind of think that statement may be true. .99 cents. 

This is one of those dry-looking books that looks like it came out in the 60's or 70's (I didn't bother to look at the publishing date before writing this, so be my guest...) but I've suddenly found myself in the mood to check out more and more books like that in recent times. So finding this for 1.99 was pretty fun! I mean, look at that cover alone! Facing off against that skeletal apparition with crucifix in hand... classic horror! 

I did not know that there was a series of licensed Universal Monsters novels. Did you? I didn't find any more of the series kicking around when I found this, The Devil's Night was a must-have. Looking it up on Amazon later, I discovered mixed reviews, especially for the sequel to this book, Devil's Brood. Should be interesting to see if it is any kind of satisfying read. Maybe I'll set it aside for next year's Halloween read pile. 

Couple of younger books here that I plan on sharing with my boys. The Time Spies: Rider in the Night book is a chapter book, but my older son is almost ready to start having those read to him. And it features the Headless Horseman!!! I couldn't resist that if I WANTED to. The Ghost with the Halloween Hiccups is a perfect read-aloud book for them right now, and they loved it! 

Finally, here's a great Halloween pop-up book I just recently found: A Visit to the Haunted House. It's cute and was in pretty decent shape! 

The menace of the haunted house was slightly down-played by the kitten book-plate on the first page... but the kitten's eyes appear to follow you around the room so the effect is still quite haunting. 

There's a lot more to this book, but the three pages I feature here are the most impressive of the pop-up pages. Most of the others are of the "pull the tab" or "slide this thing up and down" variety and so don't demonstrate well in photographs anyway. 

Well that's it for tonight kids!!! Halloween night is only a few more days away! In some ways I'll be happy to have the countdown done with... but in even more ways I'll be sad that the Halloween season is over. It's my favorite time of the year, and a time of year when I really try to kick everything into high-gear reading, viewing, listening, and collecting-wise when it comes to spookiness, horror, and Halloween.

I'll be back soon with more Grody Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Haunting!