Goodwill Mailbag: CRPechonick Strikes!!!

So last time I got on here, it was to thank Miss M for the incredible gift package she sent me... and this blog post is going to be along a similar vein. I recently received a package from CRPechonick (Charles Raymond Pechonick) of Geek Show Ink fame, and boy... was it a doozy! Back when I received a package from the Trash Man over at Pop Pop! It's Trash Culture, I commented on the fact that I needed to track down the last 3 rings in the set of 9 DCU chromatic Lanterns' rings so I could have a complete set. This prompted Mr. Pechonick to volunteer to help track them down for me.

Well that snowballed a bit from this:

Into this:

I forgot to get the rings in this picture with everything else.

Charles Pechonick obviously pays attention because he knows almost all my weaknesses. Let's take a look at all the great stuff he sent me, shall we? 

First up, there was a slew of random mini-figure goodness included. From left to right here we have representation from almost everything I like: A Shock figurine from the Nightmare Before Christmas, a Daredevil micro figure, a Brain Christmas figurine from Pinky and the Brain of Animaniancs fame, good ol' Donald Duck himself, Kim Possible (looking kick-ass), a Clone Trooper micro figure, and a Farmer Grover. Could not possibly be happier with this lot if I TRIED.

This stand-off between Funko Mini Merle Dixon and Funko Mini Tank Walker and Funko Mini Bicycle Girl was brought to me by CRPechonick!!! I don't think anything has ever made me happier than that cute little half-bodied zombie dragging it's cute little desiccated entrails across the top of my desk. Adorable!

Also included were these Peanuts books. I am looking forward to checking these out... as I do not traditionally read a whole lot of Peanuts stuff. These look old and awesome. 

Also included in the package were these two Vampire novels by David Wellington. Of the Monster Island fame (which I featured here on the blog as a part of my Halloween countdown) which I still haven't read yet. I can't wait to take a bite out of these!!! 

Heh.

It got a little bit harder to categorize stuff as I went along, so I sort of lumped some of this stuff together to photograph it. Please pretend that the Dr. Who novel has something to do with the Batman merchandise. Here's a novel starring the Tom Baker Dr. Who, a set of The Batman "shoe charms" and a set of four Batman button/pins. These will be opened and applied to the ceiling of my car. I'm sorry if that devaluates them or something... but it's what I do with buttons. The charms will go in my nipples. 

I'm just kidding! I don't have nipples. 

Who does have nipples? The Hulk. As in the Incredible Hulk. Included in the package was this five-part mini-series "Ghosts of the Future" which I have never read before. This was just before the whole Onslaught debacle took place, so you can sort of see that Thor is wearing possibly one of the worst costumes they EVER gave him. But I'm curious to see what this mini is all about, even despite that. 

A couple of neon Darth heads (I believe these may be some sort of Easter egg variant-things? Maybe? Doesn't matter. I love them. Day-glo Vader? Yes please) and a wind-up TOMY robot for m'collection of robots. I love this little guy. Easily one of my favorite items in the whole box. 

And let's not forget what got this whole ball rolling, okay? Here is my complete DCU Lanterns collection, with my set of rings included. They go in order by ROYGBIV as they should. AS ALL THINGS SHOULD. I have no idea why this collection obsesses me so... I don't even really follow the Green Lantern comics. I do love the idea of color-based powers, and an emotional spectrum that reflects that... I know the system they developed for the comics is sort of flawed... but it's a pretty great idea. And it made the whole idea of a "Green" themed superhero seem a little less arbitrary... ANYWAY. 

THANK YOU CRPechonick!!! I cannot thank you enough for this incredible pile of loot. You can definitely expect to see a package of thanks wending its way back atcha sometime in the future. You were incredibly generous with this bounty, and it humbles me to think that someone could just decide to give away a box full of goodies on a whim "just because". You're pretty awesome in my book. All you reading this be sure to head over to Geek Show Ink and check out the blog, and look at some of CRPechonick's impressive artwork over at his deviantart gallery as well! 

That's it for me today folks! I'll be back with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies before you know it! Until then, Happy Hunting!

Who can take a Saturday and change it into fun? The Trash Man Can...

So I'm sitting in my Cave one Saturday morning, just minding my own business when my wife hands me a package that came for me in the mail! Turns out it was from my good friend the Trash Man over at Pop Pop! It's Trash Culture, and I was about to have the best Saturday morning since I was a kid in pajamas munching Cap'n Crunch and watching Muppet Babies!

Upon opening the pack I discovered this pile of loot! Now, I have just recently WON a GIGANTIC pile of loot from the Trash Man in his monthly Trash giveaway. So I was scratching my head at WHY I would be receiving another one so soon... and then it dawned on me... this was a consolation prize! See, Trash Man sends out BIG prize packs, and then he sends out smaller ones to the losers each month. I may have won the very first one, but I LOST the second one (Yeah, I had the audacity to enter into the next month's drawing... Don't judge me. These prize packs are SOFA KING amazing). So I went about my business, and forgot about the whole thing. UNTIL this showed up! 

See, the cool thing about the Trash Man is he PAYS ATTENTION. He knows all my weaknesses. He remembered how much I WIGGED OUT about the Lantern rings he sent me last time, so he tossed a few more my way this time. And believe me, I verbally, audibly, and EMPHATICALLY shrieked like a teenage Beatles fan of the female persuasion (you know, the kind-of-homely-but-kind-of-hot-too ones with the horn-rimmed glasses that probably ended up being your Aunt or something?) when I saw these. GODS I LOVE THESE!!! I have all of them but 3 now, and I will be tracking those down post-haste! 

MUSCLE guys!!! When I was a kid I thought the guy on the left was supposed to be a mummy, so he attacked people with bandages. The guy in the middle was pretty much just Ice Man. And the guy on the right looked like a pepper grinder to me, so he would puff clouds of irritating pepper at people, blinding and burning them while he fought. I was such a MUSCLE nut!!! This brings my current collection up to 26! I miss having these so much. 

Here are a pair of Garbage Pail Kids wax packs that I refuse to open. I love them just the way they are! They bring back such great childhood memories. Some of the happiest times of my young life were the walks I used to take down to the store to pick up these wax-packs. I am so incredibly thankful for these. 

Finally, there was another of my collecting staples: A Choose Your Own Adventure book! "The Forbidden Castle" which is another perfect addition to my shelf. Long-time readers will remember that next to only maybe Little Golden Books, CYOAs are my favorite kind of books to collect. And Trash Man remembers that. Trash Man is the king of KNOWING what you like. This package I received was incredibly generous and tailor-suited for me. 

Thank you Trash Man, this package was really special to me, and it made my day. 

So that's it folks! I'll be back very soon with some more Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!

Goodwill Geek Mailbag: I Won This Box of Trash... YOU GOTTA SEE.

Soooooo... yeah. There was this contest thing over at the second-best blog on the internet: Pop Pop! It's Trash Culture (It's only second best because the blog you are currently reading exists. But on the day I die The Trash Man becomes king of the internet. It's in the bi-laws. Read 'em). 

Anyway... this box showed up at my post-office. And it was HEAVY. And not in like the tense emotional sense. I mean physically heavy. I almost slipped a disc lifting that thing. We're talking turn-your-head-and-cough-please style hernia. 

Here's what it looked like when I opened that b**ch:

And I'll form the HEAD! Wearing this HAT!

It was at this point that I started hyperventilating a little bit. I had been chosen at random on the Trash Man's blog to receive what I had assumed would be a bunch of random junk. As I pulled more and more stuff out of this seemingly bottomless box that was decidedly NOT junk... I started to realize that I had become the victim of a bait-and-switch. I was not the recipient of junk at all. I was horrified to realize that I was the recipient of ALL THIS AWESOME STUFF:

Everything you see on this desk (not counting the laptop computer or the dough boy)... WAS INSIDE THAT BOX. Guys, it was like a clown car in there. Except instead of clowns trying to kill me with cotton candy ray-guns, it was AWESOME stuff trying to AWE me with... AWESOME. Let's whittle this MOB of amazing down to its components shall we? 

First up is a set of mini-figs that made me squeal out loud when I saw them. S.L.U.G. zombies!!! I only ever picked up the Christmas variants, the Series 3 Coffin pack, and I think one or two of the 2-packs from that same series. I'm hard up for series 1 and 2 zombies (and display space for them). What I was most excited by was the "Curly" zombie, which gives me two-thirds of the zombie Stooges! I just need the Larry zombie now! This also brings my "food-service" zombies up to something like... six  I think? Bizarre. And Cleopatra is just awesome. The guy on the far left is getting ready to serve up a brain like a tennis ball! Zombie love!

Next up we have a couple of the Family Dollar Joes. When I saw these popping up on fellow collectors' blogs I was sorely tempted to go track them down. Of course, when I finally got around to it, they had all disappeared. I love Snake-Eyes's color scheme here but didn't care for the bulky gray vest, so I took it off. Storm Shadow looks great too, in mostly black, but juuuuust enough white to make him... him. They're getting ready to fight here. (Spoiler Alert: Snake-Eyes is going to WIN.)

PEZ!!! I'm not even sure which of these I already have, and which ones I needed. Taz is new to me for sure. I LOVE PEZ. Some of these guys will be tossed into whatever give-away I may do in the future. I kind of feel like a putz, letting Trash Man beat me to a give-away when I've been blogging for a year. Sigh.

M.U.S.C.L.E. Guys!!! Well... at least the 5 on the left are. The 2 on the right? Those guys are from the original Kinkeshi line put out in Japan, that they later based MUSCLE on. They have slightly darker colors, and are made of the more plaint eraser-like material. I have never owned any of them before, and I was QUITE happy to receive these!!! The MUSCLE men brought me right back to my childhood. I now have around 25 of these guys total. I think I'm going to have to start actively tracking down more of them. I'm not kidding when I say these kind of hit me in the soft-spot nostalgia-wise. 

Trash-Packs!!! These are the modern-day equivalent of everything I loved as a kid back in the 80's. The gross factor, similar to GPK... the size factor similar to MUSCLE and other mini-figures... Just awesome. My oldest son is 4 and he collects these like a boss. Occasionally he gets duplicates and they disappear into my Geek cave forever. Now I have some legit Trash Packs of my very own! I think my absolute favorites are the two guys furthest to the left. The blue slug with the giant red mouth, and the gray grub with the dazed expression. Priceless. 

Here's a random assortment of other mini-figs that were included. Skip past the Smurf for a moment and look at that other little bue guy next to him. That's Jagged Tooth, an Army Ant from General McAnther's Blue Army. Army Ants are a FAVORITE line of mine, right up there with MUSCLE, Battle Beasts, and California Raisins. SO EXCITED to get my hands on this guy! Up and to the right of the ant is a figure from a line of discontinued mini-figs called Fistful of Power from the mid-aughts. His name is "Cursor". And he has a chainsaw hand. He's pretty bad-ass. The rock and roll guy on the missile skateboard is a Savage Mondo Blitzer from 1991. His name is Direct Hit. The gray monochrome guy is a Nazi officer from the BMC Toy D-Day Playset. He's pretty Nazi-ish. The last of these Unusual Suspects is a Devil finger-puppet guy. I think he's one of my favorite items to come out of this box, to be honest. Just look at him. He's amazing. Now back to that Smurf! I couldn't tell what accessory he was originally supposed to be holding, but a Google investigation turned up this: 

Image from eBay.

So now I know! 

But of course, that was not the end of the mini-figs, by any means. Top left here you have War Machine and Whiplash from the Iron Man 2 Mega Bloks sets. Next to them you have a Clone Trooper/Y-Wing Transformer (you'll see the other form below). Far right we have another favorite of mine! Storm! This is a Marvel Mini by ZAG.  Next a couple of AWESOME LEGO mini-figures! A MEXICAN WRESTLER and a GUY IN A GODZILLA SUIT!!! Two of the very best LEGO mini-figures EVER CREATED. MINE NOW. Next we have some Marvel's Avengers Chibi minis, which to be honest, I already have a complete set of. But that's okay! I now have an Agent Coulson, Iron Man, and Nick Fury Chibi miniature set to give away! Aaaand there, in the middle is a Yoshi K'Nex mini-fig!!! I am so effing impressed by the sheer volume of mini-figs in this package you guys!!!

Next up we have some packaged stuff, and some vehicles. First, a packaged Ren figure from the Nicktoons line. I've been eyeing these for some time now. I think now I am going to be forced to track down a Stimpy. ALSO!!! A Burton-era Hotwheels Batmobile for my collection!!! This one got me to shout out loud with excitement! That sucker went right up on my wall with my other pop-culture Hotwheels! In the front row, there's another shot of my Star Wars Transformer (in Y-Wing mode) a loose BttF Hotwheel, and a Johnny Lightning version of Dick Dastardly's Mean Machine. 

I don't know if readers of my blog also follow Trash Man's blog (if not, you totally should)... but one of the first posts he did over there was one featuring some weird old party favors he picked up from one of his favorite stores. I would have been CRUSHED if some of those hadn't found their way into this box... And I was NOT disappointed! The least exciting item for me was probably the pack of VR Troopers Napkins. But I'm just not a Saban live-action-stuff fan. The REST of these are AMAZING!!! Top left we have a set of TMNT party hats from 1989!!! Next to that we have Millennium Masters of the Universe Drinking cups! I loved the Millennium reboot of MotU especially the action figures. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with these cups... but it will be EPIC. Finally there's an incredible package of Voltron party hats!!! Look at that image! It's BEAUTIFUL!!!

But wait!!! There's STILL MORE!!! Here is the assortment of Wax-Packs and loose trading cards I received as well! The cards up top, above everything else are Power Ranger cards. The Wax packs in the middle include Dinosaurs Attack!, Harry and the Hendersons, Weird Ball, and a 6th Series Garbage Pail Kids pack! That one GPK pack is the only one I didn't crack open almost immediately after taking these photos. It's the one item I want to keep untouched. The Harry and the Hendersons pack had almost the EXACT same set of cards that I got in the pack I remember buying as a kid. It was really strange actually. The Weird Ball cards were interesting... but not really my thing... and Dinosaurs Attack! is probably my second favorite set of Topps trading cards from my childhood, directly following GPK. I'm going to make another embarrassing confession now... finding the MUSCLE figures and the unopened GPK wax-pack had me a little choked up. Not quite full on blubbering but there was just SO MUCH of my childhood right there in my hands. It was a full on rush of memories that I wasn't expecting.

All right, the last of the loose baubles includes a handful of Double Dragon Pogs and some metallic "slammer whammers". The items in this picture that make me go completely APES**T are the SDCC exclusive GL rings promoting Blackest night. I may have another new obsessive collection to track down now. Love these. AAAaaand... the "I Saw E.T." button, which I also FREAKING LOVE. I have no idea if it's from the original release of the film, or the big rerelease... but it doesn't matter to me. Finally, there's an awesome K-9 Dr. Who keychain! It's like this box knows the contents of my soul!  

Turns out part of the reason the package was so heavy was because it was loaded with books, movies, and comics too! First up is one of these mini-books featuring a random topic... but THIS ONE IS ALL ABOUT PEZ!!! Yet another amazing item in the GIANT BOX OF MIRACLES. I feel like you guys might think I'm trying to oversell this box... but I can't even tell you how much of this stuff is just perfectly "me". 

I had to smile when I pulled out this VHS copy of "Superman The Movie". Trash Man is a big VHS enthusiast, and this is just so HIM. Probably the item that elicited the goofiest chuckle when I saw it. I don't own a VCR so this is being displayed for box art alone. It is THE item that best represents my pleasure over having won this prize package. It is truly the Oscar statuette of the whole box.

Next up are these two excellent books of two great old childhood properties. First we have "Six Guns and Shurikens" starring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This is a young readers chapter book where the turtles FIND A F**KING GENIE and are transported to the F**KING OLD WEST!!! I haven't read it yet... but I certainly plan to. Then there's "Operation: Poison Dart" which is not only a G.I. Joe Book... But A F**KING CHOOSE OUR OWN ADVENTURE BOOK!!! This is amazing. I didn't know these even existed. I love that they do. I love that I now own one. I love life.

Next up, a couple of DVDs. First, another item which made me LOSE MY S**T. Neil Gaiman's Julius Schwartz Lecture at MIT? YES PLEASE. I am a complete Neil Gaiman fanatic. And I've never seen or heard this speech. I remember reading on his blog about it back when it happened... but never thought I'd get to check it out for myself. Next to that is a Troma Pictures double feature of "Psycho a GoGo" and "Rawhide Terror" which I cannot wait to watch. They look deliciously crazy. 

Next... animation!!! Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is a movie I have been meaning to watch for years because I've heard it's a classic Batman tale, and a classic in geek animation in general. Aaaand speaking of classics in geek animation... we have He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Vol. 1. 20 episodes of MotU goodness. I have a "greatest hits" DVD somewhere, but that's it. LOVE this.

I'll confess this next one is a bit of a cheat. The novelization of the movie Alien was something I noticed Trash Man had an extra copy of and asked if I could have. So he tossed it in when he sent me the package. It's still effing cool. I've really started getting into collecting old novelizations of awesome films, and this makes a perfect addition to the pile.

Here are a couple of excellent kid's books based on a couple more AWESOME properties! Darkwing Duck "The Darkest Night" and Voltron "The Deadly Flowers". So completely blown away by these! Love Darkwing AND Voltron! And since I also collect vintage 80's (and early 90's) cartoon kids books these are PERFECT for me!

And FINALLY I got to the bottom of that box full of miracles only to find these: COMIC BOOKS! Among the titles included I found 5 Spider-Man books, 5 Avengers books (including 1 Transformers crossover issue!), 4 Captain America Books, 3 G.I Joe Books, 2 Hulk books, 1 X-Factor book, and a partridge in a pear tree! I was overwhelmed by the sheer awesomeness of these cool old issues! Some of my favorite covers (I haven't had a chance to read through them all yet) have to be The White Rabbit, Speedball, and Tower vs. X-Factor covers. These ones are just amazing to behold. These are all awesome looking comics though, and I can't wait to dig into them further!

So in summation... I was floored by the sheer amount of AWESOME packed into this one small-ish (yet back-breakingly heavy) box! I cannot thank the Trash Man enough for the free loot, and I can't wait to see what else he has in store over at his blog! Trash Man, from the bottom of my heart, please know how thankful I am that I received this prize pack it is amazing. I only hope I can come up with some sort of prize pack in the future that will make some lucky guy or gal as happy as this one made me. Thank you thank you, thank you. 

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

My stuff from Hake's Arrived!!!

So I may have mentioned in passing that I won a recent contest over at Cool & Collected. If not, let me explain: I won a contest for members of the League of Extraordinary Bloggers who participated in an imaginary shopping spree on Hake's Americana and Collectibles (Specifically Auction 209). The prize? Only a $100 shopping spree on Hake's web-site!!! Yeah boy!

Soon after finding out I won I giddily hopped over to the Hake's Americana and Collectibles web-site and started browsing. It did take me a little while to find things I was interested in among their for-sale stock. I didn't want to go the auction route, simply because I always like sure things more than maybe-things. I called Hake's with a list of item numbers, 4 in total, and spoke to the incredibly patient and helpful Heather.

This is not a picture of Heather. How would I even have that?
I think Heather would be upset if I did, honestly.

Brian had suggested I call in my order, so that was the route I went. I am a complete basket-case on the phone, and as I stuttered through my order convinced that I would be reported as some sort of "When a Stranger Calls" style serial killer at any moment. 

"No I haven't 'checked on the children' sir...
Could I please just have your next item number?"

After placing my order, this instantly appeared:

STUFF!

Just kidding! It took like 15 minutes. 

Delivered by this man.

Just kidding again! It was probably a couple of days. I don't remember. I was still in the fetal position after having to talk on the phone to another human being. 

Let's cut the attempts at self-deprecating humor (and horrifying truth) and look at what I ordered shall we? 

(I'm going to apologize ahead of time for the crappy quality of the pictures. I have been assured that this makes my blog charming, rustic and original. Not crappy like I thought.)

First up is the Master's of the Universe glow-in-the-dark secret compartment ring. I have these bizarre, vague and hazy memories of owning one of these at some point during my childhood. I remember things like it being too big for my fingers... and probably ripping the lid off the base at some point. 

Image from Hake's site.

What I absolutely cannot remember is WHAT THIS CAME WITH. Can anyone help me? I desperately want to know what figure or figures had this ring included as an accessory. Had I not been spending my Hake's Free Money, this ring would have set me back 25 dollars. 

Next up is this Mr. Peanut key-chain/figurine. It's EXTREMELY hard (for me) to photograph. In this picture he looks like a semi-amorphous off-white silhouette of Mr. Peanut... but I assure you he has facial features and... stuff. 

This image is directly from the Hake's web-site.
You can kind of see his face better in this one.

If you didn't already know, I LOVE Mr. Peanut. So this purchase was a no-brainer. Had I been "shelling" out my own simoleons instead of buying it on Hake's dime, I would have "shelled" out 24 dollars. (Get it? Like peanut shells? Puns!)

Here he is next to Tiny Goodbite for scale (whom I am now HORRIFIED to realize is incredibly dusty. Don't look at him! DON"T LOOOOK! I never CLEEEEEEAN!!!). I I'm such a ridiculous push-over for old food mascot characters. I think I just love the idea of anthropomorphically animated food items (actually ANY items) to the point where I want to own them ALL.  

I also picked out this Alfred E. Neuman "What Me Worry?" pin from MAD magazine. I thought Dale would do a good job presenting this pin for the masses to appreciate. 

Image from Hake's site

As soon as I saw that iconic, gap-toothed grin I knew this pin MUST be mine. I would have had to lay down 10 cool dollars had Hake's not been picking up the tab. 

Last but certainly not least, I bought this set of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles "Power Rings" distributed in Canada as a Nabisco Shreddies premium back in 1990. I am so freaking excited to own these! Canadians get all the cool toys! Had Hake's not been FOOTing the bill, I would have SHELLED out a 35 dollar sum for these rings (I know I already used shell above for Mr. Peanut, but it was too good to resist... plus a foot clan reference! Puns!)

Image from Hake's site.

These are a great, iconic set of characters from the original cartoon. My only complaint is that they should have done Bebop and Krang rings and rounded the set out to 10. Where Rocksteady goes, Bebop MUST follow. It's pretty much the same (to an admittedly lesser degree) with Shredder and Krang.  

Turtles! Turtles! Turtles!
Doesn't quite have the same ring as
Girls! Girls! Girls!

I don't know why I felt the need to pose the rings next to the characters that they represent... but I did, and therefore you get these lovely pictures to look at. 

I do love the classic April O'Neil design from the old cartoon, but I have to be honest about her ring: Without all the other mutant animal characters (and Shredder) she would just be a weird nebulous floating head ring of a brunette. It's not exactly my favorite ring. I think maybe they could have traded her for Bebop. (Sorry if I'm perseverating on this whole Bebop thing... but it really irks me, even more than Krang)

I'll let you decipher this one on your own.
I don't own a Riddler toy so the Joker stepped in to be Vanna.

Finally, I did not order this last button... Hake's threw it in for free with my order! They were already completely giving me a bunch of free stuff... and they just kept the free stuff coming!!! They really know how to treat a guy. I must not have creeped Heather out too much. 

"OH MY GOD STOP BREATHING HEAVY
AND JUST GIVE ME YOUR ZIP CODE!!!"

My entire order totalled out at 94 dollars. Heather then looked up the estimated shipping and told me that it would be exactly 6 dollars. This meant that everything, EVEN MY SHIPPING (down to the last cent!) was included in the credit I had won! Heather was all: "How on Earth did you do that?"
And I was all:

"I'm just really good at maths and whatnot."

So this is the m entire haul from Hake's!!!

I want to say once more how incredibly thankful I am to both Hake's Americana and Collectibles for the prize money, and to Brian from Cool and Collected for running the League of Extraordinary Bloggers, and for making great connections with sites like Hake's. I genuinely enjoyed browsing through Hake's stock and dreaming of the things I would buy with unlimited moneys. Hake's has some truly amazing things for sale!

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