Halloween Countdown Day 2: A Trip to the Hands of Hope Thrift Shop

So a month or so back I went into a thrift store in Bangor, ME that I've only gone inside once or twice in the past, because it's one of those places that makes my skin crawl as soon as I go in. It smells awful and you feel dirty just walking inside. I wanted to see what was in there though, because I was doing a BIG THRIFT day and I was hitting ALL the places. The store in question? The "Hands of Hope Thrift Store" I wasn't expecting to find much... 

But honestly, I was shocked at what I did end up finding.

First up was this awesome Disney's Haunted Mansion pop-up book! I fully expected this thing to be WRECKED as most pop-up books I find secondhand are. To my surprise and delight it was in great shape! I have never been on the Haunted Mansion ride as I have never visited a Disney theme park in my life. But the idea is just so cool... it's on my bucket list. For now though, I will have to content myself with this thing. There are only a few pages, so I went ahead and photographed the whole thing for your enjoyment. 

It is a little difficult to convey the complete sense of "pop-up" in these photographs, but trust me, these things jump right at you. 

The one major damaged bit of the book is the turn-wheel that makes Madame Leota (A hologram! the back cover proudly exclaims!) fly around. IT still sort of works... but it gets lost and starts drifting off the page and out of the book, and then out the door to steal your car. Most of the pull tabs on the pages transform portraits from normal looking folks into zombified ghouls and ghastly fiends. 

 
The dining hall flies tall and proud from the book in an impressive display. The pull tabs on this page cause revelers to dance a ghostly waltz, creep out from under rugs, and blow out candles on cakes (and heads from Jesters)

Arguably the most genuinely terrifying image in the book is the Bride in the attic, accompanied by this fellow in his trunk.

Overall this is an awesome, Halloween-y good time, with all kinds of thrills and surprises. 

Next up I foudn the entire 4 issues of IDW's Weekly World News Comic book. I LOVE WWN crap. I didn't even KNOW there was a comic series based on the characters introduced in the now defunct "news" paper that saw the birth of Bat Boy. The writing is pretty terrible, focusing on a crotchety old man who I think was a featured skeptic in the paper itself. But those covers! It was worth it just for those alone. 

Next up was THIS beauty! I have a lot of affection for the Return to Oz movie of 1985. A lot of people hate it, but I love it for its sheer insanity. The Wizard of Oz universe has never been a sacred cow to me, so reimagining it in various ways only makes it that much more interesting to me.

Not Halloween-y enough? Remember these guys? The Wheelers were pants-soilingly terrifying to me as a kid. 

And Mombi was absolute nightmare fuel. Between her headless body and gallery of switchable heads this chick was just off the hook. I kind of want to recreate this as a Halloween Haunt some year. Like... the whole terrifying movie actually. From the electro-shock therapy to the deadly desert to the gnome king.

I am not a huge fan of the Black Cauldron Disney film. I love the books by Lloyd Alexander way too much for that. I seriously think of the Prydain Chronicles as being on the same level at the Narnia books, the Wrinkle In Time Series, and the Lord of the Rings as far as epic fantasy series  go. The Disney movie sort of misses that point on several levels and cheapens the whole affair. But there is a part of me that holds this book in a certain place in my heart. Mainly for being a Disney movie that has the likes of this guy in it:

The Horned King! He's a poor man's Sauron, sure, and honestly, Lloyd Alexander cribbed this sort of villain and more from the Lord of the Rings... but I don't notice it whilst reading the books. There were alos a whole host of these guys: 

Gah! An army of the undead! 

From this point on I have a hard time justifying any kind of link between my purchases and Halloween. I suppose these books could be considered... nah. They're sci-fi and fantasy at best. One of them, The Three Wishes, is a young-reader CYOA book, and the other, Be An Interplanetary Spy: The Star Crystal, is from a series published by the same company where instead of choosing options in the book, you have to solve various puzzles to get to the end, and solving them wrong means death. I read through the Star Crystal as soon as I got it home, and while it wasn't AMAZING, it was pretty fun. 

Yet another series put out by the same company as Choose Your Own Adventure, The Time Machine series is pretty much just another series of CYOA books with a historical, time-travelling theme. The three I found were Wild West Rider, Civil War Secret Agent, and American Revolutionary. I didn't even know these books existed before I found them at Hands of Hope! 

This whole pile of books only cost me 7 dollars even though it should have cost me 12. I can't remember what the deal was they had going, but it involved free books included in your purchase, so somehow that knocked my cost almost in half. I did NOT complain. I am glad I gave Hands of Hope another chance, even though it still smelled pretty awful and the toys all gave me the extreme willies. It was sort of like going through a Thrift-store themed Haunted House all in and of itself... so I'll probably wait a while to go again. 

That's all I have for tonight kiddos! Be sure to click on the Cryptkeeper Badge (The Creature from the Black Lagoon) in the sidebar to check out all the other participants in this year's Countdown to Halloween! I won't be doing full posts every night like this, but I will be featuring some fantastic Halloween Kids' books that I've found at Goodwill between the meatier posts. I'll be back soon with more Gruesome Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Haunting! 

Halloween Countdown Day 1: Goodwill Finds!

October first is finally here!!! And with it, the Countdown to Halloween!!! So welcome dear readers, to the time of year I adore the most. Below I have a handful of Halloween goodies I brought home from Goodwill (along with some decidedly UN-Halloween-y things... but they're all at the end) recently! 

My wife does not often join me in Goodwill. She finds my obsession with other people's secondhand stuff less charming than most of my blog readers. But on the occasions when she does join me, she often finds some really fun stuff! On a recent trip with the entire family in attendance, my wife picked up this rustic little piece of Halloween heaven. This now hangs next to our front door out on the porch. 

During the same trip I found this groovy version of everyone's favorite murderoue pastime: CLUE!!! As one of my favorite 80's movies, and one of maybe two distinct boardgames dealing with murder in an old mansion, CLUE is one of my favorites. It's one I actually enjoy playing from time to time as well. 

Love this burnt orange background for the boardgame, and the illustrations for each of the rooms.

I was VERY disappointed to find that the lead pipe was replaced with a penny in this edition. But even MORE disappointed to find that the character cards did NOT look like the pictures on the box: 

Which honestly leads me to wonder if these are the cards that even go with this game. a quick google search reveals that they are indeed NOT the cards originally included in this game... but look how cute those little potential murderers all look up there, lined up in a row! I actually would have framed the set of cards had they been this charming. Oh well. I still love the box. 

This grisly fellow is meant to be a 12" reproduction of the Frankenstein's monster from the 2004 Van Helsing film... which I did not like. But when I found this toy for .99 cents... I fell in love. He looks downright gruesome! I like his arm, the mechanism driven into his chest (it still lights up sporadically) and his huge metal boots. I even like his exposed brain (which I assume is missing whatever was used to cover it up originally). I will promptly scrub any prior knowledge from my mind of the film, and display this guy with a bunch of my other monster toys. 

Next up is this trio of Halloween-themed books. First up we have Beverly Cleary's Ramona and her Father which I may have referenced in the past as a series of books I've been trying to track down for my wife. Halloween actually plays a prominent role in this book, for a few chapters at least, as you can see on the cover. Then we have Halloween Fun: 101 Ways to Have a Safe and Fun Halloween which is not as snooze-inducing as it sounds. It's a pretty fun little craft book for someone with two little boys. There are lots of fun ideas for creepy little crafts and games to play to ring in the Halloween Season. Finally we have Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm and the Wicked Witch which is something I picked out for a friend, as I am not the hugest Flintsones fan myself. 

Here we start drifting further out from the Halloween theme. But I still can't wait to talk about my newest obsession: Collecting audio cassettes! I'm mainly focusing on movie soundtracks right now, but I'm also snapping up some other stuff too. I definitely blame the Awesome Mix from Guardians of the Galaxy for getting me back into cassettes. I've never really understood the impetus for collecting VHS tapes or even vinyl records for that matter... but suddenly I have these tangible objects that bring me back to some of my happiest memories in high school.

Of course High School included arguably some of the happiest and unhappiest days of my life, but most of the happiest days involved music and boy howdy I loved making mix-tapes back then. As someone who lived in a gutted out liquor store as a teenager, and slept on a dilapidated loveseat in a closet with a floor that flooded and froze over every winter (I laugh at you Harry Potter)... the pure gold that was a blank cassette tape that I could then fill up with songs and was magical.

I would make mix tapes for my closest friends as they were pretty much the only gifts I could afford to give back then. My Aunt who spoiled me with action figures as a kid began spoiling me with cassette tapes and a decent tape-to-tape recorder. I also had friends who had CD-to-tape recording capabilities, so I would scab their music all the time. ANYWAY. I'm collecting audio cassettes now.

I discovered the book Castle Perilous easily fifteen or more years ago. It is one of my all time favorite comfort-food books. It takes place in an interdimensional castle that plucks people and creatures and other... things from all over the multiverse. Sometimes folks wander the halls and end up on jungle planets or being chased by angry french swordsmen. It's facets are endless, and the Guests are outrageous. After I discovered the first book in the series and fell in love, I discovered more in the series. Up until a few years ago I had despaired at ever finding these two particular books right here: the 2nd and 4th books in the series. Castle for Rent and Castle War! I highly recommend the series to anyone who likes books like Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere where absurdities rule and literally anything can happen.

A bevy of young-reader Choose Your Own Adventure books! These are all semi-Halloween appropriate, including Pirates, lake monsters, and genies.

They also apparently put out a Choose Your Own Adventure series involving the Star Wars books. How that works I'm not entirely sure. Maybe Darth Vader doesn't die in one of the endings? Maybe he tells Luke "Psyche! I ain't the baby daddy!" I don't know. But I aim to find out.

In a genuinely tragic turn, I found this Mr. Ed the Talking Horse Little Golden book that had the cover completely demolished. I still picked it up. Because MR. ED HAS A LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK!!! 

I used to watch the S#!T out of Mr. Ed on Nick at Nite back in the day. Crazy. And now I own the book. 

And finally, in what could be described the CREEPIEST of the Halloween-iest items in this post... is a disturbing time capsule detailing the life of people who lived before smart-phones. Look at all of the abominable mechanical devices they needed to listen to music, watch shows, take pictures, and write stuff!!! Eegads that's horrific (just let me have this okay?)!!!

So that's it for tonight kiddies! I'll be back tomorrow with more Ghastly Goodwill Goodies!!! Until then, Happy Haunting! 

Goodwill Quick Stop: Some Geeky Books

A quick one tonight kids, to show off a pile of books found in months past at Goodwill! 

First up is this Choose Your Own Adventure book: Beyond the Great Wall. It looks like a nice mix between Around the World in 80 Days and possibly the animated Jackie Chan Adventures. Plus check out that Snidely Whiplash mustache on the guy closest to grabbing the balloon! 

I now own a copy of the Batman Forever novelization. It was the first of the Joel Schumacher films and the beginning of the end of my love of Superhero movies back in the 90's. But looking back on them now, I get a whole different level of entertainment value out of them. Its like I can appreciate them more because I already know going in that I don't even have to try and like them.  

I actually love the Dungeons and Dragons Endless Quest books MORE than your average CYOA books. My favorite has always been The Pillars of Pentagarn, but this one, Raid on Nightmare Castle, will also do nicely. 

This is my second time finding a Doctor Who novel secondhand! This one stars the very first William Hartnell Doctor! Not my favorite Doctor but always exciting to find a book starring the Doctor in any case. 

This book is just so chock-full of awesome I can't stand it! Every page is filled with little cartoons and factoids like you see there on the cover. One of the first ones was about James Barry, a doctor in the 1800's who died and THEN it was discovered that he was secretly a woman! Believe it... OR NOT.

I've been trying to track down Ramona books for my wife to read to our little boys for some time now. We can now add Ramona the Pest to her collection! 

And finally, What's a Fraggle? which answers the burning question that I know we all woke up with on our minds this morning. 

Cute as frick! 

So there you have it! Yet another pile of geeky books that I have tracked down secondhand at Goodwill! From almost literally all corners of the geekosphere.

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

Father's Day Weekend: Belfast and Rockland Goodwills

This is how timely I am with my blog: I am just now getting around to writing about the stuff I found back on Father's day. My wife surprised me that weekend with a trip out to Rockland, ME, complete with an overnight stay in a hotel. While we were out that way, I hit a couple of Goodwills, namely the ones in Belfast and Rockland. 

The Belfast Goodwill, which usually feels like I get to go shopping in that bunker where they hide the magical artifacts in Indiana Jones... was a bit of a disappointment this time around. I waled out of that store with three books and nothing else. The first two books were these two movie novelizations, for Monster House (a classic, awesome Halloween movie, and one of my absolute faves) and the adaptation of "The Return of the Pink Panther" which is a film series I have always had a soft spot for. 

The last thing I found in Belfast was this Gumby Book, which has Gumby and Pokey visiting a book about the Boston Tea Party, and almost being executed as spies. I used to watch the Gumby show on rental VHS as a kid, and it was the beginning of my love for claymation. All three of these books ran me .99 cents. 

For my first (and odds are likely only, due to distance) visit to the Rockland, ME Goodwill, I mostly found a pile of Fotonovel books. These are a kind of bizarre semi-comic-book adaptation of films and TV shows using photos lifted directly from the films in the panels.

So first up we have the adaptation of the Ralph Bakshi Lord of the Rings film, and a Mork and Mindy adaptation! Then Battlestar Galactica (the movie) and Love at First Bite! Some of the better finds in the pile, honestly. I mean, George Hamilton as the most tan Vampire you've ever seen, and the late, great Robin Williams in one of his most famous roles? Yep. I'll take 'em. I want to point out that in some cases these books aren't all "Fotonovel" brand books, but most of them are. The Mork and Mindy book is a "Video Novel" from Pocket Books and the Battlestar book is a "Photo Story" from Berkley Books. 

Next up we have Grease and Heaven Can Wait, followed by the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Close Encounters. 

Finally, I found ANOTHER Revenge of the Pink Panther adaptation, Fotonovel style. 

I found a handful of fun kids' books out in Rockland as well. A kids' book version of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Where's Grandma which is a book that helps children deal with the loss of a grandparent, which is also a scratch-and-sniff book. Horrible. 

Picked up a couple of Little Golden Books, which... eh... not the greatest ones, but I always like Holiday books that I don't already have, and the Bambi book looked cute... so why not.

I always seem to find trades of the Simpsons comics at Goodwill in piles. This is something like the 10th volume I've picked up I think? Someday I've going to sit down with the whole stack and actually read them (then I will probably understand why it is everyone keeps donating them to Goodwill... but hopefully I'll like them). 

The big find of the trip was this grab-bag full of Star Wars Attacktix figures and one lonely dog. 2.99 for the whole thing. I let my boys have most of them... 

Out of the whole bag, these were the three I really wanted. The Greedo and Boba Fett Attactix figures, and the bendy Jake from the McDonald's Happy Meal series that I had been looking for. I really like Greedo as a character and design for some reason, no idea why. Something to do with his visual I guess. He get's his punk-ass shot after about what... 2 minutes of screen time maybe? Regardless, whenever I find a Greedo toy, I get pretty excited. 

There was more stuff that actually came home with me the weekend of Father's Day, but I'll have to get around to blogging about it later. That's all I've got for tonight kids! I'll be back with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies soon enough! Until then, Happy Hunting!