It's All about the Golden Books. Literally.

The following post contains no less than 29 Golden Books that I found and bought at a handful of different Goodwills. If... you are not... obsessed with old Little Golden books... sit this one out. Up front, every single one of these books cost me .99 cents apiece. I don't want to have to mention it over and over again. It's hot out okay? All of these books were purchased in fits and spurts since the weekend just before Father's day. So they accumulated fast. These don't even make up half of the books in my LGB collection. I'm sort of embarrassed admitting that... but it's sort of freeing as well. 

First up we have a Tiny Toons Adventure book, a vintage Little Mermaid book, and a Mickey Mouse and the Mouseketeers Ghost Town Adventure. I love all the old stories starring Mickey Mouse and his awkward gang of Mouseketeer buddies. I had a HUGE crush on Ariel when I was a kid... so owning this book is like finding a photo album full of pictures of an ex-girlfriend. Except different. 

A couple of just sort of random 80's titles here... One of the Family and Pano the Train... I have nothing to say about them at all. They are just the sort of random, older LBG's that fill out my collection. 

These two are just reprints of much older titles, but I love the colorful designs and old-style feel of them. I'm pretty sure I owned a copy of the The Little Golden ABC... but not the Little Golden Mother Goose. Now you think you know me? You don't know me. I've done things. Terrible things.

Here's another of those awesome BIG Little Golden Books. It doesn't matter what the topic material is, if I find these I pick them up. They're just so weird. I'm showing it next to My Book of Poems for scale. The Pandas Take a Vacation is actually a bizarre tale of a... Panda family... taking a vacation... It sounds less bizarre when I'm trying to describe it... but there's a weird sense of unease underlying the entire tale like they're going to meet a serial killer or something at any moment. They didn't... but you know what I mean?

I can't even begin to tell you how much I AGONIZED over buying these two reprints of old Train stories. I just kept arguing with myself over the fact that this was not like a SPECIAL printing of Tootle in any way... but I don't have a copy of Tootle in my collection at all... and oh my GODS I finally get why people hate blogs about people who collect old crap from Goodwill. The cover to The Little Engine That Could is straight up peeling off. But I couldn't leave it behind if I was going to bu Tootle. You know?

An assortment of licensed properties here... Pound Puppies (the second P.P LGB in my collection... just FYI... ACRONYMS!!!) Sesame Street and Bugs Bunny. I have distinct memories of the Bugs Bunny book from when I was a kid. 

A pair of Disney Afternoon books!!! I was never a Goof Troop fan at all. I felt like they were just grasping at that point for SOMETHING-OH-GOD-ANYTHING to keep the line-up going. But Tail Spin? That crap was GENIUS!!! It turned The Jungle Book into an Indiana Jones inspired drug trip where the whole world is airplane themed. When I watched this as a kid I didn't question the logic one bit... but what Disney exec green-lit this show? One daring sumbitch. 

Rescuers Down-Under and a Winnie-the-Poon and the Honey Tree book. I liked Rescuers Down Under... but I pretty much loathe the Disney Pooh stuff. But... this looked old enough and it's so poorly illustrated (look at that crappy rendition of Pooh on the cover!) that I felt like it represented the Disney Pooh franchise without selling out to it too much. You don't even understand the disgusting number of Disney Pooh Golden books I fling away in disgust while I am pawing around at Goodwill. I treat them like they are deadly vipers made of fiber-glass insulation. I earn me some looks while I'm shopping sometimes. 

This is one of the real treasures I discovered recently. I owned and LOVED this book as a kid, and was so incredibly excited to find it that I probably let out some sort of audible squeal. I remember flipping through the pages OVER and OVER again... and there were some very specific pages that always drew my attention:

The pages depicting Smoky getting caught in the fire and then convalescing afterwards were my absolute FAVORITE pictures in this book. I think I was just a macabre little kid... but all kidding aside I think all kids kind of obsess over the most emotionally distressing parts of any books, movies, or TV shows they are exposed to. I think I was just terrified of being that little bear in the fire, and with the bandages on, swept away from his family. This is all getting really deep. I need a break. 

Next up is another awesome book that I loved as a kid. Donald Duck's Toy Sailboat is one of the reasons why I loved Chip and Dale as early on as I did. The old Christmas cartoon where they inhabit Mickey's Christmas tree and have to fight off Pluto is another reason. I was pumped and primed when Rescue Rangers came on the scene. This book tells the tale of C&D taking Donald's model boat out for a joy ride.

THIS was a particularly AMAZING find as well... A Mister Rogers' Neighborhood LGB!!! Check out the interiors:

Seeing all of the classic Land of Make-Believe characters WITH LEGS is a little bit freaky. I have to admit... Lady Elaine has some nice gams. 

I tend to avoid any kind of religious themed LGB's. But this one was too damn old to pass up. It is a first edition from 1947. It's pretty beat up but just beautiful to behold. 

Because it's a religious book it burns a little when I hold it. 

And to wrap up, here are some random Disney LGBs (Donald Duck: Some Ducks Have All the Luck and Wreck It Ralph) paired with a couple of My First Little Golden Books... oddly both about trucks... The Truck That Drove all Night and What Kind of Truck?

And finally just to prove that I really WILL buy ANY Big Little Golden Book, I picked up Jumping Jacky... not to be confused with Jumpin' Jack Flash. Totally different. I checked. Also this AWESOME LGB about DINOSAURS!!! from the 80's... back when they still thought there was such a thing as a Brontosaurus. Sigh. I miss those days. Back when Brontosauruses and Plutos still roamed the Earth. 

Well... there.

I hope you enjoyed taking a bizarrely in-depth and yet still rather stilted and sketchy look at a TON of old Little Golden Books I've recently added to the pile. Actually... I like 'em and that's all that really matters to me. You all run your blogs how you see fit and I'll do the same. :)

That's all for me tonight! This damn post took me more than a day to complete! So I will indeed be back with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies, sooner rather than later... and there might just be some toys to blog about coming up! Until then Happ Hunting!

League of Extraordinary Bloggers: ROBOTS

DANGER!!! DANGER!!! It is time for another edition of League Extraordinary Bloggers! That's what happens when I submit late on one week and then early the next!

What's the topic this time around? 

ROBOTS

As with many of Brian's one-word themed topics, I started off by scouring the cave for any signs of robots in my various collections. Here's what I turned up at first: 

First up my meager collection of McDonald's themed food-transforming-robots from 1989. I won't go into what all of their names are, as I plan on exploring my McDonald's Happy Meal toy collection at a future date... but here they are. Some of these I got back in February in a Goodwill grab-bag for 2.99. The rest I either got from my brother-in-law, or bought from Brian over at Cool and Collected!

Here are most of the Transformer toys I own. A slew of Optimus Prime toys and then a set of Hasbro Robot Heroes mini-figs. You may notice in the crowd a bubble-bath bottle Optimus Prime, a Happy Meal toy Optimus Prime, a pair of Rescue Bots figures (O.P. and Bumblebee), a Mighty Mugg Optimus Prime, and a Beast Wars Quickstrike toy in the back. I was a HUGE fan of all the Hasbro Heroes lines when those were still selling (Robot Heroes, Combat Heroes, Adventure Heroes, Galactic Heroes, and Super Hero Squad) and was crushed when the discontinued a line without releasing a classic Ratchet figure. 

Finally, here's my Galaxy Force Star-Scream, which I featured last September. I absolutely adore him. I picked him up at the Brewer, ME Goodwill for a total steal. 

Here's my collection of wind-up vintage-repro robots and a few other miscellaneous generic robots. Anyone know who the loose torso belongs to (second on the left)? None of these are vintage but a few of them look it. I love the old-style feel that many of these guys have. A bunch of these were actually gifts from my wife. Others were just random buys that struck my fancy. 

Here are some of the robots I had to dig around for... a random assortment of Heroscape Robot figurines, a couple of Astroboy figures, a mutant killing Sentinel, General Grievous and a Fisher-Price Adventure People X-Ray Man whom I have always believed was supposed to be a translucent android due to the panel on his chest. 

And here? Here is EVERYONE else. Rolie-Polie-Olie, the giant robot from Monsters vs. Aliens, Ultron and Vision, Sparks, Fugitoid, a Sigma Six Sky-B.A.T. (sans wings, which I prefer), Roboto, C3PO and R2D2, IG-88, Red Tornado, a WALL-E action figure, an EVE PEZ dispenser, Voltron, Robot Chicken, and not ONE but TWO Metal-Heads!!! (Plus one little blur bubble-gum dispenser robot guy with no name that I know of...) I got these from so many different sources I can't even begin to tell you, but some of them definitely came from Goodwill, others from Toys R Us, a bunch others from other secondary market sources. 

I THOUGHT that  this was all the cave would yield to me for robots... but I hadn't counted on books AT ALL. I didn't comb through EVERY book I own that has robots in it, because that would have taken forever... but I remembered one very special purchase I had made a Goodwill the weekend before Father's day. This:

What does a Donny and Marie Little Golden Book have to do with Robots you may ask? (Why does a Donny and Marie Little Golden book exist at all the rest of you may ask?) Well, let us take a look inside and we shall just see: 

 Seems that Donny has a Top Secret project brewing. What is it? Well, obviously, the Osmonds are the founders of Cyberdyne Systems because DONNY IS BUILDING A STRAIGHT UP TERMINATOR.

Except his building skills are for S**T. So what does Marie do? She shows him up like he's her bitch. 

Then it's revealed that Marie did not in fact build a Terminator of her own, she simply turned their younger brother Jimmy Osmond into a Six-Million Dollar Borg-slave. 

So that is the width and breadth of the ROBOT contents of my Geek Cave. Let's see what the other members of the League have built in their robot shops: 

- Over at the Nerd Nook, Rich counts down his top 10 favorite Pop-Culture robots.

- Shawn Robare over at Branded in the 80's shares with us the sordid Hollywood secret of the bastard child of Star Wars' C3PO and Metropolis's Maria... forced to shill VCRs back in the 80's. Yes that is a sentence I just typed.

- Jamie at Whatever I Think Of! features Hymie from Get Smart.

- Vikki Verka features some favorite kaiju fighting mechas.

- Charles over at Geek Show Ink features an excellent TOMY wind-up robot that he used as a muse...

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

HTTYD2!!! Oh... Oh My GODS You Guys...

Oh... Oh my GODS you guys...

I just heard the news... and I am so excited. They are doing a How To Train Your Dragon 2!!!

I saw it over at the Multiplex site (which is an amazing web-comic, and you should read it if you haven't yet...) but here's the trailer:

Oh my GODS I am so excited about this!!! If for no other reason, I hope it means they will be releasing more Dragon miniatures like these:

Not pictured are my Two-Headed Zippleback and my Red Death (The big guy at the end) miniatures. 

Okay, just needed to jump on here to post about this. The first Dragons is one of my all-time favorite animated movies. It was beautifully done, and amazing to behold. I just hope they don't screw up the sequel the way they've kind of screwed up the TV series on CN. 

I'll be back soon with new Geeky Goodwill Goodies real soon! until then, Happy Hunting!

Hake's Shopping Spree (Redux)

So the topic this week for the League is a pretty fun one:

Go on a fictional shopping spree at Hake’s current auction #209 

to make your collection a little more amazing.

This is not the first time the League has gone shopping at Hake's, but it's my first time taking a look around. Let's see what they've got to set my mouth a-drooling shall we?

Oooh... check out this 1982 Indiana Jones action figure from Kenner! Sweet pete that's a fine looking item! I am a huge Indiana Jones fan, and would love to own this fine piece of nostalgic memorabilia. 

I have never seen or read a single thing to do with Astro Boy. But I love the simplistic design and iconic look of the character, and I own more than a couple of toys based on the character already. This die-cast metal and plastic action figure from the 70's is AMAZING. 

These two DC playsets come as a packaged deal. From 1966, these were Sears exclusive sets. With villains like The Key, Brainstorm, and Mouse Man facing off against icons like Batman and the Joker, who can go wrong? Look at those vehicles! Look at that robot!!!

This button is from 1966 and is a "satirical anti-war button". I would happily pin this into the ceiling of my car, with all my other buttons.  

A "Life-sized" bust of Jack-Skellington? Yes please. The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of my all-time favorite films, and Jack Skellington is a one of the essential Halloween Spirits in my mind. 

Love the look and feel of these old Buck Rogers pop-up adventures. Look at the color! Look at the creatures! Awesome. Completely awesome. I have a reproduction greeting card of this cover somewhere in my collection, but would love to own the original pop-up book!

I don't know what it is about this Frank Buck's Adventurer's Club Black Leopard Head ring but I find it whimsical and bad-ass at the same time. WANT. I guess the fact that it's from an old radio show sponsored by Pepsodent should deter me... but it does not. 

Actually, I think I want to start a collection of vintage, collectible, promotional rings. This Captain Marvel Rocket Raider Compass ring is pure sex. Look at it. I want to buy ten of these awesome old-style rings and wear them like the Mandarin. 

Okay, so I won't dedicate ALL the rest of this post to just rings... but I had to squeeze this last one in. IT'S A SIREN!!! A Rocket Space Patrol Siren Ring to be exact. 

This set of Nightmare Before Christmas: Lock, Shock, and Barrel masks are amazing, and would look stunning hanging on my wall. 

This psychedelic eye-in-a-flower PEZ dispensor will top off my purchase, thank you very much. It is too twisted to pass up on, as I am a PEZ nut. 

So... now let's see what the other members of the League got in their "Hake-Takes":

- Shezcrafti dreams of the crap she'd buy if she wasn't broke. 

- Shawn Robare of Branded in the 80's wants to face the Infaceables... 

- The Trash Man over at POP POP! It's Trash Culture wants a Mecha Gorilla that I actually considered putting on my list as well. 

- G.I. Jigsaw makes some excellent choices in his first-ever League post! Welcome to the League!

Well, that's it for me... for now... but I'll be back very soon with some Genuine Geeky Goodwill Goodies! A whole flood of stuff should be on its way once I get motivated enough to post it.