More Vintage Kid's Books!

So it seems some days like I find more vintage kid's books than ANYTHING at Goodwill. Here's another pile I brought home from the Bangor, ME Goodwill. I'm going to do some posts in the future where I revisist some of the cooler finds I've made, and check out the interiors. But for now, let's just look and see what I brought home, shall we? This entire stack of books came home from one trip, and every book here cost me .99 cents apiece. 

Leotards!

I'll start with this Space Hawks: Faster Than Light Choose Your Own Adventure Book from 1991. Apparently this was the first in 6 books that shared a continuity about space-pilots fighting alien threats. As with most CYOA I find, it looks fun and I plan on giving it a spin. 

Educational!

It wouldn't be a Goodwill Geek post without a handful of Little Golden Books, right? So here's the first one, an old Geography themed LGB that I bet parents FOUGHT over at the book stores back then because their child's Christmas would just not be complete without it. I bet thousands of Mall Santas got requests for this one. 

I f**king WANT his car.

It also wouldn't be a G.G. post without something from Sesame Street. Combined with LGB, this one is like a hurricane of childhood glee for me. This one loosely follows the events of "Follow That Bird".

The Midget Elephant Caper

One of the most exciting finds of this trip was this Insepctor Gadget Little Golden Book! I was disappointed to see there is crayon damage on almost every page of the book in varying degrees. I picked it up anyway because, hey... Inspector Gadget. 

No idea what this is about. Sorry.

I also picked up this bizarro LGB-knock-off. It's from the line of Treasure Books. searching for these online, I believe the spine would have originally been in solid red. I don't know if mine is faded or peeled off. 

I always like finding weird knock-off brands of LGBs to go in my collection, like the Rand McNally Elf Book I found back in April at the same Goodwill. 

Back alley Decepticons? Sounds dirty.

Here we have a Transformers Big Looker Storybook from 1986. "Car Show Blow Up". It's a post Transformers the Movie tale, as it stars Ultra Magnus and Hot-Rod, and features Galvatron as the leader of the Decepticons. Basically the premise is that the Decepticons need to steal human technology from a car show to teach them how to build robots (???) to build a city for them. Not their most shining moment.

Mmmm. Yes. Work that stroller.

I don't know if anyone remembers my thoughts on Ms. Pac-Man from my League post: Ultimate Arcade... but let's just say I felt like I needed to tuck this book between the others I found so I wouldn't get dirty looks for carrying straight-up PORN around the Goodwill. 

More porn.

I'm not sure why ALF is wearing his shirt from the animated series on the cover of this book, because it is based squarely on the sitcom version of the character. It takes place on Earth where ALF spends the entirety of the book naked. And yes, there is a bit of romance between ALF and the anteater.

Add funny caption later. No one will see this.

A Ducktales book! "Webby Saves the Day" is a weird, out of continuity tale where Scrooge's 3 nephews come live live with him and the Beagle Boys invade the mansion. And... well... Webby saves the day. 

Here are a couple of books that originally included read-along albums to play. The Muppets Take Manhattan and the Rankin and Bass adaptation of the Hobbit. That's all I really have to say except that the Hobbit was a favorite of mine as a kid. I don't know if I saw it aired on TV or if we rented it... but Gollum made me terrified and I LOVED it. That is still the Gollum I will always know and love over the Peter Jackson version. And Piggy's sweater there is pretty terrifying too. 

I feel a little cheated because only two
of the family members pictured here are actually
WEARING Cosby sweaters.
What the hell is Claire wearing? A robe?

This was probably my ABSOLUTE favorite find of the lot. The Cosby show scrapbbook from 1986! It's full of interviews and behind-the-scenes stories about each actor and character. I remember The Cosby Show was THE show to watch when I was a kid. I remember the days when they played The Cosby Show and Family Ties back to back and that was the night I was allowed to stay up and watch both shows with my family. This was a wild find for me. Don't judge. 

No this is not an issue of Disney's Gargoyles.

And finally, I know it's not a kid's book, it's a comic book based on a Horror property... so pretty much as far from kid's book as possible... but I got it in the same trip. The NOW comics Fright Night series! And for a change it wasn't priced 1.99! Just the same .99 cents as the other books I picked up. Still a little high for quarter-bin style comics... but oh well.  The writing and plot of this series were terrible, but that didn't stop me from loving them. We get to see Evil Ed in action as a vampire force to be reckoned with, and the resurrection of Jerry Dandridge! (Um... spoilers?)

What I really loved finding were these ads for other NOW comics that I want to go back and find!!! Good ol' Ralph Snart!!! The Terminator? Married With Children? Green Hornet? Speed Racer? TWO different Real Ghostbusters titles? Bats, Cats, and Cadillacs? I'm there!

A pretty great set of books to bring home between Inspector Gadget, another CYOA, ALF, a cheesy Transformers books, The Cosbies, and.... -shiver- Ms. Pac-Man... I was pretty happy. 

Welp. That's it for me kids. I'll be back soon with more 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!

Giant Storm Shadow and an Alternate Reality Flintstones Family

I've had a good run of luck lately finding a handful of books here or there at Goodwill and then a couple of Grab-bags full of fun little toys to boot. This always makes me happy, as it feels balanced. And when all is balanced, all is right in the world. 

It is possible I am making more out of this "finding some books and grab-bags at Goodwill" thing than I should. 

Here's a quick look at the pile as a whole before we move forward. Now heeeere we go!

These knights are produced by Papo I believe. I myself don't really care about these kinds of toys, but my Aunt collects them, and so I keep an eye peeled for her when I'm out on the prowl. These guys and their horses were in a bag by themselves for a buck. Their weapons are completely destroyed, one snapped completely off, and the other appears to have been (ugh) chewed. Luckily, the weapons are interchangeable, so I removed the handles from their little hands before passing them on to my Aunt.

I already own a Sword of Omens from the 2011 animated reboot of the show, and mine is in much better condition because I bought it on clearance instead of secondhand. BUT in a judgement call I may question myself on for the next couple of decades of my life, I bought this sword for my sons to beat each other with. It went about as well as you'd expect.

This is not my first Sigma Six Stormshadow either, but this one is in MUCH nicer condition, and has his sash, pants, and scabbard intact. Unfortunately, none of his swords or other awesome weapons were included, except for the big stick thing with holes in the ends for... what? blades maybe? The other stuff in the bag were not Stormshadow's accessories. I'll find some substitute weapons for him at some point, I'm sure. Right now he stands proudly on my G.I. Joe shelf!

HEre are the contents of the bigger grab-bag in the set. Let's take a closer look.

The aforementioned Aunt also collects Hex-Bugs of any shape, size, or origin. So I knew as soon as I saw these Happy Meal toys that this bag would be coming home.

Also included was an assortment of Mario Brothers toys! I kept the Bob-Omb but most of the rest of these went to my kids. I only have a very tiny collection of Mario Bros. toys at this point and that's how I plan to keep things.

Plastic army men! The one I found to be significant is that one big guy near the middle. He's HUGE and I feel like he might actually be from a set or something? Anyone out there recognize him? I'm curious.

I already have a hula-dancing Spongebob, so the fact that this one has a broken nose is just fine. This is actually a set of cake toppers that goes along with the plastic Pineapple House I found back in 2012. So now I have the complete set! Man... I'm creeping up on my third blog-aversary! I've been doing this blog since July of 2012!

Here's a shot of the happy trio, with the unbroken nose-Spongebob included. 

Finally, here are some other random toys included in the bag as well. A Pirates of the Caribbean watch, and a couple of quarter-machine monsters that ended up on my ROYGBIV shelf of tiny plastic toys (They're on the "IV" shelf. I know skull guy looks red, but he's more magenta, so I place him in the violet category. Indigo and violet share a shelf.)

To add to my cassette collection: Blondie! "Parallel Lines" This is the one with "Heart of Glass" "One Way or Another" and "Hanging on the Telephone" on it.

A couple of action adventure stars this time around in the book-haul... Batman in The Stone King, and Tarzan in The Return of Tarzan. I don't have a whole lot to say about either of these books as of yet... but I look forward to reading them.

A couple of Holiday books made it home as well! A kids' book adaptation of the Christmas movie, Elf and the Goosebumps book: Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns.

One of my all-time favorite books (and I love the film as well) The Outsiders. My bromance with this book begins waaay back in middle school. I actually already own a copy of this book, but I saw this one with the movie adaptation cover and I reeeeally wanted it.

Finally, I found this bizarro "Flintstones" Little Golden book. In this story there are no Pebbles or Dino, and instead Fred and Wilma have a sone named "Junior" and they get a pet dinosaur named Harvey that looks a lot like Dino, but grows to... well... dinosaur size over the course of the story.

This is bizarre. Did this book come out before the cartoon? I don't think that's possible honestly, but I can't otherwise explain the presence of Junior and Harvey. I'm sure I could figure this out if I did even a cursory Google search... but I like to pretend sometimes that I'm living in the 80's and that every answer to anything I'll ever have a question about doesn't exist on the internet somewhere.

Anyway! That's all I have for tonight kids! I'll be back with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies so until that tie arrives... Happy Hunting!