All right... the time has come. I am officially getting ready to delete the content from Really Rather Random Guy (dot blogspot dot com) and in preparing for that, I wanted to import a bunch of the content that I know will then be lost forever, by bringing the posts over here to Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks (dot blogspot dot com). So, with that in mind, I thought I would preface these entries with the fact that they are indeed OLD blog posts from an OLD, now DEFUNCT blog, and cross my fingers and hope that folks will still want to read them.
This post was originally published back on January 20th, 2014.
A while back, before the Holidays... I set up a trade with Mason of D.I. Treasures fame. He noticed that I had an extra mace that I had picked up in a recent MotU find at Goodwill, and he wondered if we could trade that mace for a battle-ax he had for He-Man. This sounded acceptable to me, but then I upped the ante to make this interesting: I asked Mason to pick 5 other small items for trade and I would do the same in a sort of blind-box package swap. You can see what I sent him over at his blog, since he did a good job of actually posting what he received before Christmas got here. The reason this is significant is that the items that Mason sent me were all sort of subtly Christmas-themed. Let's take a look at what he sent me:
Here's a group-shot of everything he sent me to start. A nice, colorful lot to be sure, you can already see the holiday cheer bleeding through.
I mace ax you a question? Mace I ax you... no... I give up. Puns are hard. |
First up let's talk about what got this whole thing kicked off. Here is the beautiful baby-blue battle-axe that Mason sent me in exchange for a mace for his Moss-Man. It is now in the hands of He-Man as he sits astride his loyal Battle Cat. And all is as it should be.
Next up we have a Z-Bot! This is Turbine and he was actually a Burger King Kid's Club meal premium from 1994. I don't remember Z-Bots from when I was a kid... but they would have come out right around the time I was ending my love-affair (for awhile) with mini-figs. Which, knowing me, is kind of a shame because these look like they would have been right in my wheelhouse. At roughly the same size as Battle-Beasts a collectible line of little robots seems like something I would have obsessed over. I love the look of this little guy in particular, and it isn't hard to see why Mason included him, since the color scheme not only screams Christmas with all that red and green... but that drill arm looks like it could literally be a Christmas tree. Mason also knows how much I enjoy collecting little robots as well, so this is perfect.
Next up we have a Rock 'Em Sock 'Em robot thumb wrestler. This guy fits down over your thumb and one can only assume that there is a blue counterpart out there somewhere for an opponent to wear. This guy is great! Again, since I love robots, it makes sense that someone would give me one of these... and in this festive red it's no wonder that Mason included it.
This is Lenny, the wind-up binoculars toy from Toy Story. Specifically, it's a picture-viewer toy from a Toy Story 2 Happy Meal premium. This one hits on many different levels for me, such as the Toy Story connection, the fact that it's a view-master-style toy, and the fact that it's a Happy Meal toy. The one thing I couldn't figure out was why Mason might have considered it "Christmas-y" and I came up with nothing. I think this one was just included for the neat-o factor.
The penultimate toy of the pack is this Power Rangers Megazord figure. I'm not a Power Rangers fan at all, but I can appreciate a nice giant robot toy. messing around on Google I see a lot of references to this megazord being called "OhBlocker". It doesn't take a lot of imagination to figure out why Mason included this one, as there's a giant star in red, some green and gold highlights, and overall, he feels pretty Christmas-y.
Finally, we have Mr. Strong from the Mr. Men series! This is a kid's meal premium from Arby's whom I absolutely adore. The Mr. Men and Little Miss characters are all pretty geometric and basic in design, and that kind of aesthetic is just awesome to me. I could see myself tracking down more of these. And of course, Mr. Strong here is done in red and green, because Christmas!
So, I'd like to finish up by first apologizing to Mason for not getting this up on a blog for people to see before Christmas got here... but also a HUGE thanks to him as well for obviously putting so much time and thought into his selections. I had such a fun time discovering the contents of this package! Be sure to check out Mason's blog over at D.I. Treasures.
I have a couple of other packages to feature here in the coming days, so keep your peepers peeled here folks!
Best I can figure, the first two Toy Story movies had Thanksgiving/Christmastime release dates, so maybe that fits the theme?
ReplyDeleteThe Power Rangers robot in question was called the Super Zeo Megazord. "OhBlocker" was what it was called in the original Japanese footage.
Okay, seriously, THANK YOU for clearing that up. I KNEW the OhBlocker name couldn't be what he was called over here. I am aware that major portions of the Power Rangers stuff is all imported from other properties in Japan, and that it loses something in translation sometimes... but even to my untrained eat, OhBlocker just didn't sound very Power Rangers-y.
DeleteFantastic fun items Derek congrats on it all.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed the Christmasy trinkets I sent! Z-Bots are the bomb! I still have a bunch from my childhood and I wanna feature them on my blog some day. I had 3 Turbines from multiple visits to our local Burger King. I knew you'd like him and he's just so festive! As for Lenny I figured he's a toy and everyone loves getting toys for Christmas, so that makes him Christmasy I guess. I mostly included him because I know how you love McDonald's toys and Toy Story.
ReplyDeleteI was never a big fan of Power Rangers. I still remember getting ready for my first day of school, first grade. The first episode of Power Rangers was on, and I said,"Wow, this will never last!" Boy was I wrong! I remember reading that you came across some Power Rangers monsters, so now they have someone to battle!
Thanks again for the trade Derek! You made it way more fun!
I had a ton of fun trading with you too, Mason! We'll have to do it again sometime!
DeleteAwww, Mason :) Great, great guy.
ReplyDeleteI gotta tell you, this Random blog is so good. Like even your photography of your "models" is just way more crisp. In the words of Gauntlet Legends dude, "Green wizard has gained a LEVEL!" ........ I love Gauntlet. So much.... so anyway, I feel like lots of folks have lost blog steam (myself included) and this is just fresh. :)
I like it! But yes, the orange makes me squint and I'm already noticing a vertical wrinkle/dent between my eyes as of late and that can't be helping. ;) When I cover the sidebar orange it's not bad, ha ha!
Hope you guys are doing okay in your snowstorm. I think about all you Maine folks when I see the news, lately. It's gotta be so rough on ya'll.
P.S. The Power Ranger evil pig guy I grabbed up for one of you guys will be re-donated. It pays to read the comments ;)