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! 

Nice Twice. Two Goodwills.

So we recently made a trip out to Bangor, ME. On the way I hit the Nice Twice thrift shop in Ellsworth, and both the Brewer and Bangor Goodwills. Here's what I brought home from those three stores: 

First, at Nice Twice I found this trio of "Origami Yoda" books. I've been curious about them for a very long while now, and seeing all three of them there for a buck apiece? I couldn't resist. So I'll let you guys know what I think of them at some point in the future. But the exceptionally odd premise (a series of middle-school mysteries based around Star Wars paper-crafts? Yes please.) is more than promising.  

The other item I brought home from Nice Twice was Big Top Pee-Wee: Life on the Farm which is a children's adaptation of the 1988 film. I don't remember loving this movie as much as Pee-Wee's Big Adventure... but I was pretty crazy for anything Pee-Wee Herman appeared in back in those days. I haven't seen the film probably since I was 10 or so, so I can't really comment on the quality. But hey. a Pee-Wee book for a buck? Yep. 

All I found at the Brewer Goodwill were these two books. I've picked up a Finding Nemo LGB in the past only to get it home and find it ripped up beyond readability on the inside. So I found this replacement. And a vintage Dr. Who novel from 1980 (this is a reprint of the original 1977 book) is always welcome on my shelf. Both of these set me back .99 cents. 

At the Bangor Goodwill, things got a little more interesting. I found this truly bizarre book about Cryptids (And Other Creepy Creatures). And when I say bizarre, I don't mean because of the subject matter, necessarily, I mean the art and production values for this thing actually had me scratching my head. Here's a shot of a page from the interior: "The Hookerman's Light" (And yes I picked this particular one because "Hookerman" made me laugh). 

Gasp. Shrug?

Look at these folks. Could they BE any more NOT terrified of that disembodied hand and lantern?

Found some pretty great Little Golden Book finds here, with a Disney book (Not LGB brand) Mickey Mouse Flies the Christmas Mail. A "Big Little Golden Book" of Lady Lovely Locks and the Pixietails: Silkypup's Butterfly Adventure. And a "First Little Golden Book" of Disney Babies: Happy Halloween. These are all AWESOME additions to my LGB collection! This lot has it all: three different sizes of books, Disney licensing, baby versions of characters, a semi-obscure 80's property, one "off brand" LGB, and holiday themes! 

I may have mentioned before that I've started snapping up novelizations of movies like a madman. So picking up these adaptations of Benji and Honey I Shrunk the Kids were perfect for me! 

One of these is a kids book based on one of the most reviled super-hero films of all time. The other is a nonsensical story about giant robots draining oil supplies from the planet in order to pull all of the continents on Earth into one big Pangea. I had to own them both. HAD TO. 

Next up I found a grab bag for .99 cents that contained these five finger puppets/cake toppers/whatever-the-heck-they're-supposed to be. Almost all of them have seen better days. I already have a couple of the Bert and Ernie ones, but THESE ones have rooted (albeit melted) hair on top. Oscar and Cookie have sustained some fairly serious eye damage, leaving Grover seemingly the only one relatively unscathed by time. Let me make something RIDICULOUSLY clear: I LOVE THESE THINGS. Nothing shouts "Retro Sesame Street" to me as much as these things. I am SO happy to own them. 

I also found a Grab-Bag with these two Happy Meal items in it! A Lord Business cup from the LEGO movie (which I admittedly already own, but didn't realize when I picked this one up) and a BMO from the recent Adventure Time promotion! 

Both of these toys are lenticular, and therefore a complete PAIN to photograph... but I manage. I am now very close to owning the entire Adventure Time set of toys... and still have a few more LEGO cups to track down before I'm done there. 

And my final find was this BEAUTIFUL THING: a Prince and the Revolution's "Purple Rain" record! It's in great shape... and my instincts tell me it's probably NOT from the original release... but I don't care. I now feel like I own a piece of HISTORY. If you don't know already I am a Prince FANATIC. love Love LOVE him! And this is my absolute favorite Album from him and the Revolution. This is going on THE WALL OF MY CAVE. 

Well. There. That's all I've got for tonight kids! I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies soon enough! Until then, Happy Hunting! 

Payday Friday: Goodwill Finds!

So payday Friday happened on May 23rd. For those of you not "in the know" I almost always stop off at Goodwill on my way home on Payday Fridays. (I also stop off on non-payday Fridays, some Wednesdays, sometimes Saturdays, and any other day of the week... given the opportunity.) Here's a look at what I picked up on my way home from work when I stopped off at Goodwill:

Some books (there's ALWAYS books...) but also a couple of semi-fun grab-bags this time around. All of the books in this post cost me .99 cent apiece. Let's take a closer look shall we?

First up from the kid's book department we have The DUNE Storybook from 1984. I have a terrible confession to make: I have never seen this movie! I have STILL not read the book/s and I ONLY picked this book up because I knew it was from the 80's and I couldn't just leave it there. But I WILL see this movie... I just don't know how soon. Then we have a Little Golden Book that I very distinctly remember owning when I was a kid, Tweety Plays Catch the Puddy Tat, which obviously starred Sylvester and Tweety. It was memorable for this moment: 

Which TERRIFIED me. I also distinctly recall wondering why the witch's skin was green but the nose was ruddy pink. Also, I know Tweety is a bird, and is only pretending to be a witch here, but how exactly is he flying? 

Next up a couple of fun CYOA finds... first up, the very first Choose Your Own Adventure story: The Cave of Time albeit the 19th printing. I don't mind though this copy is from 1986 and will still play through just as well in its 19th printing as its first. I would like to find one with the original cover artwork at some point, but again, that's not really all that important to me. And even though I'm not much of a Star Trek fan, I can't hide the fact that I TOTALLY GEEKED OUT when I found this "Which Way Book" starring the crew of the Enterprise in Voyage to Adventure. 

The first of my two grab-bags cost me 1.99 and only had these two items in them. But they're enough! These are toys from Safari Ltd, one of those toy companies that specializes in solid plastic figures in lines such as dinosaurs, jungle animals, and fantasy creatures. Here we have their example of a griffin and a "lucky dragon" which looks endlessly familiar... Anyway, these types of toys usually run for around 10 to 15 dollars... so getting these for about a buck apiece is pretty awesome. 

Ironically, the next grab-bag had way more in it, and only cost me .99 cents. I'm going to completely ignore the Little People furniture, because it's not of the type I collect, the Kung-Fu panda toy because I already own it, and the orange maraca. Let's focus on the other stuff. 

I have already owned two of these Oscar the Grouch Garbage 'Delivery' trucks in the past, and sent one of those off to a buddy. Still, I'm glad to bring another one home. I'll be finding him a good owner in the near future, I'm sure. The blue and pink fellow next to him is a Moosel figure from the Wuzzles line back in 1985. I really liked the wuzzles as a kid, but I never owned any of the toys, so this is a sort of retroactive geek-out. 

The other two items of note from this particular grab-bag are Finn from the recent Adventure Time McDonald's Happy Meals premiums, and Gary from Spongebob, also a Happy Meal toy, from back in 2012. I wanted to get more of the Adventure Time toys when they came out, but I only ended up with a couple of them. I'm still on the look-out for a bendy Jake figure too. Getting to add this sword-wielding Fin to my collection is the next best thing. I am a pretty big fan of Spongebob, regardless of how much people seem to have grown tired of it. I still find the show funny, classic-yet-innovative, and mind-bending. Spongebob is one of the forebears of the entire trend of cool animated shows (like Adventure Time!) that we see nowadays, and I appreciate him for it. This is a roller-blading Gary with a sweat-band... so I'm pretty pleased. 

My final find of the day was this old Monopoly game from 1946 or so (had to do some research online for this one). I am NOT a huge Monopoly fan, but the siren call of this ancient boardgame would just not be ignored. I actually paid 6.99 for this, which is the most I've paid for any one thing at Goodwill in a very long time. 

I examined it in the store and yet didn't notice that the game-board itself was not included. Don't know how I overlooked that. I think this was one of those rare occasions that I tricked myself into thinking I was buying something that was "worth something" other than to just myself. This is the sort of thing that ALWAYS happens when I let this type of thinking influence my buying at Goodwill. I still really like the fact that I have such an old edition of the game, but I don't think I'm going to hang onto it for long. You can see this old version of the game came with wooden character pawns instead of the metal ones we use today (this is legit, these are not just random pieces someone included in the game before donating it... Research.) I think the jade-green dice included are from some other game, but other than the dice and THE BOARD ITSELF, this game is pretty neat and complete. 

Well, that's it for now kids! I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies! So until then, Happy Hunting!  

Random Handful: Stuff I Got at Wal-Mart

I went to Wal-Mart just a short while back, and made a few fun finds. 

Hey! Not everything I buy has to come second-hand... I just usually look for it second-hand first. Some of the stuff I see out there new just won't wait though. Let me show you what I found:

I'm a pretty big PEZ enthusiast, and I am definitely one of the Boba Fett slaves out there who just think he's one of the coolest things about the original trilogy. In fact, I already own a Boba Fett PEZ dispensor, out of its package. When I saw this one at Wal-Mart, I knew I'd finally have one to put up on the wall with Catwoman, Animal, Perry the Platypus, and Inspector Clouseau. It's... a motley crew. Boba here ran me about a buck fifty.

Cruising the book section I found some neat-looking Adventure Time stuff. Adventure time is one of my top animated shows to watch right now, and anything genuinely interesting they put out for it has a good chance of making it home if the price is right. Aaaaand... it was. First up was this Adventure Time Destination: Ooo. Land of Ooo in Under 20 Snails a Day. It's a travelogue! A guide to the worlds of Adventure Time as if you were traveling there yourself as a tourist! There are entries on currency, languages, historical events, and inhabitants. And then it continues on to other realms besides the Candy Kingdom into places like the Nightosphere, Lumpy Space, and the Fire Kingdom. If you're a fan of the show whatsoever, this little guide-book is an excellent scrap-book of some of the best characters and moments. At a little under 9 dollars this was the most expensive item I picked up. But definitely worth it.

I haven't really had a chance to explore this next Adventure Time book to the same depth that I did the guide-book. This is a "Which Way, Dude?" book, which I think roughly translates into a sort of Choose Your Own Adventure (Time!) book. Well, anyone who has been reading this blog for any length of time knows how I feel about CYOA books. This is book #1 which means, HOPEFULLY there will be many, many more of these suckers. Some of the portions end in a puzzle or riddle the reader has to solve before choosing which page to turn to next. I. Am. Very. Excited. This book cost me just a little under 5 dollars.

The last thing I picked up at Wal-Mart this weekend was this little beauty. A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Little Golden Book!!! I've heard there was going to be one for MONTHS now, but every time I went looking for it (even on Amazon!) I couldn't find it. So when I got the to book department this weekend and there was a hug Little Golden Books end-cap staring me in the face... what was the ONE thing I held my breath as I looked for? Well it wasn't Doc McStuffins, I can tell you that much. This is a great little story too! I read it to my boys for bedtime the night I brought it home and I really enjoyed it as an introduction to the Turtles. It gives us the run down on the origin story, the four different Turtles' personalities, and a handful of the significant villains (The Kraang, Shredder, Fish-Face and Dogpound) and allies (Shredder and April). The illustrations are reminiscent of the show, but in 2D, using what seems to be the recently developed LGB "House Style". This book has it all! And for the low, low price of 3 dollars! Now I'd just like to see them follow it up with another book detailing other allies and enemies such as Mutagen Man, Metal-Head, Rat King, and Baxter Stockman, just to name a few. 

Well, that's it guys! I'll be back soon with some actual Geeky Goodwill Goodies! So until then, Happy Hunting!