Old Yeller, Shamu, Happy Meal Toys Galore

Been away for a few days with the family, so I'm trying to play a little bit of catch up. This one is NOT going to knock anyone's socks off I'm afraid, and it really probably should have been doubled up again... but you get what you get. Please don't hate me. 

All of this was picked up on a single trip... I THINK to the Bangor, ME store... but I honestly don't remember at this point. I picked up this copy of "Old Yeller" because I want to read the ending over and over again.

I've never been to Seaworld and I've never seen Shamu... so really, any time I find merchandising based on either I tend to snap it up. I am horribly deprived... or depraved that way...

A couple of Oscar-centric Sesame Street Books (Well, one is technically worm-centric... but Oscar is our gateway into the worm-world of Sesame Street so...). I've pretty much settled on Oscar as one of my (if not the ONE) favorite Sesame Street characters. When you really stop and think about the characters invented on this show, you can point at some of the most original concepts in all of children's entertainment. Oscar is a filth-grubbing, trash-wallowing, belligerent, insolent, grumpy-Gus who, while showing the occasional ray of sunshine through the thunderhead, just never truly reforms. And we love him for it.

Little Golden Books, the cornerstone of many a Goodwill trip for me, were present for this trip as well. I found two of the BIG Little Golden Books, as these are almost always a must-buy for me. "Dinosaur Discoveries" and "Little Raccoon's Nighttime Adventure" 

This was of PARTICULAR interest to me... as it is the first volume in a comic adaptation of Robert Asprin's "Myth" series. I LOVE Robet Asprin's "Myth" series. I wish I hadn't gotten rid of those books quite a long time ago, as I am craving a reread. I am not a huge fan of the particular art style of this adaptation (Phil Foglio's style specifically...), especially since I don't picture Skeeve or Aahz as anything but the Walter Velez interpretation:

But I'll take what I can get I guess.

Finishing off the books portion of the program, we have a Jack Prelutsky collection of Dinosaur poems, illustrated by Arnold Lobel. Jack Prelutsky is absolutely one of the best children's poets EVER and Arnold Lobel is one of the best children's illustrators... and they have a book about dinosaurs people. 

There was also a grab bag! Here are the contents, of which only about 20 percent is going to get any attention in this post. The Blackarachnia in the sealed bag was nice, but as I already own this particular toy, she went off to another home. The Teletubby, Po, actually went to one of my sons, who discovered some of my daughters old Teletubbies toys just a few months before this trip to Goodwill, and he LOVED it. Now on to the other stuff!

First up we have these two Pixar alums, Boo and Woody. I didn't really care all that much about owning this Woody figure, to be honest with you. I pretty much only collect figures from the Mattel Toy Story Buddies line, so while I was mildly pleased to see the old woodster here, I also added him to my giveaway pile. Now Boo? She's a different story altogether. Monsters Inc. Happy Meal Toys I like. So she went right on the shelf with Mike and Sully.

Together again! YAY!

The real gems (besides beloved Boo above) of this grab bag were these two hooligans. A Birdie the Early Bird Happy Meal toy (for toddlers, but I do not care...) and the severed head of Tony the Tiger, still grinning vacantly, mounted on a top. I love merchandise for food mascots, and these two were just what the doctor ordered!

So that's it folks! A quicky but goody. I'll be back with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies soon enough! Until then, Happy Hunting!

A Couple of Grab-Bags, A Couple of Cassettes

Hey all! Today I'll be focusing mainly on some toys I found in a couple of Grab-Bags I found at Goodwill... and then talking about a couple of cassettes I found. 

And my feelings. 

So you have that to look forward to. 

But first... TOYS!

All right, here's the first grab-bag, with all of it's contents already freed. Let's pick through the relevant items, shall we?

Here's an Animaniacs Happy Meal toy from 1993 that features Slappy, The (now retired) Slap-Happy Squirrel and her nephew, Skippy. Not in love with the design of this particular run of toys, which had the weird, extending accordion tubes as a feature in every toy. I would much preferred to have found the Mindy and Buttons toy as they were a couple of my favorite characters from this show.

Here we have a Fozzie Bear as Squire Trelawney in Muppet Treasure Island. The toy says it's from 1995 but the movie came out in 1996 so I'm not sure what to believe. Either way, it's Fozzie, and it's from Muppet Treasure Island, which I'm not a huge fan of so on one hand... meh. On the other hand... Muppets!!! So that side wins out. I really love the octopus stuck to Fozzie's barrel's left side.

A wind up Thing 1 and Thing 2 toy? Back in 2003 when they put out the GODAWFUL Mike Meyers Cat in the Hat movie, they did a series of toys at Burger King. Luckily, the toys resemble the characters from the BOOK not the MOVIE. So they're all pretty awesome honestly. These are no different.

This is a Lowly Worm toy from Burger King back in 1995. I'm not a huge fan of Richard Scarry's Busy World or anything... but Lowly Worm is a children's book icon in my mind, and the image of a worm driving a car made of a half-eaten apple has always resonated with me.

This is the first Gadget from Chip n' Dale's Rescue Rangers McDonald's Happy Meal Toys I ever found. I found more of this exact toy (in better shape) later, but this is my first. Had a whole set of these as a kid, and LOVED Chip n' Dale's RRs!!!

Next up we have a Burger King Kid's Club "Bug Rider" toy, this one being Kid Vid riding a scorpion. These were put out in 1998, and the whole gang got in on the action. Sort of a BIZARRE concept, honestly, but hey those are some of the best, right?

Finally, there was this PVC figurine of the kid from "All Dogs Go to Heaven II". I never saw that movie.. but I found this kid's existence in toy form here to be somehow significant. Apparently there was a set of these released by Subway back in 1996. I think this kid is named David (Google confirms this for me) but I would have been a WHOLE LOT more excited to find Anne-Marie or Charlie or Carface... or just about any of the characters that show up in the original movie. Sigh.

Here are the contents of the second grab-bag. I'm not going to bore you to tears with all of the contents, instead...

I'll just focus on these ones. There's a Goof Troop toy that I passed on to a friend, a Birdie the Early Bird pull-back car from 1985, a Koopa Paratroopa toy from back in 1989, and the BEST TWO ITEMS: A McDonald's Employee Barbie from 2001, and an... old looking Big Bird Toy from I-don't-know-when (there are no markings). But I LOVE HIM IN HIS LITTLE SAILOR HAT.

All right... when I picked up these tapes, it was before the big Bill Cosby controversy had hit. I was genuinely exited about these comedy tapes starring Mr. Cosby. But now... I don't know how to feel. Have you guys found yourselves soured on things like the Cosby Show? Or Ghost Dad? Or Jell-O Pudding Pops? What do you think? Do we look past the artist and still love the art? Myself, I'm having a hard time doing that, and frankly, a BIG part of my childhood is withering in my heart because of it. C'est la vie I guess.

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

Grab-Bags from Brewer: Loads of Old Toys!!!

Welcome! I know one of my favorite things to find and then write about here on Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks is TOYS. And this post is HEAVY with TOYS. I found a couple of pretty decent Grab-Bags just a few months back at the Goodwill in Brewer, ME, and I wanted to take a minute to paw through them with you and discuss their contents. There were some cassettes that came home that day too, so I'll be sharing them as well. Let's dig in!

First up, this guy was loose on his own. He was produced by Imperial Toys back in 1983. I've been having some great luck finding fun Imperial figures like this one at Goodwill lately!

Next up a couple of AWESOME 80's soundtrack cassettes!!! First the Ghostbusters Original Soundtrack and then The Miami Vice soundtrack! Both of these made me incredibly happy to find. I LOVE how Crockett and Tubbs are GLOWING.

These three "Oliver and Company" finger puppets were in a separate grab-bag of their own. This was officially known as a BIG DEAL to me. I have owned an Oliver puppet for what seems like forever... an EXTRA Olver puppet in fact, because I made another one of them into a Christmas ornament for my wife. I also already own the Bulldog... but never have I ever found the poodle, Georgette or Dodger, the dog mentor to Oliver in the movie. So now I have the complete set of 4 characters. I also have a Tito pull-back toy that is not from this particular set of premiums.

I should also mention that I have never seen Oliver and Company in my life... so I have no idea why I should care so much about these toys... but I do. My wife loves the songs from the film because she used to watch a Disney sing-along VHS when she was a kid that had a few songs and scenes from this movie in it. BUT I AM SO SATISFIED that I now own a complete set of these finger puppets.

I can't help how I am.

All right! So now let's dig into the first of the two big Grab-Bags I brought home from this particular trip to Goodwill. Here's a shot of everything from grab-bag number 1, all piled together. But let us take a closer look... shall we?

First an assortment of PVC character figures. From left to right we have a Sahmu figurine,  couple of Richard Scarry's Busytown folks, a semi-generic teddybear playing football of the kind you might pick up at the Hallmark store back in the 80's, a Hushpuppy figure from Lambchop, and a figurine from something called "Gallavants" from back in the mid-80's. I think I was most excited about the Shamu figure and the pig driving the pickle.

Here we have double Scorpions facing off with double Rufios. I think Rufio wins one of these battles... but then dies in the other one "Zero-Hour-Green-Arrow-Style". I was actually PSYCHED to own a Rufio toy though.

These are my yellow toys. Again left to right, we have a Mr. Happy from the Mr. Men PVC series, a vintage fruit-people pencil topper from the 70's and a Hawaiian Punch figure from the Hawaiian Punch board game from 1978. These three little guys are some of my absolute FAVORITE items from this particular Goodwill haul.

Next up we have a "Snaps" toy from the Burger King Kids club, Papa Bear from the Berry Bears, a fruit-snack brand from the 80's, and a rollerskate that was also from the Burger King Kids club, and originally had the athletic girl, "Boomer" sitting in it.

This trio of beautiful rodent ladies include a Gadget McDonald's Happy Meal toy from 1989 (which I had a complete set of as a kid... along with a weird little crush on Gadget...), a Brittany from the Chipettes Happy Meal toy from 1990, and a Gadget cereal premium from 1991 (In pretty rough shape. Good thing I already had one of these.)

This is a Beaver from the Hub Bubs line put out by Mattel back in 1975. This chipper little fella clicked into his playset and then with the turn of a crank, he and his fellow Hub Bubs (all living in Happy Hollow) would move their arms or bodies and miic doing work. Mr. Beaver her has a big white pressure plate/button/thing sticking out of his bottom that you push to make him move his hammer.

This little (ahem) nugget I have been able to find nearly NOTHING about. Obviously it was a premium from Louis Rich chicken nuggets... but that's all I can figure out. But I kind of love that this thing is so mysterious. Featuring a "Nugget Dude cave-dude" there was a free translucent dinosaur to be had in this prize pack! I almost feel guilty not popping it open, but I gotta say I honestly I kind of like the package as a whole here, dino, cave-dude, cellophane and all.

There was a random pile of toy cars mixed in, including a set of old firetrucks, some stock cars, a Humvee, and some Hotwheels McDonald's Happy Meal toys. Two of them are cars with some bite! Now let's see what was hiding in that SECOND grab-bag shall we? We're already doing pretty well with this first one after all.

This mound of toys is slightly smaller than the first, but you can already spot a few exciting pieces in there I bet!

First up a couple of action figures, first up we have a Triceraton from the old TMNT line. This one is missing all of his accessories, and sadly his tail as well... but I will still toss him up on the shelf to display regardless of this fact.  And we have Batman in some sort of orange overcoat. I think the orange coat piece is from a different action figure unfortunately. One that transforms from Bruce Wayne into a weird orange-suited Batman. Putting it on this Batman is just a cruel joke. That's why I kind of love it.

Random toy furniture! Genie box, fruit juice machine, and TV featuring Sonic the-- Wait... Genie box!?

It's Jambi from Pee-Wee's Playhouse! The one from the Grab-Bag is on the right. It is a legit, real-deal vintage toy from the old playsets. The one on the left is the one I bought when they put out the reproductions around 2002 or so. Looking at them side by side like this you can really see some glaring inconsistencies... but I still think they did a good job on the repros.

A wild pack of Animaniacs toys. I wish I had found the Pinky and the Brain toy... or the Mindy and Buttons toy... those were my favorite segments on Animaniacs. Well, those and the "Good Idea... Bad Idea" segments (ie. Good Idea: feeding kittens in the park. Bad Idea: Feeding kittens in the park... to a BEAR.)

One Definitely Dinosaur Happy Meal toy (I definitely had a handful of those as a kid. The Happy Meal versions at least) and a couple of rubber alligators produced in very different styles.

HEre we have Lisa Simpson who is actually supposed to be a giant version of herself, but without the base she originally came with it's hard to tell that. She is the "Incredible Growing Girl" here, from an episode of the Treehouse of Terror (or at least a Halloween character, which Burger King and the Simpsons have teamed up to do several times) and the base she comes with originally is a drive-in movie theater with parked cars. Lisa is munching on the remains of the snack bar there in her hand. The other, portly fellow is a Dog Catcher from the Pound Puppies cartoon. I don't really have much to say about this guy honestly... but it's neat that he was in there!

I'm going to end with this devilish fellow. I had no idea what it was at first, and was really and truly enchanted and intrigued. But with a bit of internet digging I discovered that this is in fact a Loch Nerf Monster from 1983. They originally came in blue, orange and the magenta color you see above, and they had painted-on eyes. The eyes on this one have come completely off over the years, but his charm remains nonetheless. I love the fact that Nerf made some sort of devil creature for children to play with in the tub back in the 80's. THIS is another of my absolute favorite items from this particular trip to Goodwill. 

So here's the whole pile as it was when I got it home. Three grab-bags, two cassettes, and and dragon! Not bad at all if I do say o myself!

Halloween Countdown Day: Belfast Finds

A few weeks ago the family made what will probably be our last trip out to Belfast, ME for the year, as the trip is riskier with ice and snow on the ground, and there's less to do out there in the winter anyway. So naturally, I made sure to keep my eyes peeled for any Halloween (or other) goodies I might find! Let's take a look at what I found, shall we? 

First up is this handsome fellow. He's exactly the kind of old-school blow-mold plastic that I love finding Jack o' Lanterns in! He's about the size of a grapefruit, and what I think I love most about him are the funky diamond-shaped eyes with the orange button eyes in the middle.  

I decided to accessorize him with the witch's head I found in my earlier post from a few days ago. They make quite the pair, don't they? 

This book is much tinier than this picture would suggest. Full of Halloween mysteries allegedly lasting only 5 minutes. I haven't checked it out yet, and it may actually have to be put off for next year's Halloween read-pile. 

Another book that is DEFINITELY on next year's Halloween read pile is Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators in: The Secret of Phantom Lake which I recently featured in my post about spooky pulp-book covers. I desperately want to know what the secret is. I am assuming some jerk in a tree costume... but you never know. 

Next up The Twisted Witch & Other Spooky Riddles which I will be sharing with my boys this season. That cover by Victoria Chess (who also illustrates the interiors) is awesome. 

The Lima Bean Monster was a cute book with a moral about eating your vegetables. We will definitely be making this a part of the regular Halloween reading rotation every year. 

This one was pretty clever too. Jeepers Creepers: A Monstrous ABC is a list of bizarrely mundane names that follow the alphabet... but the owners od said names have freakish and monstrous physical descriptions. David Parkins's artwork is beautiful, colorful, and fun. 

This thing is just pure gold. We'll be exploring this one more in-depth in the future. It's a compendium of monsters, spooks, and other Creepy Creatures. 

Boo! Made You Jump! by Lauren Child is a "Charlie and Lola" book, which my boys like quite a bit. It's all about dares and scares.

Moving on from the Halloween books, let's take a look at a mildly-Halloween-themed Grab-Bag!

So leaving out the wooden pig, plastic cow, and AWESOME PVC Bugs Bunny playing a guitar... We have 3/5ths of the Scooby-Doo gang! These are Mystery Inc. members Fred, Velma, and Daphne in an obviously chunky and designed-for-smaller-hands style. I already have a set of Scooby-Doo action figures, but these are cute enough that I think I'll probably keep them anyway.

A second, less-Halloween-y grab bag had some pretty cool stuff inside as well.

Here are the complete contents, including some random toys, a bobble-head from the recent Mr. Peabody and Sherman film, and a trio of Happy Meal toys from Batman: The Brave and the Bold including Gorilla Gordd, Robin, and the Dark Knight himself. But by far... the true star of the bag (and the reason I bought it at all) is this guy:

The 7Up Cool Spot! This guy originated back in 1987 and is yet another member of my ever-growing army of advertising mascots. I was sooo excited to find this guy.

I had dreams and visions of bringing home armloads of old cassette tapes from the Belfast Goodwill. Instead, I cam home with only one. But the Animal House Soundtrack is a pretty good single cassette to bring home I guess.

This "FLIKS" book featuring "Saturday Night Fever" is another foto-novel style book, but with a twist: The bottom right corner is a flip-book in and of itself where we watch John Travolta dance at the Disco!!! This thing is pure sex printed on paper.

A little less salacious is this TSR Endless Quest book: Mountain of Mirrors which is the second book in the series. Love these things. Great old favorites from my childhood to be sure.

And speaking of childhood favorites, I also picked up these two Sesame Street-themed Whitman Tell-A-Tale books. One features cave-Sherlock Hemlock and cave-Ernie inventing paper because rocks were too heavy to write on in Ernie the Cave King and Sherlock the Smart Person in The Invention of Paper, The othe book, Ernie's Telephone Call is a bizarre book about feelings that features a giant purple gorilla that sneaks into Bert and Ernie's apartment unbeknownst to the duo, as Ernie talks on the phone about... get this... a giant purple gorilla.

A Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks post wouldn't feel complete without a Little Golden Book. This one features Mickey Mouse in his guise from Fantasia as The Sorcerer's Apprentice.

A few more Sesame Street books here, in When Grover Moved to Sesame Street, Lovable Furry Old Grover's Resting Places, Fix It Please, and The Sesame Street 1,2,3 Story-Book. Not much more to say about those except that I am an avid collector of all things old-school Sesame Street.

This book was an interesting item. It is a fictional book from 1980 illustrated with all of the different star-ships used for commercial purposes in 2200 AD. Apparently this is the fourth book in a series by Stewart Cowley. This looks like a really fun read if you're into space travel and hard science fiction.

Next is a wonderful book that I already own a copy of, but could NOT leave behind. This is the second copy of Garfield: His 9 Lives that I have picked up at Goodwill, except this one is paperback. There are enough creepy tales in this book to almost consider it an honorary Halloween book. Two different TV specials were spawned from this one book, one in the actual "Garfield's 9 Lives Special" which only shares about 5 of these nine tales with the book, and Babes and Bullets which is an adaptation of the hard-boiled detective story (top right square on this cover). Love how risky they were willing to get with this property in these 9 stories. As I mentioned, a couple of them are down right spooky.

Kermit and Cleopigtra is an Egyptian tale starring the Muppets. There is nothing that isn't 100% awesome about this concept. And the artwork is STUNNING.

A Chip n' Dale's Rescue Rangers graphic novel? Yes please. This thing has three different stories inside and stars one of the greatest Disney Afternoon properties ever created.

Finally, I found three Dungeons and Dragons-related books in the shelves at the Belfast Goodwill. First up is a collection of comic strips about a group of roleplayers called Knights if the Dinner Table: Tales From the Vault Vol. 2 I loved reading this comic strip in Dragon Magazine, and I can't wait to catch up with the gang. Next is a basic Dungeons and Dragons (non-Advanced) rulebook. I had this book as a teen. I never played the basic D&D game much as a lad, but this still brings me back down memory-lane. And then there is a copy of the AD&D Player's Option: Skills & Powers sourcebook, which is now the second Player's Option book I've managed to pick up from Goodwill! So overall, I was pretty pleased with all three of these finds!

As a matter of fact, I was pretty pleased with the entire haul! A nice pile of books, some Halloween goodies, a cassette, and a pair of grab-bags. This was a good trip to the Belfast Goodwill overall.

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