Goodwill Finds: Turtles, Ducks, Sesame Street

Welcome once again to another fun edition of: junk I picked up secondhand!!! I can't even begin to tell you when I picked up this lot of stuff... it was a while back. BUT it all did come from Goodwill. And I was pretty excited about some of the finds in this post! Let's take a look, shall we?

First up I found a grab-bag with these three Sesame Street beanie-friend-things in it. If it weren't for Grover and Oscar this would have gotten a pass as you can clearly see that in trying to keep up his youthful appearance in today's cut-throat entertainment biz... poor Ernie had a botched rhinoplasty procedure (I did not end up keeping Ernie, sorry to say...) and will never look the same.

This was an interesting find. I'm always on the prowl for interesting-looking horror anthologies, and this one, Between Time and Terror, seems to be focusing on horror stories with a sci-fi bent. This is just what the Doctor ordered! Barker and Koontz rubbing elbows with the likes of Heinlein and Asimov??? Interesting...

This is a particularly fun find. It's an illustrated adventure detailing Flash Gordon's exploits on Mogo, the Sand World. Actually picked this one up to pass on to a friend... but it looks like so much fun! I even just love the simplicity of Flash on the cover here, his skin almost blending in with the featureless background until we get some bright pops of color in his clothes and weapons. And check out those little shoes!

I'm a sucker for Jack Prelutsky, and ESPECIALLY Jack Prelutsky's collections about specific holidays. I already have Halloween, Christmas, and Thanksgiving. Nice to add Valentine's Day to the pile.

This Duck Tales coloring book from 1987 only had a couple of pages colored on! I absolutely love the Disney Duck-verse. Duck Tales and Darkwing Duck were some of my favorite afternoon shows when I was growing up.

I am ALWAYS excited to find TMNT stuff from the times when I Would have been a kid. This book "Return of the Shredder" is waaay more interesting for its portrayal of the "Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang"

And April O'neil's brave decision to teach people about recognizing the warning signs of a stroke on TV.

Finally, I found another Little Golden Book that I had as a kid (not the literal copy I owned of course) in The Three Bears, This thing is an electric-pastel romp of colors and images that I just love.

The greens are so green! The pinks so pink! The clashing colors layered over and around each other in a chaotic yet stylish display! Love this thing!

That was it folks!  a quickie but goody. The whole pile cost me about 7 bucks and some change. I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies soon enough! Until then, Happy Hunting!

Halloween Countdown Day 25: Target and Halloween Pt. 1

It really feels like Target is really the place to find some of the coolest stuff for Halloween this year. That's why I'n going to use multiple posts to feature some of the stuff I bought there this year. This first post... I'm focusing on ONE amazing find. This:

A Star Wars Grab and Go Halloween Play Pack! The first thing about this that caught my eye and MADE me buy it was that skeletal image of Darth Vader on the front. They had other versions of the cover art, but THIS one said "Even if I am filled with nothing but horrible crap... I am worth 1.00 because of this amazing image!"

So this is what I got for my 1.00. The amazing cover art, a coloring book, a sheet of stickers, and 4 crayons. The crayons are a throw-away, honestly. But the stickers are great, populated with all of the same great art you'll find inside the coloring book. 

First off, let's take a moment to admire the cover art to the coloring book. There's a bony Boba Fett skeleton. He is amazing. I like the other odd little detials to be seen over his shoulder, like the skeletal Storm Trooper, and a Boba witch on a broom flying in front of the moon. 

HEre we have a Trick or Treating band of... what? Kids dressed in Star Wars Costumes? Or Star Wars Characters going Trick or Treat together? Or some strange amalgamation of both? Either way they stomp across the grass under the light of a full that's-no-moon. And on the right there, am I the only one who thinks Vader is doing a total Pimp walk? I also love how the Storm Trooper's and Vader's helmets sort of ARE skulls in this picture, instead of them just being skeletons wearing helmets. 

Boba Fett-as-witch makes his debut, along with some clone-trooper skeletons a la Spooky Scary Skeletons... And there's Vader from the front of the package... Look! his light-saber is made of vertebrae! 

A Storm trooper skeleton crew.

Cutesy versions of Luke and Leia in Halloween activities/attire. 

A couple of my favorite pictures here. A Trick or Treating Ewok dressed up as Darth Vader with a Death Star treat pail, and a Day of the Dead decorated Storm Trooper helmet. Simple but effective.

There are more images throughout the coloring book but these are all the ones that I actually like. A few stock images of characters with random "spooky" tree branches slapped on them were in there too, but this Treat-nabbing Yoda and these cutesy Halloween themed droids (R2-Punkin'-D2???) are where I'll be finishing up. I love the simplicity of the idea here, and how effective it was to use Star Wars and Halloween blended together in a weird meta-concept that really couldn't have a life of its own beyond merchandising. I would MUCH rather have seen these kinds of pictures on the McDonald's McBoo pails this year instead of just Angry Birds Star Wars. C'est la vie. 

That's it for me tonight children! I'll be back with more Gulp-Inducing Goodwill Goodies sooner rather than later! Until then, Happy Haunting!!!