Goodwill Finds: King Kong, Star Wars, and More!

Welcome friends! I have such sights to share... So without further hyperbole or ado, let us begin. 

Here we have the entire haul in one shot. So let's dig in, shall we? Let's get a closer look at all this stuff.

First up, a Sly and the Family Stone Greatest hits compilation. I love, Love, LOVE 70's funk music, and Sly and the Family Stone is one of the greatest bands to come out of that era (for me anyway, I'm not going to pretend to be a music historian by any means). But there are SO many great songs on this cassette you guys.

Terry Pratchett has passed away in the time between me buying these books and writing this post. I still have a hard time processing this. Mr. Pratchett's stories are just so good, and full of wry humor, and life, and heart, and genuine warmth, and a sharp eye and tongue directed at everyone and everything equally. It is hard to believe he's gone now. Hard to believe the door to Discworld will be permanently closed and that what we've got is all we've got. But that's life I guess.

I don't even ponder whether or not I should pick up Terry Pratchett books when I see them. They never disappoint.

This is my second of Stephen King's crime thriller stories under the Hardcase Crime banner. I still haven't read Joyland either. and now I have The Colorado Kid to add to the pile. That's sort of my M.O. though, right? Always adding to the pile?

Speaking of... here's a copy of Blackbeard's Ghost with the Disney movie cover, which is technically not a novelization... but is close enough. It's about a ghost pirate. C'mon now.

This is where I picked up my copy of Garfield's Thanksgiving! This is the comic adaptation of the TV special, and as usual, there are a slight, strange variations in there. I've never been as much of a fan of the Thanksgiving special as I am the Christmas and especially the Halloween special... but it's still right up there. We watch it religiously every year.

THIS GUY. I mean whoah. This is am Imperial Toys King Kong toy! I love finding classic imperial toys at Goodwill. Nothing brightens my day in quite the same way. This toy is so cool. This was definitely the highlight of the trip. Everything else is downhill from here I'm afraid.

Which is really too bad, because all I have left is this big grab-bag full of toys...

And here are the contents. Let's get with the closer look already!

Included in the bag were a BUNCH of Mega Bloks pirates mini figures. The majority of these are just okay in my opinion, but there were three truly stand-out figures in the bunch:

And those three are right here. First of all, we have a skeletal pirate. I'm no stranger to this line, as my daughter picked out one of the mini skull playsets for me for father's day back when these were a brand new thing (maybe 7-8 or more years ago?) so I'm no stranger to how neat-o cool these can be. Starting on the left we have the skeleton, and then the pirate captain, with a peg-leg, ring in his beard, and an eyepatch. Finally, we have arguably the very best character of all: Some sort of witch doctor islander with scary eyes, a rooster comb, and a skull painted on his face. I love these things SO MUCH.

There were also a couple of random LEGO mini-figs in the mix. Not 100% sure who these guys are or what they're from. I ended up giving them to my son.

Also given to my sons to play with were these half-dozen Star Wars Attactix toys. I'm not into the prequels so I didn't want any of the clone troopers, and I honestly didn't care about the Tie Fighter pilot either. Nothing says fatherly love like handing over a pile of toys that fire tiny hard projectiles with alarming force to a couple of young boys who can barely go 5 minutes without getting into a fight.

Also in the bag was this broken Electro figure. He's sad, so we won't talk about him anymore.

What was NOT given over to my sons? These guys. Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader figures that both ended up on my Star Wars collection shelf. There's a lesson in here somewhere about father/son relationships... but for the life of me I couldn't tell you what it would be.

Moving on.

This thing.

It was in the bag.

Don't know what it is, what it comes from, what it's for.

There is a grey pressure plate inside it, that when pushed, snaps the whole thing shut. Sort of like a trap... but it doesn't really scream "IT'S A TRAP" like you-know-who. Mainly because there's also what appears to be some sort of handle-bars inside it as well. So part of a vehicle maybe? I've been trying to investigate this for a while... and still nothing. It's baffling. If you know anything about it, let me know in the comments below.

UPDATE: This toy belongs to a Robots (as in the animated film called Robots) playset. Mystery solved.

Well kids... that's it for tonight! I'll be back with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies soon enough! But until that happens, 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!