I'm Skipping SOOO Much Stuff Just To Show You Guys Harvey the Wonder Clone...

So... this is all from a very recent trip to Goodwill, within the last couple of months I would say... and I'm jumping ahead of a LOT of content in order to feature this post for a VERY special reason. I want to get through the "finds" portion of the post before I get to what I'm so excited about though. 

Here's a pile of loot! Let's check it out!

This is my second time finding a "Sharp Tooth" hand puppet from Pizza Hut. The first one I sent out in a package to a friend of mine as a gift. THIS ONE I KEEP. 2 times is probably my limit on finding Sharp Tooths.. Sharp Teeth... this puppet.

THIS BOOK. I love this book. I added "Shudders" to my Halloween Read Pile (#HalloweenReadPile on my Instagram account) which I began reading back in July. This book was SO much fun! (Ten tales calculated to give you... SHUDDERS!) Whitman classics man! I had a whole pile of these cheap-ass books as a kid I remember a paste-board copy of The Wizard of Oz that I loved poring over because it had all the illustrations of the Hammerheads and the Mice, and a bunch of other stuff that didn't make it into the movie... What was I talking about? Oh yeah! "Shudders" has so many fun old horror stories in it! If you set aside books to get you into the Halloween mood, this is a TOP PRIORITY read people!

This one was a BIG DEAL to me! This is a collection of Berke Breathed comics from his college days, "Academia Waltz," where characters like Steve Dallas and Cutter John from Bloom County were born! These books are ridiculously hard to find, and this is still only the second book. The first one is still missing from my collection.

This giant-sized graphic novel collection of "The Death of Captain Marvel" was such an exciting thing to pull off the shelf at a Goodwill! Still need to just sit down and read this classic tale.

I almost didn't pick up this copy of Chris Van Allsburg's "Jumanji," simply because I was half convinced I must already own it. Once I had disabused myself of this erroneous notion, I picked it up. It's one of those BOOKS, man. One of those books that every family should own.

Probably the MOST exciting find for me on this particular trip full of exciting finds already was this trio of 12-inch scale Star Wars figures in a grab bag with some other junk. The IG-88 is marked 2000 the Tie Fighter Pilot is from 1997, and the Clone Trooper I didn't check the date on because I gave this one to my kids to play with (MUCH more on this clone a little later... BE PATIENT).

Get a little close up. I love these guys!!!

There was a second grab bag as well, and in it were really just a small handful of items that really got me going... a LOT of this stuff went on to become part of a recent giveaway pack I did via my Instagram account. But here were the keepers:

A Garfield Scooter sans Garfield (I'll find him later) a Push-down-to-make-him-go Rex from Toy Story, a Mac Tonight driving a red sports car (yay!) a classic Super Mario Brothers PVC figure, and a space communicator Happy Meal Toy! All fun stuff that no resides here or there all over the Geek Cave!

BUT LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THAT CLONE NOW!!!

Hey everybody. I'm Harvey the Wonder Clone.

Meet "Harvey" the Wonder Clone (His name may have been inspired by a particular Hamster from a Weird Al Yankovic song... but also maybe not...). I gave my 6 year old the Clone Trooper I found in the grab bag I featured above. Later on that same day when he was looking for something to do, I offered to let him use the camera. THIS IS A BIG DEAL. He is NEVER allowed to touch the camera. I also gave him an assignment: Take Harvey the Wonder Clone outside and take a bunch of pictures of him exploring the wilderness around our house.

I then promptly forgot the pictures were on the camera... until I started dumping the memory card onto my laptop for blog pictures. And there was ALL OF THIS. I have not edited these pictures in any way, except to add a caption or two throughout. Please check them out. It's pretty obvious in some of them that my son just ind of chucked Harvey on the ground and snapped a pic... but some have such finesse to them that they make me love them.

Harvey laying in a tree.
Just thinkin'.

Love the arms propped behind the long blades here. 

This one is kind of disturbingly like the opener of an episode of CSI or something.

More CSI.

I love this one!

PROBABLY MY FAVORITE PICTURE OF HARVEY THE WONDER CLONE!!!

The juxtaposition of the dead trooper and the bright orange tiger lily is... unintentional I'm guessing.
But striking. 

Kind of funerary.

In the clover...
Just thinkin'.

In the land of the gnomes. 

Tree climbing. The leg position in this one makes it look so lifelike! 

Sunning on a rock.
Just... thinkin'.

That's it for tonight kids! October eve is drawing ever closer! And I have yet to share with you guys this Summer's "Bin of Awesome!!!" (That might just be my next post, we'll see...) I'll be back with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies soon enough! So until that time, Happy Hunting!

Another Trip to the Brewer ME Goodwill

So, my usual stomping grounds are contained within the Ellsworth, Maine Goodwill. I'm there usually once a week at the very least. But occasionally I get to range out to one of the other Goodwills within about an hour's drive from my home and I almost always find some good stuff on these field trips.

So on Friday, when we took our kids to an indoor bounce-house fun-tertainment facility called "The Maine Jump" in Bangor, I managed to squeeze a quick trip to the Brewer Goodwill, which is on the way. (We went to the Bangor store on Sunday, but I'll post more on that trip another day).

My trip to Brewer did not disappoint. Since there are ALWAYS BOOKS I'll start with those:

These things are my crack.

First up, a couple of Little Golden Books. I picked up The Golden Egg Book because I am always on the hunt for Holiday books for my kids (and it was a nice way to fluff out my LGB collection). I don't even really think it's that old of a book. But Holiday books usually get into the club, old or not. By far the coolest of the duo is Muppet Treasure Island which is exactly what it seems to be: an adaptation of the movie. I am apparently turning into a full-blown Little Golden Books fiend. More on this at another date. Both of these books cost me .99 cents. 

This thing is my porn.

Next up I found the novelization of the 1989 Tim Burton Batman film. I owned this book back then, and seeing it made me deliriously happy. I can't even tell you how much nostalgia this brings back. Even just flipping through to look at the chapter headers brought back memories. If I'd found a cassette of the soundtrack to go along with it I might have needed to excuse myself to the bathroom. This book was .99 cents. 

This thing is my... other... bad... habit.

I think the book that had me the absolute MOST excited was this one however... even with the hallucinogenic properties of the nostalgia bomb from the Batman novelization THIS book just screamed I"M YOUR BOYFRIEND NOW NANCY!!! HAHAHAHA!!! Which meant a lot, even if my name is not Nancy.

That sounded better in my head.

Anyway, once you get past the neon orange and green cover, and the obvious fact that this is "New Nightmare" Freddy (the weird organic bladed glove gives it away)... you slowly begin to realize that they put out a Goosebumps style series of novels that isn't even a hackneyed attempt to simply repurpose the scripts from "Freddy's Nightmares: The Nightmare on Elm Street Series". A quick Google search turned up 5 (!) more books in the series. I'm beginning to think I may need them all. "How's the writing?" you may ask? Well it's not great to be honest, and I flipped to the ending to see if my suspicions were correct... and they were. The pretty much find a tenuous and bizarrely illogical way of tying the story to Freddy Krueger. And that's... okay! He also serves as Crypt-Keeper, introducing the tale, and wrapping things up for us at the end. I paid .99 cents for this kitschy masterpiece.

Next up I have this pillowcase featuring Sesame Street. Regular readers of this blog will already know that I am obsessed with Sesame Street. And FYI I pretty much plan on letting my youngest son use this on his bed because I've given him the Sesame Street Fever. This one was a last minute purchase because the woman in line in front of me actually had it in her cart and she changed her mind and handed it to the cashier to return. I asked if I could see it, and immediately added it to my pile for another .99 cents. Why?

Because Roosevelt Franklin. See that kid driving the bus? That's this muppet:

I. Love. Roosevelt Franklin. He stopped making regular appearances on Sesame Street 3 years before I was born but he still made occasional appearances and they still showed some of his sketches later. The more I learn about him later in life, the more I want to see him come back. 

He was intended to be a role-model for young black inner city kids. Unfortunately some critics of the character either felt he was an insultingly over-the-top negative racial stereotype, while others felt he was too "white-washed" and watered down to truly represent kids of color. Personally I think it's a shame that an effort to make a black character to help empower black kids got stomped out by a bunch of critics. And wow... I spent waaay too much time talking about this pillowcase. Basically it boils down this way: If it's got Roosevelt Franklin in or on it, I'm buying it. 

Sharp Tooth! I picked up this old Pizza Hut puppet from The Land Before Time for .99 cents. Remember these? I took two pictures because I wanted one that really showcase the puppet (the one on the right) but then I had one shot I took completely by accident that I felt really made his menace come to the forefront (the one on the left... can't you just imagine that face staring in your window at you?)

 

Apparently THIS is the new monkey on my back.

I also paid .99 cents for this G.I.Joe lunchbox from 1989. This I got pretty excited about too. I am trying desperately to NOT collect lunchboxes... but then there's this. I own this now. It's in the cave. Taking up space. I have a vintage lunchbox now. I'm hyperventilating a little bit and I don't know if it's from excitement or fear. Someone help me. 

Here's a shot of the whole haul! Every item you see here cost me .99 cents. These were great, but not even the greatest of the weekend.

I'll be back soon with even more Geeky Goodwill Goodies (from this same weekend)! Until then Happy Hunting!