Another Trip to the Old Schoolhouse Antique Mall

There's an antique mall out in Brewer, ME that I've only dropped in on a couple of times now, and this post to follow reflects the second visit I've made out there. It's a fun place to check out once in awhile, as the stock doesn't really change frequently enough for me to make the trip out there more than maybe once or twice a year. But when I do, man the finds are fun! 

Here's a quick glimpse at everything I brought home from The Old Schoolhouse. But let's take a closer look, shall we?

First up, I already had a capeless version of this same Shadow action figure. But since this one HAS the cape, I couldn't pass it up, This is pretty much the one action figure from the line put out to support the 1994 Alec Baldwin film that actually just looks like the character without any weird bells or whistles. Would I love it if I had the pistols that go along with this shadowy hero? Yes I would. But at least now I have an action figure that represents the character as he should look.

This Miss Piggy in repose is a Benjamina Gunn Muppets Treasure Island Happy Meal toy from 1996. I love the look of this toy, and the colors are amazing. So far I have Piggy and Fozzie from this set, and I honestly wouldn't mind tracking down the rest. I made the mistake of finding and passing over a Gonzo toy from this same line about a year before this, and have been kicking myself ever since!

This little Green fellow is an "Outer Terrestrial Creature" toy produced by Marty Toys back in 1983. This guys name is "Mooky" and on top of being a bendy toy, he's preternaturally top-heavy due to a special "Somersault Action" that these toys had, which basically meant that if you toppled them over, they flipped. I absolutely ADORE weird old toy lines like the one Mooky here comes from. It's precisely these kinds of discoveries that keep me picking through old junk as a hobby.

This might not strike you as ridiculously exciting... but for me, finding this 1996 Burger King wind-up "Scud" toy from the original Toy Story movie was a dream come true. I've been eye-balling these things on eBay for years now, and all because I wanted a Scud toy of an approximately appropriate scale to display with my Toy Story Buddies collection:

And this Scud fits the bill perfectly. (P.S. If anyone has an extra Etch-a-Sketch with Chickenman, Snake-and-Robot 2-pack, or any mini toys of the mutant toys from the first film... contact me. There's only like 5 toys left that I want or need to finish this collection off).

I used to religiously track down the M&M tubes every Christmas JUST for the ornaments on top. I don't do it anymore because they don't really make them either a.) new every year... they just recucle old designs repeatedly... or b.) they don't make them at all. Couldn't spot any M&M ornament tubes at ALL this past year... -sob-. So finding this little brown M&M skier really made my day!!! I feel like the brown M&M's are seriously underrepresented in toy/ornament form, since the reds and yellows and greens are so much more festive... so this guy really stands out!

I am now 1/6th closer to having a complete set of Fisher Price Little People to represent each of the Village people. I could literally NOT be more excited than I am about this fact. Look at this guy! I apologize if this toy is seen as horrifically racist. I really do. But it came from a time when toys like this were beloved.

And I belove him.

Please don't hate me.

I am not afraid to admit that I adore Marge Simpson. Probably to an inappropriate degree. And disturbingly, there is a whole LOT of inappropriate material out there on the internet (please, for the love of all that is good... do NOT Google it, as some of it will just make you lose faith in humanity) to support a man with my kind of carnal cartoon lust. Fortunately, I don't need to go looking because my collection of Marge Simpsons toys is growing healthily, (can the jokes you pervs) thank you very much. I now proudly own two of the toys from this, the very first line of Burger King Kids Club premiums to feature the Simpsons.

There was also a handful of fun books to be had while I was picking around the Old Schoolhouse too! This Bugs Bunny's Adventures copyrighted from 1948 is practically an illustrated chapter book. I picked this up with a friend in mind.

I will never not buy illustrated adaptations of Garfield TV specials. This one is from Garfield On the Town, which was the second special to star Garfield. In this one, he meets his mother and the rest of his extended family, and learns to be (somewhat) thankful for the life he leads with Jon and Odie. If this was being produced today, you wouldn't see the cigarette butts on the ground near Garfield's feet. Just a random observation.

Have I mentioned my undying love for Punky Brewster on this blog before? I think I have. So finding a kids' book dedicated to one of her animated adventures (with Glomer in the mix!) would obviously be a Holy Grail for me. So I brought it home. 

So that's it for tonight kids, but I'll be back soon with Geeky Goodwill Goodies before you know it! Until then, Happy Hunting! 

Halloween Day 24: More Brewer Finds

Another trip out to the Brewer Goodwill yielded a much smaller crop of Halloween goodies this time around, but some other great finds were made... so let's see what I brought home! 

At first, I couldn't figure out what these first two items were... and then it dawned on me that they were tiny cactus plants-holders! Someone had long-ago let the cactii die in them, and then donated them to Goodwill. Did NOT matter to me as I was more than willing to remove the remains of the long-gone plants and use these to populate my little Halloween village. The first one here features a skeleton and a gravestone for "Hairy Scary".

I much prefer this one though, featuring an evil tree hugging a terrified jack-o'-lantern. I want a hug too. I bet this guy gives out free hugs all DAY long.

The final genuinely Halloween-y item of this trip was this little ceramic tree complete with ghost and jack-o'-lantern. No cactus remains involved here, just a nice little addition to the Halloween village. 

Still half-in-and-half-out of Halloweentown, we find this copy of the Mad Scientists Club, which is a collection of short stories from the 50's and 60's that originally appeared in "Boys' Life" magazine, featuring the same group of boys each time. A strange sea monster appears on the lake...a fortune is unearthed from an old cannon ...a valuable dinosaur egg is stolen.... don't these all sound at least mildly Halloween-ish? Huh? Huh?

Before George Michael became a bathroom predator he put out some pretty great music. I grabbed a copy of "Faith" on cassette, and a copy of the Top Gun Soundtrack for my cassette collection!

A Mork and Mindy novelization to add to my collection as well! I have a Fotonovel already, and now I have a true chapter book about Mork from Ork!

I have gone on endlessly before about Rick Yancey's novels on the blog before. I already own a copy of this very book in fact, The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp. I loved it. So when I found a copy of the book that is the same SIZE as the other two books in the series, I snapped it up. I actually am kind of vaguely sorry that this kind of symmetry even matters to me... but here we are. Anyway, this story has to do with a loser of a kid who finds himself plunged into a life of danger and intrigue because of a connection to a society descended from the knights of the Roundtable. It's all pretty awesome.

I bought this grab-bag pretty much just for Luigi in his Mario Kart... but let's be honest, I wanted the sailor cat with an eye-patch too, even though I know he's from a PBS Kids show. Cats with eyepatches are cool. I didn't mind bringing home a Battle-Shell Leonardo either, though I don't collect the Battle-Shell figures and would not have bought it on its own. Mike the Knight? I hate. He will be re-donated. Now onto the mega-exciting find of this trip:

Ta-da!!! The Fisher Price Play Family Sesame Street Clubhouse!!! Now... calm down. It had absolutely no accessories or figures along with it, and there were no bags with those in them anywhere in sight. There was only the play-set... but man is that enough for me!!!

Look at the artwork on this thing! Cookie For President? David + Maria? Bert loves pigeons!!!??? YES PLEASE!!! This thing is in desperate need of a cleaning of course... and I will be cleaning it throughly, believe me... but omigosh the FISHER PRICE PLAY FAMILY SESAME STREET CLUBHOUSE!!! This thing came out before they were even calling them "Little People" people!

C.T.W.!!! Oscar Loves Trash!!! The real joy of this thing is in the details on the decals.

And here behind the slide we can see the doors that surround Big Bird's home. Someone added a random bird sticker sometime long ago too. Now I just need to spend the rest of my life tracking down ALL of the Sesame Street little people (well, besides the ones my wife got me along with the other Sesame Street playset she got me for my birthday a while back...) that go with this thing.

Well, that's it for tonight kids! I'll be back soon with more Groaning Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Haunting!

Halloween Countdown Day 9: A Nice Pile of Finds... some of which are Halloween-y...

WARNING: Only a very small portion of this post is Halloween related at all. I just want to clear the air before we move forward here. BUT. There is a ton of awesome stuff that I found at Goodwill in this post. So there's that. If you're here for JUST the Halloween stuff, just check out the first three items or so. But if you want to see some awesome cassette tapes or old toys from the 80's? Keep. Going. 

There. You have been warned. No lies between us. I won't misrepresent. 

This witch's head is on the end of a light wand. The wand doesn't matter. I only wanted the head. It is GORGEOUS. Look at that witch! The green is perfect, and she's blow-mold, so she'll look a lot nicer without the wand than with. In fact, I plan on revealing exactly where this little lady ended up in a different post to come this month. So... if the question of "What did Derek do with that cheap plastic witch's head?" keeps you awake at night... rest easy dear readers. Time will tell. 

They actually had a PAIR of these skeletal-claw-clutching-an-eyeball candles... but I felt like one was enough, honestly. Leave the other one for some other Goodwill Geek. But for a candle, the details and colors here are pretty nice! This bad boy is set up in the dining room on the built-in bookcase that we decorate for every Halloween. 

I'm placing this mug firmly into the "Halloween stuff" camp because it is spooky as f**k. The cracked and stained glaze on the mug, the chipped facial features, even the pose of the angel herself all kind of put off no-no vibes. There is not a detail of this mug that doesn't give me the heeby-jeebies. So what did I do with it?

I am now using it to store pens and other desk-items in my Geek Cave! I am sure that there is NOT a curse of haunting on this thing that I have to worry about. And it isn't going to move around when I'm not looking at it like some Doctor Who villain. I'm perfectly safe.

All right... we've crossed the town lines of Halloweentown, and the welcome sign is fading in the rearview as you read this. We are now onto some of the non-Halloween stuff I discovered. As you can see above, I found the soundtracks to The Breakfast Club, Pulp Fiction, and Stand By Me. Not coincidentally, these are all old favorite films of mine. I've mentioned a couple of times on the blog now that I have begun collecting old cassette tapes. I don't care if the tapes are first-production-run or whatever the term is... I just want old tapes of things I like. Soundtracks are a big score for me, as are artists I listened to back in highschool, and golden oldies tapes featuring artists of yesteryear that I hear growing up. Blame Guardians of the Galaxy. The Awesome Mix really took me back. 

I also found this gorgeous little Betty. A spinner rack for my cassettes! It only holds 20 cassettes, so I'm going to start by storing only soundtracks or absolute FAVORITE artists in it. Like... Prince. 

The Thing Happy Meal toy, circa 2010. He yells A LOT if you don't turn off the switch in his back. Amazed the battery isn't dead, to be honest. 

These are not the F4 toys he actually goes with, as they are from 1996... but I like him better than the Thing toy from back then, and I like them better than the F4 offerings from 2010. If I want all four characters I may have to track down Mr. Fantastic from the 2007 Rise of the Silver Surfer set... but I don't know how desperate I am yet.

Next we have this Jolly Green Giant ragdoll from the 60's. I was VERY excited to find this. He is SO AWESOME. Believe it or not, he's not worth much money, but LOOK AT HIM! He's beautiful. And a FAR CRY from the Jolly Green Giant we all know and love today. He's got those blank polka-dot eyes, and a round green nose. I love finding advertising mascots in toy form. He even still has his sticker: 

So awesome. .99 cents for this guy!!!

I've never read the Dark is Rising sequence from Susan Cooper. But now I intend to because I found the whole series in a boxed set. 

In movie novelization news, I found "The Abyss" and "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" for .99 cents apiece.

David Sedaris's book Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk is one I don't have yet. Big Sedaris fan here.

And now onto the really exciting stuff! I found two grab-bags packed full of plastic goodies! LEt's take a look at the first one. 

A riotous explosion of colorful plastics! Let's look at the specifics:

Fisher Price Little People! I already have one of the kid on the left hand side, but other than him, all of these are new to my collection! I'm especially excited to have the "Dad" figure in the green shirt because that was the guy I had in my family set as a kid. The train he's sitting in is awesome as well (one of my circus clown figures took it from him as soon as it hit the shelf). I like pouty kid in the front too. Not much here I wasn't pleased to add to my collection. 

Do these look familiar? They should. They belong to Baby Kermit and Baby Fozzie, from the old Happy Meal toys!

I have Baby Kermit and Baby Fozzie in my collection already. Here they are reunited with their respective ride-ons! 

Wonder-Pet vehicles! (More on these a little later)

Random loose vehicles! I have no idea what the bug riding in the walnut shell is from, but the scooter and the wheelbarrow will be revealed shortly. The bigwheel however... 

Is from the mid-80's toyline, Nerfuls! 

Image from the En-Broc blog, NOT my image. 

There were no Nerful characters in today's purchase... but seeing the above image online brought me WAAAAY back! I think I used to own this guy as a kid!

A vintage PVC Mr. Men figurine and a Flintstones movie Happy Meal car topped off the contents of the first grab-bag. NOW... let's take a look at grab bag #2!

Already looks promising, right?

Here are the contents. (You may notice a couple of familiar-looking Muppet Babies in the mix. That's right! I got extras of Fozzie and Kermit! I won't be showing them off later, but there they are) Now, closer look time. I didn't bother to show off some of this stuff, like the Littlest Pet Shop stuff or the Hotel for Dogs stuff... but the interesting stuff (to me) is all here.

First up, it's pretty obvious that whoever donated the first bag also donated this one, because here are the Wonder PEts that go along with those vehicles from the first bag. I'll probably keep these packed away somewhere. All three of my kids like the Wonder PEts at one time or another, and these give me great memories. I'll stash them.

Here are the animals the Wonder Pets are out to rescue! 

I have no idea if these are the correct sets all together, but I'm too lazy to Google it and find out. You get the idea.

Some snoop toys. Remember the wheelbarrow from that first grab-bag?

Together again!

A California Raisin that I already own, a Kung Fu Panda II crane figure (to take the place of the Kung Fu Panda I crane figure I have that's posed in a really awkward position). And a Scooby-Doo figurine that is obviously supposed to slide on his butt... but where? In a game? A playset? A fast food toy? Not sure. But he's Scooby-Doo, so he lives with me now.

A trio of 80's toys, a Little Miss figurine to go with my Mr. Man up above (don't know their names, sorry) and a couple of Strawberry Shortcake toys for my wife.

A set of Disney's Winnie the Pooh figurines. I am NOT a fan of Disney's version of these characters. I am a classic A.A. Milne fan all the way. The original books are brilliantly written. These are just mockeries of those.

These are Arby;s Looney Tunes figurines from the late 80's. Bugs and Roadrunner are from '87. (Not sure why they look so blocky though) Porky and Pepe are from '88. I really like these!

Donald and Mickey have seen better days...

An Oliver between two Flowers...

And what I consider to be two of the BEST finds in this bag... An Alvin (from the Chipmunks) figure from 1984, and a Brother (of the Berenstain Bears) figure from McDonalds, circa 1986! Alvin's missing his Big A but we still know who he is of course... and Brother Bear (who was hairy, and I cleaned him up later...) is missing his scooter of course... but wait!

There it is! The scooter from the first grab-bag!!! I used to own this toy as a kid, and I loved Berenstain Bear books as a kid too! (I'm not as much a fan these days, but we still do some of the Halloween and Christmas books with our kids)

But by far, I think THE best items in that bag were theseguys! A pair of Figment, the dragon, figurines from the Epcot Center attraction at Disney World. One of him in a spacesuit, and one where he's lifting weights! I owned the one on the right as a kid too, although since I've never been to Disney, I couldn't tell you where I picked it up.

So there you have it! A well-stocked post about a recent Goodwill Haul! That's all I've got for tonight kids! But I'll be back with more Grim Goodwill Goodies, so until then, Happy Haunting.