Randomly Received: Trade With Mason of D.I. Treasures

All right... the time has come. I am officially getting ready to delete the content from Really Rather Random Guy (dot blogspot dot com) and in preparing for that, I wanted to import a bunch of the content that I know will then be lost forever, by bringing the posts over here to Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks (dot blogspot dot com). So, with that in mind, I thought I would preface these entries with the fact that they are indeed OLD blog posts from an OLD, now DEFUNCT blog, and cross my fingers and hope that folks will still want to read them.

This post was originally published back on January 20th, 2014.

A while back, before the Holidays... I set up a trade with Mason of D.I. Treasures fame. He noticed that I had an extra mace that I had picked up in a recent MotU find at Goodwill, and he wondered if we could trade that mace for a battle-ax he had for He-Man. This sounded acceptable to me, but then I upped the ante to make this interesting: I asked Mason to pick 5 other small items for trade and I would do the same in a sort of blind-box package swap. You can see what I sent him over at his blog, since he did a good job of actually posting what he received before Christmas got here. The reason this is significant is that the items that Mason sent me were all sort of subtly Christmas-themed. Let's take a look at what he sent me: 

Here's a group-shot of everything he sent me to start. A nice, colorful lot to be sure, you can already see the holiday cheer bleeding through. 

I mace ax you a question? Mace I ax you... no... I give up. Puns are hard.

First up let's talk about what got this whole thing kicked off. Here is the beautiful baby-blue battle-axe that Mason sent me in exchange for a mace for his Moss-Man. It is now in the hands of He-Man as he sits astride his loyal Battle Cat. And all is as it should be. 

Next up we have a Z-Bot! This is Turbine and he was actually a Burger King Kid's Club meal premium from 1994. I don't remember Z-Bots from when I was a kid... but they would have come out right around the time I was ending my love-affair (for awhile) with mini-figs. Which, knowing me, is kind of a shame because these look like they would have been right in my wheelhouse. At roughly the same size as Battle-Beasts a collectible line of little robots seems like something I would have obsessed over. I love the look of this little guy in particular, and it isn't hard to see why Mason included him, since the color scheme not only screams Christmas with all that red and green... but that drill arm looks like it could literally be a Christmas tree. Mason also knows how much I enjoy collecting little robots as well, so this is perfect. 

Next up we have a Rock 'Em Sock 'Em robot thumb wrestler. This guy fits down over your thumb and one can only assume that there is a blue counterpart out there somewhere for an opponent to wear. This guy is great! Again, since I love robots, it makes sense that someone would give me one of these... and in this festive red it's no wonder that Mason included it. 

This is Lenny, the wind-up binoculars toy from Toy Story. Specifically, it's a picture-viewer toy from a Toy Story 2 Happy Meal premium. This one hits on many different levels for me, such as the Toy Story connection, the fact that it's a view-master-style toy, and the fact that it's a Happy Meal toy. The one thing I couldn't figure out was why Mason might have considered it "Christmas-y" and I came up with nothing. I think this one was just included for the neat-o factor. 

The penultimate toy of the pack is this Power Rangers Megazord figure. I'm not a Power Rangers fan at all, but I can appreciate a nice giant robot toy. messing around on Google I see a lot of references to this megazord being called "OhBlocker". It doesn't take a lot of imagination to figure out why Mason included this one, as there's a giant star in red, some green and gold highlights, and overall, he feels pretty Christmas-y. 

Finally, we have Mr. Strong from the Mr. Men series! This is a kid's meal premium from Arby's whom I absolutely adore. The Mr. Men and Little Miss characters are all pretty geometric and basic in design, and that kind of aesthetic is just awesome to me. I could see myself tracking down more of these. And of course, Mr. Strong here is done in red and green, because Christmas!

So, I'd like to finish up by first apologizing to Mason for not getting this up on a blog for people to see before Christmas got here... but also a HUGE thanks to him as well for obviously putting so much time and thought into his selections. I had such a fun time discovering the contents of this package! Be sure to check out Mason's blog over at D.I. Treasures.

I have a couple of other packages to feature here in the coming days, so keep your peepers peeled here folks!

Randomly Received: The Trash Man Giveth

All right... the time has come. I am officially getting ready to delete the content from Really Rather Random Guy (dot blogspot dot com) and in preparing for that, I wanted to import a bunch of the content that I know will then be lost forever, by bringing the posts over here to Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks (dot blogspot dot com). So, with that in mind, I thought I would preface these entries with the fact that they are indeed OLD blog posts from an OLD, now DEFUNCT blog, and cross my fingers and hope that folks will still want to read them.

This post was originally published back on January 23rd, 2014.

I know this budding blog appears to be turning into the repeated tales of a blogger being showered with gifts from folks all over the internet... but these posts are LONG overdue. The folks who sent me all this great stuff really deserve a big thank you, so I'm dedicated to making sure they get it. 

I want to take a moment to thank the Trash Man over at "Pop Pop! It's Trash Culture" for the awesome package he sent me shortly before Christmas this past December. I felt like such a heel because not only did I not get him anything... I snuck into his house and stole his last can of Who-Hash on Christmas night. FYI Trash Man looks like this when he wakes up in the middle of the night:

"...there's a light on this tree that won't light on one side.
So I'm taking it home to my workshop, my dear.
I'll fix it up there, then I'll bring it back--
You know what? Just shut up and get back in bed." 

But that is neither here nor there. What IS here? This pile of goody-goody-goodies:

As you can see, he was yet again very generous to me, and intuitive to boot as to what would make me squeal like a little girl with bladder control issues. Let's take a closer look shall we:

First up, Trash Man always knows that one of my greatest weaknesses is Choose Your Own Adventure Books. And so, here we have CYOA #66: Secret of the Ninja. In the same vein, we also have Wizards, Warriors, and You Book 2: The Siege of the Dragonriders. I am a HUGE fan of gaming books in general (gaming books = books that require you to make choices and turn to corresponding pages ala CYOA) and I've never read a WW&Y book before so I am intrigued to be sure. Nothing takes me back to my childhood and/or teen years better than a good gaming book. Nothing says "I have maturity issues" like an overweight 35-year-old reading a CYOA on the bus during his morning commute. Like a BOSS. 

Next up... another particular obsession of mine (of course) Golden Books! And not just any Golden Books, but Darkwing Duck and Sesame Street Golden books! I received two copies of "The Silly Canine Caper" starring Darkwing, and "The Day Snuffy Had the Sniffles". I'm not going to go into great detail over why I've become so obsessed with Golden Books right now, as I have a planned upcoming post about them... but suffice it to say that Trash Man has me dead to rights. Because that's what makes this the hottest blog on the NET. Golden books. 

Probably one of my absolute favorite themes in the package was the small collection of Garbage Pail Kids stuff! Trash Man sent me a pair of vintage GPK buttons featuring Crater Chris and Janet Planet. These are destined for the ceiling of my car where all of my other buttons live. There was also a 4-pack of GPK MiniKins which are sooo reminiscent of the old GPK Cheap Toys (With Crummy Candy) that I've made it my life's mission to own them all. I... don't have a lot of legitimate goals like most people. 

Speaking of... Trash Man also included THIS!!! I'm almost 100% sure it's some sort of bootleg... but that just makes it COOLER. This is Petey Graffiti (or New Wave Dave if you're into that sort of thing) from the old Cheap Toys line in a rubbery yellow that I'm certain the toys were never officially produced in. I'm showing him side-by-side with my flesh-colored Petey (He's not actually smaller... I just suck at scaling photos). The yellow is vaguely reminiscent of something produced by the human body... like phlegm or ear-wax or pus or something vaguely upsetting of that nature. I LOVE IT. 

Next up, Trash Man included a cannister of Trash Pack figurines. My two sons collect these like CRAZY so I actually let them have the figurines while I kept the packaging for myself. While I do have a handful of these of my own... I can't afford to go whole-hog into collecting them or I will literally drive my wife insane. But I appreciate their pedigree, to be sure, with ancestors (or at least inspiration) including Madballs and MUSCLE Things certainly. They're like the bastard descendents of Monster in My Pocket and Garbage Pail Kids. They are a welcome addition to my family, THAT'S for sure. 

Here you see a set of ghosts with the most! The two viloently purple and orange fellows in the front are a pair of Real Ghostbusters toys from when I was a kid. These are actually spring loaded traps that bite down on Ray, Egon and the others. Open their mouths to set them and then touch their tongues to snap the trap. I used to torture myself as a kid by snapping them on my fingers repeatedly. I was some sort of pain freak at an early age. Man those suckers left a mark on my knuckles. ANYWAY. Then we have Beetlejuice there in the middle. I remember Trash Man posting about this guy on his own blog at one point, and being fiercely jealous of him. Now he's MINE. This is Beetlejuice from the animated series, and he appears to be "snake-charming" a Sandworm. I love this rubber figurine with a fearsome passion that rivals the love of a mama bear and her cubs. Is that weird? It doesn't feel weird. It feels RIGHT.

Probably the most AMAZING item to come out of that box was this INTACT piece of glassware. Another of my fatal flaws is a deep love for all things McDonaldLand, and the collector's glasses are a HUGE piece of that. GRIMACE YOU GUYS. I don't even care that he seems creepily somnambulant in this image, in a sort of "I'm approaching you like a Romero Zombie but with NOSTALGIA" kind of way... I love this glass with every fiber of my being. I actually know right this moment where I can go and find a Hamburglar glass for 3 dollars... and now that I own Grimace and Ronald... I may need to make the 1.5 hour pilgrimage out to buy it sometime this weekend. Or actually next weekend. 

After I get paid. 

And I get permission from my wife. 

This motley trio from left to right: Plutor from the Trash Bag Bunch, a Two-Face vehicle Happy Meal premium, and a Battle Beast that has been painted in some sort of bizarre black and gray camouflage pattern. I was convinced at first that the guy on the far left was a Z-Bot to begin with... and it turns out I was close. Galoob was responsible for both the Trash Bag Bunch and the Z-Bots lines. In fact Plutor here was produced in 1991 and the Z-Bots debuted in 1992. I'm genuinely shocked that Galoob didn't reuse the mold for the Z-Bots line. In fact, a number of the Trash Bag Bunch figures (yet ANOTHER mini-fig line that I failed to collect for some reason, and that would have been PERFECT for me... I mean I collected the HECK out of Monster in My Pocket, and they came out in 1990!) would have made perfect Z-bots. The Two-Face vehicle actually transforms a little so you can flip over the front and rear of the car to show good and evil qualities. Aaaaand... I'm seriously thinking about trying to strip the paint OFF of this Battle Beast... but I'm not sure I can do it without ruining the original paint job. I hope that Brian didn't paint this thing specially for me because I would hate to think that I am stifling his artistic voice. But hey. Omelet. Eggs.  

Who is the most adorable Anti-Life equation hunting lord of Apokolips? This Darkseid from the Funko Pop! line, that's who! What is hilarious about this you ask randomly without really knowing why except for narrative reasons? Let me tell you! I stood in Hot Topic the first week of December and AGONIZED over whether or not I should buy this guy for myself. I ultimately decided not to at that time because I don't have a ton of DC Funko stuff (or didn't at the time anyway) and even though he's a Jack Kirby boy and ultimately one of if not THE baddest BAD-@$$ of the DCU... I just wasn't sure where he'd fit in with my collection... and I wanted some Funko Horror Classics figures more. So I bought those instead. But I have never been so excited as I was the day I heard the BOOM and saw my package from the Trash Man drop from a tube in the sky because I knew that Darkseid was here to STAY. I have to say, he is beautiful. I plan on buying a Funko Hordak to go up with him and the two shall have an EPIC friendship to last the AGES!!! Plus, Darkseid rocks that go-go girl outfit pretty nicely. He looks like an Austin Powers fembot a little bit.

And HOLY COW IT'S... that OTHER... transforming... Masters of the Universe... rock guy... (Googles for a moment)... Stonedar! Now I have the pair!!! I have a pair of stones!!! They really have a great heft in my hands. This is actually, seriously one of my favorite things in the box (not counting all my other favorite things in the box) because I LOVE tracking down old MotU toys! And Trash Man gets that! I love that he gets that! And I love that I have the TWO transforming MotU rock guys now! (I recently found Rokkon in my HUGE MotU/Goodwill score back in mid-December) I love how stoic and disinterested he appears to be... as if he had a hard made of... something... hard and cold... I got nothing.  

And last but definitely NOT least... a Funko Horror Classics Mini-fig! This came sealed and they are blind-boxed, so Trash Man didn't know he'd sent me Jason Voorhees... but I couldn't be happier!!! There were only a very small handful of these that I really felt were MUST-haves... and Jason was one. I can now add him to my collection including Pennywise the Clown and Sam from Trick R' Treat! I wasn't initially a huge fan of what they'd done stylistically with these characters, but I have to admit having them in hand, in person, they look VERY cool. Jason here looks ready to go menace some of my other mini-figures, like the Indiana Jones crew or whomever... Ch-ch-ch... Ah-ah-ah...

So Oh MY GOSH that about wraps up this post! What a haul! The Trash Man is an incredibly generous gift-giver, and I will have to find the time and the resources to put together a fitting thank you package sometime in the future. Be sure to check out his blog over at Pop Pop! It's Trash Culture, and keep your eyes peeled for our future plans for a big Gremlins blogging event coming up this Summer! ALSO at the time of this posting, he is currently starting up another one of his EPIC Trash giveaways... which are filled with ANYTHING BUT TRASH!!! Go enter the contest right away!!! I really can't begin to thank him enough for all he's given me, stuff-wise and blogging-buddy-wise as well. I truly appreciate his humor, his heart, and his... h... he... haiiir...style...? Some other h word. Thank you man. I truly mean it.

The next post I plop on here will be about the package I received from a certain Texan Lady who I also adore... so keep your eyes peeled dear readers! It's gonna get random up in here.

Randomly Received: The Boo Bobby Blogger Box

All right... the time has come. I am officially getting ready to delete the content from Really Rather Random Guy (dot blogspot dot com) and in preparing for that, I wanted to import a bunch of the content that I know will then be lost forever, by bringing the posts over here to Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks (dot blogspot dot com). So, with that in mind, I thought I would preface these entries with the fact that they are indeed OLD blog posts from an OLD, now DEFUNCT blog, and cross my fingers and hope that folks will still want to read them.

This post was originally published back on January 30th, 2014.

So... this package showed up. And it was from my friend Laura over at the Boo Bobby Blog. If you've never been to the Boo Bobby Blog, you really should go and check it out. It is a sort of combination between a slice-of-life confessional blog and a "hey look at this cool stuff I found for CHEAP!!!" sort of blog. And somewhere between those two is where the magic happens. I dare you not to go over there and simply fall in love with Laura and her husband Jerome, and their kids and their friends. Join them for a family game night of charades or out roller-skating, and then see how Laura has decorated the built-in bookshelf in their new house with cool vintage toys and kitschy knick-knacks that you've seen a million times at old antique stores but NEVER LIKE THIS. I have so much respect for Laura and her natural photography talents and her easy, effortless way of writing like she's talking directly to you. It ENRAGES me with pure JEALOUSY that her blog is so ridiculously good. 

And then she sent me some stuff in the mail and it just made it WORSE because she's GENEROUS TOOOO!!! Will she stop at nothing? Let's take a look at what she sent me, shall we?

First up, we have to take a look at the decorations on the box. I get the feeling that Laura literally doodled on this package while she stood in line at the post office and did I mention that she is also an incredibly talented artist who recreates giant-sized Disney-and-other-kids'-characters decorations for parties? 

Spider-Man, ladies and gentlemen. And we haven't even gotten INSIDE THE BOX YET.

Here we go! Look at this pile of goodies y'all! Let's look closer.

First up we have these adorable little Mini Bean Sesame Street Characters! Laura and I share a deep and abiding love of all things Sesame, and she knew these little guys would be a shot right through the heart! Bert and Ernie are great, that's a given... but a Twiddle Bug? Come on! That is the cat's pajamas people! What a random character to give the mini-bean treatment! I love it!

Next up are these seasonal Snoopies. These guys are just spectacular. I actually have a bunch of these Snoopies for the Christmas tree already... but amazingly NONE of these ones! And the Halloween Snoopy stirring a bubbling cauldron of green slime? Excellent. These are Russel Stover premiums that were (and may still be...) sold attached to little boxes of chocolates around their respective holidays. Obviously the Christmas ones are meant to be hung on the tree. 

Mini-figures! Little plastic guys! Gotta love these. I've seen these featured all over the internet in the last couple of years. The bigger guys, the astronauts, Turtle/snail/alien guys, and the white robot are all from a set of Tim Mee toys "Galaxy Laser Team" figures which I must now track down the rest of. The little tiny arm men? No idea. But I LOVE them. I mean, look at those beautiful bast**ds. 

Laura is a big fan of old, kitschy items and uses them in ALL of her decorating. So naturally this overflows into her Christmas decorating as well. So it was no surprise at all to me to find these fun little guys included. These are going on the tree next year! 

Muppets and rodents are both woven intricately into my life. Laura is yet another of my online friends brave enough to mail me glassware. This Rizzo the Rat juice glass is actually a Smuckers Jelly jar from back around '99, promoting "Muppets from Space". The mice are... well they're just mice. But they're PULL-BACK mice!!! 

I had a bunch of these Dick Tracy action figures as a kid. I think I liked them back then because they were made by Play-Mates in the same style as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures. I had them pretty much working for the Shredder and Big Boss from C.O.P.S. (both of whom, in my imaginary universe answered to Hordak). I wasn't a huge fan of the Dick Tracy movie, but I loved the bizarre nature of the gangsters in the Dick Tracy canon. They weren't quite supervillains... but they were close enough. And most of them ended up with powers when I played with them anyway. Flattop was one of my absolute favorites! This is a straight-up blast from my past! 

I think this is probably my #1 favorite item from the package. ZOAR!!! Laura knows of my deep and abiding love for all things MotU and this little lady-bird is proof of it! Fun-fact: Zoar started off as a boy-bird, and a completely independent character on his own in the mini-comics packaged with the action figures. Then he became a lady-bird when it was revealed on the TV show that this was an alternate form of the Sorceress. When I was just a little guy I actually pulled the wings completely off of my Zoar and cried for DAYS. I probably won't be doing the same with this one. But I am a huge man-child... so who knows?

Aaaand now we're onto the REAL reason you people come to my blog... The freaky-tiki stuff. Or in my case, the Advertising Mascot soft-goods. These oven mitts featuring the Poppin' Fresh Doughboy and Sprout are honest-to-goodness ALWAYS going to be on display in my cave. There will be no scorch marks or boil-over stains for these mint-condition mitts! These paw protectors are staying pristine! And Mr. Peanut? Well I have documented in depth my love for this chap. He's going on the shelf with the other bean-bag mascots. 

Who ya gonna fall... asleep on??? That was terrible. But this pillow case isn't terrible at all! I'm assuming this was from a Real Ghostbusters (cartoon) sheet set... but I really don't know. (I'm so lazy... hold on.. I'm Googling it...) Yes! RGB indeed! loveLoveLOVE the Real Ghostbusters cartoon and toys and memorabilia... so this one is a real coup! Not sure if I'll display it or just go ahead and USE it! I'm leaning towards using it though. I ALWAYS forget to check the bedding sections at second-hand places but I totally should because I'd love to find some old Star Wars sheets or Ghostbusters, or even California Raisins! 

Christmas Golden books! Here we have the version of the Night Before Christmas that I remember the best from when I was a kid... Disney's Santa's Toy Shop, which is loads of good fun, and Frosty the Snow Man! If I'm being honest, this version of Frosty always creeped me out. I couldn't really put my finger on why until it dawned on me: The weird coal-chips for lips. They look... sinister in some way. 

And a couple of non-seasonal Golden Books, including "I Think That It Is Wonderful" from the Sesame Street collection, and "The Neatos and the Litterbugs in the Mystery of the Missing Ticket" which sort of sounds like there would be other mysteries in the series, right? Like Nancy Drew in the Mystery of the Cackling Cankles (or whatever) is just one in a series. But nope. This is the only appearance I can find of the Neatos and the Litterbugs, mystery solving or otherwise. It looks fun though. 

And this is a book about Mountain Monsters. Because Laura just... "gets" me.

And look at this thing. This is a vintage Christmas Card in which Laura wrote an incredible message to me in AND bemoaned the fact that she was defacing a beautiful vintage Christmas card! I felt her pain believe me, but I'm so glad I was card-worthy, because this beautiful reindeer has earned itself a spot among the valuable wall-space items of the CAVE. I only have 4 Christmas cards hung up in my cave, and this is one of those 4. Because... look at it. Just LOOK. Bask in its glorious light. 

Welp... that's it for this addition of RRRG kiddos! I want to send a huge THANK YOU!!! Out to Laura at the Boo Bobby Blog for the amazing gift-package. I LOVED it. Everything you sent me was obviously thought about and considered for quite a while before selecting it to be included. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. It was so thoughtful! 

I'll be back soon with a reveal of the new-and-improved Geek-Cave, which has been undergoing renovations since I revealed it last year! I'm pretty excited with the semi-new look (although a lot of it remains mainly unchanged... there's still a LOT to share!) and I can't wait to post about it here! Before that happens I may hop on here and post some stuff about books I like, or characters I've been thinking about, or heck my favorite flavors of Jelly Beans... who knows? Keep 'em peeled here folks!

Random Buys of a Random Guy: Battle Cat and More at the Schoolhouse Antiques Mall

All right... the time has come. I am officially getting ready to delete the content from Really Rather Random Guy (dot blogspot dot com) and in preparing for that, I wanted to import a bunch of the content that I know will then be lost forever, by bringing the posts over here to Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks (dot blogspot dot com). So, with that in mind, I thought I would preface these entries with the fact that they are indeed OLD blog posts from an OLD, now DEFUNCT blog, and cross my fingers and hope that folks will still want to read them.

This post was originally published on February 4th, 2014. 

Shortly before Christmas I went hunting for an elusive place out in Brewer, ME called the School House Antique Mall. I had heard there were some old Battle-Cats to be found there, so I decided to go check it out. I've tried to find the place before, but since I am terrible at directions, I had failed on two previous attempts to locate it. But third time was the charm (finally had to stop at a Gas Station and ask for supplementary directions)!

And they said Ziggy couldn't still be relevant...

I WISH I had picture-taking capabilities on my iPod at the time, because it was SO much more than I was expecting! I didn't find much on the ground floor, but moving up to the second I entered a room that was floor-to-ceiling with old 80's toys! Mostly dolls to be honest, but PLENTY of cool stuff to catch my eye, including some fantastic old Fisher-Price Little People pieces and buckets upon buckets of dirty old 90's action figures. I didn't buy too much because as fun as it was to look, a lot of the stuff there was a bit over-priced. I did come away with a few items I just couldn't leave behind. 

First up is this Muppet Babies Fozzy Happy Meal figurine. He originally came with a wheeled ride-on horsey but I didn't really care that his was missing. I saw a Miss Piggy figurine there as well, but she was three dollars (what?) where Fozzy here was only one. So Fozzy came home, and that little Piggy stayed at market. Gonzo and Kermit were very happy to have their fuzzy buddy on the shelf with them. 

Next up are a couple of Fisher-Price Little People. A cowboy/jungle safari sort of character (need to look him up) and a second circus clown to go along with the one I already had. I pretty much picked up the clown because I loved him, and the cowboy because he was so cheap. The clown set me back 2 dollars on his own, but was worth it. The cowboy-or-whatever-he-is was another 1 dollar purchase!

And of course, the whole point of the journey was Battle Cat! I found a set of Battle Cat armor in my big Castle Grayskull find just the weekend prior to my trip out to the School House, so leaving without a Battle Cat to put in it seemed foolish. There were actually 3 Battle cats for sale. This one was 3 dollars, and had just the tip of his tail snapped off. There was another identical Battle cat there for 3.50 (and yes, identical implies that his tail was also snapped off). The one Battle cat there with his tail intact was 8 dollars, so I decided to save myself 5 bucks and buy this one. 

I will literally look for any excuse to show this stuff off.
I'm... pretty shameless.

So here's a shot of He-Man on his properly attired (and finally present) Battle Cat!

This is the whole pile of loot, including the very old Tom and Jerry Christmas Golden Book that I for some reason neglected to get an individual picture of (and only paid 2 dollars for). I was way more impressed just looking around the School House than I was with m actual purchases there, but the next time I go I will have picture-taking capabilities back and I will be sure to share what I see there! 

That's it for tonight gang, but I'll be back with more randomness soon enough. Keep your peepers peeled here 'til then! 

Goodwill Finds: Stridor, Cowboy Curtis, Softhead Leo

Here's a pile of goodies from a trip I  made to the Bangor, ME Goodwill just a few months ago. I'm going to be honest and tell you all that I skipped a bunch of other much more boring posts that I have stored in the archives to write about this stuff. I just couldn't force myself to write about a bunch of lackluster Happy Meal toys or mediocre Little Golden Books tonight. So I went looking for something more exciting. And now here we are. 

Here's the grand pile of junk I brought home from Bangor. LEt's take a closer look, shall we?

Remember back before the Star Wars prequel trilogy came along and messed up everything? I don't just mean the story or the canon or the continuity. I mean all the other merchandise too. Remember when you could buy books and things that didn't try to awkwardly shoehorn in reminders that Hayden Christensen exists somewhere in the timeline? Well these books do. They remember a simpler time when all that existed was a ragtag group of rebels and their hyperventilating archnemesis. I LIKE THESE BOOKS.

I picked up a handful of other books as well. A novelization of Disney's "Oliver and Company" for one. An interesting-looking Dungeons and Dragons themed memoir by Mark Barrowcliffe, "The Elfish Gene" and a collection of ghost tales from Daniel Cohen called "Railway Ghosts and Highway Horrors," which has been added to my Halloween Read Pile. Altogether not a boring trio of books by any means.

I found a sort-of-carded (the blister was stapled to the card) Cowboy Curtis from the NECA reproductions of the 80s Pee-Wee's Playhouse toys. I liberated him from his poorly preserved plastic prison and shelved him with the Miss Yvonne I received from Miss M of Diary of a Dorkette. These repros were done in 2007 but you would almost never know it.

This was a fun find. It's a plastic Hershey's Kiss container done up to look like a Jack O'Lantern. The year on the bottom is 1990, so this little fella's been around for awhile. Unfortunately he is missing the Hershey's Kisses sticker that used to be his nose. But I don't mind. I honestly kind of like him better without it.

Of all my finds I think this was my favorite. Far from complete (and it matters not at all to me) this Stridor toy is from the old Masters of the Universe series. He's missing his headpiece, his tail, and his guns on either side are broken... but the effect is still there: STRIDOR!!! I always desperately wanted a Stridor as a kid, but never got one. So now... I own him.

Finally, there was a grab-bag full of old action figures. Or some cases... pieces of them.

Roboto has a permanently broken arm. I'm not sure but I think I re-donated him to Goodwill. I already have one anyway. Another Sy-Klone and Clawful in marginally better shape (these were cleaned up and traded off) also a pair I already own.

With these guys I now owned Two and a Half Hordaks! A new sitcom coming this fall. Legless Hordak donated his armor to legged Hordak and took a trashcan dive. Legged Hordak took a trip to Canada.

This "Ninja Master" is a Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandoes action figure. He's a bad guy. Despite all that, I forgive him.

I was probably most excited to find this soft-headed Leonardo with his belt and one of his katanas. His bandana is a little chewed but again, I don't mind. (ALL of the action figures in this grab bag needed a BATH and they got one shortly after I got done photographing them... I just like to photograph things as fresh out of the grab-bag as possible...)

I also found this King Hiss! This is the second King Hiss I've found, but the first one with the torso disguise pieces. He's just missing his arm covers.

Yay for Goodwill! Yay for toys!

Well that's it for tonight kids! I'll be back with some more (probably slightly less exciting) Geeky Goodwill Goodies soon enough! Until then, Happy Hunting!