A Package from Miss M!!!

I have been a little MIA blog-wise for a little longer than I usually like to be... and there are several reasons for that, some real-life in nature, others blog related in general, as October creeps closer and closer. But it was not my intention to fall completely off the face of the earth in the meantime! I still have some content I desperately want to get posted before the last day of September... and I fear I won't get to it all. I will be trying to blog through November this year, so hopefully I'll get to a bit more of it before December and its prerequisite countdowns kick into gear. 

For now, I want to post about this awesome package that came to me in the mail from one of my absolute best friends on the internet, and my podcasting comrade-in-arms, Miss M!!! We along with our other good friends Brian (The Trash Man) and Jason are the forces combined behind the Eclectic Mayhem Podcast. 

Let's take a look at what the amazing Miss M of Diary of a Dorkette fame sent me, shall we? 

Here's a quick peek at the box itself. (Miss M always includes a card or handwritten note, which is extra awesome) Now let's look inside!

First up, M knows I have a lot of love in my heart for The California Raisins. So to express this love, she sent me a box of Valentines featuring the raisins, and four of the classic PVC figurines, two of which were Valentine's Day themed as well! I owned both of these heart-hugging heroes as a kid, and having them back in my collection really has me pleased. The two mallrat Raisin gals on the right were Hardee's premiums from the period of time near the end of the Raisin's run. These were some of the last figures produced as their popularity was beginning to wane. LOVE THESE!!!

Miss M also knows ho much I LOVE Sesame Street, and not only did Applause do some great PVC figures for the aforementioned Raisins, they also did a wonderful line of figures for the Street! I think my absolute favorite of the bunch is the Christmasy (or at least Wintery) Snuffleupagus.

Next up were these incredible Disney themed figures! I am a HUGE fan of Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears, so getting Sunny and Cubby Gummi here is very exciting! That Mickey figure has an awesome retro vibe to him as well that I just love.

Next up we have this groovy Frankenstein's Monster (I think it's him anyway... this may just be a ghoul or a zombie honestly... he's holding a skull and looks suspiciously stitch-free now that I look at him closer...) push puppet. I have a Halloween collection of these things that this will go along with beautifully!  And check out this Choose Your Own Adventure book "Terror on the Titanic!" I think this is the one where you get to choose if it's Jack or Rose that freezes or floats at the end. Based on the cover, Jack floating while Rose is left to freeze just may be the popular vote.

But this guy... THIS GUY. This is the true gem of this package. I loved EVERYTHING, don't get me wrong, but this is the item I was most tickled to receive. I mentioned wanting this guy on the episode of Eclectic Mayhem where we discussed Robots in pop culture. Miss M said she had an extra one she would toss my way, and MY DAY WAS MADE. This, for the uninitiated, is a Z-Bot from 1993. This specific one was from the series of Z-Bots given out as Burger King Kid's Club premiums:

And honestly, because of this, these are the only 5 Z-Bots I am interested in owning. Thing is, this guy here, "Bugeye" was the fifth and final Z-Bot I needed to complete the quintet! 

Back row, left to right: Skyviper and Turbine. Front Row, left to right: Jawbreaker, Bugeye, and Buzzsaw.

My deepest gratitude to Miss M for all the Geeky Goodies!!! She's got to be one of the most genuine, generous, honest, and friendly folks I have yet to meet in internet land. I am so lucky to be able to call her one of my friends, and I'll be putting together a little thank you package for her soon enough!

That's it for tonight kids! I'll be back sometime soonish with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies (or maybe another package...) soon enough! In the meantime, Happy Hunting!

This One's Honestly Kind of Lame, but I've Been Sitting On This Draft FOREVER and I don't Blame You if You Hate It.

Oh my gosh, this entry has been waiting for AGES to be written up and posted. Here's a quick stop into Goodwill from last year some time... My quick stops didn't used to involve combing through the books section, but now I usually at least scan them to see what's there. Hence, the small pile of books.

First I found this vintage package of "Mr. Doodler" non-toxic, washable markers from the 80's. Unfortunately, they are not the smelly kind... but I remember these from school when I was a kid, and surprisingly, they still (kind of...) work. So I bought 'em for .99 cents. 

I don't feel like writing up stuff about each and every one of these books, but most of these should be pretty obvious as to why I picked them up. All sci-fi, fantasy, and geek-speak stuff. The I, Steve book is all inspirational Steve Jobs quotes, 2001: A Space Odyssey is a novelization of the Stanley Kubrick film (although its pedigree is smudgy. It was developed by Clarke and Kubrick together, to be released after the film... and is technically based on the film... but it (and apparently the film) was also based on a bunch of Clarke's short stories). 1984. Never read it. Probably never going to get around to reading it... but now I can at least say I have no good excuse for not having read it... because I own it. 

I have been holding on to the first book in the Wyrd Museum trilogy for a while now, and I was almost on the verge of just getting rid of it... and then I found book #2... and now I have to try and make myself read these books about a magical museum... which sounds pretty great actually. But... so... many... books. Like this beautiful old paperback copy of the Tolkien Reader that I will probably never read either. But look at that thing.

I picked up this fun looking Gold Key Golden Comics Digest starring Tom and Jerry. Just look at that line-up! Droopy Dog! Still haven't read this one, but I am looking forward to it!!! And as always, there was a Golden Book starring Mickey Mouse that just HAD to come home with me as well.

The star of the show is this Hungry Hippos board from the 80's! Look at this thing! The ones you buy nowadays have the hippos that you can separate from the game for easy storage... actually no. That's the version our family bough back in the early 2000's. NOWADAYS, the game has been tainted by the "Elefun and Friends" branding because Hasbro realized that all of their animal-themed games needed their own shared universe.  

Look at this goofy b*stard. This was back in the days of "Henry," "Homer," "Harry," and "Happy" Hippo. But darned if they didn't ALL look so deliriously "Happy" back then. Man. Although... if you stare at his nostrils for too long it makes your eyes hurt a little. Don't do it.

All right kids, that's all I have for tonight. I'll be mack with some more Geeky Goodwill Goodies soon enough though! So until then, Happy Hunting!

Stuff I Found While I Was Looking Where I Don't Usually Look

Gotta say, now that I'm past October-December, it is nice to go back over all of the stuff I found in the past few months and finally get a chance to write about them. Today's post is a pile of Goodwill loot that I found because I took a dive into a few sections of the store that I don't usually bother with (aaaand some stuff in the sections where I usually do... because I won't NOT look where I usually do too). 

First up, I found some great vinyl records: 

First up we have this incredible Mickey Mouse Disco record. I love this idea of Disco being represented by a bunch of the Disney characters back in the 70's. This album was put out in 1979 so really Disco was pretty much done by this point... but still.

Seeing Horace and Clarabelle cutting a rug here beside Chip n' Dale and Donald and Daisy warms the cockles of my heart to be sure. I have not bothered to search it, but I am curious to see if the version of "Chim Chim Cher-ee" included on this album is some sort of Disco remix (in which case... weird) or is simply included in its original form (in which case.. weirder... right?).

Now let's jump ahead to 1982 and get into a little Mousercise!!! As we saw with the Disco phenomena, Disney gladly jumped aboard the Jazzercise wagon.  Again though, with a song selection called "Tweedledee and Tweedledum" I have to beg the question if the song is the original from Alice in Wonderland, or a "jazzed up!" version.

I find it hilarious that there appear to be a pair of Silly Symphony bugs Mousercising at the bottom of the picture on the back.

When I come across a Sesame Street Album, I can't pass it up. It's just not in my DNA. And this one looks so familiar that I would ALMOST swear I owned it as a kid. I know I had some Sesame Street Albums.

Then there was this even older Sesame Street record with an included book. On the cover there you can see Mr. Hooper, and Matt Robinson as Gordon!

The book inside is in HORRIBLE condition, but here's one of the better page, depicting the lyrics for the song "Green" and shows an interaction between Kermit and Grover. I MISS the days when Kermit was a Sesame Street Muppet as well as a Muppet Show Muppet.

Here is a later Sesame Street Album "Sing the hit songs of Sesame Street" which features yet another Gordon, Hal Miller this time, on the cover! All-total, four different actors have portrayed Gordon on Sesame Street.

Finally there was "Merry Christmas Sesame Street" which I definitely had as a kid. I distinctly remember being SO disturbed by the gold beads in Bert's mouth.

Here's the interior of the gatefold cover. LOVE this spread! The illustrations are so great, and Roosevelt Franklin makes not one, but TWO appearances!

I also found this Playmobil Pirates Take-Along Dungeon. There were no pirates inside, but that's okay because I really just wanted it for:

These guys! You may recognize them from the League of Extraordinary Bloggers Post I did about pirates back in 2013... If not, you should click that link and give it a read, I give the complete background of these awesome pirate dudes there.

As per usual, I found a few kids' books as well. Here we have a book based on the 80's cartoon adaptation of the Littles, "The Little Winner" and Darkwing Duck's "Clean Money". 

"Safe All Day With the Happies" is a horrific book of consequences. I LOVE THIS.

Here's a picture of a kid falling down the stairs after playing on them. "The Happies do not like broken arms!" HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! 

Love it. 

I usually give the DVD section a cursory glance and then move on. There's usually not much there except for old copies of the third disc from a boxed set of Friends season seven box set... or "The Period of Purple Crying" informational dvds (look it up for yourself... but I see A LOT of these at Goodwill) but I was shocked to discover some stuff I actually wanted to buy in this section this time around! First up I found DVD copies of "The Dream Team" and "Mallrats" which had me VERY ecstatic! I don't know if you remember Dream Team, but that movie was once upon a time one of my very favorites. It made me think that crazy people could team up like superheroes and achieve ANYTHING. Mallrats is a Kevin Smith classic, and I haven't seen it pretty much since it came out. But I'm looking forward to revisiting it.

But wait! There's more! TV movie "Gargoyles" which looks like stupid, schlocky TV-PG horror at its finest! I will probably throw this on as a part of some sort of Horror marathon when Fall gets here. I also found the complete Third season of "The Batman" which I never watched even once when it was on, and don't own the first two seasons of... but you gotta start somewhere right?

...Right?

And finally, "Garfield and Friends: Behind the Scenes" which is a nice way for me to pay homage to the cartoon series from when I was a kid without actually having to buy the entire series on DVD. I loves me some animated Garfield all right!

Well that's it kids! It really paid off for me to check the records and DVDs with a bit more enthusiasm than I usually reserve for those sections because I found some pretty neat stuff! That's all I have to show off for tonight, but I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies, so until then: Happy Hunting!

Books and a Grab-Bag (More Than) Two Bits!

Hey there guys and gals! Today I'm just doing a little one. Focusing on one grab-bag and some books I picked up a while ago. 

Here's the obligatory "pile pic" so let's get digging in shall we?

A couple of lovely Halloween-themed Little Golden Books... which you can never have too many of! Here we have Scooby-Doo! The Haunted Carnival and Walt Disney's Mickey and Friends Haunted Halloween! Yes, Scrappy makes an appearance in the Scooby-Doo book... But I've decided finally that I do NOT hate Scrappy-Doo the way most of the population seems to. I never had a real problem with Scrappy. I think it's funny how much of a punchline he's become these days, sure... but I don't think he deserves all of the ire he seems to inspire. I have no real strong feelings about Mickey and Friends to share with you at this time. Sorry.

This is quite possibly the most exciting itme I picked up at Goodwill on this particular trip. A "Hawaii Five-O" novel Top Secret! No idea if I will EVER read this book, but look at how GORGEOUS IT IS. Hawaiian Crime is better than ANY other crime. Because it's prettier.

Here are the contents of the grab-bag. Pretty junky as you can see, but I picked it up for .99 cents specifically for one item and one item alone. (Not the Spongebob, I already had that one...) There's a bunch of this junk you're not even going to get a closer look at... and I apologize in advance if that's really what you find disappointing about this post.

Nope, not this army of plastic bugs... though they are pretty sweet.

Nope. Not this AWESOME bubble watch with a dinosaur floating around in what is undoubtedly "dino-brine" as we watch a chuckling crowd of dinosaurs in the background certainly awaiting their extinction level event to erupt. (My fingers. They are wrinkly.)

Not... this stuff... either. (Although Star Wars slinky? I ain't complainin'!)

It was this cold-hearted bastard that I was after!!! Mr. Freeze from the LEGO Batman Happy Meal toy line! Doesn't he look just exquisite? I LOVE him! Totally worth the .99 cents just on his own, nevermind the other tchotchkes in the bag! Not bad for a little quicky post huh!?

That's really it kids! All I've got for now anyway! I'l be back soon enough with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies though! So until then, Happy Hunting!