A Package from the Trash Man!

You may have noticed by now that I have a habit of waiting waaay too long to thank people for stuff they've sent me. If you haven't noticed this, then you are about to notice. Maybe you're new here. 

So this post is going to be all about a package sent to me by my good friend Brian Farrell, otherwise known as the "Trash Man" curator of the Pop Pop! It's Trash Culture blog. He sends me stuff from time to time, and I return the favor from time to time. Let's dig in and see what he sent to me this time, shall we? 

First up, Brian and I try to help each other out as much as we can. Since he knows I don't frequent comic shops (there are none easily accessible in my area), and this Nebula MiniMate was a comic shop exclusive, I asked Brian if he would snag one for me if he could and save me the cost of going eBay-diving for it. As usual, Brian came through and really did me a solid. I am super appreciative, as this completed my GotG MiniMates collection.

My one complaint with this MiniMates line is that they made a duplicate Sakaar Trooper when they could have made the Collector, Korath, Corpsman Dey or even Nova Prime. There were several criminally overlooked characters that could have been packed in exclusively with Nebula. Oh well, at least the Sakaar Trooper is an army builder, so it works.

Also included was this View-MAster circa 1980-something, and some slides to view, starring none other than Toy Story, Knight Rider and the Muppets!!!

It would be weird if there were no collectors' cards included in a package from Brian, and he did NOT disappoint. I suspect very strongly that this Fright Flicks wax pack was hand-picked for me due to my absolute adoration of Pumpkinhead. I have not opened it. This is one of the wax packs that I will be keeping unopened and intact as an objet d'art.

I DID open the Marvel Universe Series II pack so I could see what characters I got. This series has always stood out in my mind due to some of the cards being illustrated beautifully by Arthur Adams. Thanos, Dr Doom, Speedball, and a battle between the Thing and the Hulk all have Mr. Adams's distinctive art on display.

Brian also knows of my weakness for Choose Your Own Adventure books. So he knew that Museum of the Living Dead, which is a "Plot-It-Yourself Horror Story" and Demons of the Deep which is a "Fighting Fantasy Gamebook" (Steve Jackson of Gurps and Munchkins fame???) would be right up my alley!

Also included were these issues of the (in my opinion) BEST Cloak and Dagger comic book series of all time: Strange Tales Featuring: Cloak & Dagger and Doctor Strange!!! This one even features Power Pack! Three more issues to put towards completing my run!

This Goodebumps-style book may not seem remarkable to you... but if you look closer you see there's just nothing right about this cover at all.

Gah, I bet it smells awful in there. 

Some of the absolute BEST and surprising items in the box were this Battle Beast, "Tarsier Tyrant" and this Monster in My Pocket, "Bigfoot". Both of these toy lines were ones I collected as a lad. Here you can see Tarsier Tyrant about to pimp-slap Bigfoot. 

He owes him money. 

But my absolute FAVORITE items above all else in the box were these three items right here. A 1988 issue of MAD magazine, featuring the California Raisins on the cover, the first California Raisins cassette "The California Raisins Sing the Hit Songs," and a "it-just-occured-to-me-how-weird-this-is-as-an-adult" pin-on button of the California Raisins all climbing into a hot tub together, that I actually owned as a kid. I am a HUGE California Raisins fan. There are few properties that I have such strong and clearly remembered nostalgia for the way I do for the C.R.'s. As a kid, I was obsessed.

So that was the entire package sent to me by the Trash Man, and as usual, he knows what makes me geek out. I wanted to send a proper thank you out to him, for being such a good friend on top of the cool swag.

Be sure to listen to us, along with our buddies Miss M of the Diary of a Dorkette blog, and Jason Roberts of the Nerdy Life of Mine blog on our fledgling podcast Eclectic Mayhem. At this point we're only a few episodes in, but we make up for it with pure insanity.

Well, that's all I've got for tonight kids! I'll be back soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies, so until then, Happy Hunting!

Goodwill Geek Mail-Bag: John Gaither is Awesome. No really.

So... I've made a few friends around the internet lately. I send them things. They send me things. And sometimes... when other people send those people things... they send those things on to me. 

I've blogged before about the Trash Man doing giveaways over at Pop Pop! It's Trash Culture! These giveaways are epic. There are toys in them, and old collectibles... and comic books... and movies... and tchotchkes  galore. They are just crammed with stuff. Amazing stuff. 

I won the first of such giveaways, and a kind gentleman named John Gaither, of the Clawful Punch blog won the second one. And I lost the second one... and then I received a consolation pack for losing the second one... and then I secretly won the second one anyway, because a bunch of the stuff Jon won in his prize lack didn't fit his collection. AND HE GAVE IT TO ME:

Originally, John offered me a handful of Monster in My Pocket figures. I gladly accepted. But when the package actually arrived... well there was quite a bit more stuff in that box than just MiMPs. Everything you see above was hiding in that beautiful box. I will now talk about all of it in depth, and in graphic detail that lets you know EXACTLY how much I love these toys. 

First up, let's look at the LEGO-style mini-figures. We have some Mega-Bloks mini-figs from back when they still had the Marvel license. The Sandman, Mr. Fantastic, Captain America, and Spider-Man are all in attendance. The red guy on the end is a HALO guy... but since I don't play video games for the most part, I have no idea if it's Master Chef or a Master Shepard or whatever (ha! I don't know video game character names! I'm like an old person!) Then the soldier on the far left is a soldier that appears to be from the Character Builder line. He's pretty bad-ass and adorable at the same time. My absolute favorites of the bunch are the LEGO Yoda key-chain and the Kre-O Sunstorm. 

Mini-figures!!! Left to right we have 5 Monster in My Pocket figures. The yellow guy in the very back and the two leg-wrestling fellows are from (I BELIEVE) the "Kinnikuman Ultimate Muscle Kinkeshi" line. There's a hot-pink King Castor from the O.M.F.G. line, and a soft-rubber kinkeshi figure in light pink next to him. NO IDEA who the translucent blue guy is, but I absolutely adore him. 

To finish up the toy-portion of the package, we have a Super Mario Brothers red mushroom tin. On the right of him is some sort of squishy rubber battling virus figure (he came with the card you see him satnding on... but it's in another language...) The kung-fu guy up from is another Fisftul of Power figure, and the guy in the weird hazmat suit to the left of him? I don't recognize him. You can see an old Dick Tracy PVC figurine towering above all of them (I had this one when I was younger) and the most amazing piece of them all? The Dino Riders Termite figure on the far, far left there. This is one of the exact figures I owned and ADORED as a kid. I liked this particular figure so much that I didn't want him to be a villain. So he defected over to the good-guys team. He and my purple Construx Alien and my Adventure People X-Ray Man would go on space adventures together ALL the TIME. John featured him in a HILARIOUS post over on his blog before he sent him on to me. Please do yourself a favor and click on that link. I think my favorite shot is of Termite looking longingly out the window at the end.

And finally, a bunch of cool odds and ends. That Frankenstein Magazine is a treasure trove of old monster-movie GOLD that I will be poring over for quite a while. I don't want to open the Voltron Tattoos or the Pee-Wee's Playhouse Funpak... so those will remain sealed (for now). You can see a whole slew of wax-packs along the bottom there including Alf (!) Alien, Gremlins 2, Ghostbusters 2, Harry and the Hendersons, and 21 Jumpstreet! All cool. There's a trio of awesome pins featuring Thanos, Gumbi, and what I believe is a Reverse Flash symbol? Then a Dick Tracy novelization, and a Godzilla vs. Biollante DVD round out the awesomeness. 

So John went over-board... which just made it that much easier for me to send off a pack of junk his way as well (which I had already been planning to do before he beat me to the punch!). It was incredibly kind and generous of him to share his Pop Pop! Trash Culture "One Man's Trash" prize pack with me. I also want to indirectly thank the Trash Man for putting on his monthly give-aways. He is giving out NOSTALGIA GOLD over there people!!! 

BUT I also feel it bears repeating: John Gaither is Awesome!

No, really! 

That's it for me you guys! I'll be back soon to show off some Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!

Day 23: Goodwill Grab-Bag Beetlejuice Edition!

A few months back, before I had ever even dreamed of writing and maintaining a blog, I found an excellent, excellent grab-bag at goodwill. I've detailed some of the other excellent grab-bags I've found including various different Masters of the Universe and other 80's toys in them... But I've been holding back on showcasing this particular one because I knew at some point I was going to want them for a Halloween post.

Only some of the items in this grab-bag were semi-Halloween themed... so I'll start with the three that have NOTHING to do with Halloween at all. (Unless you count the hockey mask... which I guess I sort of do... but then I guess I have to count the other two as... Easter?)

Casy Jones, Ace Duck, and Usagi Yojimbo

See More After the Jump.