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! 

Countdown to Halloween Day 16: Ceramics and Blow-molds and Wax! Oh my!

I would like to officially welcome you to the hump day of October. We are officially halfway to Halloween! To celebrate, let's look at some crap I picked up second hand for the season! 

Here is my obligatory loot pile shot. Let's paw around in it to see what's in there though, okay?

Let's start with the ceramics. I think I love the pumpkin headed child holding the pumpkin between its legs the best. It has a weirdness to it that feels a little cute, but also a little eerie as well. The big green alien head is an incense burner where you put the incense in the tray under the alien's head and the smoke drifts out three holes in the top of its head. I'm not a huge alien fan to be honest, but LOOK AT THIS THING. How could I not bring that thing home? And look how sincere that pumpkin on the right looks. Sincerity as far as the eye can see. Had to buy that cute little guy. 

A couple of cool licensed kids' books with some Halloween themes to them. "Doug's Vampire Caper" takes place on Halloween, and involves Doug genuinely believing that his middle school friend has become a vampire. While Baby Kermit is apparently Afraid of the Dark. Can you blame him with that night-light?

Check out these blowmold pumpkin guys! The pail on the left is nice, sure, and I do love it... but that guy on the right? He takes it HOME. I love his top hat, and the fact that he "works" according to the pricetag. 

I also picked up some "kids walking by haunted houses" chapter books. I haven't cracked the spine on either one, I literally picked these up for the covers alone. "The Clues Kids: The Ghost of Shockly Manor" has THE best Halloween-y cover of almost any book I've picked up this season. I'm not sure what "Magic Word Mysteries" I'll be solving myself either, but I hope they all have a creepy slant to them.

These things are ridiculous, and they feel fun and festive and crafty. Their enormous underbites invite folks to fill them with candy and these things are just gorgeous. I really don't have a ton more to say about them than that to be honest. 

A couple more spoooky books. I thought I might add "Eerie Animals" to next year's Halloween Read Pile, and I might check out "Demon Keeper" a bit sooner than all that.

Really kicking myself for not getting a picture of the backside of these guys because they are some of those weird rubber finger puppets like the ones you used to be able to get forever ago that looked like a cross between vaudeville performers and those guys from "The Hills Have Eyes". Except, these ones are Halloween themed!

These are a couple of shrink-wrapped candles from Topstone. This is a company that also produced a lot of cheap versions of more expensive hollywood-style horror masks. And that really sums up everything I know about Topstone. I love that the guy on the left sort of looks like he had herpes and is wearing a gimp suit. While the guy on the right seems to be one of those cheap imitations of Madballs that they used to sell in quarter machines back in the 80's, except done in wax.

I almost didn't buy this, but come on. It's Beavis! TP for my bunghole! Corn-holio! Are you threatening me? All the good times.

And finally, my 4 year old LOVES Hello Kitty, so I bought this for him. I haven't given it to him yet, but when I do, he is sure to lose his little MIND. I am excited.

So that's it for tonight kids! I'll be back son with some Gnarly Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Haunting!

Remember, I'm doing this countdown as a part of the official Countdown to Halloween, so be sure to pop over there and look and see who else is participating this year.

Oh No. It's a Book One (But there are Ewoks! And Gobots! and Muppet Babies!)

Alright: Full disclosure. This is a book post. Bear with me though, there are some pretty good finds in here. 

Here's a quick look at the first half of the pile.

Here's a quick look at the second half of the pile. LET'S RIDE!!!

First up, the nearly obligatory Little Golden Books. I have SERIOUSLY been thinking about purging my collection for awhile now and really prioritizing what I keep... but I will NEVER not want adaptations of Pixar films. It seems like Toy Story 3 is very divisive amongst the Pixar fans... I personally loved it and thought it made for a perfect wrap up of the series. 

That was of course... before they announced Toy Story 4 was a thing. 

A couple of chapter books in Lloyd Alexander's "The Beggar Queen" and Peter Abrahams's "Behind the Curtain," an Echo Falls Mystery. I still haven't read the first Echo Falls Mystery, "Down the Rabbit Hole," but these look interesting. Lloyd Alexander books that I don't already own are always a must-buy.

Next up a couple of kids' adaptations of 90's films near and dear to all our hearts. Home Alone and Jurassic Park! I don't really have a ton to say about these two... just really liked finding them!

A Casper and Wendy book that I plan on passing along... maybe... if my kids don't like it... and "The Littles and the Missing Cat." I always forget how much I actually liked the Littles cartoon as a kid. It went some weird places for sure.

A couple of Don Bluth books here, was have "All Dogs Go the Heaven: Charlie's Friends" and "An American Tail: Tony and Fievel" I must say again... I really have nothing majorly important to state about these guys. I did LOVE most Don Bluth films with all my childhood heart though... the storytelling, the bizarre characters, the interesting twists. All Dogs Go to Heaven especially was a weird one, but one I loved nonetheless. It is a movie that just couldn't get made nowadays. It's too distressing, too blunt in places. Too raw and real while also being bizarrely fantastical.

And "The Land Before Time," man this one was amazing. The heyday of Bluth animation was distilled in this set of three films plus The Secret of NIMH. Do I own all of these movies? If not I gotta track them down. 

Next up was this nice set of "Monster Chronicle" books, one about werewolves, one about Vampires. I'll probably be digging a bit deeper into these two as a part of my countdown to Halloween next month, so keep your eyes peeled for that!

I have already read "Would You Like To Play Hide & Seek In This Book With Lovable, Furry Old Grover?" about 40 times since this trip to Goodwill. My boys (especially my 4 year old) LOVE it! They interact with the book as expected, and laugh almost all the way through. This one's a classic. Interactive Sesame Street books with incredibly charming artwork, like "There's a Monster At the End of This Book" were pretty prevalent back when this came out. Aaaaand... I kind of hated myself IMMEDIATELY after buying this adaptation of "Herbie Rides Again!"

"Sesame Street: A Celebration of 40 Years of Life on the Street" was an incredibly awesome find for me! Just looking at the cover makes me smile. You have the likes of Frazzle and Farley and Don Music rubbing elbows with modern characters like Zoe and Murray. That's pretty awesome. This book resides in a place of honor on my shelf. 

It blew my 6 year-old, Star Wars-obsessed son's brains out his ears when he found out that there were two movies based solely around the Ewoks. He's an Ewoks fan, so this was kind of big news. He was even more excited to see that I had brought home a BOOK based on the first film! 

A BUNCH of Muppet Babies books! I really loved the Muppet Babies as a kid. This was one of my favorite shows. I probably got more of my initial exposure to the Muppets from the Babies cartoon (and the movies) than I did the actual Muppet show. 

GOBOTS BOOKS!!! I was a Gobots kid, meaning I owned more Gobots than Transformers as a kid (And I'm not even getting into the Rock Lords, which I've discussed here before... and which will probably be discussed again veeeery shortly...). I was not a Transformers kid at all really, except in that I occasionally watched the cartoon. So finding not ONE but TWO books based on the Gobots made me mist up just a little bit. And finding out that the interior art was done by Steve Ditko? Even if it wasn't exactly his greatest work ever... was a fun treat! 

Finally, I have sad TIME and TIME AGAIN that I DO NOT COLLECT VHS tapes. But when you encounter "Gobots: Battle of the Rock Lords" and "MTV: Liquid Television" VHS tapes just sort of kicking around the ol' Goodwill... and you have friends that collect VHS... you buy those things. You buy them HARD. Honestly, I kind of wish I'd kept these now... at least the Rock Lords one, even though I DON'T COLLECT VHS!!! But I know they are in a good home with someone who values them. So I try not to obsess. 

All right kids! That's it for tonight! I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies (and October Eve is on its way!!!) so until that time, Happy Hunting! 

Eclectic Mayhem Special: The Big Saturday Morning Post!

So I don't talk about it a TON here on the blog, but I have mentioned before that I am a part of the Eclectic Mayhem Podcast along with my friends Brian, Jason, and Miss M... and we recently did an episode where we talked about our ULTIMATE Saturday Morning television lineups. 

One of the tasks that our host, Brian (of Pop Pop! It's Trash Culture fame) gave us during the episode, was to try and actually watch some of our lineups, and then blog about that experience. So I'm just NOW getting around to that. (It's late I know, but I can't be ridiculously early like my cohort Jason of Nerdy Life of Mine was... or just generally on time like Miss M of Diary of a Dorkette was... Imma be me.)

I found the lion's share of my episodes on Youtube, and sat down to watch some of them with my two sons, who are currently 4 and 6 years old. Before I did into the meat of our viewing, I thought I'd post the listings here (The League of Extraordinary Bloggers did a challenge relating to this topic a while back, when there was still a League, and my post for that challenge was very similar, but in some important ways, also pretty different. You can read that here.)

7:00 – Teen Wolf 

7:30 – Real Ghostbusters 

8:00 – TMNT

8:30 – Thundercats

9:00 – Dungeons & Dragons

9:30 – Galaxy High

10:00 – Captain N

10:30 – Kid Video

11:00 – Muppet Babies

11:30 – Punky Brewster

So as you can see, my lineup kicks things off with Teen-Wolf, the animated series. This was a short-lived show from my youth that lasted only two original seasons. But what seasons they were! I was in LOVE with werewolves as a kid, thanks MOSTLY to this cartoon. 

Hearing the classic "Beware Scott! When the moon is full..." sent a shiver of pure joy down my spine. My kids seemed to really enjoy this too! The episode I wanted to watch was the one where a magical spell allows Scott's younger sister, Lupe, into a werewolf. She is too young to know yet if she can turn into one yet, and she desperately wants to be one. This episode was not to be found on youtube however, so I settled for the episode where she brings home a Moon Rock for her science project and we learn that having a chunk of the moon so close to a family of werewolves is never a good idea. 

The kids really dug the show, as I had hoped they would, and I found it held up pretty well, all things considered. These are all broken up into three parts on youtube, so I'm posting the first third here for your enjoyment. 

Next, The Real Ghostbusters!

Truth be told, I cheated a bit on this one. I watched this one on my own, and kind of skipped through the slow parts because my boys and I have been watching The Real Ghostbusters on DVD in the past 6 months or so, and I suspected they might not sit through it again. I picked "The Boogeyman Cometh" because it is one of my absolute FAVORITE episodes of this show from my childhood. The Boogeyman is INSANELY scary, and is a perfect example of how creative this show could get. 

There is a part of me that kind of enjoys the Real Ghostbusters cartoon just a little bit more than the movies, if I'm being 100% honest. I know the entire internet just collectively gasped and made some sort of evil-warding symbol in my direction... but let me explain. When I was a kid I had waaay more of a connection to the cartoon and the action figure line than I did to the movies, which ind of terrified me, to make another embarrassing confession. Don't get me wrong though, I LOVE the Ghostbusters films. But back then, the Real Ghostbusters were... well... the REAL Ghostbusters to me. And so they still feel a little bit like that to me now as an adult. 

Up next: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

My kids are definitely not loving the classic TMNT as much as they like the Nicktoons version of the show. And while this brought me back to some extremely cool memories... I kind of have to agree with them. This episode features one of my favorite TMNT villains of all time though: Baxter Stockman! This goofy homage to Vincent Price's "The Fly" is also one of my favorite action figures of all time! 

I always used to LOVE using my Krang action figure and doing his voice as a kid. He had such a distinctive way of talking and I was convinced that my impression of his was DEAD on. Watching this episode brought me right back to those days, playing with my action figures. 

Next Up: Thundercats! 

I have talked on here about how awesome the Thundercats opening sequence is, and believe it or not, this was the FIRST TIME I had ever introduced this to my kids! And just as I had hoped... it LITERALLY melted their faces off. This episode features "Mandora the Evil Chaser" which was a ridiculously unwieldy name for a space cop. But Mandora was cool and she schools Lion-O more than once throughout the episode. 

Next up: A huge leap forward to Muppet Babies! 

So the kids were getting a little restless at this point, and we hadn't yet gotten to the show I REALLY wanted them to see at this point: The episode of Muppet Babies where the kids are given a video recorder to play with and they do what any nursery full of children would normally do: They make Star Wars! 

My kids are going through a massive Star Wars phase right now, and just like when I was a kid, I thought they would get a huge kick out of seeing the Muppet Babies do their own version of the story. And they did! This episode also brought me back to my childhood with the atomic blast of a nostalgia bomb. It was incredible! They totally did not understand why the Death Star was a tomato, even after I explained the whole bit involving Fozzie being terrified of tomatoes because of the throwing-tomatoes-at-bad-comedians thing. But that was about it. Otherwise the only other comment (from my 6 year old) was "There's no way they had all that stuff in their play room. It looks too good." My son understands production values and the struggles of the independent film maker. 

At some point I really want to get them back into this and show them the magic of Captain N: The Game Master, if nothing else. But I honestly feel like they would like just about ALL of the shows in my line-up. 

So what about you? What cartoons would you want to watch from 7 in the morning until GOLF comes on at 12? Let me know in the comments below, or HECK, write a blog post about it! If you end up doing that, toss a link in the comments below, or tweet your link to @EclecticMayhem4 on Twitter, or post it to our page for Eclectic Mayhem on Facebook! Or do all three! I'm all about the elf-promotion! (Hey... also follow us on those things, plus subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, and leave us a review!!! M'kay?)

So that's it for tonight kiddos! I'll be back sooner than soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies (or other nonsense). Only 83 days left until Halloween! Until then, Happy Hunting!

A Geek-Load of Books

All right... consider this your warning: This post is going to be LOADED with mostly books. Absolutely no toys. So if that's not your thing... turn back now. But I hope you don'! There's some pretty fun and funny book finds this time around! Stick around and check it out! 

This is everything, all piled together. Last chance to turn back!

First up a couple of cassette tapes. "The Carpenters: And Old Fashioned Christmas" and the self-titled "New Kids on the Block" cassette! Not a whole lot to say about either of these, honestly... I'll probably have more to say about the Carpenters when December rolls back around. I was never a huge New Kids fan, but I do have a certain amount of nostalgia for them since I had friends (or friends with older sisters) who LOVED these guys. Look at those clothes. And mullets!

Roger Zelazny is hands down one of my top 5 authors, so the rare occasion where I find a book of his that I don't already own is pretty great. Isle of the Dead looks to be a great read in typical Zelazny fashion. I never read SeinLanguage when it was really popular, so I'll be interested to see what I think of it when I finally crack the spine on this one. Seinfeld was one of my favorite sitcoms (as it was for most folks I guess) at a certain point in my life.

Choose YOur Own Adventures very rarely DON'T make it home with me, so Grave Robbers should come as no surprise... and although I am a self-avowed X-Men fanatic from waaay back, it is rare that I pick up comic book novels. This one, Prisoner X, is written by Anne Nocenti and involves the Mojoverse however... so it's just a no-brainer this time.

I realized I don't already own the Little Golden Book version of Mickey's Christmas Carol. So... fixed that finally. Phew. I also found this HILARIOUSLY racist copy of Bugs Bunny and the Indians which is also a Little Golden Book which has been stripped of its Golden spine. How racist is it?

It's THIS racist.

A couple of Muppet-family books to be excited about: a Muppet Babies paper dolls book, and Imagine... Big Bird Meets Santa Claus which I feel is a bit wishy-washy honestly. I get that they're trying to be "honest" here by going with the whole "IMAGINE" concept... but if you want to avoid having to acknowledge the existence of beloved mythical holiday characters (by having them interact with your "real" giant bird puppet character. Ahem.) maybe just try not cashing in on them at all?

Sorry for how blurry this one came out... probably the very best finds out of this lot and I got a crummy picture of them which I didn't realize until much later. Ah well. There's a Real Ghostbusters Pop-Up book The Birthday Ghost, and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles junior novel, Sky High. I'll go way more in-depth into the pop-up book in the future sometime. It's in good shape, but the pop-ups are really low-effort and kind of lack-luster honestly. But still a fun find! And anything TMNT is always welcome!

Well that's it kids! That's all he wrote! See, that wasn't too bad was it? Some pretty neat books in the pile, right? I thought so. I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!