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!

Creepmas Day 12: A Few Leftovers

So this year I'm celebrating Creepmas! 

From the 13 Days of Creepmas website: 

"A reaction to the continuing incursion of Christmas into Autumn and Halloween, CREEPMAS is a good-natured chance for Halloween lovers to exact revenge by bringing some spooky good cheer into the holidays or, more appropriately, the Hallowdays..." Read more about the inspirations behind this 13 day celebration HERE. 

So for today's post I'm pretty much just going to throw in everything I either forgot to include in earlier posts or I didn't really have room for in earlier posts. 

First up is this Hotwheels "Street Creeper" which they put out as as a part of their 2013 Holiday Hotwheels selection. I don't usually pick these up (though I've bought myself 2 of the 2014 selection so far...) but last year I just HAD to pick this one up because it so perfectly embodies the spirit of Creepmas! It's a horror themed Hotwheels dragster done up in Christmas colors! What's not to love?

Next up, Darth Vader might not be considered a "horror" villain... but a super-powered murderer he most certainly IS. So dressing him up as Santa Claus most definitely fits the bill as something Creepmas-y. I would NOT want to see this guy sliding down the chimney in the middle of the night. This is a Funko bobblehead from 2009 that my wife picked up for me.

Of all the winter and Christmas-themed GPK out there (about 10 as evidenced by these Topps Licensed GPK Holiday Greeting Cards) this is the only one I own. I do have one of the "Where are they now?" cards for Sandy Clod... but I'm not a big fan of those cards, and so I chose not to include it here. Instead you have Snotty Dotty/Frozen Flo #386 originally from the old 1987 run... here presented as a 3D card that was included in the 2011 Flashback series 2 set. For some reason m camera REFUSED to get a clear picture of this card, which may be due to its lenticular/3D nature. Who knows. 

My Darryl Dixon (of AMC's Walking Dead fame) ornament had not been added to the tree when I did my Christmas Zombies post a few days back. So I include him now. He's really just one of those Funko Pop! mini keychains that just came out this year, with a Santa's hat added for some festivity. But it works (don't mind the Dunkin Donuts Munchkins ornament, I don't believe it in any way takes away from the full manliness of Darryl, having it there).

This is my recently purchased (this past summer) shambling mound figure from the old Dungeons and Dragons line produced in 1982. He is wearing a Santa's hat and dragging a bloody sack behind him. I only have a vague idea of why I put this together. What I WANTED to do was find a Krampus toy. But apparently you can buy action figures of Will Shakespeare, a Cat Lady, or even Joss Whedon... but not Krampus. So instead of Krampus I decided to make my own Christmas Monster. If I'd really thought about it, I would have decked him out like a Christmas tree... but hindsight is unfortunately 20/20 in this case and nothing more. Suffice it to say however that this guy is definitely out looking for naughty nerds this season... so you better be good for goodness sake!

There was one more book I had planned to write about, Dean Marney's The Christmas Tree That Ate My Mother. But I couldn't really drum up a whole post about killer Christmas trees. Apparently this is the first book in a series of books detailing various holiday items that try to eat people. Skimming through the text this looks like a fun, quick read. I may try it out. 

Also new this year is this sugar-skull blown-glass ornament that we picked up at Target for my daughter. This thing is glittered-out to the max. It simply brings the right feeling of the macabre to the tree that we just love.

Today I'll leave you with a link to iHorror.com's 8 Holiday Horror Films You Need to Watch This Month (from 2013) aaaand just for the heck of it... a link to the search for "Creepmas" on Pinterest.

Happy 13 days of Creepmas! I'll be back tomorrow with the final entry in the countdown, which may or may not involve a Goodwill Goody! Until then, Happy Hunting!

Creepmas Day 4: Christmas Vampires!

So this year I'm celebrating Creepmas! 

From the 13 Days of Creepmas website: 

"A reaction to the continuing incursion of Christmas into Autumn and Halloween, CREEPMAS is a good-natured chance for Halloween lovers to exact revenge by bringing some spooky good cheer into the holidays or, more appropriately, the Hallowdays..." Read more about the inspirations behind this 13 day celebration HERE. 

Today I thought I'd feature one of my "homemade" ornaments, which are really just toys I've stuck some Christmas-y items to and then put hangers on to hang on the tree. I've really only made a couple of these that have a horror theme that fit well with the Creepmas theme, and today we'll be featuring my Dracula ornament.  

As you can see, Dracula is wearing his Santa's hat here. Which makes him Christmas-y. 'Nuff said. 

I've featured this book, "The Vampire Who Came For Christmas" on the blog before, but I feel like the time is ripe to remind everyone that it exists. The titular vampire is named "Zander" and he's not such a bad guy. He doesn't want to be an evil vampire anymore. 

And finally, while looking to see if there were any other ties between Christmas and vampires in folklore or legend, I discovered vampire watermelons and pumpkins. Apparently according to Romani legend, if a pumpkin or watermelon is left out for 10 days after Christmas, they become vampires. 

So apparently things can escalate pretty suddenly from this: 

To this:

So get those pumpkins in the trash before Christmas people!

Happy 13 days of Creepmas! I'll be back tomorrow with another entry in the countdown, which may or may not involve a Goodwill Goody! Until then, Happy Hunting!

December 5: The 23 Items of Christmas

Today's Item? 

A Sebastian the Crab Christmas Ornament from 1989! I paid 1.99 for this little guy, and he came with original box.

This was put out by McDonalds the same year the movie came out. The Little Mermaid was the movie credited with starting Disney's animation "renaissance" and Ariel the Mermaid was hella hot (to 11 year old me) and I had a huge crush on her. I was aware she was a cartoon at the time... yes. This did not matter to me at the time. I realize now of course that things probably wouldn't have worked out between us.

I have no idea why the image with this song is a picture of Baloo's ass in his grass skirt (I see a little crack there, right? I'm not imagining that?) but here is a version of Deck the Halls sung by Sebastian the Crab.

I'll be back with more Ever-Green Goodwill Goodies soon... so until then, Holly-Jolly Hunting!

December 3: The 23 Items of Christmas: Merry Geekmas!

It's League of Extraordinary Bloggers Time Again!

Every week, the members of the League of Extraordinary Bloggers all join in on blogging about the same topic, and spend some time checking out and sharing each other's posts. It's all great fun, and this week, we have an appropriately festive topic:

Merry Geekmas! Write or photograph something festive and pop culture oriented.

Which.. c'mon... that's a pretty broad topic, right? I could fit just about ANYTHING in here now... but my original post for today was going to be a bit simpler, a bit more modest in scope... and I just don't feel like the League deserves that. So instead I decided to go with:

Homemade* ornaments! I'll be featuring a handful of ornaments that I put together myself for the tree that reflect my family's love of pop-culture!

* Homemade suggests a certain amount of arts and crafts on my part. Today you will see that when I say "homemade" I really mean "I glued something to it, and put a hook-eye in its head with some festive string to hang it."

So first up we have the Green Lantern! My middle son and I like watching this show together, and since this Happy Meal toy of Hal Jordan looks like he's using his power ring to create a little Christmas tree, it was a no-brainer! I hung a little green star off the side, poked a hook-eye in the top of the "tree" and voila! Christmas ornament! My son got to hang this one up this year, and he was so excited to have Green Lantern on the tree! 

See more "homemade" ornaments after the jump!