Payday Friday: Goodwill Finds!

So payday Friday happened on May 23rd. For those of you not "in the know" I almost always stop off at Goodwill on my way home on Payday Fridays. (I also stop off on non-payday Fridays, some Wednesdays, sometimes Saturdays, and any other day of the week... given the opportunity.) Here's a look at what I picked up on my way home from work when I stopped off at Goodwill:

Some books (there's ALWAYS books...) but also a couple of semi-fun grab-bags this time around. All of the books in this post cost me .99 cent apiece. Let's take a closer look shall we?

First up from the kid's book department we have The DUNE Storybook from 1984. I have a terrible confession to make: I have never seen this movie! I have STILL not read the book/s and I ONLY picked this book up because I knew it was from the 80's and I couldn't just leave it there. But I WILL see this movie... I just don't know how soon. Then we have a Little Golden Book that I very distinctly remember owning when I was a kid, Tweety Plays Catch the Puddy Tat, which obviously starred Sylvester and Tweety. It was memorable for this moment: 

Which TERRIFIED me. I also distinctly recall wondering why the witch's skin was green but the nose was ruddy pink. Also, I know Tweety is a bird, and is only pretending to be a witch here, but how exactly is he flying? 

Next up a couple of fun CYOA finds... first up, the very first Choose Your Own Adventure story: The Cave of Time albeit the 19th printing. I don't mind though this copy is from 1986 and will still play through just as well in its 19th printing as its first. I would like to find one with the original cover artwork at some point, but again, that's not really all that important to me. And even though I'm not much of a Star Trek fan, I can't hide the fact that I TOTALLY GEEKED OUT when I found this "Which Way Book" starring the crew of the Enterprise in Voyage to Adventure. 

The first of my two grab-bags cost me 1.99 and only had these two items in them. But they're enough! These are toys from Safari Ltd, one of those toy companies that specializes in solid plastic figures in lines such as dinosaurs, jungle animals, and fantasy creatures. Here we have their example of a griffin and a "lucky dragon" which looks endlessly familiar... Anyway, these types of toys usually run for around 10 to 15 dollars... so getting these for about a buck apiece is pretty awesome. 

Ironically, the next grab-bag had way more in it, and only cost me .99 cents. I'm going to completely ignore the Little People furniture, because it's not of the type I collect, the Kung-Fu panda toy because I already own it, and the orange maraca. Let's focus on the other stuff. 

I have already owned two of these Oscar the Grouch Garbage 'Delivery' trucks in the past, and sent one of those off to a buddy. Still, I'm glad to bring another one home. I'll be finding him a good owner in the near future, I'm sure. The blue and pink fellow next to him is a Moosel figure from the Wuzzles line back in 1985. I really liked the wuzzles as a kid, but I never owned any of the toys, so this is a sort of retroactive geek-out. 

The other two items of note from this particular grab-bag are Finn from the recent Adventure Time McDonald's Happy Meals premiums, and Gary from Spongebob, also a Happy Meal toy, from back in 2012. I wanted to get more of the Adventure Time toys when they came out, but I only ended up with a couple of them. I'm still on the look-out for a bendy Jake figure too. Getting to add this sword-wielding Fin to my collection is the next best thing. I am a pretty big fan of Spongebob, regardless of how much people seem to have grown tired of it. I still find the show funny, classic-yet-innovative, and mind-bending. Spongebob is one of the forebears of the entire trend of cool animated shows (like Adventure Time!) that we see nowadays, and I appreciate him for it. This is a roller-blading Gary with a sweat-band... so I'm pretty pleased. 

My final find of the day was this old Monopoly game from 1946 or so (had to do some research online for this one). I am NOT a huge Monopoly fan, but the siren call of this ancient boardgame would just not be ignored. I actually paid 6.99 for this, which is the most I've paid for any one thing at Goodwill in a very long time. 

I examined it in the store and yet didn't notice that the game-board itself was not included. Don't know how I overlooked that. I think this was one of those rare occasions that I tricked myself into thinking I was buying something that was "worth something" other than to just myself. This is the sort of thing that ALWAYS happens when I let this type of thinking influence my buying at Goodwill. I still really like the fact that I have such an old edition of the game, but I don't think I'm going to hang onto it for long. You can see this old version of the game came with wooden character pawns instead of the metal ones we use today (this is legit, these are not just random pieces someone included in the game before donating it... Research.) I think the jade-green dice included are from some other game, but other than the dice and THE BOARD ITSELF, this game is pretty neat and complete. 

Well, that's it for now kids! I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies! So until then, Happy Hunting!  

Payday Friday: Oh Thank the Gods for Toys

Last Friday was payday for me at work. As regular readers of the blog may already know, I try to make it to Goodwill every Payday Friday. It usually turns into a pretty intensive visit, lasting sometimes well over an hour or two. This is because instead of quickly scanning the toy section and book section, I search more in-depth, and I comb every section of the store for Geek-tastic items. The last couple of visits were a bit of a let-down, and I still have yet to make another epic find like the bag of vintage Masters of the Universe figures... but this payday Friday wasn't a total dry-hump either. 

First I'll get the Little Golden Books out of the way. Almost every single one of these books is older than me or from the early 80's. I was able to get all of the old price tags you see in the picture off without any damage. These were all .99 cents apiece. 

To wrap up the books I also picked up the fourth book in Garth Nix's Seventh Tower series: Above the Veil. Plus The Chocolate Touch which is the cover I remember from when I was a kid. Loved it back then, might try reading it to my sons to see what they think of it when they're a little older. 

BONUS! Found this bookmark inside The Chocolate Touch. I've mentioned before how much I like finding little personal touches in the books and things I buy at Goodwill. This was a nice surprise. 

Moving on from the books to toys... I picked up a grab-bag containing these 4 items for just .99 cents. I did NOT buy it for the Owl figurine or the plastic peach. They will be returning to Goodwill. Nope, I actually bought it for the action figure. There was however an unexpected surprise: 

This green plastic boat is a TOMY toy from 1978. It is as old as I am. Once upon a time it had a wind-up outboard motor on the back, but I don't mind that it's missing. Check out that kick-ass swordfish decal on the side!

Meet Bane. Not Bane from the Dark Knight Rises of last year... but the Bane from the 1996 Batman & Robin movie. For such a crappy movie version of the character, the figure kind of rocks. And if Google is any indicator, it's pretty hard to find this toy anywhere. He's not the standard version of the figure, but instead came in a Brains vs. Brawn 2-pack with a Batman figure. This version of the character looks like he's had extensive work done on him by both Poison Ivy AND Mr. Freeze, if the translucent limbs on both sides of his body are any indicator. He's all icy translucent blue and silver on his right side, and vine-y translucent green on his left. There's a part of me that LOVES this guy... and I couldn't begin to tell you why. 

Next... ANOTHER GRAB-BAG!?!?!?!? Whoah. And this one is truly cool. Just look at these for a moment. Soak 'em in. Again, this grab bag also only cost me .99 cents. 

  

First up we have Red the Fraggle in a Radish car. McDonalds did this series of Fraggle cars back in '88. 

She goes great with the Wembley and Boober car that I talked about back in September. I've never been as much of a Fraggle Rock fan as I was the Muppets or Sesame Street, but I still love them as a Henson creation. 

A Spike the Dragon from the vintage My Little Pony line. This is going in my wife's craft room with the other vintage MLP's I've managed to dig up for her in my travels. Having a hard time pinning down exactly when this particular version was produced, as the eyes are wrong for him to be the original version. 

This is Francis the Bulldog from 1988's Oliver and Company. It is also a McDonalds Happy Meal finger-puppet for children with fingers as thin as knitting needles. He's cute, but not anything I really care about. He's probably going to get turned into another Christmas ornament for my wife because she loves the movie, but does not love having a ton of old toys (other than MLPs) cluttering up her craft room. 

This is probably the most intensely exciting toy in the grab-bag, even considering how excited I was about the Fraggle car. This is an All Dogs Go to Heaven toy!!! This is King Gator, the Alligator that sings a duet with Charlie in the New Orleans sewers. He originally came from a Wendy's kid's meal back in 1980. I LOVED ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN. I was fully drinking the Don Bluth Kool-Aid back then, and I loved A.D.G.T.H. along with the Secret of NIMH, The Land Before Time, and An American Tail. What was weird was that I understood even as a child that these were NOT Disney films. These were Don Bluth films, and that seemed like a serious competitor for Disney to me back then. King Gator was one of the best and weirdest sequences in a DEEPLY WEIRD movie, and I am so crazy glad I have a figurine of him to add to the cave. 

   

Last up, I found this Mr. Peanut Christmas tin from last Christmas as I knew I ultimately would when I debated buying it at Wal-Mart last Christmas when it was something like 15 dollars full of exotic nuts that I did not care about. 

As I mentioned in my recent California Raisins post, I love the new Mr. Peanut (and dedicated a whole post to him last Christmas when I talked about both of the tins pictured above). So I don't really feel the need to gush over it... but the fact that I got it for .99 cents, saving myself something like 14 dollars or so (I can't remember how much it cost honestly) makes me pretty glad that I frequent Goodwill so much. The new Mr. Peanut hasn't done any more TV ads lately that I know of, but he's been keeping busy:

That's it for me tonight kids! I'll be back with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies soon enough though! until then, Happy Hunting!

Payday Friday 02-15-2013

Today I'm going to tell you about my last payday Friday, which happened back on the day right after Valentine's day. It wasn't as amazing as the LAST last Payday Friday, which was so epic I dedicated Not just one post... not just two posts... or THREE posts... but a whole week of four posts to it... but I still made a handful of finds that I was really pleased with just the same. I'm saving the very best for last... so if you're just here for the pretty pitchers, scroll on down to the bottom. 

First off, I'll start with one of the 2 grab-bags I picked up. There was quite the mix in there for 2.99. You can see the whole pile here on the left, and a couple of Pokemon on the right (there were actually 2 identical Pikachus in the mix, but I forgot to include the other one.)

Then there were these 3 sets of Hercules Happy Meal toys. I've never seen the movie, and I'm not sure who everyone here is... but I think the blue guy is the centaur villain, and the other two shells are Titans... Zeus, Hera, and a satyr (wasn't he voiced by Danny DeVito or something?) I think I like the rocky two-headed Titan guy the best out of all of these. 

The reason this grab-bag actually made it home with me are these Batman Returns Happy Meal toys. There's only the front half of the Batmobile (which fires out of the back end) and the Catwoman toy looks like a hungry dog chewed the crap out of it (I already have one, luckily...) but the Batman and Penguin vehicles look amazing. I'm especially in love with the colors on the Penguin's car. The blue and yellow penguin and the hypno-umbrella on the front... It just does it for me. So when I really face facts, I spent the 2.99 on those 2 items alone. Not the best deal I've ever made... but considering I would have happily paid .99 cents for each of them had I found them separately, I only overpaid by about a dollar. 

Here's a couple of YA books I picked up to check out. I've never read any of the Deltora books, but this is a compendium of monsters, which I just can't resist. The lush full color illustrations and pages packed with bizarre monsters just begging to be adapted for D&D... right up my alley. The Key to Rondo is a magical-world-accessed-by-some-weird-old-antique story starring some kids. I paid .99 cents for each of these. 

Here is another item I was particularly excited about. Death is a Lonely Business by Ray Bradbury in Hardcover was a nice  pick-up for 1.99. 

I can't even tell you how long I've been meaning to pick up this movie. So finding a copy of "Gladiator" at Goodwill for 2.99 was pretty spiffy. 

The last (and best) things I found on this trip to Goodwill were in this grab-bag full of Happy Meal toys for 2.99. And not just ANY Happy Meal Toys, but the transforming food toys from the late 80's and early 90's... "Changeables"!!! Some of these are robots, some of these are dinosaurs, and some of these...  

...are just weird only semi-transforming anthropomorphisized food items named Milly Milk and Otis Sandwich, from the Food Fundamentals line... who appear to be promoting a healthy life-style you clearly won't have if you are eating at McDonalds... not really Changeables at all. 

So here's this set of Changeables Dinosaurs that transform into McDonald's foodstuffs. Top row, left to right we see Big Mac-O-Saurus Rex, Quarter Pounder With Cheese-O-Saur, McNuggets-O-Saurus, and Hot Cakes-O-Dactyl. Across the bottom is Tri-Shake-Atops, Fry-ceratops, and Happy Meal-O-Don. 

Here we have some of the McRobots... Turbo Cone, Gallacta Pounder, and Krypto Cup. I had already gotten a few of the toys included this grab-bag from a semi-recent transaction I made with Brian over at Cool and Collected. A couple of them I had on hand already, so all total I already owned about 5 of the toys I found at Goodwill on Friday... but 7 toys I actually needed out of 12 ain't bad really.  

I plan on doing a post on my Happy Meal toys collection on here at some point very soon. These guys will make another appearance, and I'll feature the stuff I bought from Brian, along with some other stuff I had already, and/or found at Goodwill. 

For now though, that's all there is to report for last Payday. Between the Batman toys, a new-to-me Ray Bradbury novel, and those McDonalds Changeables I was pretty happy. 

I'll be back soon with more Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!

Payday Friday Week Continues: There's Always Books

I almost always come home with a pile of books from Goodwill, even when I come home with absolutely nothing else. This past Payday Friday was no different. There's always books. This trip was a little different though, in that there was an ABUNDANCE of geek-tacular books that set me a-drooling. It was like they had completely cleaned off the shelves and replaced everything with new stock. It wasn't all stuff I was interested, but it all looked different from times past visiting. 

First, I picked up a couple of books for my daughter. Dead is the New Black by Marlene Perez and Red unicorn by Tanith Lee both looked like they were right up her alley. They cost me 1.99 apiece. My daughter's in that young adult reading phase where magic, romance, and adventure tell some sort of coming of age tale. 

The next two books aren't geeky, I just thought they looked interesting. Leaving Las Vegas is the book by John O'Brien that inspired the movie. Dog On Itis a mystery novel told from the point of view of a dog. I am a sucker for mystery novels with interesting hooks like that. I paid 1.99 cents for Leaving Las Vegas, and Dog On It was.99 cents. 

I'll admit I just picked this book up because it looked old and kitschy. It's not worth much, but it is an adaptation of an old Disney film about a horse living in the 1870's. I paid .99 cents for it.

This just looked fun. I have no idea if the software will work on my computer (fingers crossed) but the interior art gives enough templates to build a bunch of cool looking robot paper-craft toys. I paid 1.99 for it. 

Now I'm getting into the stuff that I was genuinely excited about. The Houdini Box by Brian Selznick looks very promising. A beautifully illustrated novella about a boy who meets Harry Houdini and receives a mysterious gift from the famous escape artist. I paid .99 cents for this one, and honestly cannot wait to read it. 

As an Edward Gorey Enthusiast I was really pleased to find this collection of postcards with Gorey's handiwork on them. This has got a nice selection of pictures from Gashly Crumb Tinies among many other works. I paid 1.99 for it. 

Some of my first posts on this blog were dedicated to Ray Bradbury. I finally found a copy of the Martian Chronicles this past Payday Friday for .99 cents. Putting this on the Geek Classics reading list for sure. I'm always happy to find a nice Bradbury at Goodwill. 

Moving into the eye-meltingly awesome category we have a copy of Marjane Sartrapi's graphic novel, Persepolis. I've been meaning to buy a copy of this for a long while now, and finding a really nice copy of it at Goodwill, for 1.99... (NO wait that's half off because it has a blue sticker!!!) made me leap for joy. It's ALWAYS awesome finding some cheap graphic content at Goodwill. 

And finally, another awesome find that had me squeeeee-ing for joy was this copy of Stephen King's Cycle of the Werewolf illustrated by Berni Wrightson. I PAID .99 CENTS FOR THIS AWESOME BOOK!!! I love Cycle of the Werewolf the movie "Silver Bullet", which was based on it. 

Between all these books, and the grab-bags I featured yesterday, and the Fisher-Price Little People toys I featured the day before that... AND the stuff I still have in reserve for tomorrow... You can understand why I was drunk with Goodwill greatness, can't you? 

So... if I have power tomorrow, I'll be back with more Payday Friday Goodwill Goodies. If I don't have power, I'll be back sometime this weekend. Until then, Happy Hunting!