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!

A Whole New Bin of Awesome Pt. 3: Closing the Lid

So we're finally hitting the bottom of the Newest Bin of Awesome Stuff to have entered my life this past summer. This last post in the series of three (find part One here and part Two here) will be a sort of random mish-mash that makes up the final pile of stuff. There's a lot of junk in this post, but there are some legitimate awesome finds as well.

I will also finally reveal the toy that caused me to desperately WANT this bin upon seeing it, and finally deciding that paying 25 dollars for the whole lot was a deal I would be CRAZY to pass up... but more on that later.

I know that one of the toys that took me crashing back into my childhood the HARDEST was Dinah here. She is a "Tinosaur" from a 1986 McDonald's Happy Meal. I owned 4 or 5 of the 8 available Tinosaurs back in the day. They were a strange collection of non-licensed PVC characters that were dinosaurs, bizarre looking creatures, and a couple of primitive looking humanoids. Dinah was one of my very favorites, though I got a LOT of flack from other kids for loving her so much. She was generally regarded as either a girls' toy, a babies' toy, or both by my peers. But now I'm a grown-@$$ adult and I can own whatever toys I want. So nyah. 

This guy is named Maggot and he is from the Little Dracula action figure line, based on the cartoon of the same name. I have no idea what his background is... maybe a flasher who has a hard time getting his coat open because he has suction cups for hands? If you're into that sort of thing I guess. He's a fun little guy, but he eventually made his way on to another home.

Also included were these Aliens toys from the mid-90's. The one on the left is the "gorilla alien" and the one on the right is the "Scorpion alien" who unfortunately did not come to me complete. (he explodes when hit and some of his pieces are missing). These also had a new home destined for them as I am not a huge Aliens toys collector.

Next there were these Supernaturals action figures, produced by Tonka back in 1987. I never owned any of these as a kid because quite frankly they scared the pee out of me back then. The tall fellow on the left is a guy named Snakebite, and the shorter guy on the right is Weird Wolf. Snakebite has none of his accesories, including his headpiece, which resembles a cobra's hood, his chest piece, and his weapon. Weird Wolf, being a Ghostling pretty much came as you see him. (I found the holograms to be exceedingly difficult to photograph, so what you see is what you get... sorry).

To round out the action figure collection coming out of the bin, there were these guys from the Bucky O'Hare series. First up we have Bucky himself, and then Bruiser the Berzerker Baboon. I never owned any of the Bucky O'Hare action figures as a kid either, but they looked amazing, and seemed like they would fit in with the TMNT line perfectly. I haven't exactly become OBSESSED with this line, like I have with some others... but I definitely appreciate them and think I will be tracking more of them down in the future.

So here's the whole gang. These were the last of the action figures that I found in the bin.

But that certainly wasn't the end of the fun!!! These two Swamp Thing vehicles from 1990 were produced support the cartoon show. (None of the action figures in these pictures came from this bin... in fact, Swamp-Thing came from Goodwill and Anton Arcane came from an antique mall near here) 

I didn't own the March Buggy (left) or the Bayou Blaster (right) as a kid, but I did have a couple of the Swamp-Thing action figures!

Now for a bit of weird, and in some cases almost heart-breaking stuff. This Real Ghostbusters lunchbox was a huge disappointment considering the damage to the sticker on the front. If it just didn't have that cut going right down through Winston's face, I would have actually been pretty happy even if it was a little water-warped. Sigh.

There was this ancient toy cash register and this old erector set in the bin as well. Nothing I was all that excited by, to be honest. 

The accessories in the pile on the left here are all from the Sectaurs HYVE Playset. When I realized what they were I lamented like a grieving widow that the rest of the set was not including in the bin as well. I don't recognize the RC car from 1985 on the right, and I'm too lazy to spend ALL that time googling it to find out what it is... so feel free to go at it internet!

There was also this collector's case full of rusty old cars as well. Some of them are pretty neat... but most of them are just kid of junky. The items that caught my eye the most were these:

Hip-Hop Big Bird, Grover flying a rocket ship, and a Micro Machine car with monster truck wheels. After some Googling (I wasn't as lazy this time) I discovered it is a Micro Machines Chevrolet 65 Corvette 4×4 Monster Truck. There you go. 

All right! GIRD yourselves. For beyond this point you will witness the two items that MADE me buy this bin in the first place. These were the nails in the coffin. The straws that bro the camel's back. These were the selling points for me. 

First up we have Talking Robie from Radio Shack. Back when I was a kid, I owned a Robie Jr. and I LOVED that thing! I actually dented the bubble over his head but it did not deter my love for him in any way, shape, or form. This is not the same robot of course, but it is a direct relative, and all of these robots had a kind of uniform style and appearance that makes them lovable in the same way. This guy is proudly displayed on my shelf as a testament to childhood and all the over-hyped toys that didn't work that great but still made it magical. 

And finally, this motherf**ker. Metlar of the Inhumanoids!!! I always DESPERATELY wanted to own Metlar as a kid, but for some reason I never got him. Castle Grayskull, yes. Ewok tree village, yes. Metlar... hell no. But I own him NOW!!! Metlar was a giant lava-spewing BASTARD who would flatten you as much as look at you. I remember being TERRIFIED of the inhumanoids, but watching it anyway. I mostly watched it paired up with Jem and the Holograms, and some other cartoon shorts-episodes. Fest your eyes ladies and gentlemen:

Now, full disclosure: Metlar's head is broken completely off. I have to just rest it on his shoulders and set him up for display. He is no long fit for play... but I don't care!!! I am so psyched to own this piece of 80's childhood HISTORY!!!!

So that's it folks! That's the entire contents of the Bin of Awesome. Hope you liked falling down this rabbit hole with me!

That's it for tonight kids! But I'll be back with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies soon enough! So until then, Happy Hunting!

Goodwill Geek Mailbag: A Package from Brian Napoleon Lapsley

Woof! Where does the time go! Suddenly you realize you haven't updated your blog in something like 10 days... and just woof. 

So I've had absolutely no good reason to put off posting this particular post for so long except... I don't know why! Just been damn lazy I guess. 

I know a LOT of genuinely kind and generous people out there in internet land, and one of them happens to be Brian Lapsley, artist, fellow thrifter-extraordinaire, and blogger over at Awake Oh Sleeper. He is another fine example of a supportive and generous fellow who has sent kind words... and now a fun mystery package my way! 

So first off... THIS is what arrived at my home. As I briefly mentioned above, Brian is a talented artist. I know he draws quite a bit, and he also makes amazing digital pieces such as this piece of his that he photocopied and adorned my package with! 

Inside, a note: Telling me to enjoy. And... I did. 

First up was this Classic Science Fiction Films book, which reads as a sort of movie catalogue with titles, dates, and brief synopses of each film. I love how some attitude creeps into a few of the entries:

"Just plain garbage" and "Makes Missile to the Moon look brilliant". Genius. 

Anyone who knows me knows that comic books are the way STRAIGHT to my heart. Couple of Amazing Spider-Man issues (part of the "Round Robin" event) and an issue of Ultraman.

I have always wanted to read the book Jumper by Steven Gould. I only vaguely recall the movie back in 2008, but I know I wasn't blown away by what I saw of it. I had heard that the book was head-and-shoulders above the film however, and I have been itching to read it. So I did! I read this almost immediately after finding this in the package! And I can tell you, I LOVED it! What a great concept, and executed very well. It's hard to describe the book in any meaningful way, but I can tell you I kept comparing it to Ready Player One in my head the whole time I was reading it. The subject matter of the two books couldn't be more different... but there's a very palpable sense of wish-fulfilment for geeks in both books. The protagonist of Jumper is likable and is using his newfound talents to get himself out of a horrible life. 

Back in the day, I had a complete set of these "Freaky Fighters" which were a bunch of bat-wielding monsters from Hammer films. You could find these at Dollar stores and the like. They were bizarre, and I think I ended up giving my set away to a friend online. I'm glad to get this one back however, because Werewolves are some of my all-time favorite monsters!

Here's a shot of the back. I think this fella will be staying firmly in his package, because I just love the look of the whole thing together. 

This Rad Badge is from Burger King from back in the day! LOVE this thing! The turtles pop up from behind the shell to say hello! Lookit those guys!

Speaking of Burger King and famous cartoon stars that I happen to love, there's this Scooby-Doo plush from Burger King circa 2000! Mr. Lapsley is hitting ALL the right notes here with this mystery package you guys!

Probably my absolute favorite item in the whole box was this little Big Guy! It's a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man pencil sharpener from a 1987 Real Ghostbusters themed McDonald's Happy Meal! Gaze upon the tiny plastic form of the Destructor!

So here it all is! Toys and books and comics from an incredibly generous individual! So generous in fact, that I have already received a second mystery package from him that I will share with you all at a later date! Thank you Mr. Lapsley! I truly appreciate this collection of the weird, the wild, and the nostalgic! Be sure to check out Brian's blog (linked above) and be sure to also check him out on Instagram! 

That's all I've got for tonight kids! I'll be back soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting! 

League Post: Top 10

I can't even remember the last time I participated in a League of Extraordinary Bloggers post... so I figure it's about time. I picked a nice one too:

Pretty straightforward and simple. Come up with a Top 10 list! So what am I going to go 10-1 on here? I thought I'd talk about: 

The top 10 mini-figures in my personal collection at this time. (This means my top 10 could literally change tomorrow, but for today, this is it.) So here we go! 

First, Some Honorable Mentions:

All of these guys came VERY close to making it on the list... but ultimately, they all lost out to the rest of the guys below (Actually, I lied. One of these guys did make his way into the top 10!!! Jeez! He's insufferable! I must have either included him here by mistake, or else he PLOTTED his way into the list somehow without me realizing it!!!)

10. Kenner's Real Ghostbusters Gulper Ghost

Thought I'd go ahead and get these guys out of the way out of the gate. I could fill more than half of my list with the six mini-figures I owned as a kid that I made an obsessive Super Hero team out of. Instead I thought I would pick my (current) favorite of the six and let him represent the whole group in his way. And that would be Blob. Yes, he is more popularly known as "Gulper Ghost" and he was packed in with the original Egon Spengler action figure from the Real Ghostbusters line. But to me, Blob was the "Thing" to my super-group. He was the monster with a heart of gold. He was a shapechanger, made of slime, and he is probably the absolute only character out of the six pictured above who is absolutely 100% genuinely the original figure I grew up with from the very beginning. All the others were replaced when I was a kid because I broke or lost them, or replaced as an adult with repros or bought online (the only other one I can't be sure of is the blue Teri-Bull, who might be the original... or may be a replacement after I lost mine as a kid). 

9. Fisher-Price Imaginext Plankton

Oh how I love Plankton. He is the absolute most neurotic and self-loathing villain in the history of kids' cartoons. Full of self-loathing and pure envy, Plankton has cooked up more self-destructive plots than any wily coyote or prehistoric squirrel could dream of. And the look and feel of this Imaginext figure is simply brilliant. Putting tiny little plankton up at the top of the imaginext body as if piloting a robot is a perfect design, and I applaud whomever it was at Fisher-Price that came up with the concept, especially considering that Plankton can detach from the main body on a little roller-skate-style cart for a quick getaway. 

8. Hasbro Super Hero Squad Kang the Conqueror

Gosh, Hasbro had so many (now defunct) mini-figure lines that were going strong just a few years ago. Super Hero Squad (Marvel), Galactic Heroes (Star Wars), Combat Heroes (GI Joe), Robot Heroes (Transformers), and Adventure Heroes (Indiana Jones) are all great toylines. And I wanted to include some from ever line... but I decided to choose just one to represent them all. And that figure turned out to be Kang here. He is decidedly NOT a favorite character of mine in the comics. But this mini-figure? The color scheme, the stance of feet and pose of the guns, the grin on his face that tells you just EXACTLY how many f*cks he gives? All perfect. He just looks like he means business. Thanos and Iron Man and Thor and Kitty Pryde all have some pretty great figures dedicated to them as well, but Kang the Conqueror just NAILS it. 

7. Pint from a Cheap Bag of Skeleton Pirate Toys I Found This One Time

Back in January of 2013 I did a whole post on a set of cheapy-charlie Skeleton Pirate figures that I bought for .99 cents at a salvage/overstock store. I wrote silly backstories for all of the skeletal pirate crew, and I don't think I've ever had so much fun writing a post for this blog. But I did it because I genuinely LOVE this cheap-@$$ set of pirates, and I wanted at least one of them to be on this list. Back in 2013 I gave this little guy the name "Shorty" but he disagreed with me and insisted that his name is actually "Pint" which makes so much more sense in a perfectly ironic sort of way. See, he's pint-sized, and he's holding a pint of grog... so yeah. And I LOVE HIM. How many undead alcoholic kids toys can you name? Yeah. I thought so.

6. Applause California Raisins Michael Jackson

I honestly debated with myself for a very long time over which Raisin to include in this list. I ended up on Michael Jackson here because he is a personal favorite, and arguably the most recognizable and prolific of all the characters represented by Applause in plastic. I had to track this one down on eBay as the final one I really wanted for my collection. I have such great memories of hunting for these figures in specialty shops when I was a kid. Stores more like Hallmark stores and gift shops than your traditional toy stores. I was never into the smaller figures they produces for Hardees, though I had a handful of those as a kid as well.

5. Character Toys Scooby-Doo Mystery Mates Velma Dinkley 

I didn't have to consider for very long whether I would include Velma in this list or not. I would have KILLED as a child to own a mini-figure (or ANY figure, for that matter) of Velma. As the nerdy brains of Mystery Inc., Velma was the plain-jane compared to Daphne Blake's ginger bombshell. And THAT was why I was so deeply, madly in love with her! I actually love that I own the entire Mystery Inc. gang from the Character Toys Mystery Mates line, even if I did have to track Fred and Daphne down on eBay. 

4. Mini-Mates Real Ghostbusters Boogieman

As diverse as I really wanted this list to be, I just had to include another Ghostbusters themed mini figure. Mainly because THIS was the figure that finally got me to buy a Mini-Mates line and LOVE it. Overall, I do NOT like Mini-Mates. But when I saw how spot-on they had reproduced the characters and that THE BOOGIEMAN (their spelling, not mine) was included? I snapped up all four of the main Ghostbusters, and the Janine/Slimer "ready for bustin'" 2-pack. And I have THIS GUY on my shelf. He is one of the creepiest villains from the show and he just kept coming back! Seeing him on the show with his giant teeth, his doorframe-stretching body, his hooves and spiked hair, and his malignant bow-tie just gave me chills. 

3. Garfield in Disguise PVC from BULLY Toys

I was randomly trawling through eBay on day when I discovered this toy. It actually came on a keychain (but that was the nature of the 80's, where they would take any random PVC figurine, drill an eye-hook into its brain, and call it a keychain) but I quickly removed that and put him on my shelf. Apparently this figure was produced in the 80's by a German company called Bully. So it was most likely not produced and sold here in the states? I don't know. I had never seen it before, and in all my googling since then I have not found another like it. But for me, Garfield IS my childhood Halloween. I was never a big Charlie Brown fan, to be honest, and the Holiday specials I clamored for were the ones starring this lazy orange lasagna-eating cat. So having him in his Halloween costume, sitting on my shelf is a singular delight. 

2. Reis O'Brien Customized Dex-Starr (Imaginext Catwoman Accessory)

THIS right here ladies and gentlemen, is one of my absolute favorite possessions. I wrote about it when I originally got it, back in January of last year (that was a big January for the blog, I guess). But long-story-short, I am obsessed with the idea of the multi-chromatic Lantern Leagues. The Greens, the Indigoes, the Reds, you name it. I don't read the books regularly, but I love collecting the mini-figures. The various concepts behind the powers and colors and emotions are such a cool idea that I decided early on that I NEEDED a Dex-Starr. And when I found the Imaginext Catwoman figure, and it included an awesome black-cat figurine that looked like it was supposed to be Dex-Starr... I knew I had to get someone to customize it for me. And that someone turned out to be Reis O'Brien, who once ran the (now dormant) Dork Horde blog, and now works MAKING TOYS over at Funko! I traded Reis some of my duplicate California Raisins and he painted a little black cat figurine into Dex-Starr for me! He is honestly THE highlight of all my Lantern mini-figures. 

1. Funko Horror Classics Mystery Mini SAM from Trick R' Treat

There is no other mini-figure I own that I love as much as this one. He's perfect in every way. He's menacing, he's adorable, he's Halloween in all its glory, he's angular and stylized but not in an annoying way, and he is one of my hands-down-absolute-favorite pop-culture icons. Sam from Trick R' Treat is one of the most perfect visualizations of a Halloween horror villain ever conceived. And even with his big stitched-on smile and button eyes, the menace in that jagged crescent of lollipop is still unmistakable. Sam here just makes me smile. There is not a day goes by that I don't glance at him or pick him up to give him a closer look. The day I found him (at Hot Topic) I actually found 2 of him on my first try. I wasn't disappointed to find the duplicate though, as I quickly turned the second one into a Christmas tree ornament, wearing a little Santa's hat. More than nostalgia, more than the cool custom seen above, more than Saturday morning cartoons... I love Halloween, and Sam IS Halloween in every sense of that phrase. And this toy is AWESOME.  

So that's my top ten! Let's see what the other League Members counted down from 10 for: 

- Knives Tales gives us a list of her Top 10 Short Stories!

- Go Play Listen gives us a Top 10 of the DVDs on their shelf! 

- D.I. Treasures gives us a rundown of Top 10 Cereals!

- Awake Oh Sleeper treats us to a Top 10 Movie Monsters! 

- Pop Pop! It's Trash Culture shows of a Top 10 Videos!

- AEIOU and Sometimes Why delivers the Top 10 Songs that would have been great additions to the Guardians of the Galaxy Soundtrack!

That's all I've got for tonight kids! I'll be back soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!