Randomly Received: Trade With Mason of D.I. Treasures

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 20th, 2014.

A while back, before the Holidays... I set up a trade with Mason of D.I. Treasures fame. He noticed that I had an extra mace that I had picked up in a recent MotU find at Goodwill, and he wondered if we could trade that mace for a battle-ax he had for He-Man. This sounded acceptable to me, but then I upped the ante to make this interesting: I asked Mason to pick 5 other small items for trade and I would do the same in a sort of blind-box package swap. You can see what I sent him over at his blog, since he did a good job of actually posting what he received before Christmas got here. The reason this is significant is that the items that Mason sent me were all sort of subtly Christmas-themed. Let's take a look at what he sent me: 

Here's a group-shot of everything he sent me to start. A nice, colorful lot to be sure, you can already see the holiday cheer bleeding through. 

I mace ax you a question? Mace I ax you... no... I give up. Puns are hard.

First up let's talk about what got this whole thing kicked off. Here is the beautiful baby-blue battle-axe that Mason sent me in exchange for a mace for his Moss-Man. It is now in the hands of He-Man as he sits astride his loyal Battle Cat. And all is as it should be. 

Next up we have a Z-Bot! This is Turbine and he was actually a Burger King Kid's Club meal premium from 1994. I don't remember Z-Bots from when I was a kid... but they would have come out right around the time I was ending my love-affair (for awhile) with mini-figs. Which, knowing me, is kind of a shame because these look like they would have been right in my wheelhouse. At roughly the same size as Battle-Beasts a collectible line of little robots seems like something I would have obsessed over. I love the look of this little guy in particular, and it isn't hard to see why Mason included him, since the color scheme not only screams Christmas with all that red and green... but that drill arm looks like it could literally be a Christmas tree. Mason also knows how much I enjoy collecting little robots as well, so this is perfect. 

Next up we have a Rock 'Em Sock 'Em robot thumb wrestler. This guy fits down over your thumb and one can only assume that there is a blue counterpart out there somewhere for an opponent to wear. This guy is great! Again, since I love robots, it makes sense that someone would give me one of these... and in this festive red it's no wonder that Mason included it. 

This is Lenny, the wind-up binoculars toy from Toy Story. Specifically, it's a picture-viewer toy from a Toy Story 2 Happy Meal premium. This one hits on many different levels for me, such as the Toy Story connection, the fact that it's a view-master-style toy, and the fact that it's a Happy Meal toy. The one thing I couldn't figure out was why Mason might have considered it "Christmas-y" and I came up with nothing. I think this one was just included for the neat-o factor. 

The penultimate toy of the pack is this Power Rangers Megazord figure. I'm not a Power Rangers fan at all, but I can appreciate a nice giant robot toy. messing around on Google I see a lot of references to this megazord being called "OhBlocker". It doesn't take a lot of imagination to figure out why Mason included this one, as there's a giant star in red, some green and gold highlights, and overall, he feels pretty Christmas-y. 

Finally, we have Mr. Strong from the Mr. Men series! This is a kid's meal premium from Arby's whom I absolutely adore. The Mr. Men and Little Miss characters are all pretty geometric and basic in design, and that kind of aesthetic is just awesome to me. I could see myself tracking down more of these. And of course, Mr. Strong here is done in red and green, because Christmas!

So, I'd like to finish up by first apologizing to Mason for not getting this up on a blog for people to see before Christmas got here... but also a HUGE thanks to him as well for obviously putting so much time and thought into his selections. I had such a fun time discovering the contents of this package! Be sure to check out Mason's blog over at D.I. Treasures.

I have a couple of other packages to feature here in the coming days, so keep your peepers peeled here folks!

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!

A Whole New Bin of Awesome Pt. 1: Most of the Robots

I know that there are probably people out there who call bulls**t on some of the stuff they read on this blog. Like: "No one would just find a Castle Grayskull at Goodwill STUFFED FULL of action figures, for a few bucks..." But I am telling you guys, I do not fabricate any of the stuff I write on here. I don't secretly go out and buy stuff from eBay or Nerd Rage Toys or Instagram sellers and present it on here as stuff I have found in the wild. I am always 100% honest about where I find the stuff I showcase here. If I do buy something cool from eBay, I will let you know! 

I preface the following post with this statement because I realize how completely unbelievable it is going to sound. I know this, and I realize that some folks may say I have "jumped the shark" here in believability. But I need you all to know that what I am about to tell you is true. 

I swear this is NOT ME.

Last summer, I finished writing a series of 5 posts about a bin of neat toys I picked up for 40 bucks at a yard sale the previous September (That went down in 2013. The five parts can be found here: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5) I had kind of slacked off writing about the bin after the second installment back in September of that year, and I didn't pick it up again until the following Summer... THIS PAST summer. July 13th is when installment number 3 went up, meaning there was about a 10 month gap between the second and third installments. 

And then on July 15th, something very awesome happened to me. 

If you have read any of the posts I linked to about my Yard Sale Bin of Awesome above, you will know I picked it up at a yard sale just down the road from my house. There is an older woman, a nice lady from Germany who has a house just three or four houses down from my own. She was the one having the yard sale but it was her son who was selling the bin full of toys. The rest, as they say, is history. 

I bought the bin, I wrote a couple of posts about it... and then I let it go for almost a year. July 13th 2014 I started wrapping that all up. And then two days after that, on July 15th 2014, I pulled into my driveway after a day at work, and was headed into my house. It was sprinkling rain very lightly, building up to a drizzle. A toy-filled truck drove past my house just as I was about to walk inside.

Not this truck. But almost as cool. 

The truck stopped. "Hey!" I turned around. "You want to buy some more toys?" 

It was the bin-selling son from last year! Two days after posting about the bin I had bought from him, the guy (Arthur, I found out) was driving past my house on his way to his mom's place, with toys in the back of his truck. Said he was on his way back from a show (toy show? I don't know.) when he saw me. Remembered I bought the He-Man stuff, etc. last year. Wanted to know if I wanted to buy another bin for 50 dollars. I saw something in the back of the truck that made me want to say yes almost immediately (I will not be revealing this item in this particular post... more on it later...) except I knew that my wife would divorce me if I bought another bin of toys... for that price. 

I told him this. He began dropping his price like an anvil in a Roadrunner cartoon. I didn't even dicker with him. He just kept going down, until he landed at 25 dollars. 

I couldn't resist. Just the stuff I could SEE was enough to convince me. The bin was also probably twice the size of the bin I got last year. (I know this all sounds like a fish story. I promise its not. I really do). I ran inside the house to get the money and pay the man. While I was gone he tossed a few more items INTO the bin. 

As I mentioned earlier, it was raining, so I grabbed the bin and brought it inside as fast as I could, to prevent stickers from dissolving right off the toys that had them... and I began to catalog the contents. Unfortunately, I didn't think to photograph the bin with the toys in it, but as I said, there was a serious water issue to deal with IMMEDIATELY. Not everything in that bin was in pristine condition, but almost all of it is a part of my collection now, with a few exceptions. For this introductory post I'm just going to show you 6 of the items from this new bin, and this first batch all share the theme of robotics.  

First up there was a pair of Robo Force figures in the mix. These guys are from around 1984 and have an interesting design, basically having a suction cup for a base and drier hoses for arms. They have a sort of Dalek-y vibe to them in my opinion. The guy above is named Vulgar the Destroyer. He used to have a drill bit where that hole in his face is now. He's really not in great shape at all to be honest. His sticker's messed up (in some part due to the rain damage mentioned earlier) and as mentioned, part of his face is gone... so he's seen better days.

Next up we have Maxx Steele from the same toyline. This was the Leader of the "good guy" robots. He's missing a chest piece and his right hand. So again, not in the greatest shape... but good enough for me to be honest. This line was not one I collected and played with as a kid, but I was vaguely aware of it. I definitely like having a couple of representatives in my collection. 

This handsome fella comes from the Captain Power line from 1987. He is the Soaron Sky Sentry. He is actually supposed to have a pair of wings clipped onto his back and a blaster rifle. We discussed the Captain Power television show back in August on the Geek Fallout podcast episode #91: "Top 5 Shows We Watched as Kids" That was a fun conversation. 

This Robeast "Scorpious" from 1984 put out as a part of the Panosh Place Voltron line is fun but also of severely questionable play-value. Since they made the decision to make this giant, Voltron-sized robot the same size as the human figures in the line, it made it hard for this Robeast to be any kind of credible threat to Voltron. He was anywhere from slightly too short to ridiculously too short depending on which version of Voltron you were playing with. But I have a soft spot in my heart for this guy mainly because of this Robot Chicken segment:

(I especially love the moment at around 1:52 when Robeast full-on twerks in Voltron's face.) 

This guy appears pretty unassuming at first, being a simple rubber robot with bendy limbs and not much else going on... but wait! That's before you get to know him! This happens to be a Mighty Bend-A-Bot, produced by Marty Toy back n 1985. This guy's name might Might MIGHT be "Umda" unless different colors of robot denoted different characters (His buddies had names like "Bongg" and "Zango") . These guys were obviously cheapy-charlie knock-off toys but have enough of a history that they can still be identified. They were packaged in two packs or single packs, and came with awesomely anachronistic knights' weapons like swords and shields.

One f my absolute favorite finds in this whole bin is this guy right here. He is a Starroid Raider from Tomland toys, produced in 1977, or possibly a Space Fighter produced in 1979. Either way, this guy's name is "Koga". These things were produced as cheap knock-offs to the Star Wars action figure line, and they were probably the bane of every child who received them, back in the day. Personally, I took one look at this guy and fell in love. He's blocky and goofy looking, has no knee or elbow articulation, and has a soft rubber head that vaguely reminds me of the soft-headed first wave of TMNT action figures that would come out a decade later. His limbs have a loose, floppy almost marionette-like quality to them that makes him a challenge to get him standing upright and I'm not sure if that came with age or if it was just how they produced them.

So here is: just the first batch of toys to come out of this second bin of awesome. I wish I'd gotten to write about this thing last year before Halloween hit, because now my first impressions and immediate passions have faded and cooled a little bit... but there was still so much neat stuff in there that I can squeeze out a bunch more posts! It'll be nice revisiting all the stuff I got on that fateful day.

That's it for tonight boys and girls! I'll be back soon with Geeky Goodwill Goodies (or more likely, goodies I got in the mail or in the bin mentioned above) very soon. Until then, Happy Hunting!

Goodwill Mailbag: CRPechonick Strikes!!!

So last time I got on here, it was to thank Miss M for the incredible gift package she sent me... and this blog post is going to be along a similar vein. I recently received a package from CRPechonick (Charles Raymond Pechonick) of Geek Show Ink fame, and boy... was it a doozy! Back when I received a package from the Trash Man over at Pop Pop! It's Trash Culture, I commented on the fact that I needed to track down the last 3 rings in the set of 9 DCU chromatic Lanterns' rings so I could have a complete set. This prompted Mr. Pechonick to volunteer to help track them down for me.

Well that snowballed a bit from this:

Into this:

I forgot to get the rings in this picture with everything else.

Charles Pechonick obviously pays attention because he knows almost all my weaknesses. Let's take a look at all the great stuff he sent me, shall we? 

First up, there was a slew of random mini-figure goodness included. From left to right here we have representation from almost everything I like: A Shock figurine from the Nightmare Before Christmas, a Daredevil micro figure, a Brain Christmas figurine from Pinky and the Brain of Animaniancs fame, good ol' Donald Duck himself, Kim Possible (looking kick-ass), a Clone Trooper micro figure, and a Farmer Grover. Could not possibly be happier with this lot if I TRIED.

This stand-off between Funko Mini Merle Dixon and Funko Mini Tank Walker and Funko Mini Bicycle Girl was brought to me by CRPechonick!!! I don't think anything has ever made me happier than that cute little half-bodied zombie dragging it's cute little desiccated entrails across the top of my desk. Adorable!

Also included were these Peanuts books. I am looking forward to checking these out... as I do not traditionally read a whole lot of Peanuts stuff. These look old and awesome. 

Also included in the package were these two Vampire novels by David Wellington. Of the Monster Island fame (which I featured here on the blog as a part of my Halloween countdown) which I still haven't read yet. I can't wait to take a bite out of these!!! 

Heh.

It got a little bit harder to categorize stuff as I went along, so I sort of lumped some of this stuff together to photograph it. Please pretend that the Dr. Who novel has something to do with the Batman merchandise. Here's a novel starring the Tom Baker Dr. Who, a set of The Batman "shoe charms" and a set of four Batman button/pins. These will be opened and applied to the ceiling of my car. I'm sorry if that devaluates them or something... but it's what I do with buttons. The charms will go in my nipples. 

I'm just kidding! I don't have nipples. 

Who does have nipples? The Hulk. As in the Incredible Hulk. Included in the package was this five-part mini-series "Ghosts of the Future" which I have never read before. This was just before the whole Onslaught debacle took place, so you can sort of see that Thor is wearing possibly one of the worst costumes they EVER gave him. But I'm curious to see what this mini is all about, even despite that. 

A couple of neon Darth heads (I believe these may be some sort of Easter egg variant-things? Maybe? Doesn't matter. I love them. Day-glo Vader? Yes please) and a wind-up TOMY robot for m'collection of robots. I love this little guy. Easily one of my favorite items in the whole box. 

And let's not forget what got this whole ball rolling, okay? Here is my complete DCU Lanterns collection, with my set of rings included. They go in order by ROYGBIV as they should. AS ALL THINGS SHOULD. I have no idea why this collection obsesses me so... I don't even really follow the Green Lantern comics. I do love the idea of color-based powers, and an emotional spectrum that reflects that... I know the system they developed for the comics is sort of flawed... but it's a pretty great idea. And it made the whole idea of a "Green" themed superhero seem a little less arbitrary... ANYWAY. 

THANK YOU CRPechonick!!! I cannot thank you enough for this incredible pile of loot. You can definitely expect to see a package of thanks wending its way back atcha sometime in the future. You were incredibly generous with this bounty, and it humbles me to think that someone could just decide to give away a box full of goodies on a whim "just because". You're pretty awesome in my book. All you reading this be sure to head over to Geek Show Ink and check out the blog, and look at some of CRPechonick's impressive artwork over at his deviantart gallery as well! 

That's it for me today folks! I'll be back with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies before you know it! Until then, Happy Hunting!

League of Extraordinary Bloggers: ROBOTS

DANGER!!! DANGER!!! It is time for another edition of League Extraordinary Bloggers! That's what happens when I submit late on one week and then early the next!

What's the topic this time around? 

ROBOTS

As with many of Brian's one-word themed topics, I started off by scouring the cave for any signs of robots in my various collections. Here's what I turned up at first: 

First up my meager collection of McDonald's themed food-transforming-robots from 1989. I won't go into what all of their names are, as I plan on exploring my McDonald's Happy Meal toy collection at a future date... but here they are. Some of these I got back in February in a Goodwill grab-bag for 2.99. The rest I either got from my brother-in-law, or bought from Brian over at Cool and Collected!

Here are most of the Transformer toys I own. A slew of Optimus Prime toys and then a set of Hasbro Robot Heroes mini-figs. You may notice in the crowd a bubble-bath bottle Optimus Prime, a Happy Meal toy Optimus Prime, a pair of Rescue Bots figures (O.P. and Bumblebee), a Mighty Mugg Optimus Prime, and a Beast Wars Quickstrike toy in the back. I was a HUGE fan of all the Hasbro Heroes lines when those were still selling (Robot Heroes, Combat Heroes, Adventure Heroes, Galactic Heroes, and Super Hero Squad) and was crushed when the discontinued a line without releasing a classic Ratchet figure. 

Finally, here's my Galaxy Force Star-Scream, which I featured last September. I absolutely adore him. I picked him up at the Brewer, ME Goodwill for a total steal. 

Here's my collection of wind-up vintage-repro robots and a few other miscellaneous generic robots. Anyone know who the loose torso belongs to (second on the left)? None of these are vintage but a few of them look it. I love the old-style feel that many of these guys have. A bunch of these were actually gifts from my wife. Others were just random buys that struck my fancy. 

Here are some of the robots I had to dig around for... a random assortment of Heroscape Robot figurines, a couple of Astroboy figures, a mutant killing Sentinel, General Grievous and a Fisher-Price Adventure People X-Ray Man whom I have always believed was supposed to be a translucent android due to the panel on his chest. 

And here? Here is EVERYONE else. Rolie-Polie-Olie, the giant robot from Monsters vs. Aliens, Ultron and Vision, Sparks, Fugitoid, a Sigma Six Sky-B.A.T. (sans wings, which I prefer), Roboto, C3PO and R2D2, IG-88, Red Tornado, a WALL-E action figure, an EVE PEZ dispenser, Voltron, Robot Chicken, and not ONE but TWO Metal-Heads!!! (Plus one little blur bubble-gum dispenser robot guy with no name that I know of...) I got these from so many different sources I can't even begin to tell you, but some of them definitely came from Goodwill, others from Toys R Us, a bunch others from other secondary market sources. 

I THOUGHT that  this was all the cave would yield to me for robots... but I hadn't counted on books AT ALL. I didn't comb through EVERY book I own that has robots in it, because that would have taken forever... but I remembered one very special purchase I had made a Goodwill the weekend before Father's day. This:

What does a Donny and Marie Little Golden Book have to do with Robots you may ask? (Why does a Donny and Marie Little Golden book exist at all the rest of you may ask?) Well, let us take a look inside and we shall just see: 

 Seems that Donny has a Top Secret project brewing. What is it? Well, obviously, the Osmonds are the founders of Cyberdyne Systems because DONNY IS BUILDING A STRAIGHT UP TERMINATOR.

Except his building skills are for S**T. So what does Marie do? She shows him up like he's her bitch. 

Then it's revealed that Marie did not in fact build a Terminator of her own, she simply turned their younger brother Jimmy Osmond into a Six-Million Dollar Borg-slave. 

So that is the width and breadth of the ROBOT contents of my Geek Cave. Let's see what the other members of the League have built in their robot shops: 

- Over at the Nerd Nook, Rich counts down his top 10 favorite Pop-Culture robots.

- Shawn Robare over at Branded in the 80's shares with us the sordid Hollywood secret of the bastard child of Star Wars' C3PO and Metropolis's Maria... forced to shill VCRs back in the 80's. Yes that is a sentence I just typed.

- Jamie at Whatever I Think Of! features Hymie from Get Smart.

- Vikki Verka features some favorite kaiju fighting mechas.

- Charles over at Geek Show Ink features an excellent TOMY wind-up robot that he used as a muse...

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