A Trade With Adam Nori!

You know how I'm always cracking wise about how "timely" my posts are... like when I post about Christmas a month after the fact, or Valentine's Day in April or some crap? Well, yet again, this is one of those posts that are WAAAY past due, and this time it is almost criminally negligent. 

I received a package from Adam Nori of Who Ya Gonna Collect, as well as the author of a book, Adventures of a Ghost Hunter, in which he details some of his career as a professional Ghost Hunter! It is safe to say that Adam has a bit of an obsession with 1) ghosts and 2) Ghostbusters. 

I don't originally remember what put Adam and I in contact, but as happens with the many folks I interact with online, a trade of goods was discussed at one point. So we sent each other packages full of junk, and you can see what Adam ended up with over on his blog. 

So I received my package from Adam sometime last SUMMER. Like in JUNE. So this one is WAAAY overdue. I genuinely owe Adam an apology because this one got forgotten about and I hate to think that he for a second thought that I wasn't INSANELY grateful to receive this package:

First off, kudos to Mr. Nori for repurposing his Nerdblock box for this package! He made a lot of stuff fit in this space! Let's explore.

Comic books, trading cards, and VHS tapes are all standard-issue staples for these sort of trades. A lovely assortment was included, and if I'm playing favorites, that pack of Rocketeer cards had me drooling at first sight!

There were some awesome fast-food and cereal premiums in the box, including this Guardians of the Galaxy bag from Subway, and these Dinosaurs toys from McDonald's! In an ultimate act of heresy, I removed the hoses from Fran and Earl and used them as figurines on mt Henson shelf (they go back in pretty easily, so I'm not too worried).

So many toys!!! Here's the first of three pics detailing all of the toys included. If I had a gun to my head and had to pick some faves from the picture above, I'd single out bendable Shaggy, the Inspector Gadget figure, and the two Busy Town cars in the very front. But there's so much here! Muppet Babies! Toy Story! LEGO!

This fleet of vehicles is AMAZING! from some awesome Hanna Barbera characters, to Fraggles, Rugrats and Robin... But again, if I'm being super honest, my absolute FAVE in this shot is Snaps of the Burger King Kids Club riding a purple cricket/grasshopper/locust/something. I already have Kid Vid riding a scorpion and I/Q riding a millipede, so now that I have Snaps, I only need two more toys to complete the set! (Jaws riding a Spider, and Boomer riding a dragonfly, if you're curious...)

Finally, I sorted out some of the crème de la crème of the package for this final shot. I now officially own one of the movie-Turtles which I've been eyeing but not pulling the trigger on. The C3-PO is a bobbler and looks great on my Star Wars shelf. Solomon Grundy, Snap from Rice Krispies, a McDonald's Changeable, Snoopy in his flying Ace outfit, a Rizzo Disney Vinylmation Muppets toy, a Mr. Burns from the Burger King Treehouse of Horror line, and a couple of DC Scribblenauts, Blue Beetle and Bizarro are all welcome additions to a bunch of other collections I have stacking up in the Geek Cave.

This package was SUPER generous, and full of fun! I can't thank Adam enough for sending me these things in exchange for the box of junk he received!

I'll be back soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies to share! So until then, Happy Hunting!

A Trip to the Big Chicken Barn: Comic Books and Star Wars Figures!

So a couple of months ago the family drove out to Belfast, ME. We do this from time to time. On the way, we always drive past a huge Antique mall on the Bucksport Rd. in Ellsworth called The Big Chicken Barn:



The place is colossal, has two floors, and the entire top floor is filled with books, magazines, and comic books. So I am always dying to look through the contents of the store. Well... I got my chance on this particular trip! And boy did I find a handful of fun stuff! Let's take a look, shall we?

First up, there was a pile of comic books. 18 of them to be exact.

I'm a big Cloak & Dagger fan from way back. I have always loved their concept, their visual as a crime-fighting duo, their duality. I WISH Marvel could make a book with these two as the stars work. Until then, I will settle for digging through old dusty back-issue boxes in places like the Big Chicken Barn.

I found a bunch more Power Pack issues to compliment the ones I found at Goodwill last year. I find this title really interesting too. It would never work nowadays. The idea of little children placing themselves in the kind of peril that Power Pack did in this series would just never fly. Some of the stories become near-disturbing simply because children this small are involved. I personally really enjoy it. It's the exact kind of storytelling that brought me into comic books as a kid when I was reading titles like The New Mutants and X-Terminators (two teams that both featured youngsters in the rosters facing some rather adult challenges) during the demonic Inferno storyline. I am making it a point from here on to find the issues of Power Pack that I don't yet own. 

I was SO excited to find a six-pack of Sleepwalker comics! Sleepwalker was just weird enough and original enough that he quickly became must-read for me back in the 90's. I usually didn't have enough money to buy his title regularly, so my Sleepwalker collection is all over the place. But with Sleepwalker's limitations, powers, and bizarre character design he still remains an old favorite. He's the kind of character that would just never have any hope of kicking off his own book these days.

I am SHOCKED by how much I genuinely enjoy the Wonder Man series that Marvel put out in the early 90's. I've had a couple issues of this book kicking around forever, and over time have piecemealed together a small, enjoyable collection. I was able to add three more issues to the stack from this trip. I highly recommend at the very least, the first 10 issues or so. They're a fun send-up of Hollywood culture, in a sort of "L.A. Story" with superheroes kind of concept. 

Finally, I found these last two gems. The first one is an issue of Hot Stuff from Harvey Comics. These were staples of my childhood before I began reading New Mutants and X-Men. I mean I was a HUGE Harvey comics reader. And then there on the right are some of the very mutants that pulled me away from Hot Stuff, Casper, Richie Rich, and the other Harvey all-stars... the mutant team X-Factor! 

But the Chicken Barn isn't all books! The downstairs is full of antiques and collectibles. It was down there that I found this little bag of AWESOME... a ziploc bag full of Hasbro's Star Wars Galactic Heroes figures, which are no longer being made.

Here's a look at everyone included, 14 in all. As you can see, it was a nice mix of characters, if you ignore everyone from the prequels. Some of these I already had, but a lot of them are ones I was trying to track down! Let's take a look at some of the more notable characters:

First up are some folks from the forest moon, Endor. A pair of Ewoks, including Wicket, with the spear and I'm-not-sure-who with the wings. And Leia! Speeder-bike Leia, who goes along great with my Speeder-Bike Luke! 

And these guys from that hive of scum and villainy, the Mos Eisley Cantina! You have Hammerhead there and then one of the Cantina band.

Next up a couple of Golden Books. The first is significant to no one but me, but because I love reading Bialosky's Christmas to my kids every year, any time I find another kids book, much less a Little Golden Book, I get excited. And then this vintage Howdy Doody Little Golden book was such a neat find! Love stuff like this.

And I'll finish things off with a trio of novelizations. The Rocketeer, Darkman, and TRON! I love collecting movie novelizations lately, and these three books couldn't have made me more pleased! Just look at those covers, I mean come on! All in all, I had a pretty good time poking around in the Big Chicken Barn! 

That's all I've got for tonight kids, but I'll be back with more Geeky Goodwill goodies soon enough! So, until then, Happy Hunting! 

Random Handful: Action figures from the Dream Catcher!

I recently made another trip to "The Dream Catcher" Antique Mall in Ellsworth, ME. I mentioned The Dream Catcher back in February when I wanted to post some pics of items I've been drooling over there. But this time, I didn't just go to drool. I went back with a specific purchase in mind: a couple of old CRACKED magazines that I had seen there the last time I'd visited. But I ended walking out of there with so much more!

After running upstairs to quickly grab the magazines, I headed back downstairs to find a box of mixed action figures that had caught my eye on the way by. This is the complete pile of stuff I brought home with me after my visit.  

I've been hitting a bit of a dry spell at Goodwill lately. I have to admit. I'm just not finding the vintage goodies in there like I used to. So I thought I'd visit the Dream Catcher, pick up the issues of CRACKED and then see what else they had for cheap. As I pawed through the box of old action figures, I asked the guy behind the counter how much they were, and he said "A buck apiece" which got me pretty excited. 

Now, this first item I actually did not find in that box of action figures. This is a He-Man Soaky bubble-bath container from 1985. It cost me 5 dollars. And honestly, I can't think of ANYTHING I would have rather spent 5 dollars on. Look at this craftsmanship. It looks like an Academy Award from the Hyborian Era. 

ALL RIGHT!!! Let the 1 dollar goodness begin!!! First up straight out of 1986, we have this John Rambo action figure in his all his Rambo and the Forces of Freedom glory! I like your sleeveless sweat-shirt John, because your shirtless figure makes me very uncomfortable feeling. 

This is the action figure that actually drew my eye to the box. This is a Windhammer from the Silver Hawks line, from 1986. He is next to useless, even if I had his tuning fork accessory. But I like his colors, and he looks pretty bitchin' next to the vintage Thundercats figures I've managed to accumulate so far. He sort of looks like a medieval surfer-dude werewolf, right? 

Oh my ever loving F**K. I had NO IDEA what this figure even was when I picked it up. I just knew it was a bizarre pig-ball character with a Roman helmet and sexy legs. And, I might add, nothingh covering his crotch-ital area. Turns out this is a Pudgy Pig Power Rangers figure from 1994. I am not even a little bit of a Power Rangers fan. Sorry. But I F**KING love this toy. I reminds me of something straight out of MadBalls. 

Pawing around in that box, my face LIT UP when I saw this Anton Arcane and Weed Killer from the 1990 Swamp-Thing toy line. I found a color-changing Swamp-Thing at Goodwill last year, and even though these guys are missing their monstrous accessories that "transform" them into monsters, it's nice to have some of Swampies villains to menace him with. I love how Anton's head sort of just looks like a raisin. Weed Killer is the typical Toxic Crusaders/Captain Planet type villain... as eco-aware superheroes were the trend at the time. 

I almost didn't pick up this Strong Guy action figure from 1993. It's a little plain, and while I'm a HUGE fan of Strong Guy, I'm not a huge fan of this action figure... then I was like: "Hey, it's a buck, and what are the odds I'll ever find another Strong Guy toy of any kind? I NEED this." So I bought it. 

This Rocketeer PVC figure from 1991 was not actually in the box, but he was still just a buck. I found him while I was meandering through the upstairs area of the mall, where I picked up the CRACKED magazines. There was a suction-cup version of the character too, meant to cling to a window... but I ain't got time for that. 

Finding this 1993 Batgirl Happy Meal figure from Batman: The Animated Series put a huge grin on my face. For a simple, barely articulated Happy Meal figure, she's pretty great looking. She looks so... peppy, right? 

Finally, there's this guy. I have no idea where he came from. I've Googled and Googled and Googled. I picked him up at first because I though he was a Mummy figurine, possibly from the old Marx Universal line. I was disappointed to discover that was not the case, but he's still pretty cool. He's a larger-scale solid plastic playset style figurine. It looks like he was supposed to maybe have a helmet? And something plugs into his gut there, where you can see a hole. I've posted before and after cleaning shots because he was sort of caked in... clay I'm hoping? He looks like he's supposed to be an astronaut, but I have to admit, his dead-eyed face has a kind of creepy quality. If anyone can help me identify this guy, I would much appreciate it!

UPDATE: My inter-friend Anne Packrat did some research and came up with some other plastic astronaut toys. They aren't the same guys, but they are exactly what kept coming up every time I tried searching. I own a few of them, so I'm posting this next picture for reference/scale/whatever so folks can see how BIG this guy is. Keep in mind the guy on the left is about the size of a green plastic army man where my big blue guy is somewhere around 5 inches tall or so. 

UPDATE to the UPDATE: Well, Anne was right! Or at least very VERY close. MPC makes both figures. They put out the little guys but they also put out the 5 inch line as well, which had accessories. I found a picture of some more of them over at AngelFire.com. Here it is:

Image Courtesy of Angelfire.com

That's my guy in green there. The gray guy on the end is an example of a re-release and you can see how the accessories were pegged to the figure and then twisted off for play later. 

That's it for right now. I'll be talking a bit more in the future about the CRACKED magazines I picked up, but I wanted to dedicate a whole post to those. I'll be back soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!