Not Dead... Just not Blogging Much Right Now

It has been... a rough year so far. And I don't mean the "Man it sucks that David Bowie and Prince died..." kind of rough (although aaarrrggghhh!!!). I mean the "Wow, I may be changing absolutely everything about my life in the next few months and my entire future is uncertain..." kind of rough.

My collection has taken a major hit as my lifestyle has changed, and so has the cave. I would say I have dumped a good 65% of the collection that once stood here in the Goodwill Geek Cave. My trips to Goodwill have dropped off significantly. In fact, in the past almost-four-months I only started going back out thrifting in maybe the last two weeks or so at all.

If you've been following my Instagram account, you'll know that I've certainly still been collecting toys (I know it's lazy blogging to just screen capture my Instagram pics and repost them here... but I'm cutting myself some slack... Please follow suit.):

I've certainly been adding more Funk POPS! to my current collection. Roller-Derby Harley Quinn, April O'Neil, Snakeyes, Cobra Commander, Ms. Pac-Man, FN-2187, Watson, and Sherlock all came home within the last month or so. Other recent additions not pictured here: Pinhead, Twisty the Clown (from American Horror Story: Freakshow), and the Crow. 

My daughter and I have started collecting Tsum Tsum toys together. These little guys are addictive! She loves them and there are characters that I consider must-haves like Perry the Platypus, Eeyore, Stitch, and Baymax. Since I had a HUUUUGe crush on the Little Mermaid when I was younger, I wanted hers, and Dumbo, the Chesire Cat and Bing-Bong were too cool upon noticing them that I decided I NEEDED them. The classic Disney characters like Minnie, Mickey, and Goofy don't really do much for me, and neither does Olaf from Frozen... but I gotta have complete stacks of three. It's a weird thing for me with these toys. Also not pictured are recent additions, Hiro (Big Hero 6), Flounder, and Scrump (Lilo's doll from Lilo & Stitch)

I'm more in love with these two new Bebop and Rocksteady action figures from the new movie line than I care to admit. I genuinely feel like these are the Bebop and Rocksteady that we DESERVED on the Nicktoon. The Nicktoon and I are not currently speaking anyway. My interest dropped off intensely when the Turtles took off into space and left behind everything they've spent the last few seasons developing. I am in no way interested in seeing either of the recent live-action TMNT movies, but I'm developing a taste for nice looking action figures based on moves I have no intention of seeing (more on this later).

I like the new Force Awakens Galactic Heroes figures from Hasbro. They don't go well with my classic Galactic Heroes figures from years ago... but I don't feel like they all need to interact anyway. New generation of Star Wars heroes... new generation of minifigures to represent them (not pictured are Captain Phasma and the First Order Stormtrooper figures I also own... and I am still hunting for the Kylo Ren single pack).

I've started a new love affair with Marvel Legends figures too. Until recently, I only owned a handful of figures, mostly gifts from friends or stuff I found at Goodwill. I tracked down a complete set of the Guardians of the Galaxy figures when those came out, but haven't really felt the need beyond those. And then... I got Captain Marvel sometime last year... and then Spider-Man 2099 was a MUST HAVE. And then the beautiful Spider-Gwen! After her, I picked up The Scarlet Witch and Machine Man on clearance. And at this point I own 14 of these things.

I am verrrry selective when it comes to what characters I want to add to the flock however. But I think if they do a 6 inch Spider-Man Noir, I will have to own that puppy.

Also pictured here are a couple of Wonder Woman toys. As I mentioned with Bebop and Rocksteady above, I've been falling in love with some toys that represent movies I have no intention of seeing. All of the Wonder Woman toys from the new Batman vs. Superman lines fall firmly into this category. I love Wonder Woman, and I really love the design of the character in these toys. I even snagged a PEZ dispenser!

I haven't completely lost my will to thrift... I hit the antique mall a couple of times in the past few months, and found some really fun stuff, like these puffy Michale Jackson stickers, and this old Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: Dragonlance Adventures Hardcover! (I also got REALLY vicious trimming down my roleplaying manual collection... maybe a little too vicious. I'm regretting some of the stuff I dumped... but I think I'll be fine in the long run.) 

I still haven't lost my taste for random crap either! I love this little Teen Titans GO! minifigure pack, and as Poe Dameron demonstrates here, I am still collecting Star Wars Action figures. I picked up the Kroenen and K-9 figures the same day as the puffy stickers and Dragonlance book above.

Even with all the adapting I've been doing to events in my life recently, I've managed to have an adventure or two. I didn't go to Monster Mania in New Jersey this year, even after purchasing my tickets, but I did get to go to a local comic convention in Bangor Maine. 

 It was my very first convention ever, and it was a blast!

 My friend Brandon came along for two reasons: 1) He is a classic game collector! NES, Super NES, Genesis, you name it, and Brandon collects it. I have a weekly date with him at his place where we play old games and bitch about our problems. (I'll fill you in on reason #2 in a bit)

 I loved the geeky photo opportunities! Here I am with the TARDIS and R2-D2.

There were Mandalorians in greater numbers than I expected in attendance...

 As well as different chapters of Ghostbusters.

Brandon was determined to meet Troy "Mini-Me" Verner. The above picture (the best shot I got IMO) is of Troy warning me not to take the picture yet because Brandon's card had not been run through yet. 

 Here's the official, "legal" shot. Brandon had had high hopes that he could get Troy to hang off his arm or sit on his shoulders or something... but he immediately got the vibe that these requests might be frowned upon. I also sneaked a shot of Troy from afar TOTALLY BY ACCIDENT while taking shots of the convention floor.

This booth was magical. It featured several vintage roleplaying game accessories, including the mounts for the Warduke and Strongheart vintage action figures, the "Good Destrier" and "Evil Nightmare" toys. 

I had to physically peel myself away from this table! Of course, when the guy saw me ogling his supplies, he let me know he had a box full of action figures under the table that he would let me pick through (more on that later...).

There was a healthy but-not-overwhelming amount of cosplay. Lots of Whovians because Colin Baker (the 6th Doctor Who) was in attendance... but still a lot of cool costumes and ideas.

I was particularly infatuated with this table of custom designer toys. I was severely tempted to buy this 40 dollar Muck Monster... but ultimately couldn't pull the trigger.

In the end, I walked away with this one eyed fellow from the same table. He was 5 bucks and adorable so he came with me. Limbless as he may be, he helped me wave goodbye to good old Paul Bunyan as I headed to Chili's for lunch with Brandon. 

This was the pile of stuff I ended up bringing home with me from the con... some respectable loot. Some Secret Wars figures, a Robo Cop with his helmet... a Super Powers Flash, a vintage Lando Calrissian, a Sectaurs figure, a Dreadnok, a pile of TPBs and dollar bin comics... AND a Hook Horror action figure to add to my D&D vintage collection!!!

I'm going to end this here because I've already gone way longer than I had planned to. Don't know when I'll be back again... or IF I'll be back again. I'm not going to quit blogging... but in the near future my blogging goals may be changing. My life goals certainly have. We shall see. No promises then, about being back soon with more Goodwill Goodies. But I will certainly still wish you Happy Hunting!

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 Whole New Bin of Awesome Pt. 2

So here we are, rummaging once more in a bin of awesome stuff that I picked up this past summer. It is of course a sequel of sorts to the bin of awesome I picked up the summer before that. What does the future summer hold in store for me? Only time will tell. 

But for now, let us be content to simply explore THIS bin. Right NOW. 

Buckle up buttercup because this layer of the bin is going to be very Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-heavy. Now, the LAST bin that I bought from the same guy the year previous also included some TMNT figures, and specifically a Muckman figure... so I assume the guy who sold me this bin is some sort of wheeler-and-dealer when it comes to toys.

This gives me an extra Muckman to pass on to a friend, which is completely Hunky-dorey. The pair of Genghis Frogs is fine too for the same reason. I kept the one with the belt (none of these guys were exactly rich in accessories... or retained all of their body-parts as you will soon see) for my shelf, and set the other one aside for a rainy-day.

Dirtbag here just happened to be one of my favorite figures as a kid. I have no idea why. He's not really anything to get excited about (and this one is missing his tail, which you can't see) but he was always one of the heavies when I played action figures as a kid. Maybe because he's not quite as silly looking as some of the other figures? Dunno. Next we have Scumbug, a fan favorite that I never had as a kid. You can see though why everyone likes him... he's GNARLY. Mine is unfortunately missing all of his gear, which renders him a bit useless in a fight. And I also ended up with an extra Usagi Yojimbo, which again is fine by me.

Here we have Wyrm, Tattoo, Wingnut, and Leatherhead. Possibly some of the most tragic figures in the bunch, seeing as almost all of them (not including Tattoo) are missing body parts. Wyrm's left hand, Wingnut's wings (But hopefully not his nuts), and Leatherhead's leathery head are all M.I.A. (Luckily I have a completed Leatherhead in my collection already). Wyrm is another one of those bizarre fan favorites that I never owned as a kid. As far as I know he never made an appearance in the cartoon, but he did show up in the comic book. Tattoo showed up in the cartoon, but bizarrely as a mutated hamster, which is the worst shoe-horning of an action figure into a cartoon that I have ever heard of. Tattoo in the Archie comics was just a sumo wrestler who seeks the turtles' help in rescuing his dog. And Wingnut? He's awesome but I hate the fact that he's missing his wings. 

My three favorite TMNT action figure finds in the bunch had to be these three dudes here though. King Lionheart is from the later sets near the end of the line, and Ground Chuck was another of my absolute favorite TMNT action figures as a kid. I got him and Dirtbag around the same time. This kangaroo is Walkabout, and is the first one of his kind I had in my collection. I was later gifted one in better condition, including his sidekick mini-figure... but that is a story for another day. 

So a total of 13 TMNT action figures were included in the bin, in various states of dismemberment and disarray. This added 9 new figures to my collection, and gave me a pile of figures that I could pass on to others. But that isn't the end of the Turtle-y goodness by any means!

The TMNT Pizza Thrower was included in the bin as well! This was another one that I had never owned as a kid, but I was more than happy to add it to my shelves now! It even had three of its pizzas included in the mix.

Included were some random loose parts as well. The eyeballs there belong to the Foot Cruiser, which I almost started hyperventilating at the prospect of finding in that bin... only to be disappointed when I didn't find it. That thing is AMAZING. The plunger gun I actually (in a bizarre coincidence) already had a random handful of pieces to already. It was this orange gun piece that was included in the awesome bin though.

I already own the sewer playset, so this one is extra for me. I never owned this playset as a kid, but now as an adult I have two (this one already has a designated home, I just need to get it there...)!!!

By far though THIS guy was one of the most exciting finds in the ENTIRE BIN. While Killer Bee is yes, technically an action figure, I think of him more as a vehicle. He's missing his grapnel gun and his chainsaw, but other than that he's mostly complete, which was VERY exciting to me. 

This was one of those toys that I desperately wanted as a kid, but just never got. The colors, the expression on his face... the whole package to this guy is awesome. Seeing him in that bin in the back of that truck was just one of the factors that convinced me to pick up that bin.

So between the robots in the last post, and the TMNT figures in this one, we've now covered the first two thirds of the contents of the bin. There are a handful of items that I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to waste any time on, since they're not very exciting. But there's one more entry to go where I'll be sharing the last of the stuff I was really excited about at the very least. So stay tuned for that!

I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies soon enough... so until then, Happy Hunting!