Countdown to Halloween Day 8: Garfield, Lego Monster 4, and More!

Welcome back! Today we're looking at some more cool Goodwill finds I brought home to celebrate this Halloween season! 

Just a small pile of items today, so here's your first glimpse... Let's dig in!

A couple of book pick-ups include a collection of H.P. Lovecraft stories in "The Tomb and Other Tales" and "The Eye of the Warlock" by P.W. Catanese. I read "The Thief and the Beanstalk" by Catanese, and really enjoyed it. This Eye of the Warlock book is somehow related to the tale of Hansel and Gretel in the same way the other book was related to Jack and the Beanstalk.

Next up we have this Monster Maker card game from Buffalo Games. This one looks like fun, and one I can maybe even play with my kids!

Each of the 5 monsters you try to assemble as a part of the card game gets their own biography that lets you know a little bit about each of their likes and dislikes.

Can't wait to try this one out as it looks silly and fun and not too hard to learn.

I also brought home a stuffed Garfield toy because I almost never say no to Garfield. He is such an integral part of my childhood and of my Halloween that I consider this guy to be a bit of a Halloween decoration in and of himself. Here he is sizing up my little Halloween Garfield PVC figure (I got that on eBay and he is a German import apparently... that figure is one of my most prized possessions.)

Finally, I picked up a copy of LEGO's Monster 4, which was miraculously COMPLETE! No missing pieces or materials whatsoever!

The game was already mostly assembled for me, so it didn't take too much effort to get together.

 I figured that even if I didn't end up liking the game, I could use all of the monster heads included in the box as game pieces to build monster mini-figures, and there would be no loss either way.

Turns out, the game is pretty great, and simple enough that my 4 year old picked up the rules very quickly and BEAT ME two out of three times! Turns out it's a slightly more complicated version of Connect Four.

There's a die you piece together, and a spider that hops around the grave yard, scaring your monsters away. It's a lot of fun, very fast paced, and can be as simple or complicated as you make it, depending on what you roll and where you place your pieces. Very happy I picked this one up for several different reasons!

That's it for today kids! But I'll be back soon with more Grody Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Haunting!

I'm doing this countdown as a part of the official Countdown to Halloween, so be sure to pop over there and look and see who else is participating this year.

Halloween Countdown Day 5: Goodwill Gaming - Scooby Doo Playing Cards!

It just wouldn't be Halloween without Scooby-Doo! In fact, this won't even be the last time he's featured in my Countdown! But to start, we have this deck of Scooby-Doo playing cards! 

I found these for .99 cents. Unfortunately, three of the cards are missing from the set, so I won't really be able to use these to play... unless I want to alter three of the four jokers included to replace the missing cards. The art on the back-side of the cards is kind of green and simple, but also Gothic and cartoon-y and awesome. So we're off to a nice start. 

The 10's, Jacks, Queens, and Kings are all represented by a member of the Scooby-Gang. Velma is definitely a 10!!! Shaggy is on all of the Jack cards, Daphne is the Queen, and Fred is King. These are one out of three different poses featured for each of the characters in the deck. And each suit gets it's own spiffy background, so all the skull cards (diamonds) get a cemetery, all the Scooby-Snack bones (clubs) get a Malt Shop, all the bats (spades) get a different spooky cemetery (this one complete with a skull-headed gate and a half-opened crypt) and all the ghost cards (hearts) get a ghostly pirate ship. Fun little details that they didn't HAVE to include. The only weird thing about it is that there weren't enough trumps for Scooby to get his own, so he takes over the entire suit of spades (or bats), even the trump cards for that suit. The only one he even shares is the Jack card pictured above with Shaggy. All of the Ace cards (with the exception of Scooby's own Ace) is shared by Scooby and Shaggy together as well. Fascinating!

The jokers of the deck are all different kinds of Scooby Snacks. I honestly don't have a lot to say about these. You get two kinds. Dog bones and the more traditional style of Scooby Snack they used to sho on the cartoon whenever they'd bribe Scooby and Shaggy into risking their lives. I think I'd have to be one hungry hippy/beatnik/stoner to let someone talk me into being bait for a swamp monster for a couple of lousy dog treats. 

And finally, even more exciting than the trump cards are all of these guys! All the numbered cards from 2-9 in all the suits except for spades are occupied by the monsters! They all dominate their own number, so you always see Frankenstein's monster on the 2's, and the Witch Doctor on the 6's, etc.

So a pretty nicely dressed-up and SPOOKY Scooby-Doo card game over all!

That's it for tonight boils and ghouls! I'll be back faster than the swishing of a cat's tail on the back of a witch's broom with more Ghoulish Goodwill Goodies! Until then... Happy Haunting!

Be sure to check out all of the great blogs participating in this year's Halloween Countdown! You can do so by clicking this link, or clicking on the Cryptkeeper 2013 banner on the sidebar to the right! Also, check out the "Blog-O-Ween" Halloween Blog collective, again by following this link, or through the badge on the sidebar! Thanks!

Goodwill Gaming Week Day 2: Mexican BINGO!!!

Welcome back to Goodwill Gaming Week! Today I'm going to showcase an amazing copy of a Mexican BINGO game: "Juego De Loteria". It is "Autentica" which in my hackneyed translation I think means authentic... I'm not going to Google it. You want... you can do it. I paid .99 cents for this bad boy. 

Here's the box. The artwork is what initially caught my eye here. It occured to me that some of the images on the top were vaguely Tarot-ish, and so I popped open the box (you can see some tape damage where they resealed the box before donating it) to look at the BINGO cards.

Included were this baggie of little yellow chits, and this deck of plaid-backed cards. The cards are shuffled and drawn to determine the pictures on the BINGO cards to cover with the chits. 

Some of the images on the cards are people of various different walks of life. Including dapper gentlemen, Ladies in skirt-suits, knife fighting valientes (valiant or brave)... and chalupas? I have no idea why this woman is being referred to as a menu item at Taco Bell. Okay I did Google that one. The chalupa is the canoe. This makes some sense to me now. I'm trying to be culturally sensitive here. 

But there's always room for cultural insensitivity! 

Here are a handful of gorgeously illustrated images of either cultural, celestial, or mythological significance. El Sol and La Luna are obviously the sun and moon respectively. El Mundo is the world. El arpa is a harp. 

And here is some unadulterated nightmare fuel for the kiddos. But apparently La Calavera refers directly to something to do with the Day of the Dead holiday. The other three cards are all pretty much on the nose. 

Here we suddenly have a random assortment of items from mildly menacing to bizarrely mundane. What a lovely gorrito! Have some ketchup. 

And an assortment of juicy melons. Oops! How did that mermaid get in there? 

Here is the entire rest of the assortment that I didn't feel like highlighting. Lots of pretty, innocuous, and regular items one might encounter while south of the border. I actually really love the look and feel of the artwork on all of these. I may have had a chuckle at some of the more scandalous images, but overall this is a game from a different culture, and I think the contents of the images speak volumes about some of the day-to-day experiences. 

Here are the Bingo cards themselves. I probably won't actually be playing this game with my kids, to be honest, because I don't want to have to explain about the drunk guy or Satan... but I like the components nonetheless. 

I'll be back tomorrow with more Geeky Goodwill Gaming Goodness! Until then, Happy Hunting! 

If you want to see yesterday's game check out: 

- The MAD Magazine Game from Parker Brothers!