Another Package from Miss M!!!

I have a good friend, Miss M, whom I often podcast with (on both the Geek Fallout podcast and the Eclectic Mayhem podcast) whose blog, Diary of a Dorkette, is a MUST read, and with whom I also often exchange packages of pure FUN with on a semi-regular basis.

So another one of THOSE showed up a while ago, and in typical Goodwill Geek fashion, I have put off blogging about it for MUCH too long. So let's take a look at what Miss M sent my way, shall we?

First up there were some Star Wars toys included. The loose figure there is Zam Wessel, a shapeshifting bounty hunter whose right arm is removable as she gets it light-sabered off apparently? (Thanks Wookie-Pedia!) still on the card there is Jabba the Hutt lackey, Bib Fortuna! I freed him from his carbonite prison and quickly added him to my Star Wars shelf.

Here we have a Toothless and a Dragon trap from the series of toys put out to promote the second film (or the second film put out to promote the toys, depending on how cynical you feel like being...)

A few previous packages from Miss M had included X-Men characters that were missing some of the accessories. Miss M thoughtfully held onto these for me and included them here!

And finally, what I think are my absolute favorite items of the pack, this Miss Yvonne figure from the Pee-Wee's Playhouse line, and the Christmas card (this was meant to be a Christmas gift LAST YEAR... did I not mention that... since it is now MAY???) which definitely evokes Pee-Wee's Bicycle from the Pee-Wee's Big Adventure film. Miss Yvonne immediately started hanging off the shoulders of all the Masters of the Universe figures, which immediately made them all very uncomfortable, except for Prince Adam, who seemed to really get along well with her. 

Here's one last look at the box of pure FUN sent to me by Miss M! I want to make sure I send out a heartfelt THANK YOU to her, and make sure everybody knows what a great person and friend she is!

Well that's it for tonight kids! But I'll be back soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!

Cassettes and Devils and Dragons... Oh my!

So I'm still playing A LOT of catch-up here at Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks. The stuff I'm sharing today was actually found last October. The book Old Devil Wind got a place in the countdown, but the rest of this post is very light on the Halloween fare, so it didn't make it under the wire. 

First up we have a couple of nice little Halloween books to add to the seasonal bookshelf. "Spooky Hayride" by Brian James and Bryan Langdo, and "Old Devil Wind" by Bill Martin and Robert J. Lee. These are both great little books, quick reads, and good for young listeners. 

"The Practical Guide to Dragons" is set in the AD&D Dragonlance world of Krynn, and is authored by a kender named Sindri Suncatcher, a character in the "Dragonlance: The New Adventures" from Mirrorstone Books. In reality, the author is Lisa Trumbauer. I've only thumbed through the book so far, but it looks like a lot of fun.

This particular visit to Goodwill yielded some soundtracks on cassette! Here we have the 60's themed soundtracks to both Platoon and 1969. Love me some 60's rock and R&B so these are both big wins for me. Platoon has a BUNCH of Motown classics alone. So good.

I've never seen "The Commitments" but I heard it was an amazing movie with an amazing original soundtrack. Cocktail I bought JUST for "Kokomo".

Two of my favorite bands in highschool were U2 and INXS. To clarify, INXS was one of my friend's favorite bands, and sine he was constantly listening to them, INXS became part of my highschool soundtrack by default. But I do genuinely like their music. U2 has always just been a favorite.

"One Headlight" has long been one of my favorite songs from the 90's because of this part:

"Well this place is old
It feels just like a beat up truck
I turn the engine, but the engine doesn't turn
Well it smells of cheap wine and cigarettes
This place is always such a mess
Sometimes I think I'd like to watch it burn
I'm so alone and I feel just like somebody else
Man, I ain't changed, but I know I ain't the same
But somewhere here in between the city walls of dyin' dreams
I think of death, it must be killin' me"

Except back then I always thought he was singing "It smells of cheap Hawaiian cigarettes" which I actually still think sounds much cooler than the actual lyric. Checking out  KissThisGuy.Com I see that I was not alone in my assumption.

I want to be this kid. So. Bad.

I am actually insanely excited to read the stories about Inspector Mantis by William Kotzwinkle and "profusely illustrated" by Joe Servello. I forgot I even owned this book until I started this blog post. I will be tracking this down very soon.

And finally, a Little Golden Book, "The Friendly Book" by the classic team of Margaret Wise Brown and Garth Williams. I love the sustained eye-contact going on between the little girl and the rabbit in the foreground. They're really intense.

So there you have it folks! Some stuff I found at Goodwill last October! I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies... so until then, Happy Hunting!

Payday Friday: Goodwill Finds!

So payday Friday happened on May 23rd. For those of you not "in the know" I almost always stop off at Goodwill on my way home on Payday Fridays. (I also stop off on non-payday Fridays, some Wednesdays, sometimes Saturdays, and any other day of the week... given the opportunity.) Here's a look at what I picked up on my way home from work when I stopped off at Goodwill:

Some books (there's ALWAYS books...) but also a couple of semi-fun grab-bags this time around. All of the books in this post cost me .99 cent apiece. Let's take a closer look shall we?

First up from the kid's book department we have The DUNE Storybook from 1984. I have a terrible confession to make: I have never seen this movie! I have STILL not read the book/s and I ONLY picked this book up because I knew it was from the 80's and I couldn't just leave it there. But I WILL see this movie... I just don't know how soon. Then we have a Little Golden Book that I very distinctly remember owning when I was a kid, Tweety Plays Catch the Puddy Tat, which obviously starred Sylvester and Tweety. It was memorable for this moment: 

Which TERRIFIED me. I also distinctly recall wondering why the witch's skin was green but the nose was ruddy pink. Also, I know Tweety is a bird, and is only pretending to be a witch here, but how exactly is he flying? 

Next up a couple of fun CYOA finds... first up, the very first Choose Your Own Adventure story: The Cave of Time albeit the 19th printing. I don't mind though this copy is from 1986 and will still play through just as well in its 19th printing as its first. I would like to find one with the original cover artwork at some point, but again, that's not really all that important to me. And even though I'm not much of a Star Trek fan, I can't hide the fact that I TOTALLY GEEKED OUT when I found this "Which Way Book" starring the crew of the Enterprise in Voyage to Adventure. 

The first of my two grab-bags cost me 1.99 and only had these two items in them. But they're enough! These are toys from Safari Ltd, one of those toy companies that specializes in solid plastic figures in lines such as dinosaurs, jungle animals, and fantasy creatures. Here we have their example of a griffin and a "lucky dragon" which looks endlessly familiar... Anyway, these types of toys usually run for around 10 to 15 dollars... so getting these for about a buck apiece is pretty awesome. 

Ironically, the next grab-bag had way more in it, and only cost me .99 cents. I'm going to completely ignore the Little People furniture, because it's not of the type I collect, the Kung-Fu panda toy because I already own it, and the orange maraca. Let's focus on the other stuff. 

I have already owned two of these Oscar the Grouch Garbage 'Delivery' trucks in the past, and sent one of those off to a buddy. Still, I'm glad to bring another one home. I'll be finding him a good owner in the near future, I'm sure. The blue and pink fellow next to him is a Moosel figure from the Wuzzles line back in 1985. I really liked the wuzzles as a kid, but I never owned any of the toys, so this is a sort of retroactive geek-out. 

The other two items of note from this particular grab-bag are Finn from the recent Adventure Time McDonald's Happy Meals premiums, and Gary from Spongebob, also a Happy Meal toy, from back in 2012. I wanted to get more of the Adventure Time toys when they came out, but I only ended up with a couple of them. I'm still on the look-out for a bendy Jake figure too. Getting to add this sword-wielding Fin to my collection is the next best thing. I am a pretty big fan of Spongebob, regardless of how much people seem to have grown tired of it. I still find the show funny, classic-yet-innovative, and mind-bending. Spongebob is one of the forebears of the entire trend of cool animated shows (like Adventure Time!) that we see nowadays, and I appreciate him for it. This is a roller-blading Gary with a sweat-band... so I'm pretty pleased. 

My final find of the day was this old Monopoly game from 1946 or so (had to do some research online for this one). I am NOT a huge Monopoly fan, but the siren call of this ancient boardgame would just not be ignored. I actually paid 6.99 for this, which is the most I've paid for any one thing at Goodwill in a very long time. 

I examined it in the store and yet didn't notice that the game-board itself was not included. Don't know how I overlooked that. I think this was one of those rare occasions that I tricked myself into thinking I was buying something that was "worth something" other than to just myself. This is the sort of thing that ALWAYS happens when I let this type of thinking influence my buying at Goodwill. I still really like the fact that I have such an old edition of the game, but I don't think I'm going to hang onto it for long. You can see this old version of the game came with wooden character pawns instead of the metal ones we use today (this is legit, these are not just random pieces someone included in the game before donating it... Research.) I think the jade-green dice included are from some other game, but other than the dice and THE BOARD ITSELF, this game is pretty neat and complete. 

Well, that's it for now kids! I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies! So until then, Happy Hunting!  

Halloween Countdown Day 2: How To Train Your Dragon Gear!

So, to continue with the whole "let's get the Geek on here and dress him up like an idiot" theme I started yesterday... here are some costume pieces I picked up at Goodwill! I got these the very first day that I noticed the Halloween section was up and running at my local Goodwill. 

Know what they are? Huh? Huh? Do ya? They're from How to Train Your Dragon!!! Hiccup's Helmet and shield! There was supposed to be an ax in the set as well, but it was nowhere to be seen. Frown. BUT at least the cashier only charged me 1.99 for the two items. She recognized that these were part of a set and let me buy them together. That was pretty sweet. 

Oh great. Just look at this a**-hole.

When I got home, I discovered that 30+ years on this earth have not dampened my child-like sense of wonder. I put that s**t on!!! I paraded around like this for HOURS until my wife finally made me stop. I think trying to wear them to bed was the last straw.

But the fun didn't stop there! While not strictly a Halloween toy, dragons do fall into the monster category, and cute widdle Toofless from the Defenders of Berk line fits in nicely with Hiccup's gear above. So... consider that to be a segue into featuring this dragon toy I bought at Wal-Mart. Isn't he adorable? I already sneaked a picture of him onto the blog back when I featured some recent TMNT purchases... so you may remember him. 

I want to keep Toothless up in my desk area as he is adorable and I want to look at him A LOT. But he doesn't look like he's so sure of this living arrangement... there's a heavy Pixar presence here on this particular shelf. Even if the Turtles have taken over the Pizza Planet truck. We'll have to see if his quarters end up moving in the near future. 

Well, that's it for me tonight boils and ghouls! I'll be back with more Grisly Goodwill Goodies soon enough! 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!

Day 5: Quick Stop Halloween Edition!

Tonight I'm totally going to cheat and just post stuff with very little comment from a Quick stop I made a while back. As long-time readers know, a Quick-Stop for me is a trip to Goodwill that is not a Payday Friday (as tonight was, but more on that another day...) and usually consists of me swooping quickly through each of the sections I frequent in an attempt to make some fast purchases and be gone like a ninja.

This was a while back, and I can't remember exactly when... but it was late September sometime. It was a GOOD trip. Not everything fits the Halloween theme... but a lot of it kind of does, so here we go!

Not off to a great Halloween-y start, I'll grant you. 

Halloween or not, you don't NOT pick up a Rescue Rangers book when you see it. .99 cents.

See more after the jump!