Randomly Received: The Boo Bobby Blogger Box

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 30th, 2014.

So... this package showed up. And it was from my friend Laura over at the Boo Bobby Blog. If you've never been to the Boo Bobby Blog, you really should go and check it out. It is a sort of combination between a slice-of-life confessional blog and a "hey look at this cool stuff I found for CHEAP!!!" sort of blog. And somewhere between those two is where the magic happens. I dare you not to go over there and simply fall in love with Laura and her husband Jerome, and their kids and their friends. Join them for a family game night of charades or out roller-skating, and then see how Laura has decorated the built-in bookshelf in their new house with cool vintage toys and kitschy knick-knacks that you've seen a million times at old antique stores but NEVER LIKE THIS. I have so much respect for Laura and her natural photography talents and her easy, effortless way of writing like she's talking directly to you. It ENRAGES me with pure JEALOUSY that her blog is so ridiculously good. 

And then she sent me some stuff in the mail and it just made it WORSE because she's GENEROUS TOOOO!!! Will she stop at nothing? Let's take a look at what she sent me, shall we?

First up, we have to take a look at the decorations on the box. I get the feeling that Laura literally doodled on this package while she stood in line at the post office and did I mention that she is also an incredibly talented artist who recreates giant-sized Disney-and-other-kids'-characters decorations for parties? 

Spider-Man, ladies and gentlemen. And we haven't even gotten INSIDE THE BOX YET.

Here we go! Look at this pile of goodies y'all! Let's look closer.

First up we have these adorable little Mini Bean Sesame Street Characters! Laura and I share a deep and abiding love of all things Sesame, and she knew these little guys would be a shot right through the heart! Bert and Ernie are great, that's a given... but a Twiddle Bug? Come on! That is the cat's pajamas people! What a random character to give the mini-bean treatment! I love it!

Next up are these seasonal Snoopies. These guys are just spectacular. I actually have a bunch of these Snoopies for the Christmas tree already... but amazingly NONE of these ones! And the Halloween Snoopy stirring a bubbling cauldron of green slime? Excellent. These are Russel Stover premiums that were (and may still be...) sold attached to little boxes of chocolates around their respective holidays. Obviously the Christmas ones are meant to be hung on the tree. 

Mini-figures! Little plastic guys! Gotta love these. I've seen these featured all over the internet in the last couple of years. The bigger guys, the astronauts, Turtle/snail/alien guys, and the white robot are all from a set of Tim Mee toys "Galaxy Laser Team" figures which I must now track down the rest of. The little tiny arm men? No idea. But I LOVE them. I mean, look at those beautiful bast**ds. 

Laura is a big fan of old, kitschy items and uses them in ALL of her decorating. So naturally this overflows into her Christmas decorating as well. So it was no surprise at all to me to find these fun little guys included. These are going on the tree next year! 

Muppets and rodents are both woven intricately into my life. Laura is yet another of my online friends brave enough to mail me glassware. This Rizzo the Rat juice glass is actually a Smuckers Jelly jar from back around '99, promoting "Muppets from Space". The mice are... well they're just mice. But they're PULL-BACK mice!!! 

I had a bunch of these Dick Tracy action figures as a kid. I think I liked them back then because they were made by Play-Mates in the same style as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures. I had them pretty much working for the Shredder and Big Boss from C.O.P.S. (both of whom, in my imaginary universe answered to Hordak). I wasn't a huge fan of the Dick Tracy movie, but I loved the bizarre nature of the gangsters in the Dick Tracy canon. They weren't quite supervillains... but they were close enough. And most of them ended up with powers when I played with them anyway. Flattop was one of my absolute favorites! This is a straight-up blast from my past! 

I think this is probably my #1 favorite item from the package. ZOAR!!! Laura knows of my deep and abiding love for all things MotU and this little lady-bird is proof of it! Fun-fact: Zoar started off as a boy-bird, and a completely independent character on his own in the mini-comics packaged with the action figures. Then he became a lady-bird when it was revealed on the TV show that this was an alternate form of the Sorceress. When I was just a little guy I actually pulled the wings completely off of my Zoar and cried for DAYS. I probably won't be doing the same with this one. But I am a huge man-child... so who knows?

Aaaand now we're onto the REAL reason you people come to my blog... The freaky-tiki stuff. Or in my case, the Advertising Mascot soft-goods. These oven mitts featuring the Poppin' Fresh Doughboy and Sprout are honest-to-goodness ALWAYS going to be on display in my cave. There will be no scorch marks or boil-over stains for these mint-condition mitts! These paw protectors are staying pristine! And Mr. Peanut? Well I have documented in depth my love for this chap. He's going on the shelf with the other bean-bag mascots. 

Who ya gonna fall... asleep on??? That was terrible. But this pillow case isn't terrible at all! I'm assuming this was from a Real Ghostbusters (cartoon) sheet set... but I really don't know. (I'm so lazy... hold on.. I'm Googling it...) Yes! RGB indeed! loveLoveLOVE the Real Ghostbusters cartoon and toys and memorabilia... so this one is a real coup! Not sure if I'll display it or just go ahead and USE it! I'm leaning towards using it though. I ALWAYS forget to check the bedding sections at second-hand places but I totally should because I'd love to find some old Star Wars sheets or Ghostbusters, or even California Raisins! 

Christmas Golden books! Here we have the version of the Night Before Christmas that I remember the best from when I was a kid... Disney's Santa's Toy Shop, which is loads of good fun, and Frosty the Snow Man! If I'm being honest, this version of Frosty always creeped me out. I couldn't really put my finger on why until it dawned on me: The weird coal-chips for lips. They look... sinister in some way. 

And a couple of non-seasonal Golden Books, including "I Think That It Is Wonderful" from the Sesame Street collection, and "The Neatos and the Litterbugs in the Mystery of the Missing Ticket" which sort of sounds like there would be other mysteries in the series, right? Like Nancy Drew in the Mystery of the Cackling Cankles (or whatever) is just one in a series. But nope. This is the only appearance I can find of the Neatos and the Litterbugs, mystery solving or otherwise. It looks fun though. 

And this is a book about Mountain Monsters. Because Laura just... "gets" me.

And look at this thing. This is a vintage Christmas Card in which Laura wrote an incredible message to me in AND bemoaned the fact that she was defacing a beautiful vintage Christmas card! I felt her pain believe me, but I'm so glad I was card-worthy, because this beautiful reindeer has earned itself a spot among the valuable wall-space items of the CAVE. I only have 4 Christmas cards hung up in my cave, and this is one of those 4. Because... look at it. Just LOOK. Bask in its glorious light. 

Welp... that's it for this addition of RRRG kiddos! I want to send a huge THANK YOU!!! Out to Laura at the Boo Bobby Blog for the amazing gift-package. I LOVED it. Everything you sent me was obviously thought about and considered for quite a while before selecting it to be included. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. It was so thoughtful! 

I'll be back soon with a reveal of the new-and-improved Geek-Cave, which has been undergoing renovations since I revealed it last year! I'm pretty excited with the semi-new look (although a lot of it remains mainly unchanged... there's still a LOT to share!) and I can't wait to post about it here! Before that happens I may hop on here and post some stuff about books I like, or characters I've been thinking about, or heck my favorite flavors of Jelly Beans... who knows? Keep 'em peeled here folks!

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!

Goodwill Geek Mailbag: A Little Something from the Dorkette!

In the last year or so of blogging I have made some truly great friends. Some folks I really follow religiously blog-wise, and who I love talking with. When those elements come together and the person in question is another pop-culture/look-what-I-found kind of blogger, like myself... I tend to feel the need to send goodies. So having gotten to know Miss M over at the Diary of a Dorkette blog over the course of my time as a blogger, I felt she definitely fit the bill. So I sent her a package of stuff that I wanted to give a better home than I could.

Well Miss M seemed to appreciate the gesture, and sure enough, a package found its way to my home that had HER name on the return address. She put a lot of thought into the items she sent my way, and it really shows:

Here is the total pile of goodies I received! First off, before I go ahead and dissect the contents... I want to THANK MISS M!!! She is really an awesome person, and awesome blogger, and she's been facing some challenges in her life as of late. Challenges that would probably have kept the average person from sending out packages to her online friends... but Miss M don't roll like that. 

First off, she sent me this quartet of X-Goodness. We have a couple of different Gambit figures, an archangel, and JUGGERNAUT!!! These kick so much butt! (There's more Marvel goodness to come, but I'm saving it)

Also included was this sandcastle made of real sand. I remember these from when I was a kid, and believe it or not I have ALWAYS wanted one!!! This one is just the right size for my cave collection as well. It was promised by Miss M herself that this item would bring me "a lot of magic". So it shall be displayed with pride. Also:

I couldn't NOT post that video along with that gift. 

Next up is a little pile of odds n' ends, including a Miss Piggy PEZ dispenser, a Tazmanian Devil PVC, and a Big John thumb wrestler!!! All extremely cool! 

Next up: Literally some of my favorite items from the package. Sesame Street and Muppet Babies stuff!!! Those Bert and Ernie finger-puppet-things are just awesome. And I have another vintage die-cast vehicle for my Sesame Street collection! Gonzo was really excited to see my Muppet Baby Kermit toy too! And I meant to get a pic of the little plastic firehouse opened up, but forgot. But it's pretty neat. 

These two items may very well be two of my absolute favorite items, period. A Toybiz Nightcrawler just like the one I had as a kid, and a 1996 Invisible Woman Happy Meal toy! She color-changes in cold apparently. (I was too lazy to investigate and take pics, sorry)

Finally there was this HUGE Darth Vader Rose-Art activity case. It definitely brought back memories of those old-school action figure cases they used to make for Star Wars figures when I was a kid. It is pure awesome and will look fantastic in my Darth Vader collection! Look at this thing!

I want to take one last moment to genuinely thank Miss M over at the Diary of a Dorkette blog. She's a really gracious, kind, and supportive blogger, and someone I am proud to consider a friend. I can't thank her enough for the cool loot, and I hope things are going well and looking up for her, always! 

That's it for today folks! I'll be back soon enough with some genuinely Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!

My Final Word on Christmas: The Christmas Haul

Okay guys, so this is going to be a long one. It's the final Christmas Haul wrap-up, and I've got some ground to cover. I want to high-light the cream of the crop of the gifts I received this year. 

First up I'll start with some of the gifts I got from my wife. This new belt for one. It is kickin' and it juuuust fits me, and clamping shut around my girth instead of buckling like a traditional belt. It's made of seat-belt material and it is incredible. The 6 Marvel greats are all in attendance, including Thor, Wolverine, Iron  Man, Cap America, Hulk and Spider-Man. 

Next up is this beautiful "Crows of 2013" calendar. I am a big blackbird fan, and my wife surprised me with this collection of gorgeous shots of crows throughout the 12 months of the year. 

  

No Christmas is complete without the arbitrary DVDs found at Black Friday. These were all movies I told my wife she ought to pick up if she found them on the cheapie-cheap while she was out that infamous morning. 

This one was all her idea. Now I'm torn: Do I buy season 2 on DVD to have the whole collection? Or do I just skip it and wait for season 3 to come out? What would you do? 

This set of Toy Story Hotwheels cars will make a nice addition to my wall of pop-culture cars. I really like the ones where the packaging features the large, blown-up pictures of the characters. I need to see if I can find a Buzz Lightyear somewhere. 

Next up are the gifts I was given by my wife's cousin and her husband. They are the closest family we have on my wife's side, and we always do a Christmas-after-Christmas with them. This skeleton couple cuddling is and awesome addition to the cave. They also gave me a bobbling "dashboard zombie" too but I couldn't seem to find it in time to get a good photo. Odds are its in a box somewhere waiting for me to set it loose on an unsuspecting Geek Cave. 

Back in 2010 io9.com chose Cherie Priest's steampunk zombie thriller "Boneshaker" as their Book Club choice for June. This Christmas, 2012, I finally held a copy of this book in my hands. I'm reading it now, and it's been great so far. Full of zombies and zeppelins, the story is so character driven it never feels like the author is going: "Hey look! Steampunk! Gears and stuff!" or "Hey look! Zombie book! Grr! Argh!" It's been a genuinely good read. What's funny is how it almost reads like a post-apocalypse story in the Civil War era.  Can't wait to see how it ends. 

Another gift from my wife is a Blu ray player I still haven't taken out of the box. I'm slowly succumbing to the pressure to convert... and admittedly she only bought it for me because I dropped a few hints here and there that I wanted one... and it will play my DVDs so I don't know what my problem is. I'm just dragging my feet. But the only Blu ray movie I received for Christmas was... kind of ironically I feel... V/H/S. It is a great movie, and I actually look forward to it being my first Blu-ray experience. 

Of course one of the best gifts I received this Christmas was this 23 disc collection containing all ten seasons of the classic TMNT cartoon series, plus a butt-load of special features, obviously including THE KICK-ASS VAN THEY COME IN!!! I don't really need to over-talk this one, do I? Probably not. Moving on. 

From my Aunt, I received a passel of cool gifts as well. This Jack Skellington statue completes my Halloween Shelf in a way I have always wanted it to:

See? Perfect. 

If you have not read Rick Yancey's Monstrumologist series... stop what you are doing, and go out and buy the first three books, and lock yourself in your home until they are all read. This is the third one in the series, "The Isle of Blood". What's incredible about these books is how one moment you can be marveling over the gore and questioning the nature of monsters vs. the nature of humanity... and the next you are swept up in the human emotions and relationships that build the true foundation of this series. It details the cases investigated by a Jack-the-Ripper era (this is semi-significant) Massachusetts scientist who hunts monsters, and his young... ward? apprentice? assistant? live-in slave? surrogate son? It's one of the most important questions of the books. 

A few DVDs from my Aunt as well. After I saw Jaime over at ShezCrafti feature a DVD collection of Roseanne Halloween specials this past Halloween season, I decided I had to have one. But I now notice that mine has 8 episodes, where hers had 7 (not that I'm counting). I'm not sure how to reconcile this. Apparently mine has the episode "Satan, Darling". So mine is obviously better than hers. I got Child's Play because I didn't own it yet, and I wanted it... so now I have it. 

Heinberg's Young Avengers were at one time, one of my favorite new Marvel books. his return to his creation was a bit of a disappointment, though I did enjoy it for the most part. This was mostly Heinberg being tasked with undoing the Scarlet Witch's villainous House of M debacle. But there were some fun moments, and a character I liked who lost his powers during the decimation finally got them back. I just wish a couple of my other favorites had slipped under the wire at the same time. Overall I don't hate this book, but I'm glad I received it as a gift and didn't spend my own money on it. 

This amazingly cute little guy was swimming around in my Christmas stocking. He's real tuff. 

My daughter shopped her school penny sale for my gifts, and she did all right by me. First up is this Christmas Story night-light. For... a penny. Isn't it great? Look at the craftsmanship! 

She also gave me this incredible rubber monster. It is honestly another of my absolute favorite gifts this year. He's glorious. He's magnificent. LOOK AT HIM. 

Here he is with the other gift my daughter got me... an almost complete set of Scooby Gang action figures. I'm going to track down a Shaggy to round them out. They are obviously feeling the menace roiling off of the rubber beastie to their right (our left). 

And finally... the BEST gift I received this Christmas, is the new iPod 4 I got from my wife. I can now snap surreptitious photos at Goodwill when there are items I want to share without actually bringing them home. I. Can't. Wait. This iPod is my new eye-stealing life sucker too. There on the screen you may notice my new favorite game, "Knights of Pen and Paper" which has taken over most of my free time. 

Phew. That's it. It's over. That's what I got for Christmas. What do you think? I think I was spoiled out of my mind... and I think I am a very lucky man to have family and friends that care enough to get me such great loot and put it under the tree. 

Anyway... Christmas is now done. No more Christmas on this blog until next Christmas. Which is a while off yet. In the meantime, I'll be back soon with more Goodwill Goodies. Until then, Happy Hunting!