Countdown to Halloween Day 12: The Brewer Witches and Alien Resurrection

Hello ladies and gentlemen! It's day 12 of my Countdown to Halloween here on the blog, and today I want to show you some Halloween-y finds I brought home from the Brewer, ME store just a few weeks back. 

Here's a quick look at the whole pile of stuff. Without any further ado, let's start digging in with a look at some of the book finds.

"Stories of Ghosts, Witches, and Demons" was intended for the Halloween pile, but I don't know if I'll have time to fit it in at this point, to be honest. "The Time of the Vampires" looks a little sketchy to be honest, and I'm definitely not trying to get to it this year. It kind of looks like it might just be a collection of vamire stories for fans of the Sookie Stackhouse and Anita Blake books... and while I'm not against those in any way (I was a Southern Vampire fan for a few books before I got a bit bored or burned out or both) I'm just not sure t's worth me panicking over this year. Maybe next year.

But then, speaking of next year... I am seriously toying around with the idea of populating a Halloween Read Pile with nothing but horror movie novelizations. I Just might try it. With "Lifeforce" and "Jaws" here, and the healthy pile of books I've managed to accumulate, I'm certainly off to a good start.

I was delighted to find this megaphone of the Brewer Witches in a nice Halloween-y orange and black. This is indeed the mascot of Brewer High School, the same town where this Goodwill is located. I did a quick search to see if there is any background on why the school chose a witch as its mascot, and came up fairly empty handed. But it matters not! This thing has some nice local flair, and lends itself to this time of year nicely.

Finally... This. I bought this. As you can see, I paid FIVE DOLLARS for it. Friends of mine told me I sorely overpaid for this item, and I kid of agreed, even as I was debating this purchase in the store. This is a "Call" action figure of Wynona Rider's character from "Alien: Resurrection". But here's the thing: I don't actually hate Alien Resurrection as much as everybody else seems to. I kind of liked it in fact... or at least as far as I can remember. I liked the new Ripley. I liked Call. Storywise and tone-wise it veers wildly from the track of the first three films... exactly the way all three of those films differ wildly from one another storywise and tone-wise. The first movie is a slasher flick. The second one is a sci-fi war movie. The third is a prison film. And Resurrection is... well it is what it is.

Plus dig these accessories! We have a face hugger splayed out and aggressive looking, and a chest burster baby alien! Plus some nifty guns too.

The likeness isn't 100% selling me that this is a Wynona Rider action figure, to be honest, which is a little disappointing. But at least maybe I won't have to worry about it shoplifting all my stuff.

In this scene she says the classic line "Aren't you a little short for a xenomorph?" I was a little disappointed to discover Call is much taller than the xenomorph figure I have in my collection. Ah well, c'est la vie. I don't remember those wrist spikes being a thing in the movie. Am I crazy? Did she have some sort of wrist spike thing she used to interface with computers maybe?

Anyway... that's it for tonight kids! I'll be back sooner than you can say "Wait, did he just say he LIKES Alien Resurrection!?" with more Gibbering Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Haunting!

Remember, 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.

Goodwill Finds: The Joker, Giant Spider-Man, Electronic Dungeons and Dragons, Zombie Bert!

Spider-Man has something he wants to show you... 

There are some cassette tapes in this picture that I forgot to photograph. So you can't see those in this post.
You can KIND of see the titles in this shot. I'm too lazy to track them all down but the two coolest ones were probably the soundtracks for Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Coneheads Movie. Try to imagine them.

It's a pile of stuff I brought home from the Brewer, ME Goodwill store!!! YAY!!! As per usual, let's take a closer look at everything piled up here, shall we?

I'm probably jumping the gun here and showing off one of the best finds from this trip... but WHO CARES??? This thing was a SUPER exciting find. This is a Mattel Electronics Dungeons & Dragons Computer Labyrinth game.

Here is the gameboard. Testing it with a battery I discovered it no longer works. This does not phase me in the least. I love the look of this thing either way. This came out in 1980, and at the time I'm sure it was a technological marvel.

Forgive the fuzzy picture here, but I wanted to show off the interior compartment, complete with labyrinth walls, instruction booklet, dragon piece, treasure piece (next to the dragon) and two warrior pieces. From what I can gather, you explore the board, receiving signals from the game on which directions you can move, and then you plug in wall pieces as you go, to map the whole thing out.

I also found a copy of the Back to the Future novelization (this is a must-pick-up, no matter how many copies I may or may not own at this point) and Superman: Miracle Monday (which is a bizarre story of time travellers and demonic possession that has absolutely nothing to do with Superman II even though it is obviously merchandised for that purpose.

Terry Pratchett's "Thud!" is honestly a no-brainer. All Discworld novels are, honestly. Anthony's Xanth series, Aspirin's M.Y.T.H. books, and DeChancie's Castle Perilous series all desperately want to have the same sense of whimsy, magic, and heart as the Discworld books and while I genuinely enjoy all of those series, they will just never stack up. The Forgotten Realms book I picked up because it is an anthology of mystery tales set in Faerun. Couldn't pass it up.

I lumped these together... because... Holidays I guess? I'm adding Brian Jacques's "Seven Strange and Ghostly Tales" to my Halloween Read Pile. Not sure if I'll be reading "Secret Santa: Agent of X.M.A.S." to my kids this year or what. Time will tell. But they both look like fun.

I look forward to reading "Thank You for Smoking" because I like the movie so much. I hope they have a similar tone/feel to them. And "Which Way Books" are almost more exciting for m to find these days than genuine Choose Your Own Adventure Books. So "The Castle of No Return" was a nice score.

MUPPETS! These two books are some of the best Muppets books I've found in a long while! The color and the action in "Gonzo the Great" is awesome, and the illustrations in "Short Green and Handsome" (a sort of illustrated comic novella... thing) are some of my favorite renditions of the Muppets on paper.

A recent issue of MAD Magazine featuring Adventure Time on the cover came home with me, and yet another new book for the Halloween book shelf: "Tilly Witch". I don't have much more to say about them than MAD + Adventure Time = must have. Don Freeman was the author of the original Corduroy books, which were fun, so hopefully Tilly won't disappoint.

You may remember this 12 inch Spider-Man from his provocative pose above... here he is with my Toy Biz Wolverine for scale. I like this big guy! At first I almost didn't buy him. But he was a buck, and he's HUGE, and he's nicely articulated, so I decided I was stupid to leave him behind.

This bag of cake toppers contained these guys:

Aren't they magnificent? I love that Oscar is giving away a dirty sock as a gift and Cookie Monster is just eating his cookies like WGAF?

But my favorite one by far is this horrifying Bert figurine that makes me think that the zombie apocalypse has hit the Street quite hard.

I picked up this set of swappable build-your-own-dino parts for my kids. They were not as fun to play with as I would have liked them to be, honestly. If you look carefully, you can see a broken brown peg sticking out of the large blue piece (some sort of aquatic dinosaur's body) and the entire time I used these with my boys it felt like other pegs were going to let go. Too bad really.

This was a weird grab-bag. The Goodwill I frequent usually seems to at least clump some sort of like items together in a very general way in their grab bags... but this one wasn't even trying. BUT it was a buck and there was really just one item in there I was after, and I was willing to pay that buck for it.

The main item I bought the bag for was this guy right here. The Joker, not the bunny he won at the carnival.

This is of course the "Dark Knight" version of the Joker... sort of the Heath-Ledger-Lite version they produced for the kiddies. Honestly, I really like this figure's design. I like how it pays homage to the movie character in a simplified, cartoony kind of way. Here he is next to the Joker they released for the 1989 Batman film before they tired making him look more Nicholson-esque in later models. I still favor the one on the right because this was "my" Joker as a kid... but the new one makes a nice addition.

Another nice surprise in the bag was this fella here. This is the Ram Slammer from the 2007 Hot Wheels "Stunt Strikers" McDonald's Happy Meal line. Looking at it at first I assumed it would be some sort of vehicle belonging to the Spider-Man villain, the Rhino. But nope! I still like it quite a bit either way. It's some sort of pseudo-diecast vehicle, so it's got some heft to it for a Mickey-D's Hot Wheel toy.

That's it for tonight kids! I'll be back with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies soon enough! Until then, Happy Hunting!

TMNT Books, Sesame Street, Applause toys,

Welcome back! I've been lazy, I'll admit. Completely slacking off. I don't usually let the blog rest this long, especially with Halloween less than 100 days away now, and so MANY posts still cluttering up my reservoirs. So without further ado, let's take a look at a load of stuff I brought back from a trip to Goodwill awhile back. 

Here's the obligatory group shot, but say it with me kids: Let's take a closer look, shall we? 

First up, here are a couple of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles books, both based on the 1990 movie. "The First Battle" is interesting because it tells the first third of the movie with the cartoon-versions of the turtles. This is an obvious move to bridge the gap for younger viewers/readers. And of course there's the young readers novelization of the film. Some year I'm going to go on a novelization-reading BINGE and just rot my brains out with books based on awesome old movies. My friend Biran over at Pop Pop! It's Trash Culture has been talking about starting some sort of book club... maybe it's time to roll that out. 

One Little Golden Book, and one of the Mickey Mouse Club books that desperately emulated them. "Ernie's Work of Art" is one I never had as a kid, but would have loved. "Bongo" looks like fun too, although I'm not familiar with the character, I know I've seen him before.  

I was pretty happy to add a couple of fun looking Halloween books to the shelf... "Ghost Train" and "Trick or Treat" will both probably get a second look as we get into the Halloween countdown this October. 

"Big Bird Joins the Carnival" is from 1985 and is based on the "Follow that Bird" film. This tells the story of how he meets the Sleaze Brothers and gets painted blue. It's... not as much fun as you'd think honestly. 

The E.T. the Extraterrestrial Storybook. I honestly don't have a ton to say about this. I have a love/hate relationship with E.T. It simultaneously scared the ever-loving s**t out of me as a kid, and I also LOVED it. So... now I own the storybook... 

I also found an issue of Marvel Comics Presents, featuring the Daughters of the Dragon, Wolverine, Union Jack, and best of all: Wonder Man! I can't remember if I've even mentioned this comic before, but I loved MCP as a kid. It was such a weird, disjointed introduction to several corners of the Marvel Universe all at once, especially considering that many of the stories were serialized, and so you might pick up an issue to see Wolverine, but then realize that you were actually in the middle of an 8-part story starring him, and then you'd move on to the 7th part of a 13 part Black Panther Story, the 6th part of a 7 part story starring the Master of Kung Fu, and then there would be some weird one-and-done story starring Spitfire or Longshot or some other random c-lister. It was kind of confusing but it really did make the Marvel Universe that much bigger and more magical for it. Plus for around a buck you 4-5 times the action and adventure, even if you didn't get the whole story. 

Now! Onto the grab-bag. All of the loose toys you see in the intro picture above were in one great big grab-bag for 2 dollars. There was a lot of detritus to be cast off, but there was so much great stuff included that it pretty much outweighs the junk. Here you can see a Smurf figurine, a Goomba toy from the 1990 Happy Meal toy line featuring Super Mario Brothers 3, and a Fisher Price Jumbo Little People Bear from the Poppity Pop Car set. But by far (to me) the greatest treasure here is the pink dragon in the front, marked "Applause 1987". Google has turned up only one other possible toy in this series, and I am tempted to say this was some sort of random junk-toy series they put together for bookstores, gift shops, etc. The detail they put into these guys were of the level usually reserved for licensed properties (which Applause was the KING of back in the 80's. They were the Funko of movie licensed products back then. PVC figurines out the rear...) this guy looks so familiar to me that I suspect I had one from the set, or spent a lot of time begging for one.

Here is a set of little vintage decorative figures for... whatever those were used for back then. Cake toppers maybe? Cupcake toppers? Either way, they are charming. And they've been saved to send off to a new home already, as I have a friend who eats this stuff UP.

This is the "Gotcha Gusher Squirter" from the 1992 Nickelodeon Happy Meal toy series from McDonald's. This is actually my second toy from this series. I lock only the blimp game and the loud mouth mic now. I love this thing for being exactly what it is: A piece of Nickelodeon history from the days when they were hitting it big and becoming a brand unto themselves. Yes I would have been 13 or 14 around that time, but Nickelodeon still monopolized a lot of my viewing time 

And finally, here are the vehicles from the bag. Bugs, Knuckles, Wakko (from Animaniacs), and Ratchett (from Tail Spin) are all fun, but it's the Batman Returns and Ernie (also produced by Applause!) toys that really made my day!

Well that's it for tonight kids! I still hope that you enjoy seeing and reading the junk I find at Goodwill nearly as much I do finding it! I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!

Liberace, The Frighteners, and Ice Age, Ice Age, ICE AGE

Not a huge one tonight kids, but some fun finds nonetheless. Only one major toy find, and the rest is all cassettes and books. But let's take a look and see what we shall see, shall we? 

Here's the pile of loot that I brought home. A few details may jump out to begin with, but let us take a closer look.

First up, the cassettes. We'll probably take a closer look at the Halloween Songs and Sounds from Walt Disney Records when October hits. Likewise, I'l probably wait until December to dissect Liberace: A Christmas Medley. So that leaves the one in the middle: the "Working Girl" soundtrack. It's really most significant for Carly Simon's "Let the River Run" which is a pretty great song if I'm being honest. Chris de Burgh's "The Lady In Red" is on here too, which I absolutely adore. I really need to go watch Working Girl again sometime.

Speaking of movies I want to revisit soon, I found this novelization of Peter Jackson's "The Frighteners" I think I may add this movie to my Halloween watch-pile for this year, since it's been years since I've seen it.

Or maybe I should just add this novelization to the ever-growing Halloween read-pile? I dunno. I always felt like this movie was a bit of an underrated gem. Seeing some great horror/genre vets like John Astin and Jeffrey Combs hamming it up always does my hear good. "I like it when they lay still like that..." and "My body is a road-map of pain!" are lines I quote to my wife on a regular basis to this day. Classic.

I feel like I overpaid slightly for this Ray Bradbury collection of short stories, by Goodwill standards anyway. I would have paid waaay more in a used book store I guess, so thanks for small favors. I buy Bradbury books as "collectible" now without hesitation.

The grab-bag you saw above is really what had me most interested honestly. It was packed with a huge variety of Ice Age Burger King Kids Meal toys from 2002, based off the first movie in the franchise. I'm a complete nut for the first film, and don't really care for the others in the series AT ALL as  I may have mentioned in a post on another blog, a long.. long... time ago.

What's funny is that if you read that post from my other (now defunct) blog, at the very end you'll see me struggle with trying to remember what is is that the tiny Sid the Sloth toy was originally encased in at one point. This find answered that question! It was one of the ice-block toys you can see on the bottom left of the picture above.

This picture, by the way, shows that the grab-bag contained almost 15 whole sets of toys from that series of Burger King Toys. Funny thing is these are all duplicates of 5 toys out of a set of 10 different ones. So even though I have 15 sets here, I still only have half the set!!! It's kind of interesting looking back at the toys they were putting out 13 years ago compared the toys they do nowadays.These things are elaborate in and of themselves:

I won't go into great detail about every single toy, but I will take a moment to say how excited I was to finally track down a "Pinky" toy (the human baby, who is technically named "Roshan") to go with my other Ice Age Toys.

Each set has several pieces to put together and features a character from the movie, doing something from the movie. It's pretty awesome. If I had room to set these up somewhere all the time, I totally would.

But here's the REALLY excellent part: They connect together! I know this is nothing new but back in 2002 it was still a kind-of/sort-of relatively new concept in Happy Meal toys. The Inspector Gadget set from 1999 really kind of revolutionized the idea of collectible/connectable sets, and they were still refining the concept with this one. 

So not only do each of the toys have a cause-and-effect pay-off, you can connect them all in one glorious chain of chaos. It works with mixed results, but for the most part I got this thing to trigger off flawlessly 3 out of 5 times. I dabbled with the idea of taking a video of the whole Rube Goldberg affair... but it was too unpredictable and quick moving to even attempt it. Again, keep in mind, this is only half of the Ice Age set BK was offering that year. So if I had all 10 can you imagine!?

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