Countdown to Halloween Day 6: Bendy Skeletons and Aargh!

Welcome back! It's day six of the Countdown to Halloween! Today let's take a look at a haul I brought home from the official Halloween section at Goodwill. 

Here's the usual "look at my pile" shot. But let's dig in and take a closer look, shall we?

One of the cutest finds in this lot is this lady right here. At Christmas the Goodwill Geek family likes to collect Nutcrackers. We pick up at least one new Christmas nutcracker per year. Well, we also own a Mummy nutcracker that we display for Halloween and THIS year he has a lady friend!

We also like to set up a sort of Halloween village on one of our bookshelves, and these two pieces will go very nicely in there! (Ever notice how a lot of modern Halloween decorations are basicaly just bastardized Christmas decorations? Nutcrackers? Christmas Villages? But Who Wore It Best?)

These bendy figures were MUST haves. The skeleton on the left is beautiful. He is the most absolutely perfect bendy skeleton I have ever seen. I am so happy he's mine now. And this sassy little pumpkin guy is pretty rad too. They've both got a lot of panache.

Only a couple of masks really spoke to me out of the ones available to choose from. I'm not entirely sure what the lady on the left is supposed to be exactly, but she's eerie and beautiful and sort of gypsy-ish but also kind of flapper-ish... It's probably just suposed to be some sort of unsettling "The Strangers" style mask... but I liked it. And this eye guy! Man! I love a guy with 6 eyes (or 8 if you count to two eye holes for your actual eyes)!

I found a couple of Halloween-y books in "Ghoulish Gags & Giggles" by Phil Hirsch, and "Running With the Demon" by Terry Brooks. Ghoulish Gags is the typical monster-themed joke book fare, pretty tame and mostly lame, but it did give my kids a couple of chuckles. Running is a sort of urban fantasy tale, written by the Shannara guy, it was released back in 1998 and I've been semi-pseudo-aware of it since way back then, and just never pulled the trigger.

Now! On to my two favorite finds of this trip! This guy. THIS GUY. I have been TRYING to find information about this on the internet since picking him up. I've posted pleas for information on Facebook and on Instagram. I've consulted the toy guys that know toys, the monster guys that know monsters... Aaaand nothing. This fella has a soft, stuffed body  with a bendable wire frame inside. His hands, feet, and skull are all made of hard plastic. He's carrying a Trick or Treat sack that may or may not be his originally.

I am completely willing to concede that this may be some sort of DIY handmade job from a crafting/doll-making kit... if you look closely at the neck this may very well be the case. But I'd like to know one way or another. Because I LOVE THIS THING. To me, he sums up EXACTLY what Halloween should be in every way. There's that sense of nostalgia, a little sense of creepiness, a sense of whimsy... This thing has it all baby. But as amazing as this was, it isn't my #1 find of this particular trip...

THIS IS!!! This is Aargh! from the Madballs. Madballs were a line of toys that came out in the mid-80s and rocked my world. Much like Garbage Pail Kids the Madballs were a big part of the gross-out revolution of that time. They were rude and crude and had attitude. And while you may cry fowl and try to tell me that Aargh! here is in fact not a Halloween item, I challenge you to look at these faces:

And tell me how these guys with their bulging eyes, multitude of stitches and obvious bodily trauma don't SCREAM Halloween??? I found Crackhead on the far left, at Goodwill. I Found Aargh! at Goodwill. I found Slobulus, on the far right, at a yardsale. I owned exactly NONE of these characters as a kid. My favorites were Screamin' Meemie, Dust Brain, Oculus Orbus, Skull Face, Wolf Breath, and Lock Lips. I also owned some of the Super Mad Balls. I loved the comic books! I was Mad for Madballs! And I'm so happy I have managed to bring my collection up to three now!

So that's the haul I brought back from just one exciting trip to the Goodwill Halloween section!!! I can't wait to go back! I'll be back soon with more Growling 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.

Goodwill Finds: King Kong, Star Wars, and More!

Welcome friends! I have such sights to share... So without further hyperbole or ado, let us begin. 

Here we have the entire haul in one shot. So let's dig in, shall we? Let's get a closer look at all this stuff.

First up, a Sly and the Family Stone Greatest hits compilation. I love, Love, LOVE 70's funk music, and Sly and the Family Stone is one of the greatest bands to come out of that era (for me anyway, I'm not going to pretend to be a music historian by any means). But there are SO many great songs on this cassette you guys.

Terry Pratchett has passed away in the time between me buying these books and writing this post. I still have a hard time processing this. Mr. Pratchett's stories are just so good, and full of wry humor, and life, and heart, and genuine warmth, and a sharp eye and tongue directed at everyone and everything equally. It is hard to believe he's gone now. Hard to believe the door to Discworld will be permanently closed and that what we've got is all we've got. But that's life I guess.

I don't even ponder whether or not I should pick up Terry Pratchett books when I see them. They never disappoint.

This is my second of Stephen King's crime thriller stories under the Hardcase Crime banner. I still haven't read Joyland either. and now I have The Colorado Kid to add to the pile. That's sort of my M.O. though, right? Always adding to the pile?

Speaking of... here's a copy of Blackbeard's Ghost with the Disney movie cover, which is technically not a novelization... but is close enough. It's about a ghost pirate. C'mon now.

This is where I picked up my copy of Garfield's Thanksgiving! This is the comic adaptation of the TV special, and as usual, there are a slight, strange variations in there. I've never been as much of a fan of the Thanksgiving special as I am the Christmas and especially the Halloween special... but it's still right up there. We watch it religiously every year.

THIS GUY. I mean whoah. This is am Imperial Toys King Kong toy! I love finding classic imperial toys at Goodwill. Nothing brightens my day in quite the same way. This toy is so cool. This was definitely the highlight of the trip. Everything else is downhill from here I'm afraid.

Which is really too bad, because all I have left is this big grab-bag full of toys...

And here are the contents. Let's get with the closer look already!

Included in the bag were a BUNCH of Mega Bloks pirates mini figures. The majority of these are just okay in my opinion, but there were three truly stand-out figures in the bunch:

And those three are right here. First of all, we have a skeletal pirate. I'm no stranger to this line, as my daughter picked out one of the mini skull playsets for me for father's day back when these were a brand new thing (maybe 7-8 or more years ago?) so I'm no stranger to how neat-o cool these can be. Starting on the left we have the skeleton, and then the pirate captain, with a peg-leg, ring in his beard, and an eyepatch. Finally, we have arguably the very best character of all: Some sort of witch doctor islander with scary eyes, a rooster comb, and a skull painted on his face. I love these things SO MUCH.

There were also a couple of random LEGO mini-figs in the mix. Not 100% sure who these guys are or what they're from. I ended up giving them to my son.

Also given to my sons to play with were these half-dozen Star Wars Attactix toys. I'm not into the prequels so I didn't want any of the clone troopers, and I honestly didn't care about the Tie Fighter pilot either. Nothing says fatherly love like handing over a pile of toys that fire tiny hard projectiles with alarming force to a couple of young boys who can barely go 5 minutes without getting into a fight.

Also in the bag was this broken Electro figure. He's sad, so we won't talk about him anymore.

What was NOT given over to my sons? These guys. Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader figures that both ended up on my Star Wars collection shelf. There's a lesson in here somewhere about father/son relationships... but for the life of me I couldn't tell you what it would be.

Moving on.

This thing.

It was in the bag.

Don't know what it is, what it comes from, what it's for.

There is a grey pressure plate inside it, that when pushed, snaps the whole thing shut. Sort of like a trap... but it doesn't really scream "IT'S A TRAP" like you-know-who. Mainly because there's also what appears to be some sort of handle-bars inside it as well. So part of a vehicle maybe? I've been trying to investigate this for a while... and still nothing. It's baffling. If you know anything about it, let me know in the comments below.

UPDATE: This toy belongs to a Robots (as in the animated film called Robots) playset. Mystery solved.

Well kids... that's it for tonight! I'll be back with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies soon enough! But until that happens, Happy Hunting!

Stuff I Found While I Was Looking Where I Don't Usually Look

Gotta say, now that I'm past October-December, it is nice to go back over all of the stuff I found in the past few months and finally get a chance to write about them. Today's post is a pile of Goodwill loot that I found because I took a dive into a few sections of the store that I don't usually bother with (aaaand some stuff in the sections where I usually do... because I won't NOT look where I usually do too). 

First up, I found some great vinyl records: 

First up we have this incredible Mickey Mouse Disco record. I love this idea of Disco being represented by a bunch of the Disney characters back in the 70's. This album was put out in 1979 so really Disco was pretty much done by this point... but still.

Seeing Horace and Clarabelle cutting a rug here beside Chip n' Dale and Donald and Daisy warms the cockles of my heart to be sure. I have not bothered to search it, but I am curious to see if the version of "Chim Chim Cher-ee" included on this album is some sort of Disco remix (in which case... weird) or is simply included in its original form (in which case.. weirder... right?).

Now let's jump ahead to 1982 and get into a little Mousercise!!! As we saw with the Disco phenomena, Disney gladly jumped aboard the Jazzercise wagon.  Again though, with a song selection called "Tweedledee and Tweedledum" I have to beg the question if the song is the original from Alice in Wonderland, or a "jazzed up!" version.

I find it hilarious that there appear to be a pair of Silly Symphony bugs Mousercising at the bottom of the picture on the back.

When I come across a Sesame Street Album, I can't pass it up. It's just not in my DNA. And this one looks so familiar that I would ALMOST swear I owned it as a kid. I know I had some Sesame Street Albums.

Then there was this even older Sesame Street record with an included book. On the cover there you can see Mr. Hooper, and Matt Robinson as Gordon!

The book inside is in HORRIBLE condition, but here's one of the better page, depicting the lyrics for the song "Green" and shows an interaction between Kermit and Grover. I MISS the days when Kermit was a Sesame Street Muppet as well as a Muppet Show Muppet.

Here is a later Sesame Street Album "Sing the hit songs of Sesame Street" which features yet another Gordon, Hal Miller this time, on the cover! All-total, four different actors have portrayed Gordon on Sesame Street.

Finally there was "Merry Christmas Sesame Street" which I definitely had as a kid. I distinctly remember being SO disturbed by the gold beads in Bert's mouth.

Here's the interior of the gatefold cover. LOVE this spread! The illustrations are so great, and Roosevelt Franklin makes not one, but TWO appearances!

I also found this Playmobil Pirates Take-Along Dungeon. There were no pirates inside, but that's okay because I really just wanted it for:

These guys! You may recognize them from the League of Extraordinary Bloggers Post I did about pirates back in 2013... If not, you should click that link and give it a read, I give the complete background of these awesome pirate dudes there.

As per usual, I found a few kids' books as well. Here we have a book based on the 80's cartoon adaptation of the Littles, "The Little Winner" and Darkwing Duck's "Clean Money". 

"Safe All Day With the Happies" is a horrific book of consequences. I LOVE THIS.

Here's a picture of a kid falling down the stairs after playing on them. "The Happies do not like broken arms!" HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! 

Love it. 

I usually give the DVD section a cursory glance and then move on. There's usually not much there except for old copies of the third disc from a boxed set of Friends season seven box set... or "The Period of Purple Crying" informational dvds (look it up for yourself... but I see A LOT of these at Goodwill) but I was shocked to discover some stuff I actually wanted to buy in this section this time around! First up I found DVD copies of "The Dream Team" and "Mallrats" which had me VERY ecstatic! I don't know if you remember Dream Team, but that movie was once upon a time one of my very favorites. It made me think that crazy people could team up like superheroes and achieve ANYTHING. Mallrats is a Kevin Smith classic, and I haven't seen it pretty much since it came out. But I'm looking forward to revisiting it.

But wait! There's more! TV movie "Gargoyles" which looks like stupid, schlocky TV-PG horror at its finest! I will probably throw this on as a part of some sort of Horror marathon when Fall gets here. I also found the complete Third season of "The Batman" which I never watched even once when it was on, and don't own the first two seasons of... but you gotta start somewhere right?

...Right?

And finally, "Garfield and Friends: Behind the Scenes" which is a nice way for me to pay homage to the cartoon series from when I was a kid without actually having to buy the entire series on DVD. I loves me some animated Garfield all right!

Well that's it kids! It really paid off for me to check the records and DVDs with a bit more enthusiasm than I usually reserve for those sections because I found some pretty neat stuff! That's all I have to show off for tonight, but I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies, so until then: Happy Hunting!

Another Package from the Trash Man!

So my bud Brian "The Trash Man" of Pop Pop! It's Trash Culture fame actually sent  me a package awhile back, and I thought maybe I'd finally get around to blogging about it before we all died of old age. Let's dive right into its contents without further ado shall we? 

First up was this Halloween wind-up of a skeleton. LOVE this guy. I actually have a bunch of wind-ups in this same style, and he fits the gang perfectly. He is now a permanent resident of the Geek cave, on my Halloween shelf.

Brian also knows I have a geeky love for Cloak & Dagger, one of the most underrated and under-appreciated power-couples of the Marvel Universe. Included in the package was this awesome tin featuring them on the front.

Hiding inside the tin however was an awesome surprise as well! I believe this was billed as a bookmark back in the day (I actually remember having one or two of these as a kid) but either way, ANY toy that represents the great Ronald McDonald is an awesome item to add to my McDonald-land Collection!

Brian knows me well, folks. Included in the package was this CYOA book for younger readers. The Bantam-Skylark books are larger and slimmer than your average paperback CYOA books. I collect them all regardless of size or intended age group, and this one goes very well with my collection.

I remember Paul Chadwick's "Concrete" being a pretty big deal as as a compelling indie comic to follow back in the 90's. I had unfortunately never actually read any of the series. As usual however, Brian is introducing me to new and awesome titles that I've never sought out on my own.

The book that kicked off my entire Creepmas celebration originated from this package of goodies as well! "The Twelve Frights of Christmas" will probably not get read during the actual Christmas season, to be honest. More than likely I'll read it in the dead of February or something... but this is a must-read for me to be sure. Any time you mix murder, mayhem, and merriment: I'm there.

One of the most interesting items in the package was this VHS case. It does NOT include a VHS copy of Dan O'Bannon's 1985 cult classic horror film, "The Return of the Living Dead" It does, on the other hand, contain SO MUCH MORE:

Turns out this is one of the Trash Man's patented VHS surprise packs!!! If you can't see everything icluded, worry not, for we will be taking a closer look below. Just FYI, Brian likes to trade and/or sell these to interested parties. You can contact him through his blog, his Instagram, and through the PPITC Facebook page, all of which I have previously linked to in this very post!

Let's start with the collector's cards. There were some awesome loose "Fright Flicks" cards from Topps included, with scenes from "Day of the Dead," "Fright Night," and "Aliens". There were some unopened packs of "Hook" and "DC Versus Marvel" collector's cards, and a couple of Topps wax packs, featuring "Dick Tracy" and (possibly one of my favorite items from this box)  a "Supergirl" wax pack!!!

Next we have some pogs and mini-stickers. Mr. Teeny! Tiny Toons! TMNT! Gideon, enemy of X-Force and immortal mutant External (except he's dead)!

There was a strong showing of "little plastic guys" too. a Marvel Handful of Heroes Green Goblin, one of those little rubber finger-puppet monsters THAT I LOVE, An Arco Ro-Gun Robot in red, and a little plastic orange dinosaur!!! Nowadays all four of these guys reside on my color coded ROYGBIV, dedicated-to-the-toys-at-the-bottom-of-the-toy-box curio shelf.

Can you find them all?

But that's not it for mini-figure madness in that VHS case! 

I think by far these are two of my absolute favorite items in the entire package from Brian however. We have a Mez-Itz version of the Demon to pal around with my Batman Brave and the Bold Action League version of the Demon... and a Battle Beasts Pew Trid Skunk. I love that the guy wears a gas mask to protect himself from his own stank. Battle Beasts are a big favorite of mine. Big. HUGE.  

Finally, as previously mentioned, Brian knows I'm a sucker for Cloak & Dagger, so an issue of that comic book should come as no surprise. But THIS issue there's ALSO an INFERNO rossover that features the New Mutants!!! So TRIPLE whammy. And he knows that I consider the Australian Outback era of the X-Men to be MY X-Men, so this issue featuring Longshot losing his S**T while Colossus, Havok, Storm, pre-Asian Psylocke, Rogue, and Wolvie all just chalk it up to "crazy ol' Longshot!" is a real treat. I've never read this one, and I don't already have it in my collection. Comic book GOLD folks (for me at least. Your mileage may vary). 

There was also a Super Grover figure in the mix, but for some reason I Can't fathom, I either forgot to photograph him or I've deleted the photo or something. but he's here in this photo, arms raised in a 'V' (and the dead lay in pools of maroon below...) with all the other loot.

CAN NOT THANK BRIAN ENOUGH FOR THIS GREAT PACKAGE. Really very kind and generous of him as usual. He always shows a real thoughtful streak when sending stuff to folks I've noticed. He pays attention and takes note of what people really are about. Thanks again Brian!

That's it for tonight guys! I'll be back soonish or laterish with another post about Geeky Goodwill Goodies (or more stuff I got in the mail from friends, or more stuff from the new bin of AWESOME... we'll see) so until then... Happy Hunting!