Yardsale Bin Pt. 5: The Very Bottom of the Bin

So this is where it ends. 5 posts I managed to wring out of this one Sterilite tote I picked up from a yard sale last September. You can still check out parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 if you haven't already done so. 

Here is the very last time you will have to look at this thing. Let's take a look as I scrape the bottom, shall we? 

First up, there's this intrepid trio. I had no idea what to make of them at first. Too small to be G.I. Joes... these are more the 3 inch scale rather than 3.75... I guess... eyeballing them? 

Well, turns out these are The Real Adventures of Johnny Quest action figures from 1998! Heeeeeere's Johnny! "X-Treme Action" Johnny, to be exact (which sounds dirtier than it's supposed to... I think). 

Here's "Drop Zone" Race. He still has his gun in his holster!!! So badass. 

Here's "Desert Stealth" Hadji. I thought this was just some sort of generic ninja action figure until I noticed the matching symbol on both Hadji and Race's shirts. I didn't get they were supposed to be the letter Q. 

Next up there was this motley trio. 

I actually had to get some help from a shout-out on Instagram to help me identify this armored fellow, as he didn't fit the profile of any action figure line I was aware of. Turns out though that he's General Hawk from the 90's G.I. Joe Star Brigade line. He's missing a helmet and a giant hot pink machine gun. So sad. 

This is a Tarzan action figure from the Tarzan: The Epic Adventures line. Apparently it was based on a Hercules-style live action adventure show? But from all appearances, the characters in the action figure line are all related to a storyline where Tarzan conquers mars...? Anyway, I researched the figure and found out this guy is severely stripped down, since he has a set of golden armor and a red cape that I think I donated instead to my Brimstone Love action figure from the fourth installment of this little Yardsale Bin exploratory series. 

This is a Conan action figure from yet another failed Hercules-style live-action TV series "Conan the Adventurer". That's not important though. You know what is important? The cod-piece. Look at that thing. The size and shape of it. Next? The pull string in Conan's back that makes his arm jerk sporadically up and down. Look at that arm. It all looks EXACTLY as you might imagine it when set in motion. I am never giving this toy up for ANYTHING. 

On the left and right of this pic we have a couple of cavemen from Playskool's late-eighties toy line "Definitely Dinosaurs". Apparently there was initially some doubt about whether they were dinosaurs or not... but Playskool laid those to rest when they named the line. The guy in the middle I'll talk about a little further down who I lumped in with the cavemen for size reasons. Sometimes themes are hard.

This fellow's name has been lost to history (or at least the history of Playskool as known by Wikipedia) and was originally packed in with the Psittacosaurus of the series. I am pretending that he is "Shipwreck Survivor Tyrion Lannister". 

This guy's name is Brin and he was originally packed in with the Triceratops. I'm not pretending he's anything. He's just Brin. 

This figure used to be another one on my "unknowns" list where I was putting out pleas to see who could help me figure out what line it was from. It looks pretty obviously cheap. Come to find out it is a bootleg wresting figure of Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, a WWF wrestler from back in the day. I have to admit... since I'm not a wrestling fan, I was a bit disappointed that this wasn't from some sort of bootleg swords-and-sorcer line. He certainly looks the part. 

Next up are these Power Rangers action figures. I am absolutely in LOVE with the pig-thing guy. I I have featured him once on the site already because I brought one home from the Dreamcatcher Antique Mall in August of 2013. So you won't see him featured below. 

Here is a bendy ranger wearing a niqab. Why I don't know. I suppose it was explained in the movie? This looks a little bit like Jinx from G.I. Joe... but I suspect it's a dude. 

Here is a hybrid shark/huggy-bear monster. His action feature is in fact hugging. Again... No idea why. 

Raven lady? Bendy? Power Rangers movie? 

Plastic monsters lurked in the deepest depths of the bin! They're all pretty fun, but only two of them truly stole my heart:

The two I was most excited about were the Mothra toy from the 1994 Trendmasters line, and this cheap old two-headed dragon. For some reason the perspective of this picture makes him look HUGE. he isn't. See the picture above this one for a more accurate scale. 

This King Kong ornament and Aston Martin Goldfinger display case went on the a better home, with Brian over at Cool and Collected. Yep. These were just... in the bin. 

Next up was this trio of TMNT action figures. We have a General Traag sans left hand, Splinter sans clothes, and Muckman sans his trashcan and Eyeball Joe. We're going to skim right on over armless and naked and take a look at:

Muckman! Even without his accessories and sidekick, this figure looks pretty amazing. He was introduced at the very height of the TMNT action figures-as-Garbage Pail Kids phase of the line. He's even got a clothespin on his nose to answer the age old question of: How do you stop Muckman from smelling? 

There was this night (From empire toys) and his squire (unidentified brand) hiding at the bottom of that bin too!

And a plastic baggie full of kniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiights!!! Not sure what I'm going to do with these guys, but they are most likely not going to live here much longer. 

This horse belongs to Batman. Dark Rider Batman to be exact, from the Legends of Batman line. Instead of being Batman's horse, this guy now stands next to my Headless Horseman action figure and looks pretty awesome. 

As we draw nearer and nearer to the very last bits of plastic in the bottom of the bin, we finally strike some Transformers! I believe both of these are from the Beast Wars line... but I didn't research it deeply, to be honest. I am also 90% sure that they are both missing limbs or other vital body parts. Which is a shame, because the scarab-beetle guy on the right is pretty awesome. The one on the left? He's just insanely complicated and tangled and I have no patience for Transformers and I just don't care and ugh.

And this is it! These are the last four toys to have come from the seemingly BOTTOMLESS yard sale bin I picked up almost an exact year ago. I genuinely didn't mean to drag this thing out over almost an entire year (I picked it up shortly before September 19th of 2013). First we have not one but TWO Tim Murphy action figures from the Jurassic park lines. The first one is from the second series, and the second one is from the first. Weird... I know. What I find hilarious is that they merely swapped the head out for a more movie accurate (IMO) head for the second edition of the figure. I feature my two Tims here because it truly highlights the feeling of mediocrity and buyers remorse I started to feel as I discovered what I had paid 40 dollars for in total. I mean... there was some good stuff in there... but I wasn't feeling so great in the pit of my stomach when I pulled these Double-Mint twins out. And then we have the Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves action figures... which... didn't really disappoint me the same way that the Tims did... but finding that Azeem had none of his cloak included in the bin was more than a little disheartening. Azeem, being Morgan Freeman, is my favorite character in that film. Gods how I love that man. And now I have a unitarded Azeem in kinky boots.

So that's the end of the Saga of the Yard Sale Bin. It ends with more of a whimper than a roar... I admit. I hope that's not less than you were expecting... Except... I have a secret to tell. It's true I bought this bin last September... and just as Halloween countdown season began I kind of petered out writing about it after the second installment. THEN in July of this year I finally picked up the strand and started finishing the final three posts. It was shortly after the third Yard Sale bin post went up that something AMAZING happened:

I bought another BIN.

No, not this one. But almost as cool.

I'll tell the whole story soon, but let me suffice it to say: I was approached by the same guy I bought the first bin from. APPROACHED. And by "shortly after" I mean "two days" because that post went up on the 13th and this second bin showed up literally in my front yard on the 15th. I CANNOT WAIT TO START BLOGGING ABOUT IT. But my friend Brian over at Pop Pop! It's Trash Culture reminded me I hadn't even finished blogging about THIS bin. And I was so much less excited about what I had to share about THIS bin than I am about THAT bin!!!

Almost this excited.

So look for posts about that soon. (If I can squeeze it in before October 1st, along with a TON of really cool packages folks have sent me recently, that I NEED to give shout-outs for!)

But for tonight? That's all I've got kids! Goodwill has their Halloween section up! I brought some goodies home that I will be (of course) saving for my countdown. I'll still be back with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies before that starts up! So until I return... Happy Hunting!

Yardsale Bin Pt. 4: The Rest of the Best (?)

All right... this bin I found at a yard sale last September has been an EPIC in the making for this blog. This is the fourth installment in the series, and believe it or not, I still have one more to go!!! (Be sure to see what I included in parts One, Two, and Three)

The last two posts had a certain kind of focus or theme to them, and this one is much the same. I'm going to showcase the last of the super-hero action figures that were in the bin, be they Marvel or DC. 

First up we have a couple of classic characters from a couple of classic lines.

Here is Captain America from the Secret Wars toy line in 1984. He was originally packed with a lenticular shield, but mine is sans this accessory. His paint job has also seen better days, but I still can't help but smile when I look at this guy. I had an Iron Man figure from this line when I was growing up, and he was a favorite member of the forces of good, fighting against the legions of Hordak. Seeing Cap here in the bin got my hopes up that I might also find good ol' shell-head, but alas, he was not included. Still, a pretty welcome addition to my collection. 

Here we have a Mr. Freeze from the third series of DC Super Powers action figure line. I don't have a lot to say about this one as I didn't have it as a kid and I wasn't a huge Super Powers fan, unfortunately. I had a few of the ones pertaining to the Batman action figures, like the Joker, Penguin, Robin, Two-Face, and a few others. Unfortunately this Mr. Freeze is missing his helmet, some hoses, and his freeze ray. 

All right! Here are a trio of Marvel action figures! 

First up we have this Toybiz Archangel. I also received one of these from Miss M about 2 months after buying this bin. The one she sent me was in MUCH better condition, so this one flew off to a new home shortly after that. (True story: I found ANOTHER Archangel action figure at Goodwill only about a week ago, missing his wings completely. I opted to leave him there... but it has almost literally been raining Archangels around here for a while.)

This handsome devil is the Hulk villain, the Leader! I really like the idea behind the Leader. The idea that the gamma radiation that made the Hulk a rage monster and gave him super strength could do the same thing to someone else's BRAIN. I love this guy's translucent head! My research online revealed that he was from the 1997 Smash & Crash line, and was originally included with some sort of battle-bot. He used to have juice in his head that would pump around and make his brain look all gross but it has long since leaked out or dried up. Either way I really like the color and look of this action figure! 

This is X-Men 2099 villain Brimstone Love! He was the creator of the Theater of Pain... a sort of torture-as-performance-art sort of thing. He was a badass and possibly a mutant who had... devil? powers? He could summon magma, create illusions, was super strong, and looked the part physically... so the whole thing was very Dante-does-DUNE-ish. I have a soft spot for this villain as a big fan of the X-Men 2099 series. The cape you see him wearing here was a random one included in the bin, and not his actual red cape (though it is very similar, so he's keeping it). 

Here's another pile of 90's Marvel might... but this time it's ALL X-related. I lumped these all together because they sort of epitomize the 90's x-machine, with its buckles and pouches and extra padding galore. I'm not really in love with any of these figures, to be honest.   

First up we have X-Force era Cannonball, in his Externals-period costume. This is not really my favorite X-Era by any means. I collected and read X-Force through this period, but it was far from my favorite book even back then. This figure is even less impressive to me than the design in the books at the time. I NEVER understood the aviator goggles (even though they have survived through several costume changes right up to today). Sam Guthrie is invulnerable to harm when he is blasting through the air. Why would he need eye protection? And those ones on his forehead are so tiny I doubt they'd do much... and they can't move down off his forehead as they are sculpted on. I'm just picking now, I know. 

One of my absolute LEAST favorite X-Villains of all time, Omega Red had tentacles and basically killed people with his B.O. (Sorry... "Death spores" Suuuure.) He was also russian. I never liked him and every time he showed up he just made less sense and was less relevant than the last time. 

Cable is one of those characters that I have always had a love/hate relationship with. He heralded the end of everything I loved about the New Mutants, and was the absolute epitome of the 90's bad-ass with giant guns, cybernetics, and a costume made up more of pouches and straps than anything a superhero would normally have worn. The character's main saving grace was the fact that he wasn't a complete moron, and he has been put to much better use in the years since then he was at inception. This action figure is both hideous and kind of cool in even parts. 

Another 90's gun-toting badass, Bishop here is a tiny die-cast figurine from back when that used to be a thing. Believe it or not though, I do actually like Bishop quite a bit. I think because he put a new and interesting dynamic into the X-Men at the time. He wasn't the leader of the team, and instead was forced to get his militaristic attitudes and his comfortability with murder and suicide as battle tactics under control. I remember a Danger Room session where simulation-Apocalypse has Bishop in his clutches and is using him as leverage against the other X-Men. Bishop simply places a gun to the side of his OWN head and tells faux-Apocalypse he is more than willing to blow his own head off rather than be used to force his team-mates into compromising. The exact line evades me right now but at one point Bishop tells holo-Apocalypse that he'll be tasting Bishop's brains on his lips. That kind of stuck with me. I hate that he has now been turned into a homicidal maniac villain. That's so cliche.

Next up is this legion of Batmen, possibly a mix of figures from both the first and second Tim Burton films. These are all those famously ridiculed variant costumes the 90's became famous for: 

As demonstrated awesomely by this clip from Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

Front and center are the two Batmen from the first Tim Burton Batman film. The one on the left here is the original "fat-face" Batman that I personally felt like looked more like Michael Keaton in the movie. He was the one I actually had as a kid. The one on the right replaced fat-face after a while because they supposedly wanted a sculpt that looked more like the actor. The capes in the other picture here don't go to ANY of the capeless Batmen pictured in any of these photos as far as I can tell. 

In the first picture, from left to right, we have what I believe is Thunder Whip Batman, Air-Attack Batman, and another Batman I simply couldn't place. In the second picture, on the left, we have Tec-Shield or Aero-Strike Batman. On the right, Deluxe Blast Shield or Bola-Strike Batman. (Thanks to the Legions of Gotham web-site for their awesome action figures archive!)

 Here are a trio of somewhat less identical-looking Batman action figures. 

This charming fellow is "Future Batman" from the Legends of Batman line. Instead of a cape he had a sort of exoskeleton piece that fit down over his head and shoulders. 

From the figure line for the Batman Forever film, Neon Armor Batman. 

And finally, this frigid figure from the Batman and Robin Movie line... Ice Blast Mr. Freeze

Here's a freaky-tiki foursome! A mix of characters from DC and Marvel! 

I smell tuna melt!

I didn't bother to look up what line this Night Wing figure is from. I have never really been terribly interested in Night Wing. He always seemed like a character that got too big for his britches, got new britches, got replaced by someone who fit the old britches... and then sort of lost relevance. He was kept around because people liked the guy more than they just like Robin... and the problem with that sort of story-telling is that you end up with guys who all used to be Robin stacked up like cord-wood all over your universe. 

Her bewbs have antennae.

Hey! Remember when The Wasp was a weird insect lady all the time? Me either. I had to look it up. I mean... I sort of remember seeing the design back in the day (This version of the Wasp debuted in 1996) but I was never an Avenger fan back in the day, and that was around the time I was quickly losing interest in most of the comics on the market at the time. Apparently this action figure was actually from a Spider-Man line of figures that all featured insect-armor as accessories. The armors could be removed from the characters and put together to create large mutated-looking insects as well. The Wasp's armor/ally was a big mutant lady-wasp that also included her wings.

Groin strain!

A character with some similar issues is Kyle Rayner. He's one of... how many human Green Lanterns in a literal LEGION of Green (and other colored) Lanterns? I count at least 5 different completely human Green Lanterns from Earth. And while I have a soft spot for the character, and the GL legacy... that's just way too many characters to actually keep them all relevant and thriving and vital in our universe. Then add the dozens upon dozens of other alien Green Lantern characters... plus the Red, Yellow, Blue, etc. colored Lanterns, all vying for your time and attention and poor Kyle just kind of looks like a reject from a reboot in the 90's. But I really like the sculpt on this action figure! 

I know... I'm not Magneto. :(

Here is Joseph. Joseph is a young clone of Magneto. That isn't enough to make him into an action figure. So they stuck a sabertooth skull to his shoulder and packed him in with Amphibius of the Savage Land Mutates (whose name they correctly misspelled as "Amphibious" on the package). I don't give a crap about Joseph, honestly. He was a dumb sort of plot development that didn't really seem to have much point. If I had found an Amphibius action figure in this bin however, I would have completely peed my pants:

Oh... what could have been. 

All right. We've come to the end of this post. The last trio of figures this time around (Don't forget, there's one MORE installment in this Yard Sale Bin saga before it's done) are from the animated Batman series of action figures.  

This is Street Jet Bruce Wayne, who came with a racecar-esque vehicle. 

This is Ninja Robin. Sans ninja cape. His right arm is stuck like that. It's spring-loaded so when you push it down it flicks right back up again. I'm guessing to throw something ninja-y. 

And finally... Man-Bat! Man-Bat is a sort of favorite Batman character for me, regardless of how on-the-nose he seems to be, metaphor-wise. But there's just something kick-assingly groovy about anthropomorphic bats, be they Batman villains or TMNT allies or whatever. I think this was one of the most exciting finds for me out of the entire bin, to be honest. I mean, there were a lot of great finds in there... I mean a LOT... but I loves me some Man-Bat. This guy is currently suspended from my ceiling by some string, in mid flight.

All right kids! That was fun! That's all I've got for tonight though. And believe it or not, there's still ONE MORE WHOLE POST worth of toys out of this Yard Sale Bin! But before we get to that, I'll be back with some more Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!