A Package From Miss M!

So since I am still playing catch up with my back-log from last year's posts. I thought this might be the perfect opportunity to write about this terribly over-due post about a a package sent to me by none other than Miss M of "Diary of a Dorkette" fame, and my awesome co-host over at Geek Fallout! 

This was a semi-sort-of-Halloween themed package that unfortunately arrived the day after Halloween. So it didn't make it into that countdown, and it got buried under my November break, and the December countdowns for Creepmas and Christmas. But there was a hand-made card by Miss M, which I adore!

Also included were some Halloween-y accessories and decor. This awesome Trick-or-Treat sack, and ghostly bandana for example! 

I handed this item off to my daughter who hung it up in her bedroom. Dig that black cat!

Some random books and other fun items included: A Wizard of Oz LGB, a Jetsons Activity PAd, and a dart and target for Boom Co.

This Mario Bros. Wii U Happy Meal set I let my boys play with, as they are both Wii U obsessed, and love them some Mario Brothers. You fire the colored koopa troopa shells out of the Wii U Remote and into the target!

Blind-bgged mini-figures! I got Scooby Doo's Frankenstein's Monster and Cylindria from Pac-Man's ghostly adventures! I think my favorite guy is the blue ghost!

Slinky dog! This is a Burger King Kids' Club meal toy put out in 1996. I honestly can't believe that Toy Story was put out in 1995... making it a 20 year old film now. 20 YEARS.

Also included were these Mortal Kombat action figures! Rayden, Sub-Zero, Smoke, Johnny Cage, Sonya Blade, and Liu Kang! All my favorites!

Then we have the Street Fighter action figures Ken, Chun-Li, M Bison, Guile, and Sagat (With a Cobra Alley Viper from 1992 on the far right).

From the old Toy Biz X-Men line, we have GIDEON!!!! armored Wolverine, and Sauron (I found a Sauron at Goodwill already, but his limbs don't move because he was a part of some display piece thing that he was glued into once upon a time. It's nice to now have a poseable one). I think I was the most excited to have Gideon since he was one of my favorite villains back in the 90's.

One of the coolest items to appear in this package from Miss M was the Toybiz Magneto vehicle, "The Magnetron". Simultaneously goofy and cool in equal measures I want you to now stop for a moment and let it sink in that Toybiz made a CAR for MAGNETO. Not only that... but a CAR with GIANT U-SHAPED MAGNETS ON IT. This thing is a work of art. A true masterpiece. 

But the items that literally stole my breath away? These fellas. From the Kenner-produced 80's toy line "Superpowers" featuring the heroes and villains of the DCU... Aquaman, Lex Luthor, and (Hal Jordan) Green Lantern!!! I never owned any of these as a kid... but honestly if I could have picked out ANY three characters to track down and own now, it would probably be these three (Although Firestorm and Brainiac would round out my top 5). I always LOVED Lex Luthor in his watermelon color-schemed battle suits. Aquaman? Yes. Just yes. And I want to see Funko put together an entire set of Chromatic Lanterns in their ReAction line. Because I and obsessed with the ROYGBIV Lanterns. So any version of Hal is welcome on my shelves.

That's it for tonight kids! My thanks to the always generous and gracious Miss M for her donations to the Geek Cave! Be sure to check out her blog Diary of a Dorkette, and to listen to her on the Geek Fallout Podast! I'll be back soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies... so 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!

A Package from John Gaither

Today's post is yet another horribly overdue post where I've waited MUCH too long to thank someone for sending me an AMAZING package of goodies. Today I'd like to focus on one of the absolute nicest guys you'll meet on the internet: A fellow who goes by the name of John Gaither. John also runs the Robot Monster Space Super Hero blog, where he features the AMAZING assortment of toys in his vast collection. 

I'll blather on and sing John's praises later on in this post, but for now I want to give you all a look-see at what he sent me! 

Here we have a carded "Willy Du Witt" of the Bucky O'Hare toy line. I almost ALMOST popped this little guy out of his prison to play with, but I Still haven't quite done it yet. Usually I am a "I put the PLAY in DISPLAY" kind of collector, and I always open everything... but Willy here is still stuck to his card and I can't bring myself to change that just yet. The packaging here is almost as great as the action figure itself!

Here's a look at the back of the card too.

John also included a couple of the villains from the line, the first of which is this squat, ugly little guy, Toad Air Marshall. He looks like he'd like to be chomping on a stogie right now.

And then this "Toad-Borg" is a menacing son-of-a-mother ain't he?

This fella's not a Bucky O'Hare figure, but a "Walkabout" action figure from the TMNT line. He even has his little sidekick buddy, "Kid Kanga!" This Walkabout is in MUCH better shape than the one I had found in the Bin of Awesome I bought this same summer, and he comes with his buddy, so I swapped him out for the one I already had.

These guys were some of the only GUTS figures I owned as a kid, so it was trippy seeing them again! I had all but forgotten this toy line! I had some of the ninjas too.

What HAS to be the piece de resistance however is this guy right here!!! This is No-Zone of the Toxic Crusaders! He was an absolute favorite action figure of mine in the final years of my action figure phase as a kid. All the Toxic Crusader figures were amazing actually, but No-Zone was by far one of my favorites. THIS item right here folks... this is the one that made me let out a laugh of surprise and delight! The whole package was great, but this guy made me feel 12 years old again.

So that wraps it up folks! I can't thank the awesome John Gaither enough for thinking of me and sending this great package of goodies! I have to say that John is probably one of the nicest and supportive guys I've met online while writing this blog. He is one of the best examples of how great our community of geeks and nerds and toy collectors and pop culture enthusiasts can be. He always has a kind word to say about whatever anyone has to share, and he is jut the BIGGEST kid when it comes to being excited about toys. Be sure to check out his blog, and follow him on Instagram as well!

That's it for tonight kids! I'll be back soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies (they will ACTUALLY be from Goodwill next time!) so until then... Happy Hunting!

A Whole New Bin of Awesome Pt. 3: Closing the Lid

So we're finally hitting the bottom of the Newest Bin of Awesome Stuff to have entered my life this past summer. This last post in the series of three (find part One here and part Two here) will be a sort of random mish-mash that makes up the final pile of stuff. There's a lot of junk in this post, but there are some legitimate awesome finds as well.

I will also finally reveal the toy that caused me to desperately WANT this bin upon seeing it, and finally deciding that paying 25 dollars for the whole lot was a deal I would be CRAZY to pass up... but more on that later.

I know that one of the toys that took me crashing back into my childhood the HARDEST was Dinah here. She is a "Tinosaur" from a 1986 McDonald's Happy Meal. I owned 4 or 5 of the 8 available Tinosaurs back in the day. They were a strange collection of non-licensed PVC characters that were dinosaurs, bizarre looking creatures, and a couple of primitive looking humanoids. Dinah was one of my very favorites, though I got a LOT of flack from other kids for loving her so much. She was generally regarded as either a girls' toy, a babies' toy, or both by my peers. But now I'm a grown-@$$ adult and I can own whatever toys I want. So nyah. 

This guy is named Maggot and he is from the Little Dracula action figure line, based on the cartoon of the same name. I have no idea what his background is... maybe a flasher who has a hard time getting his coat open because he has suction cups for hands? If you're into that sort of thing I guess. He's a fun little guy, but he eventually made his way on to another home.

Also included were these Aliens toys from the mid-90's. The one on the left is the "gorilla alien" and the one on the right is the "Scorpion alien" who unfortunately did not come to me complete. (he explodes when hit and some of his pieces are missing). These also had a new home destined for them as I am not a huge Aliens toys collector.

Next there were these Supernaturals action figures, produced by Tonka back in 1987. I never owned any of these as a kid because quite frankly they scared the pee out of me back then. The tall fellow on the left is a guy named Snakebite, and the shorter guy on the right is Weird Wolf. Snakebite has none of his accesories, including his headpiece, which resembles a cobra's hood, his chest piece, and his weapon. Weird Wolf, being a Ghostling pretty much came as you see him. (I found the holograms to be exceedingly difficult to photograph, so what you see is what you get... sorry).

To round out the action figure collection coming out of the bin, there were these guys from the Bucky O'Hare series. First up we have Bucky himself, and then Bruiser the Berzerker Baboon. I never owned any of the Bucky O'Hare action figures as a kid either, but they looked amazing, and seemed like they would fit in with the TMNT line perfectly. I haven't exactly become OBSESSED with this line, like I have with some others... but I definitely appreciate them and think I will be tracking more of them down in the future.

So here's the whole gang. These were the last of the action figures that I found in the bin.

But that certainly wasn't the end of the fun!!! These two Swamp Thing vehicles from 1990 were produced support the cartoon show. (None of the action figures in these pictures came from this bin... in fact, Swamp-Thing came from Goodwill and Anton Arcane came from an antique mall near here) 

I didn't own the March Buggy (left) or the Bayou Blaster (right) as a kid, but I did have a couple of the Swamp-Thing action figures!

Now for a bit of weird, and in some cases almost heart-breaking stuff. This Real Ghostbusters lunchbox was a huge disappointment considering the damage to the sticker on the front. If it just didn't have that cut going right down through Winston's face, I would have actually been pretty happy even if it was a little water-warped. Sigh.

There was this ancient toy cash register and this old erector set in the bin as well. Nothing I was all that excited by, to be honest. 

The accessories in the pile on the left here are all from the Sectaurs HYVE Playset. When I realized what they were I lamented like a grieving widow that the rest of the set was not including in the bin as well. I don't recognize the RC car from 1985 on the right, and I'm too lazy to spend ALL that time googling it to find out what it is... so feel free to go at it internet!

There was also this collector's case full of rusty old cars as well. Some of them are pretty neat... but most of them are just kid of junky. The items that caught my eye the most were these:

Hip-Hop Big Bird, Grover flying a rocket ship, and a Micro Machine car with monster truck wheels. After some Googling (I wasn't as lazy this time) I discovered it is a Micro Machines Chevrolet 65 Corvette 4×4 Monster Truck. There you go. 

All right! GIRD yourselves. For beyond this point you will witness the two items that MADE me buy this bin in the first place. These were the nails in the coffin. The straws that bro the camel's back. These were the selling points for me. 

First up we have Talking Robie from Radio Shack. Back when I was a kid, I owned a Robie Jr. and I LOVED that thing! I actually dented the bubble over his head but it did not deter my love for him in any way, shape, or form. This is not the same robot of course, but it is a direct relative, and all of these robots had a kind of uniform style and appearance that makes them lovable in the same way. This guy is proudly displayed on my shelf as a testament to childhood and all the over-hyped toys that didn't work that great but still made it magical. 

And finally, this motherf**ker. Metlar of the Inhumanoids!!! I always DESPERATELY wanted to own Metlar as a kid, but for some reason I never got him. Castle Grayskull, yes. Ewok tree village, yes. Metlar... hell no. But I own him NOW!!! Metlar was a giant lava-spewing BASTARD who would flatten you as much as look at you. I remember being TERRIFIED of the inhumanoids, but watching it anyway. I mostly watched it paired up with Jem and the Holograms, and some other cartoon shorts-episodes. Fest your eyes ladies and gentlemen:

Now, full disclosure: Metlar's head is broken completely off. I have to just rest it on his shoulders and set him up for display. He is no long fit for play... but I don't care!!! I am so psyched to own this piece of 80's childhood HISTORY!!!!

So that's it folks! That's the entire contents of the Bin of Awesome. Hope you liked falling down this rabbit hole with me!

That's it for tonight kids! But I'll be back with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies soon enough! So until then, Happy Hunting!