Another Trip to Dreamcatcher (From Last November Actually)

Do you ever lose pictures on your hard-drive and just completely forget about them? I do. I do a lot actually. And that is how I forgot to post about a trip I made to the Dream Catcher Antique Mall last November, and it's a real shame too. I found some AWESOME stuff on this trip. But instead of just letting it be a shame, I decided to go ahead and talk about it anyway! So let's hop into the wayback machine and check it out shall we? 

I don't remember the prices I paid for anything at this point... but I know I got a pretty good deal on these two Fisher Price Adventure People from the early 80's. These fellas are, from left to right, Clawtron and Brainoid. I can honestly tell you that I LOVE the Adventure People line, even the standard "civilian" type characters... but ESPECIALLY these trippy Star Wars knock-off characters.

I wanted to get a bit more of a close-up of Brainoid's... well... brain here. I discovered that he is incredibly hard to photograph clearly, and this was the best I could do. The brain sort of rattles around in the helmet if you shake it, but not completely, as it is attached to a loose peg that allows it to move without letting it go completely crazy. I am hard pressed to tell you about another action figure as old and as awesome as this one. I am completely in love with this guy! 

Similarly goofy and gorgeous is this green bendy alien character! His name is Hondu and he is from "The Other World" line of toys from Arco back in the early 80's. This picture of him is just terrible and believe it or not, this is after I tweaked the colors a bit to make him not-quite so luminescent. (You can see him a little better in the group shot at the end). I love Hondu and I really like The Other World Toyline. It never fails. Just when I think I know all about all the different, weird, out-there action figure lines of days past... something like this pops up and reminds me of my ignorance. 

This familiar looking fellow is a 1994 Alien Vs. Predator 2-pack figure. He originally came with a PRedator to face off against. Up to this point I had not had a nice iconic-looking basic Xenomorph to put on my shelves. I really like the look of this toy, from the sculpt and detail down to the pose. He's actually not super poseable, as him limbs are all angled to pretty much just let him stand in one position. You can see from the photo that he desperately needed a good cleaning as well. Overall he makes an awesome addition to my monster shelf.

And finally, I picked up a couple of great Little Golden Books! Big Bird's Red Book and Mrs. Brisby and the Magic Stone! I owned the Big Bird book as a kid, and I was thrilled to find a copy of it out and about! The illustrations took me back to my childhood so completely. And the Rats of NIMH book was a very weird and nice surprise. I would not have guessed that this film would have gotten the LGB treatment! I love surprises like this. I try not to trawl through the LGB collecting communities too much because I'm always delighted when I find something like this, (like an Inspector Gadget LGB, or a Darkwing Duck LGB, or a Donny and Marie Osmond LGB...) in the wild!

So here's the whole pile! If I were to hazard a guess back, I would say I probably spent between 10 to 13 dollars on the pile you see above. I remember being pretty pleased to bring them home for whatever I paid. 

That's all I have for tonight kids! Next time around I'll most likely be blogging about one of a couple of awesome packages I've received in the mail recently, so keep your peepers peeled for that! Then I'll be back soon after with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting! 

(Return of) The Yardsale Bin!!! Pt. 3: MotU edition

So... last September I started writing about a bin of toys I picked up at a yard sale (Part One can be found here, and Part Two can be found here). A bunch of other stuff happened fairly soon after that, and then the blog sort of went on a hiatus... and then I sort of started another blog... and then I restarted this one... and then I basically FORGOT about the whole thing... and long-story-short (too late!) I never really got back to writing about it. I just realized this recently. So I'm going to FINALLY get caught up on writing about the contents of this bin I found at a yard sale I found just down the street from my house: 

This time around I am going to focus on one of the properties that made me so excited about this bin in the first place... Masters of the Universe! There was a BUNCH of MotU stuff in here that grabbed my attention, and I'm going to show it ALL in this one post!

Let's start with all of the royalty in the box, shall we? 

My King Randor is missing his crown (his crown people!) and he appears to have a bit of damage to his nose that a dermatologist should probably look at... but he cuts no less of a stunning figure! 

Prince Adam is a figure I never owned as a kid, but he's one I'm thrilled to have now! I always found it bizarre that they put so much effort into dressing Adam in shades of pink and lavender and then gave him a hot pink sword. I feel like there was some effort on the part of the toy designers to make Adam feel like a more feminine He-Man? Am I crazy? Anyway, he's a fun figure to have tracked down. 

Finally here we have King Hiss, who is missing his shell body. But hey, I don't care! I like the snake version better anyway! This guy always makes me think of the Marvel crossover event of 1989, "Atlantis Attacks" with its serpent god and Serpent Society fighting the X-Men, etc. He looks like some sort of mortal in mid-transformation into Set. 

Here's a group of heroes (and one arguably "neutral" character)!

This Ram Man has seen better days, and I already owned one, so he eventually ended up being a part of a trade I set up. Ram Man was one of my favorite heroes as a kid in the MotU group. So cool that he butted things with his head as his power!!!  

I think he's this kid, all grown up. 

Another hero who uses her head (but in a different way), and another I already owned, heeeeere's Teela! I kept my own Childhood Teela longer than almost any other Masters of the Universe toy as a kid. She and April O'Neil and Janine Melnitz were a small handful of the only female action figures I owned as a kid and I treasured them, since I was following the X-Men model of team superheroics and I NEEDED a strong female presence for that to work. My Teela developed Dazzler powers at one point if I recall. 

Buzz-Off is yet another character I already owned, but he is one of my absolute favorite guys from when I was a kid. So really, the first three out of this particular group all turned out to be childhood faves, and not ironically, I already owned all three! (All three have moved on to new homes at this point as well) Buzz-Off was a freaky enough hero that I wanted to play with him all of the time when I was little, unlike most of the other heroes, who I thought were pretty boring.  

I did not own a Zodak (or Zodac... or whatever) at this point... do getting this guy was a coup... and I even had his armor kicking around, although someone else was using it at this point:

Uh... hey, I think you have something of mine.

Awkward...

Agh! So embarrassed!

It almost seemed a shame to cover up all that luscious, Tom Selleck-caliber chest hair though... 

Next up we have a couple of villains. I already owned both of these as well, and these two have ALSO gone on to new homes!

Webstor was a figure I never owned as a kid, and in fact creeped me out to NO END and therefore would never have been my toy as a kid. Hence me not having a ton of nostalgia for him, but I like having him now. 

And Hordak was the supreme ruler of absolutely ALL my villainous toys when I was a kid. He just seemed like such an ultimate badass to me back then. I hadn't seen much of the She-Ra show as a kid at all, so I was never really aware that he was supposed to snort like a pig a lot when he talked.

Now we get into the truly exciting finds! All three of these guys were new finds to me at the time. Two heroes and a villain!

Rio Blast! I never owned this toy as a kid, but as an adult I ADORE him!!! His leg blasters are missing, but he's otherwise in pretty great shape! What a weird concept to add to He-Man! A bionic quick-draw character teaming up with a magical barbarian? Perfect. 

Mantenna's eyes have seen better days, but I'm still delighted to add him to my shelf! He is one of the even weirder concepts (IMO) to have made it to plastic, what his his eyestalks and doubled-up legs. But any member of the Evil Horde is awesome in my book. 

And finally Stratos, whom I was never a huge fan of as a kid or as an adult. This one's in pretty bad shape, facially, but I managed to replace him just a couple of months later with another great MotU find. 

Honestly though, I think the absolute best MotU find from the bin was this trio of figures from the New Adventures of He-Man line. That line got a pretty bad rap when it was released but as an adult I kind of like them. As a kid I only ever owned Optikk from this line, and he was another one of my absolute favorite action figures of ALL TIME. The other characters didn't really do a whole lot for me, conceptually, and I never saw the show. Optikk was not included in this bin unfortunately, but a handful of his foes and allies were. 

First up is He-Man himself! If I couldn't get Optikk, this would be the only other figure I would have outright wished for. He's just perfectly indicative of what you were in store for when it comes to this action figure line, and as the main hero and "icon" I'd want him. Skeletor? Not as much, but sure, I guess. But He-Man is really the star. 

Depending on the packaging you bought him in, apparently this fellow was either Icarius or Flipshot. I just think of him as Dave Coulier because I feel like that's EXACTLY who he looks like. 

You decide. 

And finally we have the alien badass Flogg, a villain from the series. I'm sort of full-on in love with this guy, from his color scheme, to the robotic-looking armor, to his ridiculously-sculpted alienoid head. I've seen pictures of the helmet he's supposed to have, and I'm glad mine doesn't have his because I WOULD NEVER PUT IT ON HIM. I love him just the way he is. 

There's actually two more installments planned to finish off the contents of this yardsale bin... but don't expect them all back-to-back-to-back. I'll be back with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies real soon! Until then, Happy Hunting! 

League Post: It's Just Not Summer Until...

I'm finally getting my butt in gear and doing another League of Extraordinary Bloggers post! So what is the topic this week you may ask?

What is it that defines "Summer" for this Goodwill Geek? Hmmm... let's think. I have a few I can think of right off the bat. Like... 

The constant hum of fans around the house! Maine in the summer time is actually pretty hot. Not as hot as the southern states, sure, but we're not the frozen tundra that people seem to think we are. Day or night at our house, we keep these things going as long as we're home and in the room we're trying to cool off for any period of time. We sleep with them going all night long, which makes it so that when Fall comes, and we pack the fans away, I actually have trouble falling asleep without the white noise going in the background.

The doors of our house stay open pretty much ALL the time, except when we're either not there or sleeping. What's weird is how much like a sauna the house gets when it is several degrees cooler outside some days.

Tiger lillies! These things are ALL around our house, and exploding this time of year. And they're one of my favorite flowers. There are also a handful of songs that just never fail to make me feel like Summer is HERE. I don't have as many of these as I do Halloween or Christmas songs... but here's a few. I realize some of these feel a bit "On the nose" when it comes to Summer listening... but that's the kind of unsubtle guy I am.

They Might Be Giants are an all-year sort of band for me, to be sure... but this song is LITERALLY about the Sun. Doesn't really get much more summer-y than that. And I love jumping around with my kids to this song!

Yes, it's SUPER cheesy and cliche... but I can't hear anyone even SAY the word "Summer" without bursting into this song. I mean this almost as near-literal as I can, too. I'm one of those weirdos who finds lyrics that match almost everything people around me say and then just... sort of... belt them out. 

I am a HUGE Louis Armstrong fan. And this version of "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess is slow and sleek and sexy. Ella Fitzgerald's vocals are like nothing else on this planet. This whole song makes you feel the slow, sweaty, tired pressure of a Summer heat. 

Sandals. I pretty much wear nothing but sandals until Fall comes. Same for my wife. My daughter is all about the flip-flops, and my two boys are pretty much barefoot unless we make them put shoes on.

The pets spend a lot more time outdoors this time of year, especially since Pumpkin the bunny lives in a pen upstairs in our daughter's room, and would probably bake if we left him up there all day long.

Pumpkin and the AT-AT I've brought into the family have been getting to know each other pretty well actually.

In the Summer we also pretty much relinquish our backyard to the ants. They get REALLY bad and REALLY aggressive. These two pictures are from the kids' SLIDE in the backyard.

Mowing the lawn is a test of fortitude in the sweltering heat and wave upon wave of fire ant attacks. It's for real a total Empire of the Ants back there:

I posted this for both of you. You know who you are.  

The sweet, delicious taste of freezer pops. Whether you call them Fla-Vor-Ice or Otter Pops... these things are a STAPLE of Summer. As is...

I am always sad to see these tubular freezer pops (seemingly filled with various types of automotive fluid when you pick them up unfrozen) disappear from the grocery stores every year. I should really stock up. The sweet golden one pictured above is pineapple flavored. 

And speaking of pineapple flavored... here is my new favorite Summer beverage. ACE Pineapple Cider. Adults only. This is hard cider of which I have become a fan. I'm all about the Fox Barrel, the Angry Orchard, the Original Sin, the Johnny Appleseed, and now the ACE. Please drink responsibly.

Or don't. 

I'm not your mother.

You will be hard pressed to find a day when the Goodwill Geek's family doesn't go swimming. We have a pond called Webb's which is just a seven minute drive from the house. So we spend quite a bit of time there. The boys got new floaty rings this year, and they LOVE them.

And finally, it's not really Summer until we've made one of our trips out to Sand Beach. Sand Beach is out on Mount Desert Island, and takes us about an hour drive to reach. We don't go every weekend, but we go fairly often. It is deliciously cold, and salty, and sandy, and refreshing. Here's a poem I wrote for my daughter about 4 years ago about our trips to Sand Beach:

Sand Beach

Sandy beach and sandy butts.

Sandy feet and sandy guts.

Sandy eyes, and sandy hair...

We are sandy everywhere.

Sandy beach with water cold.

Only swim if you feel bold.

Better off in warm lagoons,

to splash and laugh like crazy loons. 

Sandy beach and sandy fun

seems to fly... and then its done.

In the car, we wave "adieu"

Sleepy. Happy.

Sandy, too.

--Derek Ash, 2010

There's actually so much more than all this that just screams "summer" at me... but I'm just glad that Summer actually IS HERE. It was such a long and painful winter for me that the Summer is such a relief. And of course another Fall and another Halloween is just around the corner... but for now I am content to sit on the beach in my sandals with my ice-pop running down my arm. 

Let's see what says "Summer" to the rest of the League, shall we? 

- Go Play Listen shares some Summery tunes. 

- The Nerd Nook takes us on an entire tour of Summer!

- Jathniel talks about Summertime in Sin City. 

- Our fearless leader over at Cool & Collected talks about the Summer necessity of the Big Budget Summer Blockbusters!

- The Geeky Vixen has her own (kick-ass) list of Summer essentials, including movies, roadtrips, and to hunting! 

That's all I have tonight kids! I'll be back soon to show off some Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting! 

Goodwill Quick Stop 06-27-2014: Books, books, and... a toy or two.

So it wasn't a payday Friday, but I felt the need to swing into Goodwill since I was driving home from work anyway. I try to make these "quick stops" very abbreviated trips into Goodwill, with a quick sweep past the toy department, a sweep past the glassed-in case, a quick look down a couple of the other hardgood aisles, and then a very brief GLANCE at the books section (as opposed to the in-depth COMB I do on payday Friday of ALL those departments). I don't expect to find much, but I still usually find one or two things to cart off home. Well this quick stop was of a different breed altogether. My quick GLANCE at the book section went a little more in depth as I continued to find interesting titles that I just couldn't leave behind. It wasn't ALL books though (scroll down to the bottom for a toy and a board game I found if books aren't our thing). Here's the stuff I found:

Disney put out a series of Nancy Drew-style mystery novels in the early 1960's featuring their very own Maiden-fair Mouseketeer, Annette Funicello. These just jumped out at me. I am not a fan of old mystery series from that era, but slap a little Disney on it, and make the adventures star a real-life "It girl" from back then? And it spells out "G-O-T-T-A H-A-V-E I-T!!!" These cost me a cool 1.99 apiece, and I have no idea yet what I'm going to do with them... But oddly enough I think I may actually read them!!!

These are both duplicates of books I've already brought home before... but I couldn't leave them behind. I've started doing this because I've learned that having fodder to add to either trades or even just gift packages is a nice thing. These will be moving on to new homes sooner rather than later. 

This one almost didn't come home with me, but I've gotten into the dangerous habit of buying books for their covers... and admittedly the story of Joseph Merrick is one that I kind of want to know more about. Look at that cover! The color! The artwork! It looks amazing and it batted its eyelashes until it convinced me to take it home. .99 cents. 

I always feel the need to point out that I am not a religious person when I showcase items like this one. Apologies to my religious friends, of whom I have more than a few (and whom I am sure roll their eyes every time I feel the need to clarify this)... but I want it all out there, upfront and honest, so people don't get the wrong idea. This is a book of prayers for children, yes, but to me it is first and foremost a Little Golden Book from 1945, with a dust jacket. A DUST JACKET PEOPLE. It's actually the seventh printing of the book, as the original was from 1942. This is now officially the oldest LGB in my collection. 

I picked up these two Ramona books for my wife actually, as she wants to start reading them to my son. I looooove me some Beverly Cleary, y'all. I have a few other books kicking around, but... confession time folks... I HATE IT when I have several books from the same series and they were all published at different times so THEY DON'T MATCH. So I will be keeping my eyes peeled for the other 4 or so Ramona books in this style (And yes, I know the Henry Huggins, Ribsy, and Beezus books all share the same world, but I'm not counting those). 

A couple of quick ones here, a book by David Sedaris I haven't read yet, Naked (.99 cents) and a teeny-tiny copy of Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones (also .99 cents). If you have never read either of these authors, you should correct this oversight AT ONCE. Nothing too terribly geeky going on here honestly, just really great writing.

Next up is this bizarro book with the uneccarrily long-named Imps Demons Hobgoblins Witches Fairies and Elves. I know I have encountered this book in the past, but I couldn't tell you when or how. I almost didn't end up bringing this one home either... but it is so genuinely weird that I couldn't leave it behind. Leonard Baskin dedicated his book to pieces of (what I have to write in quotes) "art" and snippets of prose poetry (I guess?) about each creature it details. I would say that the Tooth Fairy piece is especially disturbing in a weird way. I picked that one for its corpulence and body horror aspects, and the pieces on Jack o' Lanterns and Bloody Bones because I have a certain affection for those types of characters. 

This is one of my absolute favorite finds. A Ghostbusters storybook! A big one! By all that is good in this world, I LOVE FINDING THIS STUFF AT GOODWILL!!! I included shots of some of my favorite scenes from the film as the are pictured in the book. 

Norman Bridwell, of "Clifford the Big Red Dog" fame wrote and illustrated this little gem, which is exactly what is sounds like... a manual detailing the caretaking of various different kinds of monsters one might own as pets. These include such beasties as vampires and Frankenstein's monsters, among others. Plan on seeing more of this book during my Halloween countdown in October. 

I mentioned above that I am developing a dangerous habit of buying books simply for their covers. This is a prime example of this developing trend. Perry Mason Solves the Case of the Caretaker's Cat which I bought solely for the cover art by Robert McGinnis. This would be the second time I have bought a Perry Mason novel simply because the cover delighted me. Look at that image above. Look at the woman's face. Look at the... whatever that thing is she's wearing. Look at the cat behind her. I mean even the way she's holding her TOES is cool... it's just an awesome piece of art and I want to find a way to display this thing to make ALL my friends insane with envy. 

Again with the classic kid's literature for my boys. Really enjoyed this book as a kid, and I keep seeing books like this and The Chocolate Touch and Superfudge at Goodwill, so I'm going to start snapping them up. 

A couple of the movie adaptations I found on this trip: American Graffiti and For the Love of Benji. I have never seen either of these films... but lately I have been going bonkers picking books like these up.

Aaaaand speaking of... I found THIS little gem! I think this is also another of the most exciting finds of this particular trip to Goodwill. My friend Brian over at Pop Pop! It's Trash Culture has spoken openly about his love for the two Coreys on the recent episode 79 of the Geek Fallout Podcast, focusing on pop-culture duos. It was shortly after hearing this podcast that I made this trip to Goodwill and found this book. I sort of feel bad keeping this for myself as I WANT to be the sort of person that would hand over a novelization of License to Drive to a friend who clearly loves the source material... but I WANT IT FOR MYSELF. I'm sorry Brian. I'm just so sorry. 

Finally moving out of the book territory and solidly into "toys" we have this Flintstone Kids Wilma toy from McDonalds, circa 1988. I was never a huge fan of the original Flintstones, but for some reason I DID like the Muppet-Babies version of the show, which starred Fred and the gang as... well... kids. I also distinctly remember owning this toy as a kid too. I was so surprised to find her actually IN her purple dino car there on the shelf that I almost couldn't believe my eyes. I paid .99 cents. 

And finally, we have, from 1990: "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles: Das Pizza-Spiel" A German version of the "Heroes in the Half-Shell" boardgame. I don't care that the thing's in German... in fact, it increases the appeal for me! The fact that I picked this up for only .99 cents had me singing "Go-Ninja-Go-Ninja-GO!!!" 

Everything's in there that was supposed to be in there, so I'm pretty happy! In fact, the whole haul made me pretty happy! Lots of cool, weird, interesting things to sort out and figure what to do with. It's what I love about a good trip to any thrift shop!

That's all I've got for tonight kids! I'll be back soon with more geeky Goodwill goodies though, so until then, Happy Hunting!