McDonald’s Treat Pails and My Jack-O-Lantern

With Halloween fast approaching, I finally got to getting a pumpkin to carve into a Jack-o-lantern.  I’ve been checking out pumpkins every time I go out somewhere, but there wasn’t a good selection this year.  Maybe all of the good ones were bought at the beginning of the month?  But if I wanted a Jack-O-Lantern this year, I had to act quickly.

This was the best looking of the ones I’ve seen over the past few weeks.  I picked it up a few days ago, and got to carving it tonight.  And the results were pretty nice.

I got most of his slimy guts out, but there’s only so much you can get out with just your bare hands.  I usually end up giving my Jack-o-lanterns sharp teeth, so I avoided that this year.  But in order to judge whether it was a good choice, I had to see it with the lights off.

Well, it passed my test.  It looks even nicer outdoors with all of the other decorations.

I also found these.

Back in the 80’s McDonald’s debuted their McBoo pails.  The pails replaced the toys that you would normally get, and the acted as the container your Happy Meal would come in.  There were 3 diiferent one, a witch, a ghost and a pumpkin(I only need the ghost to have all 3).  I believe that they were around almost every Halloween season through the early 90’s.  Then they jsut vanished.

Last year, McDonald’s had 2 different Mr. Potato Head Halloween pails.  And now we have these two pails this year.  This has me hoping that they’ll run similar promotions every year.  They could even release the same ones for a few years in row, to save me some space.  What would be even cooler is if they were to release some updated versions of the McNugget Buddies.

I didn’t put any of the stickers on them, yet.  I plan on doing that by this weekend.  I’ll share the results, hopefully by Saturday(but there should be a post or two before then).

Soon

I plan on posting some stuff in the next day or so.  I’m actually going to try and get a handful of posts done this week.  But for now, here’s this past Sunday’s lio comic strip.

Awesome.

Speak Up!

With the last few posts, I have noticed that my numbers have been down.  The only reason I can think why this is , is that you guys don’t like the new Thundercats.  While that sucks if that’s the case, I would like to write stuff that also interests my readers.  I will warn you that my next post will most likely be another Thundercats figure.  But, I will try to hold off on that.  What would you guys like to read about(stuff that I normally write about anyway)?

Maybe some old-school video games?

 

Another Package From Jboypacman, and Wilykat

A few days ago, I received another care package from Jboypacman.  And if you have ever gotten a package from Jboy, you know that it’s going to be awesome!

I was only expecting the Double Dragon figures, but Jboy always sends some extras.  I seem to be getting a lot of toys these days, and sometimes I get stuff that doesn’t fit my collecting habits.  So I will be contacting some of you guys, to share the wealth.

Besides the Garbage Pail Kids cards and the MOTU mini-comic, here’s what else I will be keeping for my personal collection.

First up, we have Snake Eyes, from the 25th Anniversary line of G.I. Joe.  He is the first loose figure from this line fro me.  I have Storm Shadow(v1), and Cobra Commander(helmet), from this line, but they’re still MOC.  Next to him, we have Billy Lee and Jimmy Lee of Double Dragon fame.  I know there was a horrible movie based on Double Dragon, but I think these figures tied into a short lived animated series.  Anything based on video games from my childhood(especially toys), is a win in my book!  If past failures are any indication, I bet the cartoon sucked.  And rounding out the group of keepers is Dirtbag from the old-school Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line.  It sucks that I have to type that out.  But in my mind, TMNT refers to the Turtles post-2000.  He is the latest addition to my ever-growing collection of the original line.  This is a most welcome addition, as I’m trying to avoid getting all the variations of the Turtles themselves.  Dirtbag is in the category of my current focus for this collection.  I have a few ideas of who I want to send the extras to, and I’ll get ahold of you guys soon.

Today my wife and I celebrated our1 year wedding anniversary.  But we wanted to go out for our anniversary.  So we went out Friday night, because a Friday is a lot more fun than a Sunday.  We went to Red Lobster, and guess what?  A Toys R Us was on the way.

In my last post, I raved about the new Thundercats line.  Well, on Friday night, I picked a few more up.

Here’s the first of them.

In my last post I told you that these 4 inch figures retailed for $7.99.  And while that’s true, you will notice a $8.99 price tag on the Wilykay above.  This is because I bought this from a Toys R Us Express in the mall.  If you are familiar withTRU Express, you know that these stores usually occupy the space that KB Toys used to.  Now, my guess would be that the prices are a little higher in the Express stores, because they have smaller amounts of inventory, and most people hit the stand alone stores.

I first saw this toy at The Toy Museum, and knew I had to add it to the collection.  I do plan on getting the complete set, but I’ll have to get one or two at a time, whenever I have a little extra cash.  But after reading Dan’s review, and checking out the photos, I knew he would be one of the first figures that I would purchase.

The only articulation is in his neck and shoulders.  Which isn’t too bad, considering that the originals had no articulation(the ones that came with Tyrga and Cheetarah).  I know that there were versions of Wilykat and Wilykit that were sold individually, that had more posability, but I never saw or knew of them in my youth.

Again, the likeness to the cartoon is great, and the accessories, while limited, are sufficient.  His board has hidden guns and, what looks to be a scissor-like apperatus in the front.  Also included, are two claw-type weapons.  I have to say that I am quite pleased with the line thus far.  I can say with certainty, that we will be seeing more of these guys in the future.

And here’s the team so far.

2011 Lion-O

I finally found them.  The new Thundercats toys.

I have been looking for these figures since I heard of their release.  It seems like Toys R Us is the only place stocked with them so far.  I’ve not seen them at Target or Wal-Mart.  This particular Toys R Us had at least one of every figure in different scales.  The only figure they did not have was the classic Lion-O(the one I wanted most).  They did have the classic Tygra(which I purchased), but we’re here to talk about the new figures.

It was a tough decision(I wanted them all), so I got the 4 inch Lion-O.

The scale of these figures are on par with G.I. Joe and Marvel Universe figures.  On the back of the card, you can see the other figures available in the series.

 I think they all look fantastic.  I wish I could’ve picked up the others, but these were $7.99(not bad), and the larger ones were $19.99(and the deluxe ones were $14.99).  The figures have nice detailing and they look just about identical to how they look in the cartoon.  I think the show is pretty good as well(when is there going to be a new episode?).

Lion-O comes with the claw shield, a dagger version of the Sword of Omens as well as a full length version of the legendary sword.  My only gripe is that you can’t store the claw shield on the figure’s side.  But at least you can store the dagger in the claw shield while Lion-O is wearing it.  While not in the new show, the Thundercats logo on the belt is a nice touch(could this be a nod to us old-school fans?).

 

I plan on getting the rest of these.  Hopefully they’ll be around for a little.  And if I’m fortunate enough, maybe I’ll get one of the many Cats Lairs they had(it’s awesome!).  If you’re a fan of Thundercats and the new show, you’ll be a fan of these figures.

‘Tis the Season

The Halloween season that is.

Like many of you out there, I am a huge fan of the Halloween season.  The movies, the candy, the costumes.  There are so many reasons to embrace the spooky season.  And the fall weather definitely helps with the ambiance.  With the exception of the last few days, it has been the perfect weather for the time that’s upon us.  So, we’ll take a look at a few things that tie into my most favorite holiday.

If you’re around my age, there should be no reason that you don’t know who this is.  This is Jason Voorhees from the end of the first Friday the 13th film.  This is the first glimpse we got to see of our favorite machete-wielding maniac.

This post card was sent to me courtesy of Shawn Robare from Branded in the Eighties.  Shawn is a Halloween fanatic, and he recently came across these horror post cards in an old Fangoria magazine.  As he has several times in the past, Shawn sent these to some of his readers(all you had to do was send an e-mail).

As Shawn states on the back, this would be (in comic terms), Jason’s first appearance.  Do magazines do stuff like this these days?  I think it’s awesome!  Here’s a funny story…

My wife thought this was a piece of mail depicting a child in some third world country.  I laughed my ass off when she asked me what the post card was, and even harder after she told me what she thought it was.  She has seen most of the movies(with me, of course), but she hasn’t seen them so many times that she would recognize this, so she gets a pass.  Thanks again, Shawn!

I also bought a Friday the 13th t-shirt this past Friday, at Wal-Mart of all places.  The reason I mention this is because, I found these right next to the register.

Yes!  I love it when I find shit that I’m not looking for!  Boo-Berry is my favorite of the monster cereals.  And this is coming from someone who ate his fair share of Fruity Yummy Mummy back in the eighties(it was good, but nothin’ special).  There were also Frankenberry ones, but they didn’t grab me the way these did.  Halloween has the greatest tie-ins ans seasonal products.

They’re pretty tasty to boot.  They’re sweet, but no overly sweet.  It’s hard to make it out in the picture, but there are a couple of Boo-Berry related graphics printed on the roll-up.  So they’re not just left over blue ones they had lying around(plus they taste closer to the cereal than the normal blue ones would).  For $2.50 you get 12 roll-ups, meaning they cost you less than 25 cents each.  And these are oh so worth it.