Topps Juice Gum Cartons from 1982-1985

This just goes to show you that you can pretty much find anything for sale on Ebay.

This post from Dinosaur Dracula sparked my memory of these.

I only really wanted the Pink Lemonade carton(Pink Lemonade was my favorite, based on taste, and the look of the carton.  Look at it!), but the auction, as it turns out, was for all four.  They are pictured in the order of the years printed on their sides, starting with Grape from 1982, and ending with Orange from 1985.  All four have gum inside, but I am not tempted to eat any of it.  Well maybe I am just a bit curious to see if, at least the Pink Lemonade tastes the way I remember it.

Yard Sale Finds #14 & Where I’ve Been

It’s been almost 2 weeks since I last posted something.  And I hate when this much time passes by without doing a single post.  But I really wasn’t feeling writing, even when I had the time.  I’m guessing that this has something to do with being Summer.  And that I haven’t really gotten any new toys or anything in a little while.  There just doesn’t seem to be anything on the market that I’m interested in.  I’m seeing that the new Ninja Turtles are being spotted, so that should all change soon.  But anywho, let’s get back into the swing of things.

The weekend before last, I was in Boston for the weekend.  I forgot to bring extra batteries for the camera, so I wasn’t able to get too many pictures.  The only pictures I was able to get, were a few from the aquarium.  I didn’t get an awful lot of variety(I had to keep alternating the batteries in the camera, just to get a few seconds for a shot).  But I was able to snap a few good ones.

I spent alot of time just watching the penguins.  I even got to watch them during feeding time.  We were told by one of the keepers, that the penguins are fed twice a day, and they are allowed to eat as much as they want.

Excuse the blurry photo.  But this guy was one of my favorites as well.  This is a leafy sea dragon.  It’s head resembles that of a sea horse, but his body looks like floating plant debris.  I’ve seen pictures of these guys before, but in person, it is almost impossible to tell that these are anything other than plant parts.

I got to touch a few little guys who looked like this one.  It was awesome!

Take a look at this cute fella.

Just one more.

This tortoise is over 50 years old and weighs 585 pounds.  That’s pretty amazing!

And last weekend I decided to hit up the local flea market.  This time, there were more vendors, but there was a lot less that I was interested in.  However, there were a few yard sales in the area that had some stuff.  On the weekend of August 4th, there is an event calling itself “The world’s biggest yard sale”.  I have high expectations for this.  But here’s my most recent haul.

Super Smash Bros. Melee, was the most expensive purchase at $5.00.  That’s actually a pretty good deal for this game, and I didn’t have it yet!  The light saber was in a box with a bunch of other light sabers.  But, this was the only one that made sounds, lighted up and extended itself at the push of a button.  This was a hell of a steal at just one dollar(!).  I thought the tiny pink Chevy was a Micro Machine, since I can remember having this as a kid.  But I was duped.  This is actually released by Road Champs, which I think was one of the better Micro Machines rip-offs.  And I was able to grab it for just a quarter.

The 3 items I just mentioned, all came from separate sales.  But the 4th item in the photo is the only item that interested me at the flea market.  I couldn’t say no for two bucks!

Notice that the can says Budweiser Light.  This is a promotional can from the first batch of what we know today as Bud Light!  This is full can from 1981!  Don’t believe me?

I just want to know why it says “not for consumption”?  But this was right up my alley.  I don’t know what else to say.  The guy selling these had 2 for sale at 2 bucks each(my friend Dean bought the other one), and said he had already sold a case of these.  I’ve never seen something like this before, so I figured I might as well grab it since it was appealing.

There are a few village-wide sales this weekend, so maybe I’ll have better luck.  But as I mentioned previously, there is the “world’s biggest yard sale” a week from Saturday, that I’m hoping to have stellar results from.  I’ll keep you guys posted.

Thundercats 2011 Wilykit

But before we get to that.

Big Daddy Darth from Plastic Mayhem left a comment to my last post.

“I liked the MAXX…but I liked the Isz figures that came with him even more…lol Those damn things are creepy!”

And being that I didn’t remember to photograph him for the last post…here ya go!

(Creepy?  Yes.  Awesome?  Yes!)

This next figure is the only Thundercat from the new line, that I did not purchase at Toys R Us.  I happened to find this one at Target.  It seems that the Targets and Wal-Marts within a reasonable distance from where I live, do not have any Thundercats figures.  Yet, they are at every Toys R Us that I’ve been to.

I had to make a choice on either Wilykit here, or Tygra(I wanted to get both).

Her only accessories are her flute, and a hover board, like her brother’s.  I’m happy with this figure overall, but for some reason, there seems to be something off with her face.  It’s not that the paint or sculpt is bad, she just looks a little off from her appearance in the show, while the other figures are spot on.

Just like her brother’s, her board also has concealed fire power!

My Wilykat figure’s board has trouble keeping the guns concealed, but Wilykit’s board keeps them firmly in place.  But that’s fine, because it’s the figure itself, that matters to me.

I’m sure all of you are aware that next Sunday is Easter.  Well, today I had the opportunity to see one of my favorite commercials ever!  Two times, actually!  It was the Cadbury Creme Egg commercial!  The Cadbury Creme Egg is one of my favorite candies ever!  So, like the dork that I am, I snapped a few shots of the commercial while it was on my television screen.  I know it would have been better timing to post this next weekend, but knowing me, I’d end up forgetting.  Writing about it early is much better than writng about it after the day has passed.

(How friggin’ cute is that?!)

On a side note, I still have a pack of the Eggs(the miniature variety[not the Cadbury Mini-Eggs, but mini Creme Eggs]), still in my freezer from last Easter.  I wanted to do a mini-review of them here, but I never got around to it.  I’m surprised that I didn’t even eat one over the course of the year.  But I think my mind just wanted to see how long I would be able to resist them, because as I said earlier, I really do like these.  I’m sure they’re still good, and I may as well eat them before they actually do go bad.  So, I’ll make it a point to do so, from now through Easter Sunday(maybe I’ll do the long overdue review!).

(The company’s spokes-bunny, also known as The Cadbury Bunny)

‘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.

McDonald’s $1,000,000 Menu Song

This is the mystery item that I purchased with the MOTU figures I found while yard/garage-saling this past weekend.

This is for a promotion that McDonald’s ran back in 1989.  You would of found this in a Sunday newspaper around February of ’89(judging by the expiration dates of the coupons).  The black portion is actually a(cardboard) record that you could play on a turntable for a chance to win one million dollars.  Behind the record on the paper backing are the lyrics to the McDonald’s Menu Song.  On the recording, you will hear an instructor tell his class to repeat the song after him.  If your record had the class sing the song without messing up, you won the million dollars.  Here’s the lyrics…

“Big Mac, Mc DLT, a Quarter-Pounder with some cheese, Filet-O-Fish, a hamburger, a cheeseburger, a Happy Meal, McNuggets, tasty golden french fries, regular and larger sizes, and salads, chef or garden or a chicken salad Oriental. Big-Big Breakfast, Egg McMuffin, hot hotcakes and sausage, maybe biscuits, bacon, egg and cheese or sausage, danish, hash browns too, and for dessert: hot apple pies, and sundaes three varieties, a soft-serve cone, three kinds of shakes, and choc’laty chip cookies, and to drink: a Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, and orange drink, a Sprite and coffee, decaf, too, a lowfat milk, also an orange juice. I love McDonald’s good time,great taste, and I get this all at one place.  The good time great taste of McDonald’s.

 

The stated odds of having the winning record was 1 in 80,000,000.  I have always had this song pop up in my head over the years(parts of it anyway).  I also remember thinking that this was one of the coolest promotions ever.

On the reverse side of the paper backing there are coupons, and scratch-off type boxes for a chance at a share of another $1,500,000.

As you can see, no coupons clipped, and no rub-offs rubbed.  I’m surprised that the record and the paper survived together this long.  I love finding stuff like this!  Advertising is kind of boring in today’s world, so it’s a nice reminder of the way things used to be.

I’ll be aiming to hit posts for 3 straight days tomorrow, but I’m planning on 4+ days(a first?).

2 Grocery Stores Yield 3 Items

Yesterday I was at our local Hannaford, and was surprised to see that there were new varieties of Chips Ahoy! on sale.  Now, normally cookies wouldn’t have caught my attention.  But the devil is in the details.

Chewy Gooey Chips Ahoy! are your standard Chewy Chips Ahoy!, except with these there is a gooey “chocofudge” center.  Chewy Chips Ahoy! were always my favorite, but these just improve on an already good cookie.  These are very reminiscent of Keebler’s Magic Middles, which I haven’t seen in a long time(although I have heard rumors of a comeback).  I tried a few after I took these pictures and they are awesome!  There is also another version of these in a chewy chocolate cookie.  I hope these stick around for a while!

Rewind a bit to this past Friday.

I had to stop at the local Price Chopper to return some cans/bottles, and decided to peruse the store to see if there were any new or limited edition items.  What you are about to see is not new, but the way that it’s presented is.

A 1.5 liter bottle of Pepsi?!  Pepsi is bottled in 1 and 2 liter varieties.  Why did they decide to make one that falls in the middle?  There were 1.5 liters of Mountain Dew and Diet Pepsi as well.  At a limited time price of 99 cents, I think that this was a great idea.

On my way out of Price Chopper, I had to stop at the vending machines(to see what’s new, ya know?).  There were a few new machines, and the one that caught my attention, yielded this.

This is Go-Go from the Freaky Geeks collection.  He’s definitely a neat looking character, but there are other desireable “Geeks” to be had.  Go-Go is actually one of the ones that I wanted.  How could I not want a cyclops surfer dude?  Do a quick Google search to see the rest of the “Geeks”.  50 cents is a fitting price for these, and I have a feeling we’ll be seeing more of these in the future 🙂 .

Beverage Review #6

After my hunting through a village-wide garage/yard sale, I hit up my local gas station/convenience store.  I had stopped in to take advantage of their 2 for $2.50 Mtn Dew/Pepsi 20 oz. deal(that’s actually an everyday price), and pick up 2 bottles of Pitch Black.  One of the guy’s who owns the store informed me that they had a new soda in(I am the reason they carry Pitch Black).  I took a second look, and sure enough I spotted it.  Amongst all of the green, orange and brown, I spotted blue!

Is there a flavor of Crush that isn’t available?!  I, for one, would like to see a sour apple variety.  Seeing this was a no-brainer,  If the beverage is blue, and won’t kill me I’ll give it a whirl.  Pepsi Blue is the only blue soda that I didn’t like.  But then again, I made that judgement from a single bottle.

I give it a 10 out of 10 on appearance alone!  Taste wise, it’s pretty good.  It reminds me of the blue variety of Hubba Bubba they had back in the day.  It’s sweet with a little bit of a sour at the end.  I do really like it.  I’ll give it a solid 8 out of 10.  It’s good, but I couldn’t drink this all the time.  If you see it, it’s worth a try.  It’s no Pitch Black, but it’s definitelty worth a try.

I Finally Found Pitch Black!!(a.k.a.-Beverage Review #5)

It’s true.  I finally found Mountain Dew Pitch Black!!  I have actively been searching for this ever since I heard the news of it’s release.  I knew it was going to happen, and the suspense was killing me.  A few blogs that I frequent were finding and reviewing it, so it was only a matter of time.  That time was today.

I found these at a Hess station a few miles from my job.  I figured I had the best shot at finding Pitch Black there, as they always have a large selection of beverages.  Not only did they have it, they had a 2 for $2.00 deal going on!

When I was pouring it into the glass, I noticed traces of blue in the foam.  The color is very nice.  As far as flavor, it tastes kind of like a carbonated grape popsicle.  I remember trying Pitch Black when it first arrived in 2004 and 2005(Pitch Black II), and not particularly loving it.  And tasting it now, my thoughts have changed, I really dig it!  There aren’t too many grape sodas out there, and this one is quite good.  I will be buying this as often as possible, as it’s only available for a scant 8 weeks.  While I’m happy that it’s available, it’s limited edition.  And if it’s going to be limited, I’m with the others who think it should be offered during the Halloween season.  Matt from X-Entertainment has written about Pitch Black Multiple times.  Read his take on the first edition of Pitch black here.  I can’t say enough good things about it.  If you see it, do yourself a favor and grab one!

Beverage Review #4

So, it’s been quite some time since I last did one of these.  But then again, it’s rare that I see something new or different, that would motivate me to write about it.  Well, this past weekend I purchased something that I just had to review!  You’ll see why in just a second.

It’s blue!!  Any new drink that is blue is worth buying, in my book.  It’s Calypso Ocean Blue Lemonade bottled by King Juice Company, Inc.  The bottle states that this lemonade has real lemon bits.  They’re hard to see, but I’m sure they’re in there, with good reason.  They have another variety with real melon bits in it, and you can see them clear as day.  It’s a tart, sweet lemonade.  And that’s a good thing!  They’re also a pretty decent deal at two for 3 dollars.

It almost looks like it’s glowing, doesn’t it?  I would say this is the brother of pink lemonade, an assessment you can appreciate if you can find this stuff.  I would also imagine that this would go great with liquor(I wouldn’t know, I only drink beer).  🙂  Even if you end up hating this stuff, the cap is at least worth a quarter.  If anyone tries the melon variety, let me know how it is.

Halloween candy & fast food

I originally planned on doing a post about some of the new Halloween decorations we have purchased over the past couple of weeks, but food doesn’t last as long as plastic and cardboard.

Last week, my wife and I were going to Wal-Mart to pick up some groceries, and on our way into the parking lot, we decided to go to the Dollar Tree in the same plaza first.  We had to pick up some thank you cards and electric candles for our pumpkins.  My sole purpose in there was to find Halloween goodies you can only find at a dollar store.  I wanted to find a candy for review, that I haven’t seen reviewed or mentioned on other sites that I frequent.  Well, the pickens were slim.  I either found something I’ve seen elsewhere, or something that just didn’t seem worthy of a review.  Just as I was about to say fuck it and randomly grab something blindly, I noticed this most excellent package!

Grave Gummies Candy!  For a dollar store candy, they went all out with the fancy Halloween theme.  Before we get down to business, I have to show you what I found on the reverse side of the package.  Remember, I picked this up at the dollar store.

Go ahead and click on it to make it larger.  You have to be able to soak it in.  Truly amazing!  I love the skeletons.  They gettin’ down with they bad self!  They’re even dressed up in costumes!  Now the same graphics can be found scattered around the front of the package, but, they went the extra mile and made a neat little scene on the back.  I’ll tell you right now, that is the best thing about this candy.

On the individual wrappers the gummies say “Yummy Gummie”.  We tasted each one individually, to see if there were different flavors, or just dyed differently with the same flavor.  I’m happy to report that they come in four flavors, all identified by a different colored gummie. We found that the orange is orange popsicle, the green is green apple, the yellow is pineapple and the white ones taste like perfume or Lysol(I can’t quite tell).  All are pleasing to the tastebuds, except for the white ones.  So we got 9 good pieces of candy for a dollar.  Not bad.

While they’re not terrible, these will be finding their way into trick-or-treaters bags on Sunday.  And while we’re on the subject of gummies…….here’s one my buddy Clark gave to me the night before my wedding.

It’s a gummy brain.  This one is from “Gummy Body Parts Candy”.  I saw these on my trip to the dollar store.  This was a pretty good tasting brain!  Very colorful, and very sweet.  I think this was a Neapolitan brain.  Here’s why.

A three colored brain!

Now, onto something that was tasty, but did not come from Dollar Tree.

McDonald’s Halloween pails!  I had first heard of these over at X-Entertainment, when Matt did his review of them a week and a half ago.  While they’re not on the same level as our beloved McBoo pails, they are not without their merits.  First of all, they’re Mr. Potato Head themed!  I would’ve preferred Halloween McNuggets on the pails, but I can roll with Mr. Poato Head.  Second, I love the detailed handles!  The orange one has the bad-ass skull and cross bone(?), while the green one has the cute pumpkin.  Each comes with stickers on the reverse side of the cardboard lid.  The stickers are of different spooky body parts for you to stick on the naked spuds that adorn the pail.  I give major props to whoever was responsible for this!  It’s something different than your standard food & toy in a box, or bag.  Just a fair warning, bad pun coming up………I’m lovin’ it!

And to think, I was gonna title this post as “Ronald McDollarstore”.