New Stuff and a Pretty Awesome Find

Where does the time go?!  We’re already in September, and the cooler weather is moving in.  I had my last camping trip of the summer this past weekend, and I had one of my best friends visit me the weekend before.  Before I knew it, almost two weeks had gone by without a single post.

So that’s the story.  But in the time I was away, I managed to have a few items come my way.

Whether good or bad, I always love to get new NES games to add to the collection.  In my opinion both of these are decent games.  Stinger was given to me from my friend Mike.  He was at a video game store, picked up two copies, and gave one to me.  The boss at the end of the first stage is a giant slice of anthropomorphic watermelon!  Mystery Quest was an Ebay find, nothing too special.  I had this game when I was a kid, but I don’t remember much of it.  The only thing that I specifically remembered, was that your health was referred to as “vitality”.  It’s a little bit of a rip-off of a mario game, but it’s different enough to be enjoyable.

Not including shipping, I paid $2.05 for this 1992 April.  Not bad.  Not bad.  The card is a little warped, but may be able to be fixed.  It’s also unpunched.  As you can see, this is a 5th anniversary figure(“New for ’92!”).  Any time I can get a carded, old-school TMNT figure for a great price, I won’t pass it up.

And here is the most recent, but also, most awesome find.

Ready?

Bam!

This has to be one of my favorite finds ever!  And I almost didn’t see it.  I was at the “Red Barn”, and happened to catch it out of the corner of my eye when I was starting to leave.  I grabbed and just could not believe it.  It’s just one of those toys you don’t expect to find in the wild anymore.  Voltron is a long time favorite of mine, but I was much more into the show when I was a kid.  This was one of the toys that I always wanted, but never got(I do have one from ’97-’98).  My friend Rob got it for me, and said it was the birthday gift he forgot to give me.  What a guy!

The best part?  The lions are in excellent shape!  As you can see on the box, this is the blue and red lion set.  We’ll take a closer look at these in the near future, but here’s this for now.

Finds From the Thrift Store

This past weekend, I was introduced to a new thrift store(new to me anyway).  Of all the thrift stores that I have been to, this one seemed to have the best selection.  They had NES games, Genesis games, toys, and lots of other cool stuff.  The best thing of all though, was that they were having a 75% off sale.  Video games and electronics were not part of this sale(they were 20% off), so I decided to check out the toy section.  There were a few TMNT figures that I already have, but there was one that I had never realled seeing before.

This is Antrax.  I know that there were characters for almost any animal that you can think of, but I don’t remember this guy.  I thought he looked cool, so I decided to buy him.  His original asking price was $8(way too high, I think), but with the 75% off, he only set me back $2.  He’s completely void of accessories, and missing his antennas, and mandibles.  Still, I’m glad I picked him up.

I was informesd, when I bought Antrax, that I found him in the vintage toy section.  There was another toy section in the back with more current toys, but other stuff had been found there.  So I figured it was worth a peek, and found this beauty!

It’s the Captain Power – Powerjet XT-7!  The box is still sealed on one side, and the other side has been taped shut.  The contents of the box is loose(and rattles around in the box), but I was assured that everything that was supposed to be in there, was in there.  I would like to get some adhesive remover to get the tape off of the box, and then I’ll have a peek inside(I of course, want the box to look as nice as possible).  Now most of the time, I’d be ripping into the box before I bought it, to make sure it’s all there.  But, with the sale, I got it for $5, instead of the $20 it was originally marked for.  I love when I can find 80s toys in their original packages for a price that I’m comfortable with(which seems to be getting to be a rare thing).  The box is nowhere near mint, but I still love the look of packaging.  I’ll definitely be going back to that store soon.

Bang-Jo

So, what we will be looking at is another recent Ebay win.

G.I. Joe, Equipo Ninja, Bang-Jo.

What’s weird about this, is it’s obviously from a Spanish speaking market, it was sold to me from China!  My winning bid was $3, and it included free shipping.  The seller sent me an e-mail stating that the figure I won was out of stock.  They asked me to pick something else, or they would give me a refund.  $3 is a good deal for a carded figure, so I told them they could substitute my win with a similar figure.

The package is copyrighted 1992 Hasbro.  These figures came out just as I was phasing away from toys.  More than anything else, I like the packaging itself.  It’s art!  The packaging for the toys of my generation are some of the best looking(I may be a bit biased though).  I know this isn’t a highly sought after figure, but it sure does look nice.  I would pick up any old-school G.I. Joe figure that’s still carded for less than half of what the new ones go for.  Obviously, I don’t know anything more about this guy.

Sometimes you can still find a deal on Ebay.  Who knew?!

TMNT Days #3

First we saw a 25th Anniversary TMNT figure.  Then we saw a figure from the original series.  And today we’ll be checking out a figure from one of the live action movies.

Princess Mitsu was a character from the third live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.  While it’s the weakest of the first three movies, I still like it!  Even though it’s a movie figure, it’s still on par with the cartoon figures.  It still has a file card for the character inside, and still has the Pizza Points as well!

The princess comes with various weapons and the sceptor that sent the Turtles back in time.  On the back we also get to seee a still of the Turtles from the movie.  And the only figures advertised on the back, are ones that are tied to the movie(with the Turtles looking the best).  You should be able to find this relatively cheap, as it’s not anywhere near rare or popular figure.

The next(and last) carded TMNT figure will also have a difference from the other three(I didn’t orginally notice this).

Yard Sale Finds #9

Before we get to what I was able to find at the sales this weekend, I want to share my thoughts on the latest Transformers movie.  For what it is, it’s a good movie.  I have realized that movies cater to the masses, and everything evolves and changes as time goes by.  If this helps get the newer generations into the property, that’s cool.  Of course it’s not exactly what I wanted to see, but I’m happy it’s come as far as it has.  It was entertaining and that’s the bottom line.  I could be selfish and go into how I would have made it the perfect movie, but that would only be my opinion.

Now that that’s over with, let’s get to what I was able to find on this past weekend’s excursion.

We left for the sales this weekend a lot later than usual (12:15pm).  This may have been a factor in why little caught my attention.  The best deals are to be had early in the morning.  But I did manage to score a few deals.

I bought the vhs tape, hoping that there might some old commercials on it.  I haven’t been able to screen it yet, so I don’t know if it was a valid purchase.  But it was only 25 cents, so it was worth a shot.  The Rubik’s Cube was a good deal at a quarter as well, being that it’s not in the greatest condition(but it’s an original).  The Halloween II dvd is in pristine condition and was a steal for $1.00.

Here we have a Muppet Babies growth chart(1991) and the February 1987 issue of Radio Electronics.  I am saving the growth chart for when we have a child of our own, and it was free!  The magazine was a dime.  There is an ad that I want to share for a later post, and than I want to donate it to a site that can appreciate it.  Here’s a full size shot of the growth chart(it’s pretty cool).

The items that you have just seen are the least interesting of what I was able to find.  Now you’ll see the stuff that I was more than happy to take home.

Each of these guides cost me a quarter each.  There was a stack of them that also included Animal Crossing and a few Star Wars games.  They were all either Nintendo Power or Official Prima Strategy Guides.  I have only played Super Mario Sunshine once, but you can never go wrong with Mario(i’ll get the game someday).  Wind Waker is my second favorite Zelda game(i know a lot of hard core gamers hate this game, but I love it).  I have beaten the game numerous times, but this will help me finish it 100%(getting all of the figurines is hard as hell!).

Each of these games cost only $1.00 each!  I bought Defcon 5 at the same sale I bought Halloween II at.  It doesn’t have the instruction manual, but it’s my first”tall box” PS1 game, and it only ran me a buck!  I found the 3 SNES games in a box of SNES games, but all of the games were sports games.  The 3 I bought(while still in the sports genre), were ones I needed and were the best of the lot.  At this sale, I also found Pokemon Red for Game Boy Color, and the guy running the sale gave it to me for free.  I tried to play it when I got home, and it instantly powers off when you try to turn it on.  If anybody knows why this would happen, please let me know.

And lastly…here’s the toys I was able to score.

From left to right we have a Burger King Capitol Critters toy from 1992(remember that show?).  I believe this is Max at the Jefferson Memorial.  Then we have Breakfightin’ Raphael from 1989, but his Wacky Action doesn’t work.  The Jawa is a Burger king toy from 2005.  Reptar has a sparking action(that works).  I don’t know where this specific Reptar came from, but he’s really cool(Brian also found him about a week ago).  The Stegosaurus has 2 things going for him.  1)- Dinosaurs are awesome and 2)- He glows in the dark.  Each of these items ran me a quarter a piece.

The Jawa has this neat feature.

Kind of creepy, huh?

And lastly, we have this.

I haven’t been able to identify the vehicle, which is stamped 1988.  The figure which is stamped 1991, is Bushido(version 2), who is from the Shadow Ninjas line.  Although he’s stamped 1991, this figure was actually released in 1994.  These figures had a cool gimmick that was a great gimmick in the eighties and early-to-mid nineties.  From yojoe.com….”When exposed to water and light, the figure’s color would change.”

Well, that’s all this time around.  Not too bad considering how late we left.

And before you go, I have a little poll for you guys.

You guys know that Transformers is one of my favorite lines, right?  Well, over the past couple of months, I have accumulated a handful of carded figures from various lines(around 4 or 5), and plan on reviewing them all eventually.  My question is…which would you like to see?  I will not give their names, but I will give you a choice of different lines(please see below).

1)- Transformers: Dark of the Moon

2)- Transformers Animated

3)- Transformers Generations

4)-Transformers Universe

5)- Transformers: Hunt for the Decepticons

Some of these have been stewing for a little while, while others have been picked up recently.  Maybe I’ll do them back to back until I review all 5 of them.  If that’s the case, list the order in which you’d like to see them in.  Maybe a Transformers Week is in the cards?

Two Weeks Worth of Toys!

Man, have I been lazy.  Over the last 2 weeks, I have accumulated a ton of toys.  I just got around to sorting and cleaning the ones that I’m keeping last night.  So today you will see only the ones I thought were cool enough to keep.  And believe me, a lot was left out.

We’ll start with one of two most recent Ebay finds.

 A Snork, E.T.and Friend Bear.  Just to be clear, I wanted this lot for the Snork and E.T., but I’ll keep the Care Bear anyway.  🙂  A sweet deal at 99 cents plus $1.99 shipping!

Keeping with the Ebay theme, we’ll see an even sweeter deal next(a few of my favorite new additions).  Before we get to the toys…I’ll let you know that I got them for 99 cents plus $4.99 shipping(the seller paid more than 7 bucks to ship them).

Robo-Force!!  These guys are stamped 1984 CBS Toys.  I don’t recall much about these guys, but I know I had a few of these guys when I was younger, because there’s no mistaking the suction cup bottoms.  From left to right we have Vulgar(The Destroyer), Wrecker(The Demolisher), and Coptor(The Enforcer).  Wrecker is in the best condition of the three.  Check out all of them here.  Iwould love to get Ripper(The Anti-Robot)!

These guys were fun to photograph.  So before moving on, here’s a few more shots.

 

 

Around the same time I received the Robo-Force figures, my friend Ben, gave me a tacklebox full of action figures and accessories.

I’m still on the fence on whether or not I should keep the G.I. Joe Extreme Iron Klaw figure.  But I’ll be damned if he doesn’t look bad-ass!  I’m also having trouble deciding if the blue figure is a ninja or a wrestler(gotta love old school bootleg figures).  Snakebite from the Super Naturals line is the clear winner of the entire contents of the aforementioned tacklebox.  The troll is Vegar The Champion, from Applause’s 1992 Troll Warriors line.  Some fine additions, to say the least.

Lastly, we have a family of Batmen.

I’ll be keeping the first 2(1990 & 1992 respectively).  But if Chunky, Reis or anyone else wants the other two(1995 & 1997), let me know, and they’re yours.

I plan on adding more figures to my shelves(and maybe re-arrange or swap some out), which you’ll see in the near future.

New Additions

I’m still hanging in there with Chunky B.’s 28 Day Challenge, but have managed to have some toys donated to me.  My nephew Jo-Jo, sent me a package containing four figures.  As far as I knew, I thought he was sending me one figure.  We’ll start with the one I knew was coming.

  He’s stamped 2003, but I thought he was older, as I only saw him in his alternate state.

Aside from the different head mold and the sash, this is the same “Mutatin'” Donatello that came out in 1992!  No matter though.  Any Donatello is a welcome addition.  Here’s what the originals(I do not own the one in the picture below) looked like, to give you something to compare it to. 

Continuing on with the Donatello theme…here’s another one stamped 2003. 

I’m pretty sure this is from the TMNT Fast Forward line.  His head and bandana have some paint wear, but that’s okay. I like it just the same!

This next figure has got me stumped.

I think this is a bootleg…for 2 reasons.  First, I can’t find any date or any kind of copyright marks anywhere.  And secondly, the head doesn’t look like your typical Transformer mold.

He looks like he’s missing some pieces, so I’ll just chalk it up as “battle damage”.  There is something that I thought was pretty neat about him though.  Look a little more closely.

He keeps a tally of all of the Autobots he has defeated!  This is the Transformer equivalent to teardrops below your eye.  This Decepticon, whoever he is, is gangsta’!

And lastly, we have this little guy(who happens to be my favorite of this lot).

Leonardo here is just a little bigger than he is in this photo.  I already have the Donatello from this series, so now he has a buddy!  Here’s a picture of the two of them with the previous Donatello, to give you an idea of scale.

I’d like to thank my nephew for these figures.  They definitely helped make this 28 Day Challenge just a little bit easier.  And if anyone has any information on the “Transformer” above, drop me a line(I’m too lazy to really research it).