Bat-Duck Completes the Team!

I finally found an acceptable price for this guy!  This has always been one of my all-time favorite Happy Meal promotions.  And Bat-Duck has always been my favorite of the 4.  He ran me $1.99 + $3.00 shipping.  $5.00 seems a little steep, but if you factor out the shipping, it seems like a pretty good deal.  Add to the fact that most of the listings for these are for the set of 4, and they are priced 4 times or more what I paid for the single figure(can I call it that?).  I only paid 50 cents for each of the other three, so I really can’t complain.

I know I bought a Bat-Duck from Ebay a few years ago, but he must of got lost in the shuffle(along with Delta Chameleon).

Seeing them all together makes for a pretty nice picture, don’t ‘ya think?

Yard Sale Finds #12, Dino-Riders & Reppin’ “The Pizza”

Has it been a week?

Well, the Rangers got eliminated from the conference finals on Friday(I’m a big fan of the Rangers, and they had a great season), so I’ll probably be posting stuff more often now.  This past weekend was pretty good for yard sales.  But surprisingly, there weren’t nearly as many as there usually are, considering it was Memorial Day weekend.  I did pretty good, and only spent a total of $5!  The bad news is that I only took 1 picture of everything together, and didn’t get any up close shots, as I had already put the things in their respective(new)places.  So here it is!

Not bad.  The Game Boy Pocket was only 2 bucks(it works), and Paperboy was included!  “The Empire Strikes Back” Burger King glass was a steal for a mere quarter.  I’ve been a fan of those little fuzzy googly eye things(not sure if they have a formal name) since I was a kid, and a kit where I can make as many as I want for only 50 cents?!  Sold!  The Flower(from Bambi), figure was in a “free” box at one of the sales, as was the Deiner dinosaur eraser.  Some of these can fetch some good money, but I’m not planning on getting rid of it.  The Pee Wee’s Playhouse Christmas special was 75 cents, and I found it at the same sale that I found my favorite items.  Skeletor, Bruise Brother and the Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos figure were only 50 cents each!  These are the things I specifically look for when I’m out yard saling.  And they’re getting harder and harder to find in the wild.  The Madball(Bruise Brother), is definitely my find of the weekend.  Now, he is displayed right next to Touchdown Terror.

And check these out!

Now, I don’t plan on opening these.  But I do plan on doing a post with some more insight on these great little figures.  I got both of these together for $15 including shipping(do a search on Ebay right now, and you should be able to get them for $9.99 each with free shipping.  She has 6-8 packs of each different 2-pack).  I’ll save the story for when I do a more detailed write-up.

And reppin’ “The Pizza”!

If you have never read the words of The Surfing Pizza, get on it now!  “The Pizza” is one of my favorite blogs that I regularly read.  Pizza’s writing is far better than anything I’ve ever written.  And if you like what you read here, you’ll be a fan of “The Pizza”.  Recently Pizza got a batch of stickers promoting(is that the word I’m looking for?)The Surfing Pizza, and was sending them to anyone who wanted one(not sure if he has any left, but here’s the link).  He sent me 2, and the one you see above is on my car.  Get yours today!

I’ll be back in less than a week this time.  Ha!  I’ll try anyway.  🙂

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?!

Yard Sale Finds #11, and…

It seems like that time of the year is upon us.  The time when the weather’s warm, and you need any excuse not to be in the house.  It’s late spring, and it is now, yard sale season.

There were quite a few sales in my surrounding area.  But I didn’t find a whole lot that caught my interest.  I did find some neat stuff though.

First is this freebie.

This was unmarked at one seller’s table.  And when I inquired about the price, she told me I could have it for nothing!

Another angle.

I’m not sure when this promotion ran at McDonald’s, but the last copyright date on the glass is 1965.  Anybody know?

There were tons of vhs and dvd’s available, but they were either horribly overpriced(and some in pretty rough shape), or they just weren’t very desirable.  That being said, I did manage to find a few that peaked my interest.

I am a New York Rangers fan, and these dvds peaked my curiosity, as I’ve never seen anything like these.   One is a random Rangers game from 2009 against the Washington Capitals.  And the second is a National Hockey League “Rule Enforcement” dvd for the 2008-2009 season.  I’ll try to find out some further info on these.

The vhs tape is The Trolls and the Christmas Express.  From what is depicted on the case, this movie seems very familiar.  The animation is unique, and I’d love this to be another holiday movie I can watch during the season.  For 25 cents, there wasn’t much risk.

And video games.

(not pictured : The Genesis controller that I got for free.)

Typically, I wouldn’t buy a carrying case for a handheld system, unless it’s one for the old-school Game Boys.  But, the case that I keep all of my Game Boy games in, it getting crowded and I could use the room.  I can use the case to primarily house my original Game Boy games, while the carrying case can hold the “SP” itself, as well as many games as I can fit.  50 cents well spent!

I went to the sales with my buddy Mike, and like me, he collects NES games(although not on the same scale as I do).  At the first sale we hit, I found the 2 games pictured, in a spot he had just looked at.  He couldn’t believe that he passed right by them.  They’re nothing special, but a great find at $1 a piece.  I have never learned how to play Othello, but it’s a great addition, nonetheless.  The other cart is Flying Dragon : The Secret Scroll(it says this on the top part of the label, while the face says it’s The Secret Scroll : Flying Dragon.).  I have never played this one either, but I have never come across it before, so I hope it’s decent.

Also, Lilo & Stitch for PS1.  I don’t know if the game itself is any good, but a PS1 game for 50 cents is hard to leave behind.  🙂

Now, as you can see, I didn’t find any toys!  That’s the bad news.  The good news, is that I did get all of my Ebay purchases in the mail.  So we’ll take a look at one of those.

G1 Cosmos!!  Cosmos has long been my favorite of the little Transformers.  How could you not love a transforming U.F.O.?  His alt mode is a very classic looking flying saucer.  He cost me a total of $7, but $4.50 of that was for shipping.  But he also came with his Tech Specs, so that’s not too bad.  It’s always nice when I get the opportunity to add another G1 figure to my collection.

I did get a few other things.  The other items are all MISB.  My question is…should I do individual posts?  Or, do I showcase them in a single post?  There a re a total of 3 items.  But 2 of them are related, and have to be written about together.  So, I’ll let you guys choose.  If I don’t get any votes, I’ll see how I want to go about this.

Visionaries & the $1 Nintendo 64

This past week I won a few auctions on Ebay, and they are starting to make their way to my mailbox(this will give me material to write about).  I’m pretty sure that I gave away what we’re going to see in the title.  But in case you didn’t catch it, I scored some Visionaries!

The blue guy is Leoric, and the red one is Witterquick.  I remember really wanting these figures when they were first released, but this is the one that got away, the one toy line I didn’t have anything from.

These 2 represent the good guys, and the only other one I have in my collection is a bad guy who is missing his chest hologram(along with everything else).  Each figure came with a weapon, a helmet and a holographic staff.  While none of their accessories weren’t included, the auction did include 3 of the holographic staffs!  I don’t believe that any of them correspond with the figures, but still pretty cool nonetheless.  A steal at 99 cents(+$4 shipping)!

And now to the $1 Nintendo 64.

But before we get to any pictures, let me set up the story of how I acquired such a thing.

On Saturday, myself, my wife, one of our friends and her son, went to go see if we could find any garage/yard sales.  It was a warm sunny day, so we thought that it would be perfect for sales.  We were wrong, but found a few.

There was a Boy Scout troop having a rummage sale.  When we got out of the car, we were told that for $3 we could fill a plastic bag with as much stuff as we wanted.  Not more than 30 seconds after this, they reduced the cost to $1 per stuffed bag!  I looked at the toys and other stuff that had for sale, but nothing caught my eye.  Then I happened upon a box with an N64 control deck and 4 games!  I picked up the games, and then went and purchased my $1 bag.  These games didn’t fill up the bag, so I grabbed a few other thing out of the box to go with them.

So I grabbed the control deck, a PS1 memory card, the MAX controller and the 4 N64 for games for $1.  I definitely got more than I paid for!  I didn’t have any of the games, so that’s a plus.  It’s not the ultimate score, but very nice, all things considered.  I’m going to end up selling the deck and the MAX on the Bay because I already have these items.  I’ll keep the memory card though, as you can never have enough of them.  😉

Triple Play #1

The title of this post refers to the 3 items that will be showcased tonight.  As you may have guessed judging by the number in the title, this will be an ongoing feature here.  The items that will be featured will be random, and will cover recent acquisitions as well as other items that I may not have much commentary for.

We’ll start off with the newest addition.

I found this gem at Richie Rich’s(I definitley know I’ve mentioned this place recently).  Myself and two friends found ourselves there because one of the said friends was looking for something in particular(as portable range, like a stove-top).  There were a few things that caught my interest(Upwords, which is a pretty cool boardgame, and a Joe Camel ashtray, to name a few), but I did’nt have much in spending cash.  I’ve been going to this place for years, and I get along with the people who run the place, so I usually get pretty good deals .  This tape would normally cost 2 dollars, but they sold it to me for half price.  I not only like it because it’s an old-school TMNT tape, but because it’s an old rental.  I can never say no to tapes like this because you never know what kind of advertisements or commercials may proceed the actual content.  And you just don’t see that with today’s advancements in technology(most notably, DVDs.

I have had this Blanka figure for about 5 years now.  This was one of the first five purchases that I ever made on Ebay.  Ken and Ryu are the characters I tend to gravitate towards when it comes to Street Fighter.  But there is no denying that Blanka is by far, the coolest looking character from the franchise.  This was released in 2005 by Sota Toys.  On the left side of the package it says Round 2.  I believe this means this is from the second wave.  I assume this because on the back of the package it shows the figure assortment.  The figures shown are Blanka, Ken, T. Hawk, Cammy and Vega(which all look great).  I would think Ryu and Chun-Li would be among the first figures released, due to the popularity of the characters.  The regular variation of this figure is a flat green and orange(I don’t know if they did alternate color schemes or not), while this one is transluscent green and orange.  There is also a variation of this figure which glows in the dark.  The figure comes with an alternate head, as well as alternate hands.  There also appears to be something else, but I can’t make out what it is, as it’s obstructed by label on the front.

I ended up getting this Pee-Wee’s Playhouse children’s cup from my step brother.  He had it with the rest of his glasses and cups, and, one day I happened to notice it.  I think I traded him a few cigarettes for it(he wasn’t attached to it).  There is also a matching plate and bowl, which my step brother didn’t have.  I’ve seen the complete sets on Ebay a few times over the years, and they don’t come cheap!  Even though the handle is broken off on this one, I love it just the same.  I love the show and the character, so this uncommon piece is right at home with me.

Super Madballs-Touchdown Terror

This is one of my favorite pieces from my collection.  I think I like this more today, than I did when I had it as a kid.

I believe the “Super” in their name is attributed more to the size of the toy than anything else.  Regular Madballs are about the size of a baseball, and these Super Madballs are much bigger.  Touchdown Terror here is slighly smaller than a regular football, and actually works just as well.  There were two other Super Madballs as well – a soccer ball and a basketball(their names escape me at the moment).  While I do like the original Madballs, Touchdown Terror is my favorite by a longshot.  There’s just so much to like about him, the pointy teeth, the green drool, the stitches.

Normally you’ll see these listed for $40-$100 on Ebay.  Now, while mine is definitely in played with condition, and pretty scuffed up, I got it for a hell of a deal.  I don’t know how, but it had an opening bid of 99 cents with free shipping, and that’s exactly what I got it for!  Sometimes a little bit of luck and patience pays off.  I scored(ha!), this about two and a half years ago and haven’t been able to add anymore Madballs to the collection.  The reason for this is because I can’t seem to find any at a reasonable cost(and I’m willing to pay more than 99 cents for them 🙂 ).

3 Most Welcome Additions

Today, 2 of the 3 Ebay purchases I’ve made arrived in my mailbox(the third purchase is a box of hockey cards, so I’m sure you don’t care).  These were not impulse buys.  Rather, they were on my mental list, and the prices were fair enough.

First, here’s a character, who is more of an accessory.

This is Joe Eyeball.  Muckman’s sidekick(TMNT).  He’s one of only a few mini-sidekicks I had during TMNT’s domination of the world, which, of course, means I have a special place in my heart for this little guy.  He looks like he’d be a pretty cool guy to chill with.  Now all I need is Muckman’s garbage can backpack for Joe to be displayed perfectly.

But the next two figures are the ones I’ve been looking forward to most.

On the left, we have Six-Gill.  And on the right, we have Hammerhead(not very original on this one).  For those of you wondering, these figures are from Dino-Riders.  I had one or two of the dinosaurs, but I had 5 times as many of the figures.  You see, not only did these figures come with the dinosaur sets, they were also available in by themselves in 2 figure packs.  Six-Gill is the one I had most as a child.  I only remember this because he was paired with Orion(a good human), and Orion was my brother’s figure of choice whenever we came across the line(although my brother pronounced Orion as “Oar-ee-on”).  That was okay, because I thought shark people were far cooler than a generic looking human.

For so long I would always be outbid for just a single figure.  But I got lucky and found a by Buy it Now for this lot of 2 for the nice price of $6.00 + $1.75 shipping.  I’m going to try and get the other hammerhead shark figures(there are a few).

Yard Sale Finds #10 and Other Recent Acquisitions

I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday(if you have it off).  A big part of my area was hit pretty hard with tropical storm Irene and it’s pretty hard to swallow.  Many people, including my wife’s grandmother, have had their homes severely damaged or completely lost.  But everyone is working together and trying to rebuild our communities.  All I would like to ask of those who read here, is to keep those who were affected in your thoughts.

The yard sale finds we’ll be looking at today are from last Saturday, the day before Irene hit.  But we’ll also take a look at some other acquisitions that were not procured at yard sales.

First up.

The Best of Unsolved Mysteries is a “best of” from the days when Robert Stack hosted the show.  I won this brand new on Ebay for less than $10(including shipping)  While the most recent incarnation of the show with Dennis Farina is a pretty good show, it didn’t have the eerieness of the original series.  I think Robert Stack’s voice and the way he presented the stories had something to do with it.  I was intrigued with this show when I was younger.  The stories would scare the shit out of me, but I couldn’t stop watching.  I’ve watched about half so far, and I think, being that we are now entering the spooky Halloween season, this will be a perfect fit on a chilly fall evening.

Now some yard sale finds.

If you have read any of my previous “Yard Sale Finds” posts, you will know that I am a fan of old children’s books.  I typically gravitate to books I remember from my childhood.  And these are going to be books that I will read to my kids(we don’t have any yet, but we’re trying).  The hard cover Winnie the Pooh book is from a series of many that we had growing up.  I now have5 of them(3 Ducktales, and Peter Pan).  And who doesn’t remember The Berenstain Bears?  These were great books that taught us life lessons, and right from wrong.  Mercer Mayer’s artwork has always stood out to me, and I’ll always recognize them among any books.  And you can’t go wrong at 25 cents.  I got all three books for 1 dollar(the Disney book was 50 cents).

This is an awesome movie!  The disc looks like it’s never been removed from the case, and on top of that, it was only 50 cents!  Chevy Chase, John Candy, Dan Aykroyd.  What’s not to like?!  If you haven’t seen this, check it out if you get the chance.  It’s funny, weird and entertaining.

All 3 of these glasses/cups were in a “free” bin at a church rummage sale.  When I was a kid we had a bunch of those Giants glasses, which is why I got this one, even though I’m a Packers fan.  The Kermit one is a Welch’s jelly jar, but make no mistake, these were marketed as collectible cups.  The product itself was in the premium.  And the Masters of the Universe cup is from a 1985 Burger King promotion.  I can’t tell you much more about it because we primarily went to McDonald’s when we wanted fast food.  They’re all great, and I have my wife to thank for finding them.

At the same rummage sale they had a tub full of toys, and you could stuff as many as you could in a big Ziploc bag for a dollar. What a great deal!!

First, on the left is Raphael from Jim Lee’s TMNT line.  Jim Lee is an amazing artist, and I like his take on the Turtles.  I have never come across these before, and now I can say these are pretty cool figures.  These are bigger than the typical Playmates Turtle figures, and has different articulation than the classic ones.  Next to him is Rat King from the original series(he was released in 1989).  I already have Rat King, but this one has very little wear, which makes it’s condition better than the one I have.  Then we have Mike the Sewer Surfer from 1990.  I love the little details they put on this figure(as well as others, including Rat King).  And lastly is Pizza Tossin’ Raphael(stamped 1993, released in 1994).  The only other time I’ve seen these, I ended up buying them.  I don’t think they’re rare or anything, but they’re quite different from the other TMNT figures produced around the same time.  Now I just need to find Pizza Tossin’ Michaelangelo, and I’ll have all four!

And that’s not all I was able to stuff into the bag!

First we have a 2009 Plankton Burger King toy.  It’s nothing special, but it was still in it’s box, and I like the styling(and I watch Spongebob too…so what?).  Next to Plankton is a Domino figure from the 1995  X-Men/X-Force line.  X-Force was a hot title when it first came out in 1991, and Domino was one of my favorite characters in that series.  Next to Domino is a little Batgirl figure from 1993.  There are no other markings I can find to tell where it came from.  Still pretty cool nonetheless.  Then there’s one of my favorite finds!  “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase from Hasbro’s 1991 WWF line.  These figures were very cool.  All of them had an action that would imitate some wrestling move.  Lifting Ted’s arm will bring his right foot up, and releasing it would send it stomping down(and this one’s still works).  And lastly is a The Corps figure from 1992.  I didn’t know what it was when I found it, but I was drawn to it’s neon green coloring.  Further research tells me that this is Shark(version 1), from 1992.

We’re not done yet.

Each of these games cost me only 1 dollar each!  Non of them have their instruction manuals, but the games are in great condition, which is what matters most.  Out of the three, I’ve only played Metroid Prime.  Starfox Adventures should be fun, even though I don’t think it revolves around flying.  But instead of Metal Arms:Glitch in the System being in it’s case, there was this.

The Legend of Zelda Collector’s Edition!  This disc contains the original Legend of Zelda, The Adventure of Link(The Legend of Zelda II), Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask.  It also contains a 20 minute demo of The Wind Waker, as well as a couple of videos.  This wasn’t for sale in stores.  The only way you could get was if you bought a specially bundled Gamecube which came with the game.  Or, you could have gotten it through a special promotion from Nintendo Power.  The disc alone usually sells for $25.00+, but I already own a complete copy.  But I had a friend who was interested, so we made a trade.

Here’s what I traded it for.

This is an original Nintendo storage chest from the days of the NES.  Shortly before I took these photos, I ended up breaking a part of the bottom drawer(I guess I was a little too rough).  The top drawer can house 2 NES controllers as well as a Zapper.

I love how the spaces for the cords, is labeled chords.  Could this be a case of what is considered Engrish?  This is just one of those things that makes the history of Nintendo’s first console interesting.

The bottom drawer can house 28 NES cartridges.

I decided to put all of my games with manuals, as well as some of my favorite games in that drawer.  It’s a nice piece, and it opened up some room on my NES book case.

I got these bendable, plush California Raisins from a thrift store called Richie Rich’s.  I may have mentioned this place before, I don’t really remember.  Originally, I only wanted the one with the sunglasses.  He was marked at 2 dollars, but it was a half-price day!  So I gladly paid a buck for him.  Richie knows me, so he made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.  He said I could take the rest of them for an additional 50 cents!  I only had 46 cents worth of change in my pocket, and he said that would work(he just wanted to get rid of them).  One of the females is missing the decal on the lips, but it was basically free.  Anybody interested in taking off of my hands?

Here’s a hint of what’s up next.

Anyone fancy a guess?

Transformers Generations Scourge and recent Ebay wins.

Another day, another Transformer.

I have to say that I have been impressed with the Generations line thus far.  There are quite a few I didn’t get, but very few that I didn’t like.  The figure we’ll be looking at today, was one I initially didn’t want.

Scourge wasn’t on my want list, but like most times, the ones I truly want are never on the pegs.  Don’t get me wrong.  I think he looks pretty good in bomber and robot mode.  And the white and blue paint job is pretty sweet!

This ended up being a real pain in the ass for a level 3 transformation.  Everything is well hidden and fits together so well, you don’t really see any of the robot when it’s in vehicle mode.  And as we know, the directions did jack shit to help me with the transformation process.  But about 20 minutes after I decided not to try and follow the directions, I finally got it!  And the results are very nice.

As always, I think the robot mode looks awesome!  This is one of the few figures that looks okay with the robotic facial hair.  It didn’t translate too well in Revenge of the Fallen, but this looks okay.  And he still manages to look like a pretty bad-ass Decepticon.

I found him at Target, and there were a few Wheeljacks and Thundercrackers as well.  It figures that after i find the toys I really want after hunting for them, that they would be in steady supply shortly after.

Over the past week or so, I have been the winner of a few auctions on Ebay.  After the ones we’ll see today, I only have one more that I’m waiting on.  And that’s the one I’m most excited about.  You’ll see when it finally arrives.

I don’t have a very big collection of He-Man figures, but there are quite a few figures I would like to have in my collection.  Mantenna here, is one of those figures.  When I was a kid, I thought this figure was awesome just because of it’s feature to raise and lower his eyeballs.  Being part crab(is that correct?), and having multiple limbs probably figured into it as well.  I don’t know if the crossbow is the correct accessory, but it came with the figure.  He stands well on his own, and his eyeballs have very little wear(a big plus with this figure).

This here, is Dirty Dog.  One third of the Puppet Land Band from Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.  I already have Cool Cat, now I just need Chicky Baby to complete the band.

And lastly.

I got a few more games to add to my SNES collection.  None of these are rare or stellar games, but they’re fun and they were priced right.  I never played Buster Busts Loose(at least I don’t think I did).  But coming from Konami, I’m pretty sure it’ll be a fun play-through(and it’s CIB, so it’s a win-win).  Bill Laimbeer’s Combat Basketball came out during the SNES’s first year.  I know I’ve played it, but I have no recollection of it.  Super Pinball:Behind the Mask was popular game in my household in it’s day.  I haven’t played it since, but I remember ir being a great pinball simulation, and it was addicting as hell!  I’ll give ’em all a shot this weekend.