Everybody’s Working For the Weekend(even this guy[me])

That means that I had a nice weekend.

On Friday night I went with my wife and a bunch of friends(8, to be exact[10 people total]), to see these guys.

If you have never heard of these guys, I recommend that you give them a listen.  They are unique, but they’re not for everyone(I for one, have been listening to them since 1999).  Morningwood and Lunic were the 2 bands that opened for them.  They were decent sounding, but I can’t tell you too much about their performances, as I was at the bar(that was located within the venue), having a few beers before MSI came on.  They put on another great performance, and it was an overall great night…except for one thing.  While on our way through the parking lot, one of the bouncer’s(he was a douchebag), had some choice words to some people in my group(my wife included).  I had some words exchaged with him, and he ended up sucker-punching me.  His hit did nothing to me, and he picked up a piece of wood(?), and threatened to kill me.  Other bouncers came over to resolve the situation and told me to leave or they would call the police(nothing would have happened to the guy, and it would’ve been a big waste of my time).  We kind of made fun of it since then, and it didn’t tarnish the weekend’s appealability(that’s a real word!).

What you see above is what I acquired this weekend!

I plan on doing a review tomorrow.  So…if there is something specific in the in the above photo(even if it’s the NES game, the Adventure Island manual or the hockey cards), that you would like to see reviewed(soon…like, tomorrow..that’s when I plan on posting again), just leave your suggestion in the comments.  I might just write about it!

But before we go, I thought that this was pretty cool.

The index card says…

“Jump into the first pit of quicksand in world 8-2 and sink into a shortcut”

I found this tucked into the Adventure Island instruction manual after I bought it, while we were in the car leaving the store.

I could just imagine that some kid got this hot tip and wrote it down(I’m hoping back when it was released), and put it in the game’s manual, so he never forgot it.

I don’t even know if this hot tip even pertains to this particular game(I’ve only made it world 6, and I even had this one back in the day[it’s in my current collection, and it’s one of my favorites]), but I’m going to make it a point to find out soon.

1990-91 Upper Deck Hockey Cards

I know this may seem a bit different from what I usually write about here.  But I have been a fan of hockey since I was a kid.  To this day I am still a fan, and I try to watch every New York Rangers game that I can(which is most of them).  My dad was a huge sports fan, and while we watched football, and sometimes baseball, hockey is always the sport I really got into.  Like most boys in the eighties, I started out collecting baseball cards.  I didn’t really watch much baseball, but I knew who the star players were.  When I started to really get into hockey, I started buying packs of hockey cards.  Most of the ones I was used to were Score or Pro Set.  And coincidentally, I started collecting around ’90-’91, and this was the first year Upper Deck had started producing hockey cards.  I believe they started manufacturing baseball cards the year before, and it was a success, so they branched out.

When these hit the market, they were like no other card out there.  The “counterfeit-proof” hologram on the back, the foil packs.  Also, like many other people have pointed out–the photography for these cards was fantastic.

I ended up getting 2 factory sealed boxes of these cards.  I ordered one, and quite a few packs were all dinged up, so I contacted the seller on Ebay, and he sent me another box free of charge!  The only difference was the second box was the high series.  The high series is where the more desirable rookies are located.  We’ll get to that in a minute.  Let’s take a look at some of the cards(these will be more of the “hits” from the box, maybe I’ll do a later post with a greater variety).

Mark Messier will always be one of may all-time favorite players.  Being that I am a Rangers fan, I’m sure you know why.  Points-wise, only Wayne Gretzky has more.  As you can tell from the Stanley Cup and the Hart Trophy he won, this was in the prime of his career.  Rounding out the page is Mike Richter.  It’s been some time since I looked at an early nineties Beckett, but I believe this is considered to be one of Richter’s rookies(does that still hold true?).

Mario Lemieux was an amazing player, who was hampered by injury throughout his career.  Many say, if he was healthy, he would be ahead of Wayne Gretzky on the all-time points and goals list.  That could be true, but my younger brother is a Penguins fan, so I had to act like I didn’t like him when we were growing up.  But being that he was such a great player, any time I pulled one, card trading definitely worked in my favor.  His base card(the one on top), is one card that I have never forgotten.  To me, this is just great photography, and that’s why it’s stuck with me after all these years.

These days the Young Guns cards are usually sought after cards.  These days they’re more limited in numbers, thus commanding more money on the secondary market.  These were the ones that started it all.  As you can see, I ended up getting one of each of the best ones…Sergei Fedorov and Pave Bure.  Back in the mid-nineties, these cards were hot!  For this set though, I’d say these 2 cards are in the top 3 in the set, as far as value is concerned.  The only other rookie in this set that is on par with these 2 is the Jaromir Jagr rookie(of which I did not get a single one, and that was the one I was hoping to get).  Even though many of these guys didn’t become super stars, it’s still a nice looking subset.

Wayne Gretzky is the NHL’s all-time leader in goals, assists and points.  He owns countless records as well, and is the only player in NHL history to have his number retired by the entire league.  Again, his base card is another from this set that I will always remember.  When I got my first copy of this card way back when, it was one of my most cherished cards.  As you can see from the awards card, this was another one of the many seasons he led the NHL in scoring.  And filling out the page is the only Adam Graves that I managed to pull.  It’s kind of weird that I pulled 8 Lemieux cards and 7 Gretzky cards, but only 1 Graves card.  Adam is my all-time favorite player, and like Mark Messier, has his number retired by the Rangers.

Lastly, I’d like to show you the inserts that were randomly inserted into packs.  These are nothing like the memorabilia and autograph cards(or both on the same card), you see these days.  Hell, they’re not even like the countless junk inserts of the mid-to-late nineties.

Holograms were a big deal during this time.  The only thing is, is that these are horrible!  The are blurry and it’s hard to make out who they are.  I’ve been able to make out Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull, Mark Messier and Wayne Gretzky.  Of the ones I got, there are two with 2 players on them, but I can’t make out who they are.

Still, this is a great set, that’s a sentimental favorite of mine.  If you’re interested, you can usually score a box on Ebay for about$15-$18 shipped.  If you can find them locally, you’ll probably pay about $10 a box.

Awesomeness!!

Well, the readers have responded.  Well two readers responded.  Although Paul didn’t actually vote for the awesomeness, he did ask what it was, so I’ll take that as a second vote for the aforementioned awesomeness.

As you may know, I paid a visit to my younger brother a couple of weeks ago(remember? He sold me the two SNES games).  Anyway, I have some of my stuff stored at his place, and he asked me if I would mind taking some of back with me.  Of course I don’t remember everything I have there, and thought, well, yeah.  So we hauled out a suitcase I had there, and it was filled with CDs, toys and other random things.  As soon as I opened the suitcase, I was greeted by this guy.

That’s right.  Voltron:Defender of the Universe(when you read this, make sure your brain says it in that cool robotic voice from the show).  I’ll give you the story on how he originally came into my posession.

Growing up, I had always wanted Voltron, as it was was one of my favorite shows.  As you may have guessed, I never did get one.  Although, one Christmas, my little brother and I both got our very own remote controlled Voltrons.  By remote controlled, I mean the had a control box wired to the toy it self.  Using this box, you could control your Voltron’s movements.  Not to mention, this thing was enormous.  It’s been about 25 years, but if I remember correctly, this thing must have been about 2 and 1/2 feet tall.

Fast forward to 1998.  I was in White Plains NY with some friends, and we decided to hit up the local Toys R Us.  As we were strolling through the aisles, I look up and I see about three of these Voltrons up on a shelf about seven feet off the ground.  I immediately saw it and proceeded to knock down a bunch of other insignificant toys while grabbing the toy that eluded me oh so many years ago.  I looked at the price tag, and saw the price of $29.99.  Now, this was on pay day, so I said I’m not going to miss out a second time.  I believe this one is from a short lived cgi version of the show or some shit.  But I didn’t care, as it is a faithful representation of the classic toy I pined for.  When we got to the train station, I sat on the platform, and started putting this guy together.  I can’t tell you how much joy my 19 year old self felt doing this.  It came with a whole bunch of accesories, but all that is remaining is what you see in the photo.  Now, being that I never had the original, I don’t know if that version came with the pilots you see here.

From left to right we have, Lance, Princess Allura, Keith and Hunk.  Pidge was lost about 8 or 9 years ago.  All of the Lions have cockpits in which their pilots sit in.  As you’ll also notice, the head of Voltron on the black lion is missing his left horn.  He is also missing one of his wings as well as the firing missle on his back.  When I stored him, he was not missing any of these.  But I’m just happy to have him in my posession again.  You see, someone went into my brother’s previous home and stole my hockey gloves as well as my electric guitar.  I thought Voltron was also stolen.  My brother must have thrown him into the suitcase for safe keeping, knowing how much that toy meant to me.  And I’m glad he did.  Now you know the story of why I thought this awesomeness was long gone.

I also found something else in the suitcase that I had forgotten about.

To the naked eye this might appear to be a run of the mill New York Rangers hockey jersey.  I will let everyone know that I am a die hard Rangers fan.  But this is no ordinary jersey.  No siree!  If you look closely, you will see five or six autographs on there.  I obtained said autographs at a Rangers open practice at the Ice Casino at Rye Playland in Rye, New York, back in 1998.  While a lot of my favorite players managed to elude us fans after the practice, I managed to get a few from some of the lesser known players.  The ones I remember are as follows…Jeff Beukeboom(Boo-kuh-boom), Niklas Sundstrom and Mike Eastwood.The others may be Mike Keane and Bill Berg, but I can’t remember.

Well I hope you enjoyed my long lost awesomeness.  I know I did.  Oh, NHL pre season starts tomorrow.  The NJ Devils will be at Madison Square Garden facing off against the Rangers tomorrow night for some pre season action.  If you live in NY, the game will be on MSG at 7:00PM.  If you live outside of NY, check your local listings(I never thought I’d have the opportunity to say that).

Yard sale finds #2

Today we have some cool items that I obtained going yard-saling yesterday.  This venture proved to be less successful than the last.  While I did not get as good a haul as I anticipated, I returned home happy nonetheless(is that correct?).  The items will be listed in the order of their coolness.  I figured that way to be best, because if I showed them in the order that I found them, this would end up being pretty anti-climactic.

So, let’s get down to business.

First up, let it be known that I am a big ice hockey fan.  Since I started watching hockey games at the age of ten or eleven, I have been a faithful follower of the New York Rangers.  Most of the time I go yard saling or garage saling, I’m not looking for hockey related merchandise.  But what I found came home with me because it is a similar to an item I once owned.

I believe these guys were called “Hockey Brats” or something.  This keychain is stamped 1986 and looks almost brand new.  We were perusing the streets a little after 4 pm, and a lot of people were done for the day, so we stumbled upon a few piles next to the curb, marked “free”.  My motto is, “If it’s free it’s for me!”.  I found this guy and a couple of paperback books absolutely free of charge.  I just think it’s funny that the Philadelphia Flyers(the team this guy plays for), lost in the Finals this year and he wound up in the trash.

Next up, we have something that I haven’t owned before.  This is hard to believe.

This is a Koopa Paratroopa from the 1989 McDonald’s Super Mario Bros. 3 happy meal promotion.  This guy is missing the bulb and tube that connects to his rear end to make him hop.  The Koopa Paratroopa is one of my all time favorite Nintendo characters.  He was found in a box of mixed crap.  I figured he probably cost about 25 cents, and when I asked the lady how much, she said, “You can keep it.”  So far we haven’t spent any money and we have something to show for it.

This next item is the most recent.  He comes to us from the 2002 McDonald’s promotion for Transformers Energon.  Ladies and gentlemen…Scorponok!

This guy actually transforms very well.  For a Happy Meal toy, this is surprisingly well made.  He was in a box of items going for 25 cents each.  I located his matching trading card in the same box and got both of them for the low, low price of one quarter.  Still haven’t even broke a dollar yet.

I saved the biggest and most expensive find for last.  I won’t say what it is, I’ll just show it to you.

That’s right people.  We have a 1986 Lazer Tag gun and target.  The gun is missing a cover for the light, but other than that, I see nothing wrong with it.  Both the gun and the target take a 9-volt battery to operate and I currently don’t have any to test it.  I believe the target might have been part of the vest that you would wear, as there’s a patch of velcro on the back of it.  This was the most expensive purchase of the day totaling fifty cents.

Ther you have it folks!  A pretty good day.  I only spent 75 cents.  And for those of you who wish to know the books I got…they were, Shutter Island, Go Ask Alice and a 1954 copy of Lord of the Flies.

Update 9/9/10: I misidentified the McDonald’s Transformer.  I mistakenly thought it was Scorponok (being that the card I found him with was a Scorponok card, and the color scheme was appropriate), when in fact it is Megatron(which is sadly missing the turret for his tank mode).