Teaser

I decided that I wanted to do a single post to showcase the toys I acquired from the auction last weekend.  The pictures have been taken, but I just haven’t been able to write the post to accompany them.

But I did realize that I didn’t take any pictures of the video game stuff I was able to add to the collection.

There wasn’t much, as I didn’t need most of it(Dean needed everything though).  But there were a few things that I didn’t have.

A lot of decent pretty good games came in this lot, and all but Tetris had their manuals included.  What you see above is my take from the lot.  I put batteries in the Game Boy, but unfortunately, I couldn’t get it to power up.  For the most part, the GB is pretty clean, but there looks to be a little bit of corrosion on part of the battery connections(?).  For $15, it was worth the chance.  But we got more than our money’s worth with the games and manuals(not to mention the carrying case), that came with the Game Boy.

Hopefully, I will be able to get the toys up in the next day or 2.  There is a lot of great stuff, and I’m excited to give them their due.

First Finds of the New Year

I have had a pretty good start for finds this year!

And I actually went a different route than I normally do when it comes to acquire things for my collections.

…Pawn shops!

I know this sounds like such a given, but you have to understand that pawn shops aren’t exactly abundant. In a nearby area to me, there are two of them. I’ve been to this area more times than I can count, but I always had an agenda of where I wanted/needed to go. I first spotted them a few months ago after a little driving around. This past weekend, I decided to checkout what they had.

Here’s the what the first one yielded.

I never had the pleasure(or displeasure), of playing either of these games before.  8 Eyes is basically a Castlevania clone, and Daydreamin’ Davey is decent from what I gleaned from the 5 minutes I tried it.  The gut at the shop wanted $5each.  He heard me groan, and said that $3 each was the best he could do.  I countered with 2 for $5, and he gladly accepted.  These are games I have not seen in the wild before, so they make for pretty good additions to the NES collection.

These 5 games, as well as what we’ll see next, are from the second of the 2 shops I checked out.

The store was having a 4 for $10 sale on all games not on a current console.  These 5 were the ones that caught my eye(although there were a few others that I need).  Mendel Palace is probably the most uncommon of the lot.  It’s a puzzle-like game that annoyed me when I tried it out.  Nothing super-rare, but nice additions nonetheless.

But the following is, perhaps, the best deal I found that day.

Any NES or SNES games complete in the box for $2.50 will get me every time.  There were a few other CIB games for these systems, but they were “otherwise marked”, so they didn’t apply to the deal.  Gyruss is missing the manual, but it’s the only one of the lot that I already have.  And on top of that, the copy I already had included the manual, which means I now have a complete copy.  The Super Nintendo games are not sought after, but again, I will buy CIB games for $2.50 a pop every day of the week.  $25 well spent!!

So Long, Nintendo Power.

Nintendo Power has released it’s final issue.

Even though I have hardly kept up with the publication for many years(due to my lack of being into systems when they’re current; with the exceptions of the NES & SNES), it’s sad to see them go.  This was the go to place for(Nintendo) video games in the years before the internet.

I have been a Nintendo loyalist since the NES arrived in my house.  As time went on, Nintendo was everywhere you looked.  In short, they were a big part of my childhood.  I remember when the first issue arrived in the mail.  I read that issue(as well as subsequent issues), from front to back countless times.

It was always a thrill to try the latest tips and tricks, and was always something to look forward to every 2 months(back in the early days).

Included with the final issue is a poster of every single issue of Nintendo Power.  I’m actually thinking about getting it framed.

The cover is a great throwback to the first issue, and is a fitting choice for the final.

This isn’t a review(if I did review it, it would be insanely long).  I just wanted to pay my respects to the only gaming magazine I really cared for.

But I will show a few pages to entice you to buy your own copy(or borrow it from one of your friends 😉 ).

So much good stuff!

So long, old friend.

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.  🙂

The League of Extraordinary Bloggers – Holy Grails and White Whales

The League of Extraordinary Bloggers is a project that Brian from Cool and Collected started about 2 months ago(for those of you who are not familiar with this, click here for the scoop).  The topic this week is, as stated in this post’s title, Holy Grails and White Whales.

While I could go on and on with stuff I would love to get, the idea is what would we most like to find, and be able to take home with us.  There’s got to be  something that has eluded you, that you think you may never get, or get the opportunity for a chance at.  There are a few things that instantly came to mind.

I collect video games, among other things, so that’s where we’ll start.

What you see above is the very definition of Holy Grail, when it comes to the Nintendo Entertainment System.

I have many fond memories attached to the NES, which is probably why I have so much interest in the system itself.  I collect games for quite a few consoles,  but I have more NES games than all of my other consoles combined(200+).  If you are not familiar with the story behind these cartridges, I’ll give you a little history.

In 1990, Nintendo held a video game championship across the country(not unlike the one in the movie The Wizard).  There were competitions in cities across the nation, looking for the best Nintendo player in that city.  Then the “best” players from each age group would play against each other in the finals of the tournament to determine the winner.  I’m not sure just how these were distributed, but I do know that some went to the champions and finalists, and some were given away in a Nintendo Power contest.  There are only 90 of the gray cartridges, and just 26 copies of the gold one.

The games contained within are Super Mario Brothers(get 50 coins), Rad Racer(complete the first course), and Tetris(get the highest score you can).  There is a dipswitch on the outside of the cart, that you can use to adjust the amount of time to play.  Even though all the games are pretty common, the cartridges are not.  This is something I’m pretty sure I will never own, but it’s nice to dream of finding it a at a garage sale or flea market.

And there are a few toys that came to mind as well.  Now, there are a lot(tons), of toys that I would love to add to my collection.  There are plenty of lines that I collect, and others that I would like to collect.  But there is one line that stands above the rest, and that’s Transformers.  Or more specifically, Generation 1 Transformers.

The first of the two?

Transformers and I go way back.  My brother and I received our first Transformers on the Christmas of 1984 or 1985.  We got one each, and they were both Megatron.  Megatron is high on my want list, but Ultra Magnus is just a little more important to me.  You see, when I saw Transformers the Movie back in 1987, Ultra Magnus quickly became my new Favorite Transformer.  My older brother ended up getting it for me, I believe, for my 9th birthday in 1988.  For some reason I didn’t have it very long.  My stepmother, took him away for some reason(probably jealous that my younger brother didn’t have one), and I never saw him again.  I’m sure I probably cried my eyes out, because I really wanted that toy, and really loved it for the short time that I had it.  So, maybe, finally getting him again may give me some closure.

And the one I wanted, but never got.

Soundwave, is perhaps the coolest looking Transformer in robot mode(and a little dated in alt mode).  I knew a few kids who had this guy, and boy, did I want it!  There were quite a few times I would pick out cassette 2-packs(for Soundwave or Blaster), when we would ask if we could get a toy(you know what I’m talking about).  I have had a few chances to pick this guy up, but at the time(s), I just didn’t have the $40-$50 to spare.  But that may all change when the toy show comes to town on April 22!

Check out what has eluded Reis over at Lair of the Dork Horde.

Brian talks about the item he would love to add to his ever-growing King Kong collection over at Cool and Collected.

And Tim searches for “The Non-Existent” over at Flashlights are Something to Eat.

Cincinnati Vacation Part 2 chapter 1

Actually, the second day of my vacation was my family reunion.  But we didn’t get any pictures from that event, and it probably wouldn’t make for a good post.  So, fast forward to the last day of my trip.  This post will be part one of my last day, because this day was packed with greatness.

If you are familiar with this blog, then you’ve seen my “Yard Sale Finds” posts.  We had grand plans for our final day in Ohio.  We got up early, got ready, went and visited my dad’s burial plot and headed to Trader’s World.  This was my first time at this place and it was a cool experience.  Just take a look at what you see when you drive into this place.

There were animals like this everywhere!

Now, where I live, we don’t have any actual flea markets.  So when I get a chance to go to one, I’m giddy with excitement.  It’s one of those “thrill of the hunt” feelings.  I’ve read many stories about stuff people find at flea markets.  Today I don’t have a grand find, but I did manage to grab a few cool things.  This place was huge!  There were close to ten buildings(almost like barns, but real floors and it was air conditioned), all connected by a central corridor.  Plus, there were dealers in the lot, and a small city of other merchants in an open air facility.  I’m pretty sure I didn’t check out the whole place.  So let’s see what treasures the place had waiting for me.

My first find of the day only cost two bucks, and was the only find for me in the outside area.  Let’s take a look shall we?

Here we have 2 sealed packs(I opened one) of 1991 Topps Stadium Club hockey cards and a loose Ace Duck from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  The cards only cost me 50 cents a pack and the Ace Duck cost me a buck.  While I don’t really collect hockey cards like I used to, I couldn’t turn down cards I remember buying nineteen years ago.  And I should’ve held out on the Ace Duck, as I found one in the exact same condition for only 50 cents.

There were quite a few vendors selling many vintage games, all at varying prices.  When you’re checking out games it helps to check a few places and compare prices to see what will be a better deal.  Unless, you see a deal that you know is a steal.  Everybody nowadays think they’re an Ebay expert and price their stuff accordingly.  But when I spot a box of old games under a table marked between 1-3 dollars, I know I’ll find at least one game I’ll buy.  Here are the aforementioned low priced games I picked up.

In the first picture we have Fester’s Quest, NES Play Action Football and Pictionary, all for play on the Nintendo Entertainment System.  Fester cost me 2 bucks, while the other two ran a buck apiece.  In a box right next to the one with these loose NES games, there was this complete SNES game for two bucks.  Now Nigel Mansell’s World Championship Racing isn’t a rare or great game, but I collect NES and SNES games.  This one had the cardboard tray the game sits in, a cartridge sleeve, all the inserts and instruction manual.  And to top it off, the box is in great condition.

As i was perusing this amazing place I stumbled into a stall with a guy that sold all types of old school goodness, primarily old unopened packs of all different trading cards.  Man, I had to have self control, or I would’ve spent like fifty bucks in there.  I had my 11 year old cousin Nick and my 14 year old cousin Wayne with me.  I gave them two dollars each to get whatever they wanted.  When we were in this stall, Nick bought a pack of Desert Storm trading cards for a dollar and seemed disappointed.  I asked him what was up, and he said that he didn’t want the cards, he thought they would be more animated.  I laughed pretty hard and wound up with the pack, and I’m not sure that I want them.  But I did spend two dollars here, and here’s what I got.

Growing up in the eighties, you know I had the complete set of the Ninja Turtle cards, but I don’t recall ever getting a single pack of Back to the Future II cards.  When I got home I wished I would’ve bought two packs so we can see what they look like.  And like I’ve said before is there a license Topps didn’t acquire in the eighties and early nineties.

Here are the last two items I purchased at this flea market

There was a vendor selling legit movie related and retro shirts for incredibly low prices.  Again I had to control myself.  Here was the sale she had going on…shirts were 3 dollars each, or 2 for five and I think 5 for ten bucks.  Up first, we have the Mega Man “The Usual Suspects” t-shirt featuring Heat Man, Quick Man, Flash Man, Metal Man and Crash Man, all from Mega Man II.  An then we have the classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles logo t-shirt.  What more can I say about it?  T-U-R-T-L-E power.

Well that’s all for tonight.  In a day or two I’ll post our Treasure Aisles adventure which was right after we left Trader’s World.  So that will be part 2 of this part 2.  I will leave you with a few parting shots from Trader’s World.

Trading Cards

For today’s post, I wanted to talk about something a little different, but I’m sure many have indulged in.  Just as there was toys and comic books for cartoons and movies, there were trading cards.  For me, collecting comics and trading cards went hand in hand.  Sure, I collected baseball cards in the beginning, but then I found non-sports trading cards.  Just as there were kids trading their Pokemon cards at school 10 years ago, I remember trading Marvel Universe trading cards before class.

These things were all the rage in my school.  Even if you weren’t into comics, you collected these cards.  For me though, these were an awesome addition to the comics I was reading and collecting.  There were cards of characters you knew and ones for those that you weren’t familiar with.  But with these cards, they added something every kid pined for.  Randomly inserted into these packs were 5 different hologram cards for kids to collect.  I think on average, there were 2-3 holograms per box.  I learned a trick to finding the holograms before you bought a pack from a kid a grade above me.  These packs were made of plastic.  If you scratched a small hole on the front of the pack, you would see if that pack had a hologram(all of the hologram cards manufactured were the first cards in the packs that contained them).  Of couse, store owners and employees realised this and had to place them closer to the registers.  To get around this, I found out another way to find out which packs had those precious hologram cards.  If you placed 2 packs side by side, you could tell which packs had holograms by finding which packs were just a bit taller compared to the other packs(hologram cards were just a bit thicker than ordinary cards).

Here are two sealed packs from 1991.  Sorry, I’m not going to open them today.

And these are the cards

As you can see, there were a few different sub-sets.  We have Super Heroes, Super Villains, Rookies, Famous Battles and some cheesy Spider-Man interview cards(not pictured).  On the back of each card it gave you some stats, such as, their real name(if known), their height and weight, as well as the comic book they first appeared in and their win/loss record.  On the bottom of the card backs there were little trivia blurbs, titled, “Did you know?”.

I bought countless packs of these and eventually completed the set and had each of the 5 holograms.  Of course, alot of wheelin’ and dealin’ went on.  For some reason, it seemed that the card of Quasar was the most difficult to obtain, and he’s like a D-list character!  This was the first of many wildly successful comic book trading card series

Of course comic books weren’t the only cards that got the trading card treatment.  If you’re around the same age as me(31), I’m sure you remember Nintendo being a way of life for a good chunk of years.  There was merchandise for everything Nintendo.  Games, magazines, sheet sets, stationary and toys.  In 1989 our good freinds at Topps, put Nintendo GamePack trading/scratch and win cards on the market.  There were one of three Nintendo characters on the wrappers.  There was Mario(of course), Princess Peach and Link.

Here is an unopened pack with Link on the wrapper.

And here are the cards.

The idea behind these cards was the same idea of scrtch-off lottery tickets.  On the back of the card, they showed you all of the possible icons you would uncover by scratching the different spots on the front, and their meaning.  Your objective was the same as the game that the card represented.  There were six different games represented, with a total of 10 different cards for each game.  The games represented are, Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros.2, The Legend of Zelda, The Adventure of Link, Punch-Out!! and Double Dragon.  In addition to the 3 trading cards cards you got in every pack you also got 2 stickers.  On the back of these stickers there were “Top Secret Tips”. Most of these so-called ‘tips”, were bullshit!  Almost every kid on earth knew them already!  Maybe I’ll show you some examples in a future post.  The cards were pretty much useless after you scratched them, but that didn’t stop me from buying a whole lotta them!

The last set of cards we’ll revisit are cards that I went absolutely nuts for in the 3rd grade.  I present to you…ALF trading cards.

In 1987 our friends at Topps(seriously, is there a property they didn’t make cards after?), unleashed ALF trading cards to the masses.  As you can tell from the picture above, the cards must have been successful, as they released a 2nd series.  In each of these packs, you got 5 cards, 1 sticker and 1 stick of Topps’ famously stale gum(do not eat!).  I remember trading my regular cards and stickers for the “Bouillabaseball” cards.  These cards were cartoon drawings of different Melmacians that played on various bouillabaseball teams.  I have no idea how they came about, but I loved them.  They had a weirdness about them that totally spoke to me.

Here’s a few of the cards and stickers you could have got.

And there you have it!  A few of the many trading cards marketed to the kids we all once were.  I wouldn’t say that I won’t do a similar post in the future, as I have a huge selection in my personal collection.  I hope you had fun on this trip back in time.  And with the famous line from Jerry Springer…”‘Until next time America”.