Yard Sale Finds #15

I had high expectations for yard sales for the past couple of weeks.  And while I have found some things, there hasn’t been much that has interested me.  On top of that, some people are asking for too much for a lot of things.  This past weekend, I found a handful of things.  The weekend before, I hardly found anything.  So I lumped both weekends together, to make a more robust post.

First we’ll start with some reading material.

I am nowhere near as into wresting as I was back in the day.  I stopped watching somwhere back in 2002.  It seemed like it was more of a soap opera more than anything else.  I liked to watch it for the matches, and it seems like there’s too much dialogue, and plots to actually give you that consistantly.  But Hulk Hogan has been a favorite of mine since I was like 5 years old.  And from what I’ve read in the past, wresting biographies are a decent read.  This book has a cover price of $26!  But I got it for 25 cents.  So even if it’s horrible, I won’t be kicking myself for buying it.  The Guiness Book of World Records, is a bit dated since it’s the 2004 edition(not to mention it’s the paperback).  But it’s always a good book to flip though, making it perfect bathroom reading.  And for 25 cents, it was hard to resist.

Everything above set me back $3.75.  The Game Cube games were a mere $1 each.  Which was refreshing, because you have people these days, trying to sell the crappiest PS2 games for $5 or more.  The same people were also selling Wii games for $3 each(these people had great prices for everything), but there wasn’t anything I was interested in.  Bloodsport was still in the factory shrinkwrap, and was sold to me for $1.50.  I bought it at “The World’s Biggest Yard Sale”(it really wasn’t), from a seller who had probably more than 1000 DVDs(some brand new, and some used).  I didn’t stick around for too long to check everything out, as people were all up on this great deal.  The Pee-Wee’s Playhouse tape was 25 cents at a sale we stopped at later in the day.  It’s one of the original VHS releases from 1988.  The funny thing is that I found a brand new VCR head cleaner(still sealed with the FYE price tag in tact), which comes in handy, since I do have a small collection of VHS tapes.

Pretty much the only toys I saw were either newer toys from properties that were from somwhere in the last 10 years, or they were of the fast food variety.  So it was slim pickin’s.

Although her nose seems to be chewed off, there was no way I could turn down this Cheetarah figure for 50 cents.  She was my last fing of the day, and I almost didn’t see her!  I’m happy if I could find figures from the eighties, as they are getting harder and harder to find in the wild.  My old-school Thundercats collection is lacking, so I’ll take what I can find.  And lastly, I found a Micro Machine for 25 cents.  Unlike my last yard sale post, this one is an official Micro Machine by Galoob.  I checked on that before I inquired about it.  I probably still would have bought it even if it “wasn’t the real thing!”.

And that’s it.  I did pick up a few new things that I plan on reviewing this week.  I know I was MIA in July for the most part, but I would like to rectify that.  I have the urge to write more, and I have some stuff that I want to write about(a winning combination).

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.  🙂

Vote for Me!

Recently, I submitted a picture of an action figure nativity scene over at Hey! Look at My Toys!, for a contest.  At Reis’ suggestion, I am asking everybody to go over to Hey! Look at My Toys!, and vote for me(if you have not voted yet).  You can click on the link above, or you could click the link on my side bar.  The 3 submissions that get the most votes, will win toys!  As of right now, I have 4 votes, and will need a lot more to place in the top 3.  Reis misspelled my name on his side bar.  It reads Lason L., instead of Jason L.  But if you have any trouble, here’s what my submission looks like.

Pee-Wee’s Playhouse Playset

Well, this is a first for me.  This marks the first time that I have purchased an action figure playset.

While growing up, my brother and I had tons of action figures for many lines, but we never had the playsets to go with them(well, we did get the wood beetle playset from Battle Beasts.  But that was the only one).  Now, they weren’t essential, but they would have added a bit of credibility to our play sessions.  So it wasn’t a big deal that we never got any playset for our action figures.  And in the eighties, we had a lot of great playsets.  We had Castle Grayskull(Masters of the Universe), Cat’s Lair(Thundercats), The Sewer Playset(Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), The Hyve(Sectaurs)…and the seven foot long USS Flagg(G.I. Joe).  Now all of these playsets(and many others), are all very nice and would make a great addition to any collection.  But out of all the playsets that were released when I was a kid, this was the one that I wanted the most.

I ended up scoring a specimen that included the box it originally came in.  The price that I paid would have been fair if I only got the playset and the box.  But also included, were all but 3 figures from the whole line! 🙂 🙂 🙂

So let’s meet the gang.

From left to right-Reba the mail lady, Pee-Wee Herman, Miss Yvonne and Ricardo.  The two humans I don’t have are Cowboy Curtis and the King of Cartoons.

And every other character, except Conky!  We have Randy, Jambi, Chairy, Globey, Magic Screen, The Puppetland Band(Dirty Dog, Chicky Baby and Cool Cat), and Pterri.

It even came with Pee-Wee’s Scooter(which was included with the set when it was released), and his helmet.

The box is a little over two feet long, and the Playhouse itself is just a few inches shorter.

And as you’ll see in a moment, when you unfold it, it’s even bigger.  I had a lot of fun photographing this.  There is a lot of stuff from the show built into this, and we’ll check it out first hand.

The first thing you’ll notice is the trademark door.  That is a friggin’ awesome door!(there’s a great article over at X-Entertainment regarding the playhouse.  It’s actually one of my favorites.  Check it out here.)  To the left of the awesome door is Mr. Window, who has a lever to make it looks like he’s talking.  And to the awesome door’s right are the dancing flowers that also have a lever to move them side to side.

There’s Clockey and the two talking fish.  Clockey has movable hands(but it’s one piece, so they move simultaneously), and the fish sticker is lenticular, which gives the illusion of movement.  So, so, awesome.

The refrigerator and freezer doors open to reveal the anthropomorphic food we’d see whenever Pee-Wee opened the fridge or freezer.  On the show, they were brought to life with stop-motion claymation.

They even built in Floory.  It all would have added to the realism.

The table(which Globey is sitting on), and bench were also included.

Other accessories were the purple island couch, the t.v. set and platforms for Jambi and the Puppetland band.  Other things of interest include the Cowntess, the little statue Pee-Wee would turn to open the secret wall compartment that housed his scooter as well as the opening wall itself.

This gets a 10 out of 10 in my book.  Matchbox did so many things right with this.  There were other characters on the show, that didn’t get the action figure treatment.  But a gentleman by the name of Ben Zurawski made a custom set of the rest of the cast, including, Mr. Kite, the dinosaur family and Roger the monster.  He also made Magic Glasses and Picture Phone.  You can read about all of them here.  For now, this will be displayed in it’s box, because I don’t have enough room to display it in all it’s glory(the figures will be displayed, of course).  And who doesn’t love old-school packaging anyway?  With any luck, I’ll find the three figures I need, and have my first complete action figure line(that’s kind of cool).

I was out and about in town today, and I stumbled into the local Dollar General.  9.5 times out of 10, I’ll end up walking out empty handed, unless I happen to be thirsty, in which case, I end up buying a drink.  But there was a sale, with me getting both of these for a total of $5.40(that’s with tax).

They’re “Legends” class, but they’re also 25th anniversary(that was 2 years ago).  These will stay sealed, just like the other two 25th Anniversary Mini-Cons that I have.

A few days ago, I ended up buying 11 comic books.  I have bought maybe, 5 comics in the last 5+ years.  I’ll tell you the story in a few days.  We’ll talk comics.

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.

A Look into One of My Non-Sports Trading Card Albums

I’ve shown you some of my favorite non-sports trading cards before.  Tonight I’m going to keep the theme, but add a little twist to it.  Instead of showing some single cards in top loaders, we’ll see full 9 card pages from one of my albums.  I’ll cover a good range, but have tons more for future follow ups.

I’m pretty sure that I started collecting trading card before I started to get into collecting comics.  It started with getting some albums full of baseball cards from my older brother and step brother.  The eighties and early nineties were a great time for non-sports trading cards.  This was before companies started adding chaser cards with their various gimmicks.  Most non-sports cards were a regular set of cards and a set of stickers.  Topps had tons of licenses for all the popular properties.  And if you bought a pack of cards manufactured by Topps during this time, you also got the requisite stick of their famous now stale gum.  When the cards were new, the gum was a nice bonus.  But now the gum would be old and stale(trust me, this stuff went bad years ago.Do not eat it).  You can see a picture of this gum from one of my other card related posts here and here.

Here is the album we’ll be peaking into today.

There’s not a single Pokemon card in here!  That’s not to say that I don’t like Pokemon, because I actually do.  They remind me of Battle Beasts in a round about way.  I got into them when the craze started, and got this binder pretty cheap(and it’s officially licensed).  The Gameboy games were what really got me into the lore.  It’s not too bad, give it a chance!  But we’re not here to talk about Pokemon, I just wanted to explain the album choice.

First up…

We have a sampling of my Punisher cards.  The Punisher has been my favorite Marvel character ever since I started collecting comics.  I especially like the old school prismatic sticker(I’ve had this for a long time).  Some of these were found in packs, while others were found in binders in card shops and conventions.

Here we have some stickers from Topps’ Nintendo Game Packs from 1990.  I’ve talked about the cards in a previous post, and briefly mentioned the stickers.  Some of these stickers are pretty ridiculous, but they’re fitting of the time period.  While I’m missing 4 cards from the set, I do have the complete set of stickers.  On the reverse side, they have “Top Secret Tips”.  And I stand by my assessment that they’re bullshit!  Not only did every kid know the tips, but a lot of them were the lamest ones!  I’ll even give you proof with a scan from the backs of the above stickers.

While the tips suck, I love the design!  Any time I think of a spy, that’s exactly what I would imagine.

Aaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!  One of my favorite shows and toy lines of all time!  These are Pee-Wee’s Playhouse trading cards.  They have 1988 Herman Toys printed on them, and I would guess that’s when they were released.  I never saw these when they originally came out, and I don’t feel like finding the wrapper to find out, so we’ll assume that they were released in ’88.  These were something special.  Topps went a different route with this set than they did with any of their other licenses.  These were sold in “Fun Packs”.  Fun Packs we’re more like a trading card goodie bag.  You get cards, temporary tattoos, stickers and a lenticular card in every pack!  You can usually find loose packs on Ebay for as low as $1.50 a pack(although most will overcharge for them, so shop around).

These are some of the cards for the custom comic art from Mallrats(I guess these would be considered a sub-set).  If you’ve seen the movie, these were shown during the end credits.  When I worked at Tower Video, we got all types of cool stuff.  As soon as these hit the shelf, I bought the whole box(with a very nice employee discount)!  I thought that I made a complete set, and gave away all of my doubles.  But, I made a mistake, and my set is one card short of being complete.  😦

These are the first series of trading cards based on The Simpsons.  Released in 1990 by, you guessed it…Topps.  These were released around the time Simpsons-mania started.  The animation is rough compared to the polished look of The Simpsons today.  And that’s part of the charm!  The earlier episodes had a bit of a different feel to them compared to a bulk of the series.

I just have one last card to show you tonight.  This is just an awesome card from one of the most memorable scenes from any movie, period!  I’m thinking of using it for my banner.  What do you think?

I think this would work great for an anti-meth poster.  Dontcha think?  🙂

Jboypacman is the Epitome of Awesome!!

Today, I was expecting a package from Ebay, and was pleasantly surprised to also find a package from Jboypacman(see his blogs here and here).  I originally planned on doing a quick post of the little item from Ebay, but the contents of the box Jboy sent, totally eclipses it!  I was expecting the package…I just wasn’t expecting a toy lot of this size.  I’ll let the following photo do the talking.

So much awesome was packed into that box!  I broke it up into a few pictures, so we can get a better look at my Christmas in March.  We’ll start with Lt. Ripley(with face hugger) from Kenner’s 1992 Aliens line, Iron Man from Hasbro’s Marvel Universe line, a T-700 from the Terminator:Salvation line and Dr. Claw and MAD Cat from Tiger’s 1992 Inspector Gadget line.

And that’s just the beginning!  As you know, I’m a huge TMNT fan, and Jboy sent me not only a Raph PEZ dispenser, but he also sent 4 Turtle figures.  Three of which I didn’t have!!  We have Wacky Action Michaelangelo, 1988 Raphael(hard head), one that I believe is a Wacky Action Leonardo(I thought he was the only one without a Wacky Action figure, but I could be wrong), and a Leonardo figure(with arm action at the press of a button) from 2004.  Looks like I’ll be ordering more pizza.  🙂

But, wait there’s more!  He sent 4 sweet Transformers!  First, There’s Electrostatic Soundwave, with Ratbat.  Then there’s Decepticon Bludgeon(I just bought one this past weekend!  Now I’ll have one MIB).  Standing next to Decepticon Bludgoen(damn copyrights), is Tracks(1984 Takara).  And lastly we have Snapdragon, who is a 1987 Headmaster(missing his nebulan component, Krunk).  He also sent a Thor comic book that I forgot to photograph.

As I said when I opened the package, WOW!  Thanks again Jboy!  You put a big smile on this big kid’s face!  🙂

On a closing note, here’s what I got from Ebay.

It’s Cool Cat from the Puppetland Band, you may remember from Pee Wee’s Playhouse!  I would like to get Chicky Baby and Dirty Dog as well.  These guys don’t come up loose, often.  Pee Wee’s Playhouse is one of my absolute favorite toy lines, which explains why I paid $4.69 + shipping for this little guy(I wasn’t losing this time!).

I still have a bunch more stuff to talk about this week(as well as some packages on the way).  I’ll get another post up in a few days.  With the exception Cool Cat, Tracks is my favorite addition to the collection.  Which figure is your favorite?

Looking back, Chapter 1

While thinking of a topic to write about, I had all sorts of things going through my head.  Most of the things that I swirling in my head today are things that I am quite fond of and I have been into or liked for a big part of my life.

Alot of the stuff I was thinking about was in someway attached to my childhood and early teen years.  Things that helped shape me and define the person I am today.  Growing up in the 80’s, as alot of you know was an interesting time.  There is all types of stuff from that decade that I think about on an almost daily basis.  And I know that this is said alot but, things really did seem simpler back then.  And I’m not talking about not having the responsibilities we have as adults.  The economy was on the up and up, the sky was the limit for everything, and in my honest opinion that decade had the best toys and tv programming as well as movies I have seen to date.  I have alot of fond memories of all of this.  Today I guess, I’m still a kid.  I still buy toys and watch old tv shows and wake up early Saturday morning to catch TMNT.  Speaking of which, have Saturday morning cartoons go the way of the dodo, or what?  I remeber the Big 3 networks(NBC, CBS, & ABC), as well as some big but not as huge networks(WPIX & Fox), vying for our viewership.  I’ve looked at the shit they pass off nowadays.  95% of it is garbage!  Let’s look back at some stuff that will give us happy thoughts.

First, I would like to talk about someone I loved as a kid, and still do today.  I watched him find his lost bike hundreds of times, and I knew when he came on tv Saturday mornings, that Saturday morning was over and either golf or tennis would be coming on next.  You know who it is. Don’t act like you don’t!

Even though he’s insane, I think he helps me keep my sanity.  Just watching the intro makes me want to live there.  Here was a grown-up, who was a kid and lived in a house that no parent would ever live in!  He lived by himself and lived by his own rules.  I always wondered what happened to his house in Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure.  And because of X-E, I can’t look at that door and not have Skeletor with Moss Man’s arms pop into my head!  Anyway, religiously watched his show every Saturday and Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure was one of the most watched tapes in the house.  One thing me and my younger brother always thought was how much our stepmom looked like Large Marge, I’m serious(I’ll do a comparison in a later post).  I have heard alot of people say that the Large Marge scene scared the shit out of them in their younger days, but my brother and I thought it was one of the funniest things we ever saw!  When we would watch it alone, my brother had a habit of rewinding any parts of the movie we thought was funny, repeatedly!  It was funny about the first 2 times.  Still to this day, I go frame by frame at least once when I watch it.

Next up, we have something that ruled everyones lives.  The Nintendo Entertainment System owned me from 1985 until 1991 when it was Super Nintendo’s turn.  I would play any game on this, any time I could.  Getting a new game was a family event.  My dad would play the games with us and really get into it(I learned a few new words ‘cuz of that).  I’m not gonna get to in depth, because this subject has been covered by so many.  But, being that before we spoke of the NES, we spoke about Pee-Wee…..How about this?

These days it seems that there is little thought put into the child demographic.  But, we have learned to be more politically corect these days and most of that shit wouldn’t fly today.

Another huge part of my childhood was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  They were on everything and they were everywhere!  We had the cartoon, the toys, the movies, the food, shampoo, bed sheets and the all so sacred pudding pies.  To this day, I would say that the Turtles are my favorite cartoon/toy line.  I didn’t have the Turtle Van or Blimp or the technodrome.  My brother and I only got one or two playsets growing up, but we had ass loads of figures.  The figures spanned every major and minor toy line that was available.  The ones we had the most of were G.I Joe, Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

 

 Michaelangelo started out as my favorite, but that only lasted for about a month.  Donatello has since been my favorite pizza eating reptile.  By the early 90s, you could watch the Turtles on Saturday morning, and watch them on WPIX(NY), after school on weekdays.  And that’s exactly what I did.  I think the Turtles were the last big cartoon/toyline for me.  As you go through school, certain things made you a “baby”.  Playing with toys was one of them, although I still got toys once in a while, and I haven’t stopped watching cartoons, but the kids in school didn’t need to know that.

The turtles cartoon debuted in 1988.  By the time 1991 rolled around, I was starting to spend my allowance collecting comics.  It was thanks to this hobby, that I found the gritty Turtles form the original Mirage comic book series.  I will say that I am a huge fan of the original turtles and have many of the original comica and the Donatello Neca figure still inside of his plastic prison.  I went to a comic convention at The Theatre at Madison Square Garden in 2002(when I lived in the city), and to my surprise Kevin Eastman, co-creator of the Turtles was in attendance.  There was nobody in line for him, so I swooped right in.  He was an awesome individual.  We had a brief conversation and I asked if he would sketch something for me.  He asked if I had anything to sketch on, so I grabbed a backing board from one of my purchases and gave that to him to sketch.  Here is what I recieved a few minutes later.

I got an awesome sketch of “Mike”.  Watching him do this was amazing.  No pencils.  Just a thin tipped Sharpie and a regular Sharpie.  I consider myself a decent artist, but ther would be no way for me to sketch something with a Sharpie that’s suitable for framing.

On a final note.  I would like to say, if you’re a fan of the Turtles and haven’t seen the three episode “Turtles Forever”, jump on it.  The present day Turtles meet their 1988 counterparts as well as their 1984 counterparts.  This was an awesome surprise for older Turtle fans.  They even left the 1984 turtles black and white.  I felt like a kid again, only this time coffee and cigarettes replaced my bowl of cereal.