First trip to Maw Peb's Needful Things Junkstore March 9th 2016

Since I couldn't sleep my plan was to go to town.Hit the library book sale.Then Dirt Cheap. Then grab a bite to eat on the drive home.

Well the library sale was a bust.Even though they had 3 boxes of brand new CDs,saw names like Reba Mcintire and The BeeGees in there.

Dirt Cheap was a total bust. The toy department is over run with opened lego sets,yeah not gonna take a chance on opened legos,and various Star Wars flying drones that are missing pieces.

So while driving to a little corner store that I know has good breakfast stuffs,named The Guy with the Good Biscuits and the name isn't a lie,I spotted a junkstore. One I had driven past a bunch but it was always closed.

I pull into the parking lot and the only other vehicle is a old pick up truck with both the back window and passenger side window covered with black garbage bags.I put my headphones on and continued listening to a podcast. Walked up to the door and saw the name painted on a big window "Maw Peb's Needful Things".Looking thru the windows looks to be lots of household bullshit and clothes.So I enter,but if I see Max Von Sydow I am getting the fuck out of this place. I walk in and to my right is a huge shelf of DVDs,VHS,PS2 and X-box games.A lady comes out of a back room and I get her attention and ask her what the prices are. "DVD is 2,PS2 is 5,X-box is 10 and VHS is 50 cents."I go thru all the DVDs first. Mostly shit that was in the Walmart $5 bin 4 years ago. Lots of grey market Sonny Chiba films. Then on the next to bottom shelf I find a VHS.

I looked closer at it once I got home and saw it was from an old video store.

But more on that in a bit.

The lady had went back into the back room. I was getting closer to the register and all of a sudden this huge great dane jumps up and barks. I was startled by the movement,didn't really hear the bark cause of my headphones. She comes back out tells the dog "Scooby be nice or no snacks today!" I chuckle cause the great dane's name is Scooby. Since she is back out I ask her if she has any toys in the store. Get pointed to a far corner.

The first thing I find was a blind buy DC mini statue thing. She tells me "Yeah all the toys are 1 buck if not in package.2 bucks if in the package." I figure 2 bucks is a decent amount to take a chance on the blind buy. Looking at the back there is only one figure I do not want,which was a crappy looking Superman.

I opened the DC mini statue package once I got out in my car. And here is who I got....

A pretty decent looking Cyborg. One nice thing to come out of the universe wide reboot DC did a few years ago is how much of a higher profile Cyborg now has in the non-comic merchandise.

Behind a stack of puzzles. I see a green package.So I pull it out.

 From the modern Nick TMNT toy line it is Head Droppin' Leonardo. I remember the old 80's line had the head droppin' action feature.

As you can see the packaging was beat up. I do like how they put the other figures from the line on the back. Seems like lots of the modern toy lines don't do this. As  a kid I would save the cards so I could figure out which figure to get next.

 Leo has 14 points of articulation. Most of them in his arms. His neck doesn't move. And besides at the hips his legs have no other articulation spots.

There is Leo with the head dropped. Unlike the old ones,were the head only stayed down if you held it down,these lock down. Then you squeeze the legs together to make the head come back up.

Leo comes with 2 swords. With one being slightly shorter than the other. And has a great set of scabbards on his back.

And there was another thing in the package that I remember toy lines  doing when I was a kid.

I got 2 huge foldout product catalogs. One of them is mostly cars with the Turtles permanently affixed to them.Then lots of pictures of a huge amount of action figures. This might end up being the toy line that gets me back into collecting modern toys.

Heading back to the register to check out,thinking that a $5 will cover what I am buying. Then the lady tells me the back room "While it is mostly clothes there is some books and VHS back there. Go take a look."

I walked back there and see another huge shelf. This time it is mostly books. With maybe 40 VHS near the bottom. And I find one that as far as I know isn't out on DVD or Blu Ray...

Shock'Em Dead!!! I rented this decades ago from Phar-More Video in Mobile Alabama.Back then I am sure I rented it cause I knew who Traci Lords was an wanted to see if she could act or not. Currently I want it cause not only is it not out on a digital format,watch as soon as I post this someone will link me to a Blu Ray of this,but also cause I am wanting to get copies of every 70s thru 90s Heavy Metal+Horror film.

So I mentioned when talking about Scream Blackula Scream,that the VHS was from a video store.

 I wonder when Video Stop closed.The sticker seems to say the store was inside Sack And Save. Which was a grocery store that our friends up here went to.And now is the Piggly Wiggly that always smells slightly of vomit. Then I looked at the other sides of the tape.

No idea how hard that will be to read. But it says West Coast Video. I am guessing this might be the name of the distributor? I really have no clue.

So I finally head to the register to check out. I jokingly ask her if they charge sales tax."Too early to bother with that.5 even." I hand her a five. And then get in my car and head home.

Finding this much VHS that doesn't look picked over is rare in this area.So I am adding this store to my "Must check every month"list.

3 Toys from the Junkbox 9/20/2015

Yeah I know it has been awhile since I did one of these. But I have been busy with lots of stuff this summer.

This is from the Imaginext line. They do blind buy bagged figures. Normally they are 3 or 4 bucks. But my local Walmart is clearing series 3 out at $1.50 a figure. Sadly the figures have no names so I named this guy Louie. He has articulation his hips,wrists,shoulders and neck. With the shoulders being on balljoints. Which gives you much more range of movement. I love how all the Imaginext stuff works with any figure from the line. So I can take Louie's guitar and amp and give them to say the Batman Imaginext I got back in May.

The paint on Louie is well done. And the sculpting is really good for such a small figure. You can't see it in the pic but his vest has all kinds of chains,buttons and other stuff sculpted into it.

Here is another Imaginext figure. I have named him Nok Nok the caveman. Imaginext has a dinosaur line and Nok Nok is from that set. The dinosaur he rides has a lever that makes his mouth open and close. And over all has decent articulation. And great paint and sculpting. Nok Nok comes with the mask that is made to look like it was made out of bone. No clue what these normally cost. But I got mine on clearance for $2.

And the last figure. It is Doc Brown from Back to the Future. This is from the Funko made ReAction line of action figures.I really like how these are made to look like the old Kenner Star Wars figures I collected as a kid. And like those figures they don't have much articulation. Doc Brown has joints at his hips,shoulders and neck. But that is all the old Star Wars figures had. The sculpting and paint is much better than those old Kenner figures were. And his only accessory is the toolkit he has in his left hand. Now normally these are 10 bucks each. Which is way more than I would pay. I caught this on sale for $5 and it is worth that much to me. There is only 4 figures in the ReAction Back to the Future line. They had all 4 in the store. And I was tempted to get them all. But ended up finding some other stuff I wanted more.

Three Toys from a box of junk 03/31/2015

For close to 15 years I collected toys. Mostly action figures,but there was a decent amount of non-action figure toys in my collection. When I moved back to Mississippi close to 10 years ago I sold off a huge amount of my toy collection.What I did keep mostly got put up in boxes.

I was never one to keep my toys mint in package. With action figures it was much much easier to display them when they were loose. Plus I get to pose them and place the various accessories where I want them.

I have been slowly moving stuff out of my closet. And dividing the junk I am finding into two piles. One of course is stuff I want to keep. The other is stuff I am getting rid of. I doubt I can sell much of what I want to get rid of. So if you see a toy on this blog that I say I want to get rid of. Contact me,I am more than happy to trade them for whatever.

Now I am stealing this idea from Matt at Dinosaur Dracula.Go check out his site,it is a great read. Click to goto Dinosaur Dracula website.But every few weeks Matt will pick 5 random action figures from his humongous collection.Take some pictures of them and talk about them. I really enjoy reading them. So I stole the idea. But I am changing it up slightly. Matt does 5 Action Figures. I am doing 3 toys. No clue how often I will be doing one of these.

3 Toys from the Box 03/31/2015

Up first is the oldest of the three toys I picked out for today. Oldest as in the one I have owned for the longest.

A few years after LJN lost the WWF license it was picked up by Hasbro.The LJN figures we bigger,but had no articulation. Which is kind of dumb for a wrestling action figure.The Hasbro figures were much smaller but did have a few points of articulation. Plus each of them had an action feature.

I am pretty sure Hasbro made 2 Brutus Beefcake figures.And this is the first one. Brutus IIRC came with a pair of shears,so he could cut the heel wrestler's hair.There is only 3 points of articulation. The shoulders and neck. And the action feature is super lame. You press down on his head and release it and he jumps. Well most of the time he just falls over.

This is the second one of this Brutus Beefcake Hasbro figure I have owned.I got my first one back in the mid 90s. The local America's Thrift had got in what I must assume was some kid's wrestling figure collection. There was at least 30 of these Hasbro WWF figures. They were priced at 50 cents each. And I grabbed almost all of them.Something happened to that figure when I moved in the late 90s. The one in the picture I got in a trade with a fellow collector. He was just getting into VHS collecting.And one of my neighbors called me and told me their kids had just gave them "A wholea bunch of VCR videotapes." As a thank you for helping the husband stack firewood the previous fall I was told to come over and get any of the vhs tapes I wanted.

This is one of the toys in my collection I want to get rid of. Loose it has almost no monetary value. Anyone reading this that wants it leave a comment below and we can work a trade out.

This is the newest out of the three toys.Either late 2012 or early 2013 I found it in a three pack at Fred's.I rarely look at the toys in Fred's cause like Walgreens and other drug stores,they price the figures a few bucks higher.Fred's at least puts stuff on clearance,and then the price is usually really good.

Mattel had been making this sized DC superhero action figures for a number of years. Most of the time the figures had good paint jobs,good sculpting and decent articulation.Cause of the size of them they remind me a bit of the Kenner Super Powers line from the mid 80s. Unlike the Super Powers figures this line from Mattel has no action feature.To make up for this they have much more articulation.

As far back as I can remember I have been a fan of Hal Jordan as Green Lantern.I think it is for 2 reasons. The first is my favorite color is green. The other is I love Green Lantern's power ring. Such a great power. And what kid wouldn't want a ring like that.

Oh maybe you are wondering who else was in the three pack with old Hal here. The pack was called "The Hard Traveling Heroes" set. For the comic geeks out there that should be enough of a hint to figure out who the other two are.To be nice I will go ahead and tell you :P The other two figures are Oliver Queen the Green Arrow,and Dinah Lance the Black Canary.Back in the 70s DC merged Green Lantern and Green Arrow's comic books. And those 2 along with Black Canary traveled around the world fighting off social injustices.

I doubt I ever would want to get rid of this figure.With my action figure display areas being very limited,smaller figures like this are much easier to display. And for such a small figure it looks amazing.My only complaint,and it is more of me being an ass than anything,is that the Super Powers Green Lantern figure came with a Green Lantern Power Battery accessory. This figure didn't.I am sure I could check Ebay and buy one and add it to this figure.

While this is the oldest of the three toys,it came out about a year or two before Brutus Beefcake,I didn't get it until summer of 2012.I can't remember if I got in in the same trade as the Brutus Beefcake or if I was in another trade with the same guy.

In the late 80s or maybe it was very early 1990 Mattel started a new line of He Man action figures.The Masters of the Universe line had been dead for a year or so and they wanted to revamp it some.Gone was the exaggerated muscles of the old line. Replaced by a somewhat more realistic look. Also this line had more of a science fiction feel.I don't remember seeing this toy line in stores. And only saw the cartoon maybe 4 times.

I was a huge Masters of the Universe fan. I clearly remember saving up my dollar a week allowance up so I could buy my first MotU figure,which was Man-At-Arms.So when I saw this figure on my buddy's trade list I had to have it.

Compared to the MotU line,the New Adventures of He-man line looks kind of crappy. The action figures aren't nearly as inventive.The sculpting while more realistic isn't as good.The paint jobs are not as good. I have no idea about the accessories,since this one didn't have any when I got it.

If someone made me a good offer I would get rid of this toy. It isn't that I don't like it. It just isn't impressive enough to hold onto when I am very limited in space.

Well I hope someone read and enjoyed this.I am gonna have to figure out how to take better pictures of the figures. But I am working with an cheap camera and it isn't like I have much of a clue as to what I am doing :P

Newt's trip to Vendor's Emporium

Didn't have much to do today, plus didn't feel like just hanging around the house. So I got in the car and drove to town to grab some lunch. After eating I realized I haven't been in Vendor's Emporium in about a month. It is sort of an indoor flea market. There is booths and you bring whatever you want to buy up to the front.

Located on highway 51,it is in a dying strip mall.

As you can see from the smaller white sign, they have fresh fudge and the smell of it hits you as soon as you enter the building. There is basically three long rows. So I usually start on the far left and work my way down each row.

The first few booths had furniture or clothing. There is a local line of women's clothing called Mississippi Girls. And each of the shirts has some stupid saying on the back. Like "Mississippi Girls know how to cook fish!" I want to make one that says "Mississippi Girls like to wear t-shirts with stupid stuff written on them".

Then I saw a booth that had books and various other stuff. Now one small problem is some of these booths are tiny. And the interesting stuff is always near the floor. I was looking at one side of the booth, lots of self help books and books on the perfect deer call, then I turned around and found the first thing that caught my attention.

It's an oldish Snoopy drinking glass. I know I one similar to this when I was younger. I almost bought it but the price was $8 which is way more than I wanted to pay.

I moved onto the next booth. Now this booth always has some toys. Usually some action figures and other stuff. I got a DC Universe Powergirl figure here last year for $4. Well there was no Powergirl stuff here this time. But I found something almost as good.

An old beat up but still on the card Sporty Spice action figure. It is hard to tell from the picture but to me it looks like some of her teeth are missing. So I dubbed her Crackhead Spice. Plus they wanted $5.99 for this. If it was a buck or 2 bucks I might have grabbed it. Also to the right of Crackhead Spice you can sorta see some kind of CSI board game. Never been a fan of CSI so I didn't bother looking closer at it.

So I put Crackhead Spice back on the shelf, realizing she was shelved right below a hung amount of deodorant. And turned to my left. There was the old school toy aisle pegboard. You know the kind with the metal bars they would hang the action figures on. And what do I see but ....

GHOST RIDER POGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The package contains 6 "Skull Caps" and 1 "Vengeance Slammer". Plus it's only 2 bucks. I was very tempted to buy this. But I realized I better save up my money for my trip to the coast later this month. So back on the peg it goes. But there was more goodies on the pegs.

LT.Stone from GI JOE Extreme. Yep from when GI Joe got an image make over. I always hated these figures and no way am I gonna pay $11 bucks for it. But wait there was more action figures.

From the "classic" film Waterworld it is Power Bow Mariner. And it only cost $7. But my hatred for Kevin Costner won't allow me to own any action figures of him. Then I noticed something on the shelf below Crackhead Spice.

Each tube has 10 Skull caps and 1 slammer. There was Ghost Rider and Spider-man themed tubes. $5 each. Was tempted to get one. But really it would just collect dust on my shelf.

So I turn to my right and see two great items. Both of which I wanted but the prices kept me from buying. First up is this.

A really nicely made Universal Monsters Mummy figure. The package was still in decent shape. But it was $20 and I only had maybe 12 bucks on my total. Next time I go in if it is still there I will end up buying it. Then to the right of the Mummy was this.

A Grifter vs Daemonite two pack of Wildcats figures. It even comes with a mini and full sized comic. The box has some slight damage. But still looks decent. And it was only 15 bucks.  Oh well maybe next trip I can get it. Then I see something out the corner of my eye. On the same shelf as all the deodorants.

This is one of the mid 90s Trendmasters Tarzan figures. This same booth for over 2 years had some of the figures on the card. I assume that maybe some kid opened it and now poor Tarzan is stuck in a box with a monkey. It want to say the price was $5.99 for it. Which is ridiculous.

Well I headed onto the next booth. This one was mostly glasses and mugs. But there was a few interesting items . Like this,I really have no idea what to call it.

And then there was this.

A Pschorr mug from Germany. It was only 2 bucks but I really have no need for a mug, so I passed on buying it. But finally this booth provided me with something great. Something that made me feel like I was 5 again. And it was Saturday morning, and I am sitting there in my Star Wars PJs drinking Chocolate milk while watching Superfriends.

Henry Hawk and Foghorn Leghorn playing Tennis. I had this exact glass when I was a kid. They were $5 and I was tempted to grab one. But the issue is finding a place to store it. But since as you can see they have 6 if I change my mind I can always go back and get one. Well that was all this booth had so I moved onto the next one.

Well to be honest the next booth had nothing I would buy. But had 2 items that made me chuckle. First there was this.

It's a cute little item but it cost $5 which is way too high. Then there was this item.

Yes Monkey Farts scented candles. It was almost tempting enough to pay the $3 to see what it smelled like. I tried sniffing the package but couldn't smell anything. But it stood out cause all the other candles were like strawberry,lilac,etc. But here was MONKEY FARTS! There was one amazing item in this booth but I am saving that for the end of the post.

So I head down the aisle some more. Seeing lots of clothing and cook books. And huge amounts of caseless over priced VHS. Common stuff they wanted $8 each for. Stuff like Titanic,Matrix,etc.

Then I found what I have dubbed the camo booth. If you want something in camo they have it.

Camouflage playing cards,cause you know when you are hunting and are bored you want a deck of camo cards to play solitaire with. Plus with them being camo the deer can't see them!

Sorry the picture is a little blurry. But it is pink camo band aids! I figure these are for the lady hunters. But male hunters don't feel left out.

Yep they got regular Camo bandages too. Want to say these were $3 a box. I have no idea if that is a good price or not. Mainly cause I haven't bought bandages in years. But they do come in metal tins. But the camo booth had one more item that stood out. One that I am tempted to buy my father for his birthday in a few months.

A deer lamp with deer lamp shade. I didn't look at the price but I am betting it is 30 bucks or more. Dad always wants a lamp by his chair for when he reads so this would be perfect for him.

Well I am at the end of the far left row. I skip most of the middle row, mainly cause it is all clothes and furniture. And I head to the far right row. About a third of this row is taken up by one booth. The owner goes to estate sales and auctions and buys stuff to resell. I have met him a few times and gotten some great deals from him. I started in the back corner and found this.

He had no markings on him to tell me what toy company put him out. So I assume he is some kind of  "grocery store warrior". "Grocery Store Warrior" is a term a friend of mine came up with for those generic knockoff action figures you find at grocery stores and Dollar Tree and such. To me he looks like a roided up CM Punk. But even with that I wasn't gonna spend a buck to get him. I moved farther down the booth. To where this guy keeps his box of comics. It is 10 comics for $7. Well I couldn't find 10 to buy. And if you don't get 10 it is a buck each. Most of the stuff was really beat up copies of 80s New Teen Titans, Fury of Firestorm,JLA and Legion of Superheroes. All good series but all stuff I already own. But I did find 4 interesting comics. That I was tempted to buy. Up first.

I can remember watching this cartoon on Sunday mornings. Then my Mom taking me and my cousin to see Get Along Gang on Ice. It is the first issue and I do sorta collect the Marvel Star comics imprint. But I didn't want to drop a buck on a comic I doubt I would ever read. But there was another comic from Star Comics. One that really tempted me.

Issue 9 of the Ewoks comic. I think maybe Dark Horse has reprinted this series. I do have all the Droids issues. But lost my Ewoks issues a few years back. But I decided to pass on this one. Now the next comic is one I owned when I was 9 or so.

This is the first issue of the Atari Force mini comic. They came with various Atari 2600 games. Pretty sure I had every issue when I was younger. Later on DC published a full sized Atari Force comic that is supposed to be really good. I have never read it. As you can see the owner of this booth put his price sticker right on the cover. Sometimes you can remove the sticker without damaging the cover. I tried on this on and it started ripping the cover. So I put it back. And now one final  comic.

Mickey and Goofy explore the Universe of Energy. This came out in 1985 and was given away at Exxon's pavilion inside EPCOT. I again almost bought this, but as you can see the price sticker is on the cover. Again I tried to remove it and again it was starting to damage the cover. So I put the comic back in the box. Normally the box is packed so full of comics you can barely dig through it. But this time it was 3/4th empty. I am hoping next trip there is more comics.

Well the rest of the far right row is all candles,clothes and crap I have no interest in. But in the middle of the middle row there is a booth that always has an assortment of hardback and paperback books for cheap. I walked over there. And found this.

It was $3, which is way too much for something like this. But I love how on the cover Dracula looks like he is drunk as shit. He looks like he has been on a 3 day bender of nothing but Mike's Hard lemonade! 

I did find two books I wanted. And each was 50 cents. But there was  a group of people around me so I moved to another booth to take the pictures. First up is this neat looking paperback.

Written by John Farris "The Captors" was published by Tor Horror and came out in 1985. But this isn't the first time the story has been published. It has a copyright date of 1969. And like with most paperback horror novels in the mid 80s it has a cover blurb by Stephen King. "America's premier novelist of terror!" I figured what the hell the cover is cheesy and it's only 50 cents. If it sucks I can trade it in for $2 store credit at the used bookstore. Then on a lower shelf I found this great hardcover.

Prime Evil is a collection of horror short stories. Edited by Douglas E, Winter it was published by New American Library in 1988. And listen to this line up of authors and stories.

The Night Flyer by Stephen King-I know this has been republished in one of King's short story collections.
Having a Woman at Lunch by Paul Hazel
The Blood Kiss by Dennis Etchison
Coming to Grief by Clive Barker
Food by Thomas Tessier
The Great God Pan by M. John Harrison
Orange is for Anguish, Blue for Insanity by David Morrell
The Juniper Tree by Peter Straub
Spinning tales from the Dead by Charles L. Grant
Alice's Last Adventure by Thomas Ligotti
Next time you'll know me by Ramsey Campbell
The Pool by Whitley Strieber
By reason of darkness by Jack Cady

Not a bad line up and best part it was 50 cents.

But there is the one item that stood out over everything else. Better than Henry Hawk and Foghorn Leghorn glasses,better than an over priced action figure of Crackhead Spice.Better than pink camo bandages!

An Elvis cuckoo clock!!!! I could never get the doors to open so I have no idea what pops out when it strikes the hour. I am hoping it is big fat Elvis. Notice that below it is the pendulum and other stuff. Plus there is a certificate talking about how this is a limited edition. And whatever company made it was only gonna make them for 295 days! Now I am sure you are asking "WOW Newt how much for such a stunning piece of awesomeness?"

$150

Yep $150 for a clock that everything but the pendulum is made out of plastic. $150 for a "limited edition" clock that I bet there was 100 of thousands made. If this had been say $10 I would have grabbed it, just for how cheesy and horrible it is. But $150! No way.

So I headed up the counter paid for my books and the lady running the cash register offered me a piece of fudge. But I was still stuff from lunch. I didn't do bad. Most times I go here I drop at least 10 bucks. So only spending a little over a buck is great. Well I hope everyone enjoyed my trip to Vendor's Emporium. I might wait a few months and do another one. Maybe the price on the Elvis cuckoo clock will drop and I can talk myself into buying it.