A reminder from the Raisins

If you've ever seen Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas Celebration, then you already know of the longstanding association that The California Raisins have with Christmas, and if you haven't seen it, wait... you haven't seen it! I refuse to believe that there's anyone out there who hasn't seen Will's CCC, so I'm just gonna pretend like that didn't just happen.

Anyways, California Raisins! Christmas! You know who else is associated with Christmas? Hopefully you said Santa, because that was the correct answer! Now that you've mentioned Santa, I'm reminded that we're still accepting entrants for this year's Secret Santa. So if you'd like to join, and have yet to sign up, you can do so here.

Also, many thanks to Greg (GCA), of The Collective Mind fame, for recently sending this group of Raisins -- they're now the second batch that he's sent this year, and I couldn't be more happy with them!

Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

House cleaning

I hate to admit it, but a bout of depression got the better of me last week -- or rather, the low-level depression that I've been keeping at bay for most of the year decided to kick it up a notch, which, in case anybody was wondering, is why there weren't any new blog posts last week, I just didn't have the want to work on any.

And if that wasn't bad enough, I also got hit by a wave of home sickness, which is just stupid on so many different levels. a) After being gone for almost four years, you'd think I'd be past such things by now, b) Old people shouldn't be getting homesick, c) In my heart I know that everything here is better for me than it was back home, and dumbest reason of all, d) The Portland that I'm homesick for, hasn't existed for over twenty years! That's right, I'm longing for a city from another time... wonked up brain chemistry sure is fun, isn't it?

I'm gonna have to try and get over this pretty quick, or least pretend that I'm over it, because with Christmas coming up, as well as my mom's birthday, which is on Christmas, I'd prefer not to ruin her day with my mopiness.

Speaking of birthday's, oh, quick side note, today's post is going to be all over the place... kind of a cornucopia of crap if you will.

Anyway, birthday's... I had one back in July, and I never got around to photographing everything that I was given, so no post was ever done, but I do have a few pictures that have been sitting in a folder since then, including The Simpsons Rad Rollers above.

Does anyone remember Rad Rollers? Released in 1990 to very little fanfare, they wound up sitting in toy aisles -- most notably Kmart toy aisles -- across the country for over a decade, before finally being pulled from the shelves sometime in the early 2000's, in what can only be described as the retail equivalent of a mercy killing.

Even though I never played with them, or even knew anyone who did, I still have a strong affinity for them, if only because they are something from that era that I can still remember quite vividly. I want to say that there were around ten different sets made, ranging in subject matter from Batman to New Kids on the Block.

I already had the Dick Tracy and WWF sets, so The Simpsons was a welcome addition, someday I'll probably look for the rest, the keyword being "someday".

My mom had gone to the estate sale of a couple in Knoxville who had been selling on eBay for almost twenty years, which is where all of this year's presents came from. After seeing the pictures for the sale, I had planned on going too, at least until I realized that this was going to be one of those sales that would require a body to be lined up out front for hours in advance of the opening, which meant that I would've had to be getting up around 1am, drive an hour and a half, and then wait in line for another five hours... that's just too much for this particular fellow.

I have seen the Ronald McDonald figure many times over the years, but I had never seen any of the other characters from the 1976 Remco McDonaldland set before, a set by the way, that was the culmination of the McDonald's five year long ad campaign for it's McDonaldland universe.

This Hamburglar package has definitely seen better days, and even though I'm a dedicated package opener, I will be leaving this one unopened for the time being, as this one of those rare times where I get more enjoyment from the figure still being on card.

I've been showing a lot of California Raisins stuff as of late, so why not a pillow too? Oh, and I have mentioned lately that I'm still single... I just can't imagine why :)

Other birthday presents not shown: a Mr. Peanut promotional plush, a Snoopy wind chime, multiple Happy Meal toys from the early 90's, and a couple packs of cards that may or may not make it on to the blog at some later date.

A couple of months back I picked up this 2013 Golden Age Stanley Livingston auto on eBay for next to nothing, I guess there's not a lot of My Three Sons fans left out there, which is unfortunate, but I did need it for my set so I'm happy to have been able to get it for not very much money. And how great is that signature, it's like a f***ing piece of art!

This really isn't apropos, but it was super cute. Maybe a little over a month ago, before the cold weather started showing up, I went outside through the patio door and noticed that there was something dark on stuck to the side of the laundry room door, which is the only other door on the back of the house. Once I got little closer, it became obvious that it was a toad, maybe two inches in length, who was clinging to the part where the door meets the casing, about five feet up from the sill.

Oh, look his little eyes are closed! You can see the handle and deadbolt, so you can see how high he climbed. It was so difficult for me not to not pick him up, but I didn't want to wake him up, well, that and I didn't fancy the thought of getting peed on at that particular moment (toads pee a lot). We didn't need to use that door on that particular day, so he was able chill for the day, and as expected, he was gone the next morning.

Even with the depression kicking my butt all of last week, I still ended up going to Knoxville, which I was able to justify by telling myself that I was doing a good deed. You see, my mom was lamenting that she needed to go to Target to look for something, a something that wasn't on their website, and if you've ever tried to call a place like Target and ask them if they have something, well, let's just say that you'll never make that same mistake again.

The closest Target is in Knoxville, there's three of them there actually, two of which are about ten minutes apart, and one of those two is only about two miles from McKay's (next post) -- so knowing this, and knowing that my mom did not want to make the trip, I volunteered to go

I really dislike Target, but it's the only retail location that you can find figures from the recent Mego revival, so it's kind of a necessary evil, at least for me. I ended up finding the last figure that I wanted, as well as one that I didn't even know that I wanted...

... pretty cool, huh? Despite the fact that I really wanted them, these were not a good purchase at the time, what with me not technically having any money at the time. Thankfully the collecting gods smiled down on me the next day, by allowing two of my eBay items to sell.

Is anybody getting tired of seeing Classics parallels on here yet? I hope not, because I'm going to have more than a few in my COMC stash that's due to arrive today. These two came from eBay though, I bid on a few more from the same seller, but these were the only two that I won. The Mike Singletary was my first orange (#'d to /25), although Chris just sent me another one, which will be shown sometime in January. And I think the Chris Doleman is only my second blue (#'d to /10) now.

I went to the card show at the end of November, had to find some Secret Santa stuff you know, which I did, but I also found more than a few things for myself as well. I will be getting to that stuff in January, but in the meantime I thought I'd show my one non-sport purchase from that day.

Jim, everybody there's favorite seller, had a really nice looking stack of 1966 Topps Superman, about half of the set actually. He was asking for sixty something bucks for the whole stack, or $2 apiece for individuals. Not wanting to work on the set, I just went through and pulled out a few that I found visually appealing, and he ended up giving me an even better deal, as I got these six for $10.

Even though I don't want to work on the set, it's still kind of an interesting one, especially when you realize that Topps released this set in conjunction with the show's syndication, which was over ten year's after it's debut.

As nice as these cards are, they ended up scanning like hot garbage, putting them in a page only slightly improved the overall result.

Phew, that was one long post, I think I now need another week off! Just kidding, I'll be back on Wednesday.

Before I go though, one more random thing to mention. I don't know how often my fellow bloggers check their stats, namely the keyword search section, you know the part that tells you what phrases people are typing into search engines, which then ultimately leads them to enter your blog. Well, I try to check that part about once a week, but I usually end up forgetting to keep to that schedule, so I guess I should say that I end up checking it out every three or four weeks. Anyway, last week there was two main phrases that were bringing them in, the first one was "secret Santa scam"... WHAT? That's really not cool of Google to have my blog show up amongst those search results, but I guess there's nothing I can really do about it, other than to say that it is kind of sucky.

The other phrase used was "Satchel Paige bobblehead Portland", which is a little more interesting, but at least that one makes sense, since I did do a post with that particular bobblehead in it like two years ago -- makes me wonder why so many people would be looking for that bobblehead though, especially now? Okay, with that mentioned, I'm officially done for the day


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

California Raisins... and baseball cards

It's been said by many people, on many occasions, but the generosity of bloggers seemingly knows no limits. I have fortunate enough to be on the receiving end of such generosity a few times now, but this most recent mailing really takes the cake Cinnamon 'N' Raisin biscuit.

A few of you might remember that I just recently did a Goodwill/thrift store post which featured a California Raisins bank that I had found. When it comes to views and comments, the thrift store posts usually do surprisingly well (which I'm always grateful to everyone for btw), that one being no exception, and positive reception aside, that particular post ended up yielding something else as well, that being... more Raisins!

Greg, from The Collective Mind, inquired in the comments section if I had any of the Raisins figures, knowing that he was talking about the Hardee's figures, I said that I didn't have any -- he then sent an email saying that I needed to keep an eye on my mailbox, and like twenty minutes later a box showed up in my mailbox (twenty minutes may be a bit of an exaggeration, but it did arrive pretty darn quick).

The box had a bag of Raisins (see above), and a team bag of cards (see below). Greg deciding to send me these was special for a couple of reasons: a) It's the first time that a fellow blogger has sent me something that wasn't card related, and b) We haven't had a lot of contact up to this point, so for someone that you don't know all that well to send you something like this is kind of amazing, it also speaks to the character of the sender.

For anyone who might be unfamiliar with, and actually care about, them -- Hardee's first introduced the first four figures in 1987, which could be had for .99 cents apiece after purchasing two breakfast biscuits or a desert. Six more figures were released in 1988, Hardee's then went the plush route for their '89 campaign, and after skipping 1990 altogether, they brought back four more PVC figures in 1991 -- but by then, Raisinsmania had pretty much run it's course, so...

I can't remember if there were any Hardee's locations in Portland at the time, but I know that I never had any of these as a kid, although I do remember seeing some of the figures at friends houses. Even if Hardee's was in, or around, Portland at the time, you still couldn't have convinced a young me to eat at a fast food place that didn't have Happy Meal's, and as mentioned in my previous post, I was a huge California Raisins fan, but the pull of the Happy Meal would have been too great even for them.

By the by, Greg didn't specify exactly what he would be sending, so I was more than pleased to see that he had included the entire second series (1988), with an extra Captain Toonz, which is pretty cool since he's my favorite from that series.

It was funny too, I was so enamored with the Raisins that I almost didn't even notice the cards that were at the bottom of the box -- oh, but before I get to those, I've got to show you the bag that the Raisins came in:

See that, such a wonderful touch! [Editor's note: If anyone out there is thinking "What's the big deal, it's just a Ziploc?", well, feel free to leave now, because you obviously don't have a sentimental bone in your body, and you've probably clicked on the wrong blog by mistake]

I added a new tab to the top of the blog not too long ago, "Recent card interests" -- and yes, I know that title sucks, but it's all I could think of at the time -- anyway, Greg obviously took look at it before sending the Raisins, and was kind enough to include some cards that fit some of my recent interests.

I started an Ichiro collection a couple of months ago, so far it's just made up of inserts/parallels/refractors, I'm not opposed to adding base cards, I'm just not ever anywhere that has base cards (other than vintage, there is almost never any base at the card show) to look through. All three of these cards were new to me, with the 2004 Opening day being my favorite trio.

Oh man, I looked these up to figure out what set they were from, and then promptly forgot! Now they're in a binder, and I'm feeling a bit lazy on the morning of this writing, so I'll just call them mystery Ichiro's! But rest assured, just because I can't tell you what they are off the top of my head, doesn't mean I don't appreciate them, or Greg for sending them.

Now don't get me wrong, the Ichiro's are great, especially considering the fact that I wasn't even expecting them, but the real MVP of the cards sent, goes to this 2011 Cognac Yogi Berra. My want for these Legends variations are another thing that was added to the new tab, I only have a few so far, and Yogi wasn't one of them. As an aside, I've scanned these Conac's multiple times now, but I still can't get over the funky image that's produced from the scanning process, it's like it practically creates a whole new card.

Thank you again for sending the figures, and the cards, Greg! Receiving these meant a great deal to me, more so than I'm able to fully express with words alone, so hopefully my appreciation for them was at least partially conveyed here today.

Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

Tales from the Thrift Store vol. 9

  
Before I jump into today's post, I of course have to plug the Secret Santa real quick. As of this morning we're up to 30 confirmed participants, and there's plenty of room for more, so if anyone else is interested, you've still got until Monday morning to sign up.

This past Saturday was yet another one of the monthly 50% off sales at the Goodwill, and like everyone else, I was there bright and early, hoping to find some neat things at heavily discounted prices. [spoiler alert: I did!]

No matter how hard I try though, I just can't seem to get there when it opens. They're supposed open to at 8am, I arrived at 7:20, the parking lot was completely full, and it was already full on Supermarket Sweep inside (I have no idea what time they're actually opening).

As per usual, my first stop was the media section in the very back of the store. To get to this area, you've got to walk down one of 7 or 8 aisles/sections (knickknacks, holiday stuff, kitchen, etc.), it should come as no surprise to anyone reading this, but I always opt for the toys and games aisle.

Normally there isn't anything in the toy aisle for me to even stop and look at, let alone buy, but this day was different, as I noticed a bit of bright yellow sticking out from some sort of weird fuzzy stuffed animal-backpack thing -- turns out that that yellow thing was the base of a 1987 California Raisins bank.

If you're of the right age, you probably remember how big the Raisins were in the mid to late 80's. It seemed like they were everywhere for a couple of years there, and as a wee lad, I could not get enough of them, so much so that my mom even went out and got me the 45 of Marvin Gaye's " I Heard it Through the Grapevine" -- which also just happened to be my first record.

As far as the bank goes, I think it might of been a mail-away premium, but I'm not a 100% sure on that. There's quite a few on eBay, so that tells me that there were quite few of them made and distributed. One thing I know though, I absolutely adore this bank, and consider the $5 price tag to be quite reasonable.

Since this post is already starting to get pretty long, and I haven't even gotten to all of the assorted media that was purchased, I will skip over the part about the woman that literally tried to take this bank out of my hand, in what I can only imagine was some sort of fit of anger for not finding it herself (she's very lucky that she wasn't a dude trying that).

Finding that bank was only the beginning, and it was probably a good omen too, because the media area was absolutely packed with good stuff... stuff that nobody else was caring about.

It's not often that I come across a non-western Barbara Stanwyck film that I haven't seen, but apparently I did on this day, and I couldn't be more pleased about it!

I had completely forgotten about this picture, I've only seen it once, and that was many (many) moons ago. At this point I don't usually remember when and where I first saw something (unless it was in the theatres), but I'm pretty sure I saw this one on WGN sometime in the early 90's, my memory tells me that they were on bit of Chuck Norris kick (pun not intended) for a year or so, because I remember staying up late on more than one occasion to watch his older films.

There were an awful lot of sports videos there on Saturday, all of which were still sealed. As an aside, did you notice that old price sticker on the front of this one, apparently that was the bargain price too.

A lot of tapes were NBA related, but this was the only one that looked like it would be of interest to me, as a lot of the other one's were just like "The best of Shaquille O'Neal" or "The best of Charles Barkley" aka stuff I don't care about.

There probably won't be a single play shown on this tape that wouldn't draw a penalty flag in today's NFL.

This was just a backup copy. I think I might be one of the few people who can honestly say that they genuinely like this film.

I always enjoy finding movies that I hadn't heard of. The odds are high that I'm not gonna be digging this one too much, but for a quarter it's certainly worth giving it a go.

Somehow this one had flown under my radar too. As you can probably tell by the synopsis, it was yet another Invasion of the Body Snatchers clone, because there just isn't enough of those out there. Not a terrible movie though (I watched it Saturday night), without giving away any spoilers, I will say that the last ten minutes or so was completely unnecessary, but it's still worth seeing, especially if you're into these kind of pictures.

One of these days I'll actually remember to remove the plastic before taking the pics! This is a movie that you usually find in one of the public domain multidisc sets, so it was kind of cool to find a standalone copy (still sealed too).

One of these days I'll actually remember to... ! I thought the California Raisins bank was going to be the most obscure find of the day, that was until I found this sealed copy of Ladron De Cadaveres. Talk about unexpected, I mean I wouldn't have been overly surprised to find this in a thrift store back in Portland, but here in Tennessee this feels very out of place (like me). I haven't watched it yet, but I already know that there's almost no way that this movie will be able to disappoint me.

I thought I already had all of the PS1 games that I wanted, apparently I was wrong though! This is the second of a three game series, and while I vaguely remember the series, I don't remember ever playing any of the games -- which is a real shame, because I've played this for about two hours so far, and as much as fun as it is now, I can only imagine how much more I would've enjoyed it twenty years ago. I don't keep up with game prices anymore, but I would have to think that finding a copy of this game in such great shape (no scratches on the disc) for $3 was a pretty good deal.

I have to say that overall this was the best half-off Saturday so far, I just hope it's greatness doesn't spoil in any future trips, I'll just have to try and remember that this particular Saturday was probably an anomaly.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.