Axe And You Shall Receive

Recently I initiated a trade with the one and only Goodwill Geek. I was reading about the most epic of all Goodwill finds (Check out the epic find HERE, it will blow your mind! Castle Grayskull anyone?) and I spotted 2 Masters Of The Universe maces were amongst the Geek's haul, so I asked if he'd trade me a spare mace for my blue He-Man axe and he kindly obliged.

Moss Man can now better patrol the Shag Swamps with his trusty new silver mace.

It could have ended there with a simple arms trade, but the Geek is a fun-loving guy and decided to mix things up a little. He suggested we also throw in 5 fun little things in addition to the He-Man weapon swap. It sounded like a good idea so I went with it. Check out the fun Christmasy extras he sent me! And while you're at it check out Derek's blog Goodwill Hunting For Geeks, the inspiration I needed to revive my little DI bargain hunting blog here, I learned from the best!

AWESOME! I love Moss Man's awkward pose.

Cute little shifty eyes!

I was super happy to see the infamous ET game piece! I've been seeing a lot of this little guy traveling all trough cyberspace. ET's not just some game piece, the Goodwill Geek has started a great little tradition I like to call ETs Go Home. 

9 ETs

It all started with the Geeks very first post! He discovered these 9 ET board game pieces and has been distributing them throughout the blog-o-sphere to other reputable bloggers. 1 ET found it's way to John of The Clawful Punch. I love John's blog! He has a lot of great stuff and his posts are always a ton o' fun to read. John is just an over all great guy and he's kind enough to frequent my humble little blog here! I sent him a Barrel-O-Slime and I was delighted to see a fun and clever post about it HERE. Be sure to check out The Clawful Punch today!

John's ET

Another ET found it's way to Laura H. of Boo Bobby. I discovered Laura's blog via The Goodwill Geek and I liked what I saw! Her blog is full of charm and wit, a real joy to read! Her family is absolutely adorable and every post just lights up my day! It's kinda freaky and cool how many things we have in common! Be sure to check out Boo Bobby right now dang it!

Laura's ET with space buddy Alf and friends

I believe some other ETs may have made there way out there in cyberspace, bringing joy to good girls and boys. Geek, if you're reading this let me know if you have sent any ETs to others and I'll add there story here. Thanks!

And now yet another ET has reached my humble abode. I feel truly blessed to be a part of this fun little ET tradition. So "be good", I'm tellin' ya why, because ET is comin' home to you! 

Now I know I'm supposed to avoid the Noid, but I love this PVC figure! The Noid is all decked out in his usual Christmas red. He's also sporting some niffty yellow shorts and boxing gloves. Kind of looks like a demented Strong Bad...COOL! I always got a kick out of the Dominos Noid commercials. I never really understood that ad campaign though. "Avoid the Noid?" So, when we think of Dominos pizza, we're supposed to think of avoidance? What the heck is a noid anyways? I know that's not what they were getting at, but that's what stuck in my mind as a kid. Whatever though, I'm no marketing expert. In fact, I think they should bring the Noid back, purely for the entertainment value. You just don't see claymation in commercials that much anymore!

Oh my freaking gosh, it's an OMFG! mini figure! I was really surprised to see this little guy! (Geek, you are too kind!) This here is King Castor from Series 1, in a very festive red. I've had my eye on the OMFG! mini figures ever since I found out about them on Weirdo Toys. OMFG! stands for Outlandish Mini Figure Guys! They started out as a kickstarter project that called on the talent of anyone that wanted to submit a toy design. Anyone that is part of the October Toys community can vote on their favorite design and the winners become the next set of OMFG! Right now the votes are in on Series 4. Check out these amazing figures and help support independent toy makers! If you like to shop retail instead of online I've seen OMFG! in Gray Whale stores.

Here is a nice Christmasy Green Lantern Power Ring! It goes perfectly with my Christmas Sunday best, right next to my CTR ring. Now I will always have the will to choose the right. I shall wear it with pride right along with my pins I got from The Trash Man at Pop Pop! It's Trash Culture!

Lastly, I received a jazzy California Raisin! My Dad collected the California Raisin PVC figures and he still has most of them, at least the ones I didn't claim and play with (steal) as a kid and subsequently lost. I should ask him if I can look through his collection. I remember this trumpet guy, he's pretty sweet! You may be wondering what a California Raisin has to do with Christmas. Well, watch the following video and find out!

Thank you Geek for the trade and thanks for making it fun! God bless you and Merry Christmas!

I'm feeling so blessed this Christmas season largely in part to this wonderful little blogging community! Brian at Cool And Collected has really helped us come together with The League Of Extraordinary Bloggers! I have discovered some incredible bloggers and their wonderful blogs, like Pop Pop It's Trash Culture, Toyriffic, Nerd Out With Me, Caffeinated Joe, The Nerd Nook, Diary Of A Dorkette, Little Weirdos, Erik Johnson Illustrator, MikeACall Creations, Calvin's Canadian Cave of Coolness, and so many more! I don't always have time to comment, but I always try to at least follow all these blogs. My day just isn't complete until I'm up to date! If I forgot to mention you and your extraordinary blog then please leave a link below in the comments and I'll be sure to check out your blog!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

On The First Day Of Creepmas...

My ghoul friend gave to me,

Arachnids in a pine tree!

In November I celebrated my 30th Birthday with my whole family. It was a Halloween themed party and my family came bearing creepy gifts and Creepmas "ornaments" for the tree! It was a blast and I was overwhelmed by my family's kindness. My family has always gone with the overflowing, unmatchig look with tree decorating and this tree just oozes with random Creepmas cheer.

You can't tell from this picture, but there is a delicious pumpkin pie under that ball I flame. It's amazing how hot and bright 30 birthday candles can get!

I remember using my toys as extra decorations for our Christmas tree when I was a kid. The great thing about our first Creepmas tree is the fact that so many of my toys fit right in amongst its gnarled branches. So, just for fun, let's play Name That Creepmas Toy. The rules are simple, just see if you recognize who/what the toy is, what toy line it's from, etc.

How many toys can you name? Have fun and Merry Creepmas!

Wicked Wants

This week’s assignment for the League of Extraordinary Bloggers is an idea submitted by Tommy over at Tophat Sasquatch… — When you hit up the toy store, thrift store, flea market, or comic shop, what are some of the things you’re actively hunting?

As you all know my wife and I are quite fond of lists. In honor of Halloween, my list will only include items that are at least vaguely related to this holiday of holidays, otherwise we might be here all day. We might still be here all day. I hope you all enjoy!

Halloweeny List O' Haunted Wants

Candy

Vintage One-eyed Monster PEZ Dispenser

Any Vintage Halloween PEZ Dispensers

Vintage Audrey II (Little Shop of Horrors) Candy Head

Clothing

T-shirts with cereal, food, and candy branding 

Moon Boots (for my Napoleon Dynamite costume)

Curly Wig (Also for my Napoleon Dynamite costume)

Napoleon Dynamite style glasses

Furniture and Housewares

Vintage Black Kit-Kat clock (or any color really, but I prefer black)

German Owl Clock

Any vintage or cool Owl décor

Vintage Halloween Themed Tablecloth

Vintage Halloween Decorations

Animal Head Mounts and other cool taxidermy

A Real Mummy Hand

Reconstructed Animal Skeletons
A real monkey skull

Mounted and framed bugs (butterflies, spiders, beetles, etc.)

Books and comics and trading cards

Original Tales From the Crypt Comics

Any Halloween related MAD Magazines

Goosebump Books (I'll spare you a list of the ones I don't have, the ones I do have are tucked away somewhere)

Garbage Pail Kids cards and figures

Creepy Pogs, I had these one Pogs that had severed body parts on them, but I've lost all my Pogs. I think they were Jots brand, but I'm not sure. I want those again so bad!

Video Games

Splatter House II for SEGA Genesis

Any scary game from any system

I always keep an eye out for a steal on an arcade machine, full size or mini

TOYS

Original Kenner The Real Ghostbusters Toy Line

Slimer's Pizza and other accessories

Any figures and accessories from this line

LEGO

Any sets and figures from the Monster Fighters theme

Any sets and figures from the Wolfpack Castle theme

Any skeleton figures

Any vintage Pirates figures and sets

Any Harry Potter Figures or sets

Custom Zombie Figures

Any LOTR figures and sets

Any Dino themed figures and sets

Any robot, alien, and space figures and sets

Any figures and sets from Pharaoh's Quest or Andventurers Themes

Spooky figures from any of the Minifigures series. I don't have with a spooky or potentially spooky theme:

Zombie

Vampire

Witch

Robot

Werewolf

Lady Robot

Scarecrow

Island Warrior

Evil Mech

Yeti

Female Scientist

Welder

Saxophone Player

Crash Test Dummy

Mime

Pharaoh

Explorer

Gorilla Suit Guy

Mummy

Space Villain

The Monster (Frankenstein)

Egyptian Queen

Cave Woman

Lumberjack

Butcher

Genie

Surgeon

Ocean King (Merman)

Jungle Boy (Tarzan)

The Thespian

Alien Villainess

Business Man

Fortune Teller

Sad Clown

Mr. Gold

Playmobil

Any figure and sets from the Ghost Pirates Theme

Ghost Figures

Skeleton Figures

From the new Mystery Packs:

Witch Figure

Original Specials Executioner

Jail Bird

Vampiress

Pirate Captain (with skull)

All Alien Figures

Original Beetlejuice toys

Anything from this line

Bendos

Any spooky figures, including aliens and robots, and accessories from this short lived toy line

AC from Bendos line holding a MOTU He-Man battle axe.

MOTU

Scareglow

Accessories for Moss Man and Grizzlor

Pretty much any He-Man baddy

Sectaurs Warriors of Symbion
I never owned anything from this line, but I would love to get my hands on some figures. As you know, I love bugs, so these are perfect!

Supernaturals
Another toy line I knew nothing about as a kid, but now I want 'em!

Army Ants
I actually had some of these back in the day, but they're all lost. Again, bugs.

The Inhumanoids toy line
I don't know how I never knew about the Inhumannoids cartoon show when I was younger. I would have loved it. The toys are just scary as all heck!

Mutant League toy line
This show cracked me up as a kid. In the intro you watch in horror as football players mutate into hideous monsters. The main character's flesh melts off his bones and he becomes Bones Justice. From then on they didn't play normal football, oh no, it was now the Mutant League! Tearing off limbs, or even decapitating your opponent was no longer considered a penalty, in fact it was encouraged. The show didn't last very long, I wonder why?

Mighty Max

The cool boy version of Polly Pockets! These were some awesome toys and my brother and I had some sets as kids. Of course, like most of my childhood toys, they're all gone and I want them back again!

Original Aurora Universal Monsters Models

All of them!

In general I look for monster, skeleton, alien, and robot figures of any kind.

That's all I can think of right now. I'm always on the look out for a lot of cool junk, so if there are any sweet Halloween related things I missed then please let me know in the comments below!

Also, if you have some of the above listed items and are willing to part with them or trade or something, then please contact me @ mason.john.allen@gmail.com

And if you have one of said items, but just can't part with it, then that's okay, I still wanna hear about it!


I'm not the only one searching for awesome stuff to add to the pile. Go check out these other amazing wish lists:

Garage Sale of Awesome-Check out the competitive sport known as Video Game Collecting. I can relate!

Thirtyish Year Old Boy-For Daniel, thrift shoppin' is where it's at! I hear that noise!

Whatever I Think Of-Jamie likes to hunt for books, clothes, and Halloween costumes. I'm right there with ya sister!

Nerd Cantina-Matt likes his Joes MOC, and his Star Wars loose.

Nerd Nook-Rich Goes for nostalgia with Super Powers, MOTU, and Thundercats, oh my!

Nerd Out With Me-Fellow AFOL longs for the ultimate Monster Fighters set, 10228 Haunted House. I want that too!!!

Goodwill Haunting 4 Geeks- The Goodwill Geek lists out his awesome coveted toys and longs for some old role playing stuff. Don't we all?

Calvin's Canadian Cave of Cool- Kal says,"There is only one thing I want and you all know who it is. – The Oscar Goldman action figure from the Six Million Dollar Man line WITH exploding briefcase." Oh, heck yes!

Retro Toy Safarai-Mego Superman needs his outfit and Gizmo wants to relive his glory days in a 1984 pink Barbie Corvette. Ahhhh, yeah!



Thanks for reading and happy Halloween Hunting Season!

First ever Salt Lake Comic Con!

Now, I know this blog is called "D.I. Treasures" and I'm supposed to talk about things I found at the DI. However, sometimes I like to share good finds from goodwill and other such establishments. Okay, so maybe Comic Con doesn't count as such an establishment, but so what, it's my blog!

Now, when I told some of my friends, we'll say my more senior associates, that I was going to Comic Con they immediately asked,"What is Comic Con?" One person simply said,"Good luck!" I resisted the urge to slap my forehead and kindly explained that Con is short for Convention an that it's a geek thing. Though, I don't think you need to be an all out geek to enjoy "The Con".

Anyhoo, it was a great convention, the attendance was over 9,000! In fact were are a total of more than 47,000 tickets sold. You can check out all the details at www.saltlakecomiccon.com.

Enough about The Con itself, let's talk about what I took away, namely toys!

Now, let's take a closer look at these guys.

First off, I present to you this vintage Star Wars Gonk Droid.

I love robot toys, so I just couldn't say no to this little guy. Just look at him in all his robotic goodness! His legs are even designed to make an endearing clickety-clack sounds as they move. Classic!

Next up, we have the 2 M.U.S.C.L.E. mini figures.

All I know is these are vintage M.U.S.C.L.E. figures. I loved these as a kid! I don't know which ones these are. These may even be bootlegs for all I know. Either way these guys are pretty cool.

Grizzlor!

This one ties as my favorite find. This here's a vintage Grizzlor from the He-Man and The Masters of The Universe toy line. From what I understand Grizzlor is one of the lesser sought after MOTU (Masters of The Universe) figure due to his grizzled look. That exactly why I like him! There's something about misfit toys that I just can't get enough of.

Last of the toys is Moss Man!

Just look at this thing! How could I not buy him!? He's covered in green fuzz! You may have guessed that this is another vintage MOTU figure. All the vintage Moss Man figures actually had a fresh pine scent added to them! I sniffed this guy, but it seems his scent has worn off over the years. After returning home from The Con I had to mow my football-field-sized lawn. I noticed that Moss Man is reminiscent of a freshly mown lawn, so I have named him Lawn Moe. I will use him as a reminder to mow the lawn.

Well, actually, there's one more toy!

IG-88! Him and the Gonk Droid look like an alternate version of C3PO and R2D2. I always thought IG-88 was so cool! A bounty hunter droid bent on destroying all organic life forms, now that's just awesome. Man I love robots! 

I actually almost didn't feature IG-88 (you'll notice he's not included in the group shot) because I was embarrassed at the fact that I thought he was vintage, but upon closer inspection later that night I found a dreaded "1996" on his foot. :( I had a funny feeling he wasn't vintage because of his tell-tale bowleggedness. The vendor assured me that all his stuff was vintage. I'm sure he wasn't trying to deceive me, but I should looked more closely. Oh we'll, I'll just let that be a lesson to me. The figure's still pretty neat, and it didn't cost very much.

Lastly, my own custom made stamp of all things! One of the last booths I visited was selling a stamp kit. They let everyone make their own stamp. This is what came to me. The little guy saying "'ello!" is Glumby. He's a character I made up one time while doodling. They let me keep the stamp for free!

All in all, Comic Con wasn't as cheap as a trip to the DI, but is was a lot of fun. Also, I would have to be extremely lucky to find these toys at my local DI. 

Salt Lake Comic Con haul: $16