Zurchers Halloween Trinkets and Prehistoric Bootlegs

Recently I browsed through my local Zurcher's party store to see what Halloween odds n' ends I could find.  Here are the highlights:

Wacky JOL Stickers

I love the look of these guys!  They look just like those wacky pumpkins from the 80's.

I have never seen Skeleton Paratroppers before!  Why has this never been done before?  If it has, how did I miss it!?

Vampire & Witch Fingers, a Halloween staple.

"Bendables" I have the vendo counterparts to these weirdos.

Bouncy Heart Ball, perfect for my oddball collection display case.  I will be showing off the oddballs display tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Glow-In-The-Dark anything is good.

Very strange Faux Pinecone Spider...

And the star of the show are these beauties!  Annoyingly packaged with a cruddy Prehistoric Party Pack.  At least I was able to nab 2 of each of these!

These are bootlegs of the Knights Dragons & Horses / Monsters put out by Imperial in the 80's and 90's.  They produced both the large version and the mini version.  You can check them out at Fantasy Toy Soldiers and Little Weirdos.  

Have you come across any little Halloween gems this year? What do you think of the "Prehistoric Creatures"? Let me know in the comments below!

The Toy Cave: Before and After (I'm back!)

Since I've decided to come back into full activity here at DI Treasures, I thought it appropriate for me to reveal to you my Toy Cave. Now not every toy is on display, but I finally got everything all tidied up and looking beautiful, so I hope you enjoy the tour!

(It also so happens that this goes hand in hand with the current League Of Extraordinary Bloggers assignment "'Shelf' Expression"! So, I'm gonna combine the two. Yeah, I do that a lot. It's all good though, right?)

BEFORE:

Not so pretty.

AFTER:

Fun new shelf.

I found the perfect weapons for Frogacuda.

Added a new Raisin to the band.

A colorful bunch, always ready for a fight.

With the Retro Duo Portable I can play all my NES and SNES carts on the go! My old school Nintendo collection is growing again little by little as I spot great deals at the DI.

Here's the old desk drawer shelf  display I found a while back.

Another new shelf, also a cheap DI grab. I really like this style of metal shelf.

Lunar City, slowly growing. (I just want to thank The Trash Man, The Goodwill Geek, and Miss M for their LEGO contributions! You are all so generous and I just want to let you know I haven't forgotten! There will be thank you posts in your honor soon!

Duplo Moon Bug

Monchichi anyone?

Well, I hope you enjoyed my "shelf" expression. If you're still hungry for more then go check out these beautiful shelves:

Nerdy Life Of Mine

Revenge Of The Toy Box

Cool and Collected

Stunt Zombie

Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks

Midnight Monster Spook Show

Erik Johnson Illustrator

Primordial Badgers Media Hoard

G.I. Jigsaw

Calvin's Canadian Cave of Cool

The Nerd Nook

Wandering Mind

AEIOU and Sometimes Why

Nerd Lunch

The Neighborhood Archive

Happy Haunted Sunshine House

Super Powered Fiction

Strung Along By String Dolls

It was a day like any other, searching for crappy dollar store toys, when suddenly...

This is what I saw at the store. You can see the full collection HERE.

The light shown through the window and I saw these! Imagine my joy as I spotted these voodoo doll super hero "vendos"! Sure, I could tell just by peeking in that there weren't any super heros in there. Heros perhaps, but not of the super variety. Oh well, they're at least worth the 75 cents, right? And at least they're not mixed with non-String Dolls, unlike last time. Well, let's see what we got!

These guys are adorable!

What a charmer.

His jimp leg just gives him more charm. He looks like some sort of green mummy.

This guy has a distinct karate master vibe.

And here's the pick of the litter, Jack Pumpkin head! His grin had me in stitches. Priceless!

Over all, I'm very satisfied with these vendos. They're just the right amount of creepy and cute. You could honestly stick needles in these guys and they'd totally look like legit voo-doo dolls. Vending machine toys are so lacking now a days and the String Dolls are a hopeful ray of light, in my humble opinion. It's too bad I didn't get any DC Dolls, but I'm still happy with these.

Has anyone out there been lucky enough to nab any of the Super Powers String Dolls? What do ya'll's think of these guys? Comments, below, you get the idea.

Monster Mysteries Part Deux

It has been brought to my attention by The Goodwill Geek (AKA The Really Rather Random Guy) that I really need to update my blog already! I have all sorts of wonderful excuses as to why I just don't have any time for blogging, but I won't bore you with that stuff. Instead I will make little baby steps towards recovery with fun little posts at least once a week.

I present to you the 2nd edition of Mystery Toy Theater! Does anyone recognize this cute little scamp?

Be sure to check out the first "episode" Monday Mystery: Name That Monster! It was a Halloween special and it was a tough one, but thankfully the mystery was solved. Will we ever solve the mystery of the cute little bat minifigure? Find out next time in the comments below!

Little "Vendos"

Some of my "Vendos", as I call them.

I just can't seem to stop pumping hard earned quarters into toy vending machines! The whole vending machine landscape has changed quite a bit and it just ain't as nice as the good old days, but still, I like to keep the tradition alive. 

Not a bad toy line here. I don't know if this is a new one or a revived oldie.

One big change I've noticed is the toys don't cost just a quarter anymore. In some cases you have to pay 50 cents, but usually everything's 75 cents! Talk about pricey, GOSH! 

The classic Martian Men are just 23 cents (plus tax) at Zurchers vs. a whooping 50 cents at a toy slot machine!

Why are these sweet string dolls mixed with the zombie figures!? (Source)

I've also noticed there are a lot of shady practices going on with toy vending machines nowadays, such as the mixing of toys and deceiving advertising. I came across a machine that had these cool little voodoo dolls made of string. The display case of the toys looked very promising. So I dished out my 75 cents and out popped a freaking "zombie" figure! Like an idiot I popped in 3 more quarters, hoping for the best. Of course I got another crappy zombie. (Normally I'd like a zombie of course, but I had my heart set on the voodoo pals. Plus, the zombie figures were just...off. You can see what I mean in the first picture in this post) I was promised a voodoo buddy! What the crap!? On yet another occasion I was hoping for a sweet eyeball (twas Halloween month at the time) and out came a white Scottie dog. WHAT!? LIES! 

There's actually a very subtle hint of K9. At least it was only 25 cents.

The absolute worst machine of all is located in our local Smith's Market. It's the only machine with decent toys in it, but it's mingled with garbage. I have yet to get anything but crappy bouncy balls and half the time it eats my quarters! I wanted the parachuting bug dang it! I would even take the pinkie cuffs over those freaking bouncy balls! When will I learn! At least I stopped playing crane games. Well, for now. Curse you Sugar Loaf! What kind of name is that anyway!?

"Good Stuff"...plus many other total pieces of crap.

But I digress. There are ways around the whole vending machine hoopla. You can always buy the toys you seek online (Well, maybe not every toy you're looking for. Some can be quite hard to find and pricey to boot.) Another simple option is a party supply store. You can by them in bulk of by the piece. They usually have the classic trans-green aliens and I recently picked up a few monster finger puppets for under a buck at Zurchers. When I was a kid I'd buy all kinds of toy treasures at Party Time. I have some fond memories of Party Time. They used to sell some sweet Pogs and Slammers. Party Time is no longer with us, but it will live on forever in my memory. R.I.P. Party Time, you were a sweet store. Of course, you can always try your luck at an arcade like Nicklecade, Classic Skating, or Chuck E. Cheese. You just have to deal with the whole token/ticket system. It's been ages since I set foot in an arcade, so I think it's high time I paid some old favorites a visit. Skeeball anyone?

If you're lucky you can even find vending machine toys in grab bags at the DI or Goodwill. That said, there's still something about turning that crank and scoring a sweet toy. There's always that risk that you'll get totally jipped, but it's the risk that makes it all the more exciting when you win big! I always keep some quarters in my lucky pouch just in case. And of course, when speaking of vending machine toys, one cannot fail to mention Little Weirdos. Frank has some amazing specimens! You simply must check them out!

These shag carpet ruffians were hand picked and purchased at Zurchers. 

Am I alone in my vending machine woes? Does anyone else still frequent the toy slot machines (as I sometimes call them). Let me know in the comments below!