Thursday, October 15, 2015

Random Collection Piece: Ghostbusters 2 placemat

  A lot of folks claim Hardee's as the HQ for all things GB2 but these snuck into McDonalds as cool piece of art.    I love the lightning bolts coming through the windows of the fire house even though GB2 had nothing to do with the building really. In all honesty, the ECTO-1 is more original movie than sequel.    The backing even has a cool logo design under the lamination.   

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Saved from the dumpster



My dad learned of my toy collection and recently found a random hodge podge of toys in a recycling dumpster. He pulled it out for me and amongst all the generic die cast cars, I found a few gems including:

- Shaggy
- 3 FIRE TRUCKS! (I love collecting these as a firefighter) no twos are ever the same. 
- Blues Brothers Furby McDonalds premiums (fits into my Ghostbusters collection well actually)
- A toilet that you can drive (finally!!)
- An old Astro droid. (Didn't even need to fight off Jawas)

So cool and I'm glad I got these guys! 


Tuesday, September 22, 2015

That crazy son of a bitch did it


I apologize about the lack of updates but I have been a bit busy getting this hoopty ready for Halloween. Luckily, I was able to get some custom vinyl work to make those jumpsuit days a bit sweeter. 

Thanks to SILVER TIP GRAPHICS in Grand Rapids, MN for helping me out with this bucket list item.

Monday, September 7, 2015

Random Collection Piece: Vinyl Idolz Ghostbusters


First off, I am really sad that there is no Winston here. He needs to be doing the "I love this Town" pose. Make it happen.

I am a big Pop Funko guy and while this is a different style, I dig these guys because they AREN'T Pop Funko.

Pops are hollow and cute. Vinyl Idolz are solid and awkward. Oooh, scratch that Winston pose from earlier and let him be in his trademark plaid with hand out so Ray can hand him a trap for that scene. That'd be AWESOME!

Monday, August 31, 2015

Random Collection Piece: LEGO Ghostbusters


Lego Ghostbusters! 

This set has got a lot of great press lately and the mini fig ghost from the Monster Hunter set fit's right in. Even with the ball and chain!

Friday, August 28, 2015

Back to the Future Vinyl Idolz


When this thing hits 88 mph, you're gonna see some series sculpting.

These guys are fun and have made me a believer in the Vinyl Idolz line up. I owned these guys prior to buying the Ghostbusters edition as my local GameStop had Doc and Marty in stock. I am more and more growing into a sucker for BTTF merchandise because it reminds me of the time that I was able to meet Christopher Lloyd with a good friend of mine, Kris. 

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Toy Trade: Tales from the Cryptkeeper Action Figures



I was lucky to have got these two great Tales from the Cryptkeeper cartoon series from a friend on Instagram named "Home_and_Bored."

I got these guys to mix within our Halloween decor because I can.

'Murica.


Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Goodwill Grabs: August Monsoon edition




While I don't know if I announced it in this blog, I should mention that I have had some issues updating and writing because my wife and I are currently expecting a child in February. Leap Day nonetheless. Yep, poor little duder is going to miss out on his or her birthday 3 out of 4 years.

At any rate, I am a complete whore for kids' books now at Goodwill as this is something that I had started BRIEFLY before we found out the news. Now, I pick up any book that looks cool and is something that I can either see myself reading to them as a goodnight book or something that I want to pass along to them.

Also, Salvation Army had books for $0.10 a book but because of me being a book whore, it's now a quarter. Damn.

Most of my Goodwill grabs will detail some books that I have found in my journeys and are complete AWESOME.

Now let's get all Reading Rainbow on your ass....

Monday, August 24, 2015

Random Collection Piece: James Hance GB art



From time to time, I am going to share some one off pieces of my collection to detail this hodge podge of Ghostbusters mania in here. My first piece is chosen to be the initial because it is what welcomes guests into the ECTO Cave... Slime Zone... err....shit, it's really hard to make up a clever name for this damn room. Suggestions welcome.


Sunday, August 23, 2015

Non-GB Collection: TMNT Shelf!


Just like any 90s kid, I had an army of Playmate Toys' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and cohorts. These guys are so wacky and colorful that I had to regain some of my favorite characters again. With names like Dirtbag, Muckman, Wyrm, and Wingnut, the cohorts are some of my favorites.

While none are really complete and some are in bad shape, it's a bang up shelf of memories for me and something that I don't mind if my soon to be born child plays with. After all, these guys made afternoons fun for me back in the 90s.

I am looking to help complete my collection so any duplicates out there in other collections are welcome a home on this shelf!

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Flea Market Finds: August Heat Edition


I decided to venture out into the humid heat of August to find some sweet "nugs" as my friend, Abigail would say. Here are the gems:

 First up, a toy that ALMOST quenched my childhood hunger for a Jurassic Park T-Rex. This guy is pretty sweet and one of the originals from the 90s but I remember the larger one that used to actually eat your toys. My adult mind feels like it was from the original movie but Google tells me that it was from the sequel "The Lost World." I don't know but nonetheless I was excited to find this guy and snatched him up quickly to bring home. 

Somewhere my 9 year old self is so damn happy and all is right with the universe. 

Titan Ghostbusters!



I have been eagerly awaiting these new vinyl figures from Titan Merchandise and made a trip to the nearest Hot Topic (an hour away mind you), fought off a goth girl with purple hair to grab up a whole armful of these. Seriously dangerous as Hot Topics are narrow and do not convenience you with a basket. I cleaned up the shelf and grabbed a total of 16 of these! 

Monday, August 3, 2015

Saturday Morning Cartoons



As a kid growing up, I idolized Saturday Morning Cartoons. It was the groggy hangover wakeup of commercialism that happened after TGIF on ABC.

I was a kid in the country who had to PLAN his trips into the local "town*" of civilization. It was a forty five minute drive filled with hopes, dreams, and aspirations for what I would gather as new toys and pop culture. Saturday Morning Cartoons were my way of finding out what was new in the world of toys and would help me plan accordingly.


Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Imaginext Blind Bags!


I have followed Eric over at Toyriffic for a long time now. I could even credit him with being the first toy blog that piqued my interest. He is big into mini figures of LEGO and these gems of the Fisher Price Imaginext series. They could often be taken for little kids toys as the danger level on them is almost nil. However, when people started to point out the "adult" board room aspect of these, I started to fall in love with the blind bags.


Monday, July 13, 2015

The Wonder of the Yowie



I found these oddities in the aisle of my local Walmart near the checkout lanes. Foil wrapped candy in today's world is a rarity and for some reason, their cartoony demeanor grabbed my attention. They were big, seemed hollow and brought upon a feeling of 1997 to me. Only one product has done the same; Nestle's Wonderball.


Monday, June 29, 2015

New jumpsuits from ... That thing.


New jumpsuits from the upcoming pile of junk sexist Paul Feig flick. 

Thoughts? 

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Weekly Goodwill Grabbing: Jurassic Edition


Every week I try to make it to my local Goodwill as mentioned previously and this week was a good haul. I don't know who the hell threw out Jurassic Park dinosaurs on the same week that Jurassic World opened up but THANK YOU! It made my day and finding these guys in a general grab bag of "other" dinosaurs, I am glad to have two more velcioraptors to add to my JP collection as well as the wounded baby T-Rex from The Lost World.

Simply Amazing....


Oh and also, they threw in the mini dinosaurs like this T-Rex that used to come packaged with the human figures.

With this discovery, I have come to discover how much I loved Kenner toys and their line up. Seriously that company defined my childhood: The Real Ghostbusters, Jurassic Park, Beetlejuice, Terminator, and many others... (Playmates is a close second with TMNT.)

Friday, June 19, 2015

Great Scott! Diamond Select's DeLorean



I had the pleasure of meeting Christopher Lloyd earlier this year in February which enhanced my love and appreciation for "Back to the Future" movies. When I got a text from a friend who works at my local GameStop about a DeLorean showing up in their shipment, I jumped on it. 

I used a PowerUp Rewards coupon to lower this bad boy from $60 to $35. *whew* It is totally worth the price tag though as it lights up and makes movies sounds. Everything LIGHTS up too! The flux capacitor, the dash, the head lights and the time circuits.... HIGHLY recommend for any fan!

More photos after the jump:





Thursday, June 18, 2015

Toy Trade with The Goodwill Geek

A photo posted by Adam Nori (@heroic37) on


First off, I love doing toy trades. Getting a random box of items that are vintage and many things that I have never known of. One of my favorite blogs to follow is Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks. I have been wanting to do a toy trade with Derek and often I find myself picking up items at my local Goodwill that I think he would like based on his blog.

We finally got around to a toy trade and I wanted to highlight some of my favorite items.


Monday, June 8, 2015

ECTO COOLER!?!





Everyone has that one holy grail that just needs to be remade from their past. For many it is the ECTO Cooler Hi-C flavor from the 90s.

I have to be honest; I am not a huge fan of ECTO Cooler.

I just never really had it as a kid. I mean sure, I definitely had a few squeeze boxes here and there but not overkilled on it. The reason being that my parents just didn't ever justify buying separate boxed packages of things such as juice packs. I was more of a Kool Aid pitcher kinda kid because it served the whole family. My parents were economical I guess.

HOWEVER, this is a Ghostbusters blog and I had to get this item. There have been SOOOO many recipes on how to make this item come back to life and people always get disappointed.

The people at HorrorDecor.net have some cool items and the candles are the number one thing that I can respect. My wife is a huge fan of horror movies and our house is at a constant battle of villians versus the boys in grey. Upstairs looks like a Freddy Krueger movie and my man cave resides in the basement. I thought she would be a great fan of the bloody nails candles and I may have to order one of those for her later on.

Their items just never really GRABBED me to buy something so I always browsed. But then this candle came out and I just had to get it. Partly because I wanted to see how badly they messed up this recipe.

They did not mess it up.

It's pure 90s. It's truly the closest thing that we will have short of Hi-C making this flavor again.

IT. IS. AWESOME.

I hope that they make a second run so I can buy another to burn. This one will remain archived as a new item in my Ghostbusters collection.

Some attempts at ECTO - COOLER things:
DinosaurDracula.com ECTO Twinkie
X-Entertainment: The ECTO COOLER Bible
Ghostbusters: Chicago ECTO COOLER Recipe
Resurrect ECTO COOLER Facebook Group

Friday, June 5, 2015

Non-GB: The creepiest thing in my house



A "flea market" shop opened up in a town nearby that I frequently shop. It's overpriced as they judge things on eBay asking prices but sometimes you find oddities that are worth the price. This is one of those items. 

And it's the presentation that makes it worth while. 


Thursday, June 4, 2015

Non-GB: Goodwill Weekly Finds



As mentioned prior, I try my browse my local Goodwill store once a week to see what treasures I unearth. I do this to find things for myself as well as see what grab bag stuff I can score to use in toy trades as well. (I am always open for a toy trade.)

My local store is big on kid's books as well as blind bags. A nearby town's store strikes out on these completely. It's very weird how each store has its own personality. Luckily for me, my town's Goodwill usually offers up good things.



Green Ghost (aka Slimer) Hand Puppet

Since this is turning out to be a week of Slimer, I figured that I would continue it.

I was able to score a really sweet little Slimer puppet. He didn't come in the box but that kinda makes him cooler. He was loved at one point by someone who grew up.

I enjoy this little guy because he's just quality and fun. He fits nicely on your hand and is easily moveable. He seems like something that I would have loved to have as a kid and reminds me of when I was in kindergarten and our teacher would read us a story with a puppet. He is TOTALLY capable of doing that and perhaps when I have kids, he will be employed into that line of work.

I highly recommend this puppet for anyone who is a collector or just wants to get their kids into Ghostbusters. He was fairly cheap as well albeit kind of a rare find. He is often overlooked by collectors.

What is kinda odd about this guy is that there appears to have been two of them made at one point. So  I am not sure if he is a rip off from China or if he was later on produced. At any rate, he is a cool piece to have in my collection as he has purpose.




Slimer Painted!

I finally got around to painting Slimer last night. He is now more classy, defined, and even GLOWS IN THE FREGGIN' DARK!



The Before and After:


Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Slimer Prop from eBay


I am an avid eBay browser and I kept seeing this guy pop up on the listings. I had always had an interest in him but he was never "detailed" enough for me to pull the trigger. And he just kept showing up in fan videos and at convention shows.

He became a staple for fans and one of the best foam 1:1 Slimers. Well, best is not the right word but perhaps ONLY option.

He is brittle and very foamtastic. He reminds me of an 80s/ early 90s Halloween decoration made from foam. (They used to have these pumpkins with facial expression and he reminds me a lot of them.)

I am not crazy about his flat green coloring but might repaint him at some point to add some detail and depth. I am only worried about his drool as it is the coolest part of him but also going to show the paint job in a bad light should I go that route.

The last thing that I would change about him is the fact that he sure does like to look at the ceiling. Just a bit of a pull down would have been nice but what can you hope for?

A cool piece for the collection but it has so much room for improvement. Drool is great, coloring and posture is horrible, and the brittle nature of this disgusting blob shatters any parade hopes.

Finally!




The arcade is finally at home.

I was lucky enough to have a friend who collects vintage arcade units and has 35 years of experience repairing them. After looking at this unit that I scored from another friend, it was determined that the power supply was bad. I was given the part for free and I paid for labor with a case of beer.

The game itself plays a lot like Guerrilla Wars/Ikari Warriors but with a Ghostbusters twist. You can find some of the gameplay here. I am surprised at how fun this game actually is and with the ability to put in as many credits as you want, you start to realize how these games were made to make money rather than be the story driven games of today. They make it HARD so you die and start over. Clever girl.

It took four men to get this into the man cave. (I am thankful for my firefighter brothers who helped with this after a hall meeting.) The least I could do was let them play it once it made it downstairs.



Because of the size of this thing and having to feng shui this thing into my collection, a lot of pieces moved around and this is now the 6th iteration of the ECTO cave.


I have also added a few new pieces which I am excited to share. Most of them are in this photo so a little sneak peek. I am also interested to see what pieces people are curious about.

Friday, May 8, 2015

Non-GB: Some blogger love



While I plan on making this post all about Ghostbusters, I do want to share some other collection ideas of mine that are not related to the main theme of this blog. I LOVE following other collectors blogs such as GOODWILL HUNTING 4 GEEKS and ITS TRASH CULTURE.

The first is from Derek who goes to Goodwill and thrift stores to see what treasures he can find. And he finds some odd but very cool items. I think I must check his blog once every two or three days to see what he discovers. I enjoy the oddities that he comes across like his recent Bizarro Flintstone book that talks about a boy named "Junior" in place of the girl named "Pebbles." Weird.

I love that blog so much that it leads me to my local Goodwills and holy smokes, have I found some cool stuff. I might have to make a Goodwill finds section...

The second blog is from one of my favorite toy traders. I was lucky enough to win one of his contests awhile back and the box of random items was heaven. Action figures, 90s trading cards from movies, and comics.... so cool! I wish I could get a random box of goodness from his every month as it blows my HorrorBlock/Nerdblock out of the water.




I also enjoy the week long celebrations that he comes across like the recent Friday the 13th marathon that talks about everyone's favorite Camp Crystal Lake stories.

Now that I have gotten my raving over about how much I enjoy these two blogs, this entry has a point and it's because of these two guys; Derek helped me venture to Goodwills and ITC helped me fall back in love with the 90s which led me to collecting "Goosebumps" books from R.L. Stine.

I really enjoy venturing out to thrift stores to find these Scholastica gems that were like bars of gold come book fair day.

"Oh you didn't get the new Goosebumps book this month? I don't know you and no you can't sit at THIS lunch table..."

Kids can be so cruel.

These were bizarre. They were never scary. But the ART on the covers. Oh man! That was the awesomest!

I can usually pick up a few copies at a thrift store at a time because no one just had one tale from Goosebumps. If you find one in the pile, there are usually 2-3 other copies from that series in there. And for about $1 too!

My only rule is that I am trying to get them from my thrift store adventures rather than buying a set on eBay. The adventure is the fun part, right?

Anyone else collect Goosebumps and if so, what was your favorite tale? I really enjoyed the Werewolf of Fever Swamp as it was the first one that I completed.

HorrorBlock / Nerdblock ECTO-1 TITAN!




Oh my gosh did I wait an eternity for this little guy!

I buy my wife the Horrorblock subscription with the caveat that I get anything Ghostbusters. So far, I have got a magazine and this little gem. We normally get these boxes of bliss every 25th of the month but when I heard about the "exclusive" Titan ECTO-1, I started to count the days... and of course, this one came late on May 8th.

A cool little ECTO-1 from the upcoming Titan vinyl line that could double as an item made from cake topping materials. I am not too impressed by this style but am eagerly awaiting the Titan line regardless as the characters look cool.

What are your thoughts on the Titan Vinyl figures and have any of you collected the Dr. Who line? That's the only other Titan line that I have heard of but never quite got into the Who series.

Photos credited to this blog as I am too lazy to take new photos at the moment: http://seibiant.com/2015/04/22/nerd-block-unboxing-april-2015-growing-up-80s/

Monday, May 4, 2015

Arcade time!

A friend of mine recently sent me a text that said:


Absolutely! 

It's an arcade machine by DataEast that plays the Real Ghostbusters 3 person arcade game. No dings, no mold, no water damage, only one issue; the monitor does display the video. Everything lights up, it just does not play the game. It should be an easy fix and once I figure out a way to get this down into my man cave, I'll be set. 

Here's some more photos and a link to gameplay: