It’s time for the twelfth edition of Five Random Action Figures! (Three of these were picked up just this week. Thank you, mysterious and awesome local comic book shop that’s apparently been hiding in plain sight since last spring.)

Peter Venkman
The Real Ghostbusters, 1986

Most of the praise I lavish on Kenner’s Real Ghostbusters line is thanks to the, erm, ghosts, but the actual Ghostbusters were just as inspired. They’d ultimately get umpteen upgrades with all sorts of new outfits and features, but I’ve always been partial to the originals.

Peter here has seen better days, but even with a half-broken Neutrona Blaster, I think you can still see the appeal. For one thing, the figure was a near-perfect representation of the cartoon character, assuming you can forgive Peter’s weirdly radioactive eyes. (And if there’s anything that’s forgivable by default, it’s weirdly radioactive eyes.)

The big draw was the accessories. Venkman came with a mini ghost, a Proton Pack and a Neutrona Blaster that perpetually spit a swirling proton beam. (The beam is longer than the figure itself!)

I got Peter for a song, and adding my recent acquisitions of Ray and Winston from that eBay mixed lot, I’m one Egon away from completing the world’s most play-worn set of Real Ghostbusters figures. Go me, I guess. Read More…

I’ve been keeping an eye on a few eBay auctions despite having no plans to actually bid, out of sheer amazement that people have such rare stuff to sell. Like, how the hell do you end up with 59 Fireball Island board games?

Most of these treasures will ultimately make quiet exits, remembered only be the few who were lucky enough to stumble upon their auction listings. So you can consider this post my way of making sure that certain items of the “holy shit” variety have a forever home on the internet.

Store Display of Masters of the Universe Slime!
Asking Price: $1249.00
Photo by great-items | Auction Link

The auction listing is presently inactive, but I’ve been tracking it for months, and I’m sure the seller will give it another go sooner or later. What a find! A complete store display of Masters of the Universe Slime!

Next to Modulok, those cans of Slime were probably my favorite items from the vintage MOTU line. Most of us associate them with the legendary Slime Pit playset, but Mattel was just as interested in selling them separately. (I have such fond memories of this exact display being right beside the register in our mall’s long gone Kay Bee.)

The cans were also used a promotional device, given away free to anyone who bought two He-Man figures over a certain time period. Of the 28 cans in this display, 9 of them have stickers for that very promotion.

According to the seller, less than a third of the cans have dried out. At around 45 bucks a can, this actually isn’t too bad of a deal! (While sealed Slime cans have been sold for cheaper, it’s pretty tough to find them with still-gooey contents.) Read More…

Happy 209th anniversary to the Treaty of Pressburg!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. If you don’t celebrate Christmas, I hope you had great Chinese food. Mine was the usual two-day marathon of TOO MUCH EVERYTHING. The holiday season was a little rough around the edges, but it ended strong with family and friends and triple-spiked eggnog and the Bumpus hounds.

This is the annual Christmas Fallout post, where we swap stories about our holiday celebrations. More accurately, it’s where we tackily compare our new loot!

Considering that I couldn’t have cared less about what I got from Santa, I made out like a bandit this year. The one benefit of having to give out so many presents is that I get almost as many. I’d also like to think that I’m fun to shop for, because there aren’t many thirty-somethings who get excited about Freddy Krueger candy holders and gaudy statues that seem to blend giraffes and zebras into whole new animals.

I’ve collected some of my favorite NEW THINGS down below. Feel free to talk about your NEW THINGS in the comments. After all, we get so few opportunities to act like classless children. Revel while you can!

Funko Pop Slimer Figure!

Perhaps the most creative Pop figure to date, Slimer is also one a very few that I had to have. (As awesome as that line is, it’s something I’ve chosen to admire from afar. This was an obvious exception, since no other Pop figure uses ghost slime as a stand-in for legs.) Read More…