Dino Drac Funpacks are back! (UPDATED!)
Dino Drac Funpacks are back! And this time, here to stay. At least for the foreseeable future.
Here’s the deal. I’m coming into that stretch of the year when I toss aside everything to run the site, racking up major expenses and doing it on the arm. Moving forward, that’s something I can no longer do. I have to take some different steps.
I’ve hinted at this on social outlets and have gotten some suggestions, but I had a lot of luck with these Funpacks in the past, and everyone seemed to enjoy them. (See some previous editions here and here!)
The problem in the past is that they’ve been too scattered to really make a dent. Whatever profits they bring are quickly gobbled by continuing to do the site — paying for it to run, buying all of this stuff to review, and spending crazy amounts of time to put it all together.
If nothing else, I need to do something that will curb the losses — especially in these upcoming heavy months. And I think this could be a fun way to do it!
If you’re familiar with the prior Funpacks, you know what you’re in for — a package full of old and new goodies, from trading cards to comics to toys to candy, mixed with a few site-specific “custom” items. The difference this time is that I’ll be offering them on a monthly subscription basis. Sign up once, and you’re good to go for as long as I continue doing them. (Right now, I’m looking at a 5-6 month sprint, but if they take off and perform well enough, maybe they’ll continue.) You can cancel at any time, of course. Read More…
Yard Sailin’, Volume IV.
So after a month’s worth of pleasant experiences, I was finally reminded of why I stopped going to yard sales to begin with.
I did find some nice things, but between the sellers and the buyers, every stop brought five new annoyances.
Sellers were the big problem. I lost interest in yard sales when people started charging eBay prices, and that was on full display. At the first of Saturday’s sales, we saw a homeowner basically tell someone to leave her property, insulted that the would-be customer wanted to pay $20 rather than $24 for a box of nearly-worthless Christmas ornaments. That same woman wanted $3 per VHS tape, even though 80% of them were of the Barney & Friends variety, and none of them had boxes.
We also went to a couple of estate sales, where the sellers were even worse. Around here, estate sales generally aren’t run by grieving families, but by outside people that they hire. I don’t know the specifics of their arrangements, but those people must work on a percentage rather than a flat rate, because holy fuck were they asking for ridiculous amounts of money.
Some of the buyers were no better. At one estate sale, an obvious dealer was running ahead of us all over the house, I guess to make sure he could pick out the good stuff first. Literally just darting in front of us, lest we get to that flimsy 1975 magazine rack before he could.
We went upstairs, and he immediately followed. We started joking about a really old chair in the bedroom, saying it would look great in our living room. We were obviously insincere, but that didn’t stop the dick from practically mowing us down to claim it. When you’re willing to be a rude jerk to total strangers so you can make a few dollars off of some dead woman’s busted chair, it’s time to Google around for deficiency quizzes.
At the final yard sale of the afternoon, someone had a bucket of Hot Wheels that looked like they’d spent ten years in dirt and almost as many with a really heavy guy stepping on them. “$40 for the whole pail. I can’t break the set.” Set? What set? The cars were only associable by the fact that they were all broken and dirty. I wanted one because a mangled Hot Wheels car is among the greatest symbols of yard sales, but I didn’t need a full “set.”
Oh well, I still scored some decent stuff! Read More…
Five Random Action Figures, Part 6!
Jeez, it’s been over a year since the last edition of Five Random Action Figures?
On it, chief. Here are five more toys plucked from my shelves and bins. Some of them hold deep, personal meaning for me. Others are just cool killer robots.
Slimer
The Real Ghostbusters, 1986
While I’d argue that Stay Puft was the quintessential Real Ghostbusters figure, I think Slimer (alternatively, “Green Ghost”) was a close second.
I got him on Christmas Eve in 1986, along with several other RGB “ghost” figures. If I’m remembering things correctly, and that’s likely as I’m infallubel, those were the very first Ghostbusters toys I ever received. So began a love affair!
Kenner’s Real Ghostbusters stood apart from every other line of its era. The toys felt brighter and inexplicably higher-tech than competing action figure sets, and the play value was simply enormous. The good guys came with accessories that actually did stuff, and even if some of the ghosties didn’t, they were so big and neon that nobody noticed.
This is actually the same Slimer figure from that fateful Christmas Eve. I’d recognize that chipped tongue anywhere. Slimer originally came with three pieces of rubber food, marking this as the only action figure in history whose “weapons” were meat, pizza and watermelon.
More intensely detailed Slimer figures arrived in the years that followed, but I’ll always prefer this one to the rest. Mainly because you can hold him like an ice cream cone. Read More…
The return of sooo many Kool-Aid flavors!
And the hits just keep on comin’!
Last November, my ears perked up during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade broadcast. As a giant Kool-Aid Man rolled down 34th Street, one of the hosts casually announced some of upcoming flavors for 2014. Among them was SHARKLEBERRY FIN.
The host didn’t know this, but Sharkleberry Fin wasn’t a “new” flavor. It existed many years ago, delighting Kool-Aid lovers with its adorable mascot: A pink shark wearing sunglasses. It was just one of several “character-based” Kool-Aid flavors that I’ve been gushing about for my entire goddamned internet history.
Well, as most of you know, Sharkleberry Fin did come back. That shark is out there and ready to recapture the hearts of untold millions.
But brother, he didn’t come alone!
I’ve been trying to cut down on my textual expletives, but HOLY FUCKING SHIT. Sharkleberry Fin! Purplesaurs Rex! The Great Bluedini! Rock-A-Dile Red! Pink Swimmingo! That’s EVERY character-based Kool-Aid flavor in HISTORY, brought back at the same time!
Having collectively run their course by the end of the ‘90s, it seemed that these flavors would only live on in our memories. (Unless you’re like me, and dedicated too many nights and far too much money to tracking down the original packets.) The combination of great flavors and wild mascots made them some of the most beloved Kool-Aid flavors ever. With my long history of Kool-Aid reviews, I can’t tell you how many times people have emailed begging for packets of Purplesaurus Rex or Rock-A-Dile Red. My answer was always “SORRY MINE.”
Many openly pined for them, but few expected Kool-Aid to actually bring them back, and nobody expected them to bring back ALL FIVE AT ONE TIME. Read More…