Wrapping Up Christmas 2020

 

Now that I am a parent Christmas is mostly all about making the kids happy and helping Santa get them the toys that were on their list. There is nothing like seeing their little faces light up on that special December morning...even if it's at 4am. I guess that's karma, but every year I still look forward to unwrapping my own gifts from my kids & wife. They typically do a great job of getting me some sweet presents and this year they did not disappoint. I know it's a little late, but lets look behind the wrapping paper and see what goodies were under the tree for me this year!

Stocking Stuffers

I've said it a million times before, but I LOVE STOCKING STUFFERS!!! My parents would allow us to open our stockings every Christmas before they got up. I'm sure it was so we would let them sleep in for another hour or so. This year I got some cool TMNT Snapz, Topps Baseball cards and of course candy!

Hickory Farms Gift Box

This is a must have gift for me every year and my wife knows how to please me. Once this box is opened, I tear into it to enjoy my ceremonial Christmas morning breakfast of beef & cheese!

Board/Card Games

This year I received the Blockbuster Movie Party Game, The Office Downsizing Game and DOS! On Christmas night the wife and myself had a blast playing the Blockbuster game after the kids went down to sleep. The oint is to try and guess the title of the movie on your partner's card by having them either give you one word to describe it, recite a quote from it or act it out. The Office game has not been played yet, but it seems to be similar to a game of clue. DOS was also fun! This card game is very similar to UNO, but the rules are a little different which makes this one fun for the whole fam!

The Goonies: Lego Dimensions Game Pack

I love this gift! I had been wanting The Goonies expansion of the Lego Dimensions game for a while now, but the prices have been pretty high. My wife found this at TJ Maxx for $10 and picked it up for me! My kids love the Dimensions game and now I have my own character to play along side their PowerPuff Girls, Batman and Ghostbusters!

Movies

The wife goes DVD/Blu Ray baragin shopping every year at Christmas. She was able to grab me Birds of Prey, IT: Chapter Two, Joker and The Jay & Silent Bob Reboot. The only movie I have seen out of these 4 is Birds of Prey. Looks like I have some late night viewing to do this month.

NBA2K21

I have been wanting a new NBA2K game for years! And when I say years, let me tell you that I was still playing NBA2K13 as of last month. This game looks really cool and I hope to delve into the career mode as soon as possible!

Mini Pac-Man Arcade Game

I have a pretty nice collection of these little arcade games that includes Asteroids, Centipede, Frogger, Galaga and a Stranger Things machine. Now I can add the classic, and one of my favorite arcade games of all time, Pac-Man to the collection.

Vinyl Figures

I had been eyeing that weird "Pizza Venkman" figure for a long time at our local calendar store, but at $20, I was not willing to budge. This one was found in the clearance section for $3 and was gifted to me for my Ghostbusters collection. Of course I had to have a TMNT item in my gifts this year. My wife found this Target exclusive Metalhead Funko POP while she was doing her online Christmas shopping. She thought I would like it...and she was right! This is now on my shelf of Ninja Turtles coolness in my basement next to my other TMNT POPs!

Halloween Gifts From Mom
A few days after Christmas a box arrived from my Mom & Dad. It contained a few gifts for the kids, some money to spend on the family and these two items for me! My Mom got me a Spirit Halloween Store branded Ghostbusters logo sign and she also sent this ice skating Ghost Halloween decoration. We had this decoration in our house when I was growing up! You wind it up and the Ghost skates around the lake while a music box version of the Ghostbusters theme song plays. There is also a switch you can hit that triggers strobing colored light effects in the house & tree and plays an annoying haunting sound. I remember taking the ghost off and playing with him around this haunted house scene. We actually broke the magnet on his bottom off, so my Mom hot glued a new one to his bottom. That magnet is still there today. Not sure why my Mom sent these Halloween decorations in December, but I am thankful!

Well, that's it for this past Christmas. I hope yours was merry, bright and full of good tidings. Merry Christmas!

40th Birthday Roundup!

This past weekend was my 40th birthday. I'm not ashamed to say that. I feel great, I have an amazing family, good job and excellent comic book collection. What else could anyone ask for in life? As usual my family spoiled me with some fabulous gifts including shirts, DVDs and collectibles. Let's take a look under the wrapping paper and see what I was given this year!

The Goldbergs: The Complete First Season

This is one of my favorite shows on TV. Me and my kids love watching it on Wednesdays on ABC, but if for some reason we miss our weekly episode we can pop in this DVD and watch Adam get smothered by his mom, Barry go on a crazy rage filled rant, Pops give us some of his wisdom and Murray take his pants off at the door. I really like how this show based in the 80s, doesn't parody the decade, but gives us a peak at how life was back in the 80s. If you haven't already, check it out!

He-Man Clip by Monogram International

This one was a surprise. I hadn't asked for these figural key chains, but I am glad my kids picked it out for me. These come in blind bags, so of course ou don't know what you were going to get. Honestly I would have been happy with any of the characters included in this set, but I ended up getting one of the chase figures, Battle Armor He-Man. I never owned his figure growing up, but I did have Battle Armor Skeletor and loved the battle damage gimmick on his chest. Now I can add this cute little fella to my Masters of the Universe collection!

The Key to One-Eyed Willie!

I have always wanted a replica of the Key to One-Eyed Willy from my favorite movie of all-time, The Goonies! My wife really came through on this one. Not only did she make me a cake that had Willy's Map on it, but she continued the these by getting me this amazing prop from the movie! It's pretty heavy duty and very well done.

Hostess & Drake's Cakes

Since I left the East Coast a while ago, I have been missing some of my favorite foods like Pork Roll, Slupees, Entemans Cakes, Herrs chips and Drakes Cakes. My parents always send me a box full of goodies from back home and this year was no different. Not pictured is the box of Drake's Funny Bones that now resides in my office desk drawer. I lost a bit of weight this year and am back to the weight I was in high school, but with these babies in my cabinet I am sure it will all come back!

Weird NJ Magazines

Again, this is another sweet gift from my parents. I loved reading these magazines back in the day and finding out some of the lore and legends from my home state. The magazine doesn't dissapoint. If you are a fan of weird stuff or the state of NJ, I recommend you pick up a few copies. BTW, I had one of my letters printed in one of these issues! Life goal achieved!!

Old Sport Card Packs

The hits from my parents keep coming! My Dad got me into card collecting back in 1987. The first set I really collected was the 1987 Topps Baseball card set. You know the one, with the classic woodgrain boarder. They sent me a bunch of '87 Topps packs, but also included were some 80s Topps Football and 90s Fleer Basketball! Nothing beats ripping open a vintage pack of cards. The smell of old mummified bubble gum really brings bak the memories! There was also a random stack of old school cards, which is where I pulled this freakin' awesome Bo Jackson '89 Topps baseball card. Thanks Dad!

Cycle of the Werewolf by Stephen King

My Dad is a huge Stephen King fan and growing up I knew these books were scary stuff. This book really freaked me out as a kid, but I would continuosly flip through the pages to check out the the grotesque but beautiful artwork by Bernie Wrightson. I never read the book and this has been on my reading wish list for a while now. My wife found it on Target's website on sale for $11 and grabbed it immediately. I know what I'm reading in October!!

Throw Throw Burrito Game

My kids and I really enjoy the card game Exploding Kittens. I know it sounds terrible, but it's actually a really fun game. This game, Throw Throw Burrito is from the makers of that game and does not dissapoint in the fun category. Esentially it's a card game where you have to get three of a kind. If you get three of a kind cards that reflect either Burrito War or Duel, the players have to grab the extremely squishy burritos and throw them at each other. At the end whoever has the most three of a kind card sets wins the game. My kids like throwing things at people, so this game was right up their alley!

Stranger Things "Roast Beef" shirt and Dustin Pop

It's no secret to my family that I love Stranger Things. I have been a fan since day one. My kids thought I would like the "Roast Beef" shirt that Dustin wears in Season 3 and they were right! Funko shirts are really good quality and are comfortable to wear. I actually wore my shirt out of the box that day as we hit up the mini-golf course. Now that I have this Dustin Pop and Steve from Scoops Ahoy, I need to get the rest of the crew to complete the set! Pops are so addictive!

Musical Mutagen Tour Set

I have been wanting this set for a long time and my wife spotted it at Target early in the month and set it aside for my birthday! I love the guitar picks, souvenir ticket and concert lanyard! They are so cool! The shirt on the other hand was a little bit of a disappointment. Unlike the Funko shirt form the Dustin set, this one was stif and seemed to feel almost waxy on the inside of the shirt. I wonder if this is due to the screen printing on the shirt? Has anyone else had this issue? Maybe it will be nicer after I give it a good wash? I still love that all these decades later the "Coming Out of Their Shells Tour" is finally getting some respect. If you missed it back in the day, you can view the entire special below. That's my birthday gift to you...ENJOY!!!

Memorable Goonie Moments

Last week myself and my wife decided that we would take the kids to the local drive-in theater to see Ghostbusters! My wife had a night off from work and we were ready to go...except the weather did not want to cooperate. It rained like crazy and we missed the opportunity to go. Upon checking the movie lineup the next week, we discovered The Karate Kid and The Goonies were playing! We had to go! The Goonies is one of my favorite, if not my favorite movie of all time.

You see, our family was planning on taking a trip to Astoria, Oregon this summer so we could see some of the sites from The Goonies in person. These would include Haystack Rock, Clatsop County Jail, the Walsh house, the Oregon Film Museum & Cannon Beach to name a few. Of course those plans were cancelled due to COVID-19, so getting to see The Goonies on the big screen for the first time in my life was a small but fantastic consolation.

It really brought back great memories for me and watching my kids laugh and enjoy the movie truly made me appreciate this film on another level. I can still remember seeing the commercial for this movie on TV when it was released in theaters all the way back in the golden age of 1985. I was five years old and saw these kids on an adventure that seemed like nothing I had ever witnessed before. The images of them sliding down the water slides was burned into my head. 

My family rarely went to the movies at that time. There were 7 of us, so my parents probably had to take out a short term loan to take us. Therefore I never was able to view The Goonies on the big screen. It wasn't until 1986 when The Goonies was released on VHS that I would finally see it! My neighbor's grandma got him a copy and we watched it at his house. To this day, I swear the part with the octopus was included on this video!

Anyway after seeing this movie, I was immediately in love with it! Data was my favorite character and I even tried to create my own gadgets just like him. I use the word "gadgets" loosely because they included taking a piece of screen from a screen door and attaching it to the front of my bike as a bug catcher and putting a piece of twine that was used to wrap our Christmas tree up for transit up my sleeve so if anyone tried to kidnap me, I could eject it and tie up the would be bad guys. Not the most inventive, but still this movie captured my imagination in ways no other movie had before. The only thing that really stunk was that the movie I loved so much never had a toy line come out, but we did have The Goonies II video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System!

Finally, I was able to take on the roll of The Goonies in an attempt to defeat the Fratelli family and save...A MERMAID! Yup, you take the lead as Mikey and you need to save your Goonie pals from the clutches of Jake, Francis and Ma Fratelli by using weapons like yo-yos, slingshots and boomerangs before finally releasing the mermaid Annie from her watery prison! 

This actually wasn't that bad of a game. Was it great, no. But it was entertaining and fulfilled my cravings for more Goonies for a little while. It would be many years before we saw the next big Goonies merchandise release.

It was 2007 when Mezco Toys released a line of The Goonies action figures. Sadly to say these came out at a time that I did not have the disposable income available to use on toys. Now if you check ebay you can't find a single carded or loose figure for under $50 each! 

Luckily in 2014 Funko released a line of The Goonies ReAction figures. I really love these figures, because I feel that this is what we should have gotten back in the 80s if a line of toys was created. They just have the look and feel of a line created during my childhood. Our local Barnes & Noble had them on sale for around $8 each and I bought one of every character and they are fantastic! That takes us back to present day. I will always cherish these memories and am thankful for everyone who worked on this movie and brought it into my life. Maybe next year myself and my family can finally embark on our own Goonie adventure. Until then, at least we have Cyndi Lauper's song "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough" to rock out to! ENJOY and always remember "Goonies Never Say Die"!

It Came From The Closet!

Recently I was searching for something in our back basement closet and as usual I dug out the boxes of old loose toys for my kids to play with. I want them to have the same great memories of playing with these figures as I did as a kid. These are the memories of happiness that have stuck with me for a lifetime, also it makes me happy to see them bringing joy to another generation. Okay, let's get past the sentimental gushy stuff, because as I was cleaning I rediscovered some cool stuff that I forgot I even owned! These are just a few of the items I have packed away.

The Adventures of Batman & Robin: Action Packs

I bought this full box of Batman cards at the local Goodwill for a couple dollars. I intend to one day have a room that I can display my collection of retro goodies. My plan is to have a section devoted to my full boxes of retro trading cards. For a few dollars this was worth the pickup!

Kevin Smith Autographed Inaction Figure

I spent the first 20+ years of my life growing up in NJ and when I noticed a fellow Jersian was making it big as a movie director I was on board. I enjoy Smith's View Askew movies like Clerks, Chasing Amy and Mall Rats, so on one of my return trips to NJ I visited the Jay & Silent Bob's Secret Stash comic shop in Red Bank where I purchased this autographed figure for around $10. I actually got the chance to interview Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier on their tour bus a while ago. He is a great guy and took the time to answer my questions, pose for some pictures and give me some swag. If you have the chance to see Smith live, I recommend you go!

Gremlins & The Goonies VHS Tapes

The Gremlins VHS is actually the tape I had as a kid! I loved this movie and every year during the holidays I try to convince my kids to watch it with me. So far, I have had no takers, but I feel like 2018 is the year my kids will give in and watch Gizmo & Billy fight the good fight against Stripe and his evil mischief causing Gremlins! The Goonies VHS, I saw at a thrift shop for a quarter and I just couldn't say no!

Signed Pointer Sisters Poster!

The Pointer Sisters were hot stuff back in the 80s, so when I found this old autographed poster in my office I had to take it home! Every year our local theater hosts a big fundraising event and in 2004 the station I work for was the media sponsor. As a thank you the headliners of the fundraiser, The Pointer Sisters, signed this event poster and presented it to the station. Obviously nobody cared to hang it, because I found it jammed between a locker and filing cabinet. I was so excited to find this! BTW am I the only one who thinks of that Saved By The Bell episode were Jessie over does it with the caffeine pills when you hear the song "I'm So Excited"?

Power Rangers Tiger Electronic Game

Not much to say here. I was a fan of the Tiger electronic handheld games as a kid, my younger brother was into Power Rangers when they were at the height of their popularity and seeing this game at a thrift store brought a bunch of those memories flooding back. It was only 50 cents, but when I got it home and popped in some AA Batteries, it didn't work. I just don't have the heart to throw it out!

Puff Daddy feat. Jimmy Page: Come With Me CD Single

I admit that I was a huge fan of Puffy back in the day and when the hype train for the new Godzilla came rolling into town this song played through it's horn! I actually liked the song and bought the Cassette single. I had a friend at school who asked if I would trade my cassette single for his CD single and I said yes. It is still in my collection today! My son has become a big fan of the Godzilla movies and we recently watched the 1998 Godzilla movie and he enjoyed it, so it was no surprised he started jamming out when the song "Come With Me" played during the end credits. Man, I remember this video being one of those big MTV events that they hyped up for weeks.  

In Search of The Goonies Novelization

Every once in a while I like to challenge myself to find a piece of my childhood that will bring back great memories of my amazing childhood. This time around I have found myself on a quest to find and purchase the novelization of my favorite movie of all time...The Goonies! This book search didn't happen just out of the blue, but thanks to some of the guys I follow on Twitter like Shawn Robare of Branded in the 80s fame. I've read some of these adaptations of movies and sometimes they contain altered events and deleted scenes that never made it into the movie. I am hoping this is the case with The Goonies. So I searched online...

but the prices were a little out of my range. After that didn't go as planned I ran another search, this time for used bookstores in my neighborhood. I found 3 of them in the area! It looks like I am now on my own Goonie adventure, but instead of looking for rich stuff I was hoping to uncover a wealth of  fantastic fiction. I have journeyed to 2 of the bookstores so far, but no Goonies novels were to be found. Instead I picked up some other great literary works of art based on a few awesome characters that were popular back in the day. Here is what I scored for under $5!

Alf: Mission To Mars (Checkerboard Press, 1987)

Heathcliff: In Outer Space (Marvel Books, 1985)

My Pet Monster: Goes To School (Western Publishing, 1986)

Pound Puppies: Problem Puppies (Western Publishing, 1986)

Roger Rabbit: Make The World Laugh (Western Publishing, 1988)

TMNT: The Storybook Based On The Movie (Random House, 1990)

Not a bad haul overall. At least I found something to bring home and read to my kids before they head off to bed for the night. But it wasn't what I was looking for, it wasn't The Goonies. Well, I still have one more shop to check for my paperback white whale! Wish me luck and pray I don't end up like Chester Copperpot!

Birthday Recap 2016: Part 2

Last week was my birthday and I am so blessed to have a wife and kids that really know me and know what I like. I'm sure it helped that I dropped a few hints here and there. It was a great birthday spent with the fam. Well, let's dig in and take a look at what I unwrapped this year in Part 2 of the 2016 Birthday Recap!

 1989 The Little Mermaid Flounder Ornament (McDonalds, 1989)

Pac-Man Bottle Opener (Paladone Products, 2015)

Slimer Plush toy (Build-A-Bear, 2016)

The Goonies ReAction Figure: Sloth (Funko, 2014)

Various Sports Cards: Baseball, Football & Basketball

ColecoVision Flashback Console (AtGames, 2014)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Party Wagon Lunch Box Collector's Set! (Paramount, 2016)