A trip to the Antique Mall

I had a friend tip me off to a little Antique Mall just a few miles out of town. I went there this week to see what kinda of amazing retro treasures I could find. Unfortunately the place was filled with mostly old junk. Between the used romance novels, broken tools, lamp shades and 1987 Topps Baseball Cards I found these sweet items! Let's walk down the aisles and take a look.

 

7up Cool Spot Telephone: $10.00

In the early 90s Cool Spot the 7up mascot was everywhere. He even had his own Nintendo game! I love seeing this little guy when I go to these antique stores. Sure it makes me feel old, but it brings back some nice memories. I don't collect phones and I don't even have a land line that I could connect this to if I did, so I passed on bringing Mr. Spot home.

 

Incredible Hulk Peter Pan Album Cover: $1.50

I saw this album cover in a corner next to a power strip and freaked out a little. We used to have albums like this when I was a kid. We had everything from super heroes to Strawberry Shortcake to those Disney records with the pictures printed on them. I was a little disappointed to find that this was just an empty sleeve, but at least I saved myself a few bucks?

VTech Electronic Talking Baseball Game: $3.98

Anything with the words "Electronic" and "Talking" definitely gets my interest. I never had this toy as a kid, but wouldn't mind having it in my collection. I have quite a few old handheld electronic games at home. If it's there next time I go, maybe I will pick it up for the reasonable price of $3.98. Only problem is I couldn't tell if it worked or not. The "As is" tag kind of scares me off from buying toys like this.

 

Superman The Movie Beverage Mug: $9.95

I wanted this mug! The $10 price tag made me put it back on the shelf though. This would have been on my shelf at half that price. I love the old Christopher Reeves movies and this piece was in nice condition, but once again I really don't collect mugs. I'll pass and save my money for some more Superman trading cards or the elusive (to me) jar of Superman Peanut Butter! That baby has been on my wish list for a long time!

NAKI Super Nintendo Cleaning Kit: $?

This was a complete NAKI Super NES cleaning kit from the mid 90s. Everyone had something like this. Me and my brother actually had the official Nintendo cleaning kit for our SNES that was shaped like a SNES cart and actually did a pretty good job of cleaning our system whenever it would get a bad case of the blinks. I considered buying this, but it was in a locked case with no price tag in sight.

Masters of The Universe Golden Puzzle (Sealed): $9.95

This puzzle was the one item that I really fought putting back on the shelf. A SEALED MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE GOLDEN PUZZLE from 1984! I love the artwork and I am a huge MOTU fan, but I'm sure I couldn't justify this purchase to the wife. Maybe next payday?

 

I saw a few other things that I liked there like some McDonalds International Beanie Babies, some Domino's Pizza Hats and a Baby Mickey Mouse toy. All in all there was nothing incredible there, but I will be making a return trip sometime in the future. Ugh! Why did I not buy that He-Man puzzle?

Dollar Tree Incredible Hulk!

I got suckered in again by the Dollar Tree! This recurring theme may become a problem. But seriously when you see a 1984 Incredible Hulk Annual for $1, could you pass it up? I obviously couldn't. The story inside is kind of ho-hum. The Hulk ends up on a tropical planet, a symbiote spine attaches itself to Hulk, hilarity ensues and in the end the spine sacrifices itself for the better good.

Not the best Hulk story ever told, but the 80s advertisements inside were amaze-balls! 1984 was a time when Atari ruled the world and this is reflected in the ads. We not only got the insane back cover Star Wars Arcade Game ad, but the original Mario Bros. ad! This was before the Brothers became Super and were just cleaning crabs and turtles from pipes to earn a buck. So simple, but so much fun and look at those retro drawings. That is Mario at his best!

The next ads were a whiff of nostalgia as they included Secret Wars figures for $5.99 each, a Captain America Shield & Spider-Man flying web for the low price of $4.49 and an All-New black costume Spider-Man shirt for $10! All OUTSTANDING BUYS!!! The next page featured an ad for the Tomy toys inspired comic series Starriors! I had one of these guys growing up and they were pretty cool. Definitely one of the more underrated toy lines of the 80s.

These next ads I added because of the oddity of them. I did not know the NYCC went back this far. In 1984 tickets cost only $9 and the show was held at the Omni Park Central Hotel! A far cry from what the con is today. The other ad for Military Diamond sales just seems so odd and out of place. In 1984 comics were still geared mostly towards kids, so what was an ad for $700 diamond rings doing in this comic? Who bought the ad space? And why is that sketch of the two people so damn creepy?

Am I the only one who liked ads like this? Yes they were trying to sell me something, but they were also a fun activity. Fig Newtons always had the best ones. I always viewed ads in comics like commercial breaks during cartoons. You had to hold my attention to keep my eyes on your product and these ads did just that!

I guess there was one more cool thing in this book....A FREAKIN SPLASH PAGE OF HULK GETTING CRUSHED BY A HUGE DINOSAUR/DRAGON THING!!!!! RAARRGHH!