Collection Anxiety

So it's come to that time, the end of another semester, and with that, the end of my project. The blog has had a good run, so I'll keep it up when I can. Check back sporadically for updates. Assignment or not, I love to buy the good stuff. The blog also makes a good outlet for showing off the massive amount of various objects I already own, so expect a bit of that as well.

Anyways, I wanted some closure for the project, so I figured I'd update on everything that I've accumulated through my St. Vinnie's explorations. I think a picture would help.

How many entries can you find? Which entries are missing? Which items in the picture
never got an entry? Who really cares?

So now the question is, what to do with all of this stuff? The action figures are keepers, even the ones I already own. I maintain the philosophy that one can never own too many action figures. You never know when you might need that back up. And the giant Leonardo. He has to stay. Most of the glassware I'd like to keep as well, most of all the Wizard of Oz glass, and the kidney coffee mug. Those things rule.

I can't keep it all, sadly, so what to get rid of? Certainly Lord of the Dance (which I haven't watched, in case you were wondering). The Mickey rap tape can go, too (I did listen to it, and it was as shitty as you would expect from a tape featuring rapping Disney characters and Whoopi Goldberg). Doctor Dreadful will probably have to go too, because I just don't think I have the room. I'd like to try to get some money for it, since it has so many unopened packs. As much as I wanted to try some, I couldn't bring myself to open the pack and destroy the value. Maybe I'll open just one...

Well, there you have it. Thanks to everyone who read the blog over the semester. If you're interested in seeing future posts, leave me some comments so I know people still want to read this crap. Secondhand Jesus signing off (for now).

Foils & Feats

I feel like I could type some sort of introduction here, but I don't think I'm going to. I had a great find, a pretty good find, and my first St. Vincent's rip-off. I also somewhat profited from a secondhand item by trading it in at another store for a different piece of merchandise, so I'll be getting to all that, but not necessarily in that order.

Bruce Wayne Action Figure!

I knew that this was a Bruce Wayne right away, because he looks like Michael Keaton. And of course, on his leg is stamped "1990 DC Comics." This places him within the action figure line of the first Tim Burton Batman movie, my personal favorite.

The figure isn't one I would have wanted from the store brand new as a kid, but for a quarter I couldn't pass it up. It is a strange look for Batman, though. Since when does Bruce Wayne go around in a purple turtleneck sweater and black spandex pants tucked into his shoes? And what's with the weird, cryptic bat logo on his chest? Is that his way of avoiding denial without giving himself away? It's not very practical, if that's truly the case.

Cost of Bruce Wayne figure: $.25

RIPOFF: "Spiderman" Game!

Okay, so I saw this Spiderman PlayStation game all wrapped up in a plastic bag with a good, cheap price on it. It's a decent game, so I figured what the hell. Now, the game was wrapped up pretty tight, but I was able to open the case enough to see that there was a disk inside of it, so I figured that would be good enough. Only when I got home did I make the horrible discovery.

Can you see what that is? It sure as hell isn't a Spiderman game. Nope, it's a DEMO DISK from PlayStation magazine, dated August 2001. It's mostly video previews with a single playable demo: Final Fantasy 8. Demo Disks blow. This shit wasn't worth my money, that's for sure. At least there's the old stand-by of the blog to make the event somewhat worthwhile. See, kids? Even Secondhand Jesus gets ripped off sometimes. You can never be too careful.

Cost of Bogus "Game": $1.44

Secondhand Trade-off: Tiny Toon Adventures NES Game!

Okay, so a while back at Vinnie's I happened upon a copy of Killer Instinct for the Super Nintendo. I already own the game, and in fact it came packaged with my Super Nintendo, but the price was right ($1.44) so I figured I could eventually trade it in somewhere for a game I don't have. And what do you know? I was right.

The other day, I had to go to the mall and such to run a few errands, so I took Killer Instinct with me and stopped at the Play N Trade store. They offered to give me $3 store credit, which I happily accepted. I then zeroed in on a game I had wanted since childhood, marked $5.

That's right, Tiny Toon Adventures on the NES. It's a fun game that I remember playing as a kid at a friend's house. I never had my own Nintendo as a kid, so when I got one a couple of years ago, I became driven to collect all the good games my friends had. Tiny Toon Adventures was a great show back in the day, so I'm proud to have this game amongst my collection. Thanks to my secondhand dealings, I was able to get a new game for myself as well as reinsert Killer Instinct, a great game, back into the video game market. I'm sure it will sell from Play N Trade in no time, and a fellow old schooler will have tracked down their own missing classic. It brings a tear to my eye.

Cost of Tiny Toon Adventures: $2 total

Power Rangers Morph Into Math Activity Book!

Whoa, mama. Printed in 1994, this Power Rangers math book has never been marked in those almost twenty years. With the amount of sticky gunk stuck to the cover at first, I could tell this had been sold at more than one store during that time. But who cares about any of that, this is the Power Rangers! If I had been given a Power Rangers math book as a kid, I probably wouldn't have failed at it for twelve years. I was simply trying to learn math, when I should have been morphing into it.

The Rangers attempting to morph into math. Not quite there yet.

Finally. Only those who have truly morphed into math may receive the certificate of power.

I was a fan of Power Rangers in kindergarten, and only the first run of it, mind you. All that turbo, space, time traveling crap was after my time. The first Power Rangers kicked ass. I liked the Black Ranger, who was actually "black." Funny. The Yellow Ranger was Asian. That show was racist.

Cost of Power Rangers Morph Into Math: $.56

More 80's Nostalgia

Hello, folks. Sorry I haven't been posting as much, but it's the end of the semester and I've been busy as hell trying not to drop the ball in the last three weeks before break. I wanted to assure everyone that I haven't been jailed for excessive coolness. Not yet, anyway. So here's a write up on a couple of items, from me to you.

Hand-Painted California Raisin!

.

It was a real bitch getting him to stand on the carpet.

That's right, folks, this is a HAND-PAINTED California Raisin guy. Somebody made this out of their passionate love for the California Raisins and it shows through the red shoes and pipe-cleaner arms. He's a solid block of wood, which means somebody outlined a California Raisin shape on a piece of wood and cut it out with a fancy saw. I don't know about you, but I find this highly amusing. They obviously spent some time hand crafting a California Raisin  for whatever reason people have for doing things like that. Love, I suppose. Love of the California Raisins.

Does everybody remember the California Raisins? Basically they were a claymation/cartoon band used to advertise raisins (shock!) but evolved into something of a bigger entity, getting a cartoon show along with a SHIT-load, and I emphasize shit because it was quite a load, of little rubbery figurines. There was the band of course, with guitar players and drums and whatnot, as well as other raisins doing random things. There were ones doing skateboarding, rollerblading, lounging on the beach, and female raisins doing female things like... standing there, looking pretty.

Well anyways, somebody apparently had quite an obsession with the California Raisins, to the point where the official merchandise wasn't enough. This person had to play raisin-God, and forge a raisin all their own.

Dirty...

Cost of Homemade California Raisin: $.59

Skeletor!!!

Look at him, killing a guy.

Whooooo, I do so love Skeletor. And what a great name! If my name was Skeletor, I would've probably been in far fewer fights as a kid. Nobody fucks with a guy named Skeletor.

In case you're one of those weird people born in the 90's, Skeletor was the bad guy of the cartoon/action figure line "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe." He was kind of a goofball on the cartoon, which kind of eclipsed his evil nature, but that was just a cover-up so kids wouldn't wet their pants at the sight of him tearing off He-Man's head and drinking the blood as it sprays like a fountain. Just look at him, man. He's got a green skull for a head! That makes him the ultimate evil bad-ass, and if Skeletor were real and alive, he'd probably be sleeping with all kinds of hot Gothic chicks.

This version of Skeletor is from 1985, and is a sort of "Battle Damage" Skeletor. The plate on his chest with the bat rolls over twice, with the undamaged side, a single gash side, and then two gashes in the armor side, respectively. It's kind of pointless to me, though, because in my battles, Skeletor would never take damage. He'd just kill He-Man effortlessly and allow evil to rule over the land of Eternia for all time. I'm kind of sick like that.

Cost of Skeletor Battle Damage Figure: $.36

By the Power of Greyskull!