Today was a first for me, the first time I had to grab a basket while shopping at Goodwill. And then, the first time I had to say screw the basket and go for a cart, and then bring the cart all the way to the car because it was too much to carry. And yes, I then brought the cart back, I've worked retail for the past fifteen years, until this past year that is. But wow, $35 later and I got the most I've ever purchased from Goodwill in one trip, considering I usually leave empty handed.
Man oh man, where to start. Okay, so right away, on the front table I spotted a bag of Micro Machines and some pewter pieces. Well, the Micro Machines turned out to be not Micro Machines, but actually a knock off named Micro Action Military Magnifiers from Funrise in 1988. A lot of the 'Micro Machines' I had as a kid, and still have because I recently decided not to part with them, were actually Funrise knock offs as well, even the air craft carrier. I had no clue. I actually had some of this collection but not these particular vehicles. I want to sell them because they're worth about $20 for the lot, but I also want to keep them, I'm so torn. Maybe I'll just sell the duplicates.
Same bag, there were a number of pewter pieces made in the early 90s, which explains why it was so heavy. After lots and lots of research, I figured out what some of them are, and we have a Grenadier Julie Guthrie's Fantasy Personalities 859 Chaotic Wizard who's only worth about $8, a few broken figures I'm not sure of, and a Ral Partha Children Of The Night WAR EAGLE #1, which looks like it's worth about $30. His wing isn't attached but I'm pretty sure it's a part you have to glue on anyway so no big deal. I loved pewter pieces as a kid but they were too 'older kid' for me, so I always planned on collecting them when I got a little older, but never did. Does that mean I'm still a child?
But the fun didn't stop there, I spotted a whole bunch of ExoSquad vehicles, another line I didn't collect or even know about at the time. Not sure if there was a market for them, at a couple bucks a piece, I just bought everything. I ended up with three vehicles, two exosuits and one figure. Okay, these things are cool, how did I not know about them? Ahh, that's why, the cartoon aired at something stupid like 4:30 in the morning, needless to say it didn't last long. But wow, the story sounds crazy, gonna have to watch and see if I'm selling these or starting a new collection. I hate myself sometimes, lol. Looks like all the pieces together are worth about $40.
No longer able to hold everything, I grabbed a play shopping basket from the shelf, but it overflowed after a couple items. In need of a real basket, I ran to grab one because I was apprehensive about leaving the figures unattended and losing them to the vultures. Luckily, I'm pretty quick. But then I spotted an insane looking Optimus Prime, who turned out to be the Beast Hunters Dragon Assault from 2013. This guy is huge, well over a foot tall. He's not really worth anything but he's awesome and going in my collection. And he filled up the rest of my basket which simply wouldn't do because I found more gems hiding among the shelves of plastic goodness.
Time to switch from basket to shopping cart, this time I was able to lug my overflowing basket to the front, grab a cart and not risk losing any of my treasures. Perfect timing because the vultures began to arrive. So I raced back over like this was Nascar and loaded up Optimus and a strange spaceship thing I wasn't familiar with, also from the 90s. A quick search on my phone, now that I have a phone that can do that, oh yeah, I'm cool enough to have the internet on my phone finally, I figured out it was from Stargate. Not worth much but grabbed it anyway.
Moving the Stargate ship revealed what was clearly a Batman vehicle from the early 90s, from the Batman line I used to collect. Well, maybe collect is too strong of a word, I had a jet, a motorcycle and like five figures, but I knew immediately it was from that line. I just didn't know what the hell that vehicle was supposed to be. Well, it's a Batskiboat, whatever that is. It's missing pieces but still worth about $15 in its current condition. My Batman phase was very short lived and I never got back into it, so this one will end up on eBay, but still, what a find. I wonder if this crazy vehicle actually appeared in the movie.
And then, beside that, a green Alien figure from the 1993 Kenner line, with moveable arms that still move. I had one of the Predator figures from the Kenner line but was never really into the franchise, despite how cool they looked. This is the green translucent version of the Mantis Alien, only worth a couple bucks so I'll keep him for my collection, at least for now. All of this was just icing on the cake after finding the Skull Mountain playset, my pants were still tight over that but I just kept grabbing everything that looked interesting. This was one hell of a 90s collection of toys, and it didn't stop there.
Under a couple of dolls, I spotted the Star Wars Micro Machines Endor playset, my favorite one from the line. I've regretted getting rid of it since the second it sold. If I'd only kept one piece from that collection, this would have been the one, so I figured I'd hunt it down someday, but finding it in the wild is so much more thrilling. And it so happens that the bag of Micro Machines actually had some Star Wars ones in it, including a couple of my favorites, the Boba Fett Slave ship, Luke Skywalker and the Emperor. And I still have some of the pine trees from my original Endor set so it's pretty close to complete. All I need is the satellite dish, one more tree and the logs.
Then, on the endcap, I spotted a vintage Jake The Snake Roberts from the WWF Hasbro line. Of course I have him, but for a dollar, I grabbed him anyway. Aside from Jake Roberts being the freakin' man, and my love of the Hasbro line, so I would have bought him anyway, he was actually my very first WWF figure, the first of many. Okay, fine, many more than many. Not sure why I bought him, since I still have my original, but I did anyway. Who knows, maybe I'll get back to customizing someday and he's a great one to use as a base figure.
Before leaving, I grabbed a giant Playmobil base that filled up the remainder of my cart. I never had any Playmobil pieces as a kid, they were kind of vanilla for me, but I have to admit, they had some awesome playsets. My sister and I wanted a few of them after seeing them for the first time at FAO Schwartz in Boston back in the early 90s, for our GI Joes to play on of course. It's missing all of its parts but I'm sure there's someone out there who has the other pieces and needs the island itself, the trouble will be finding a box big enough to ship it in. Or, who knows, maybe I'll keep it for myself for my GI Joes to play on, if only I had time to play with them.
Okay, I think that sums up everything I found at Goodwill. From there it was on to Oriental Jade to order supper, and I figured why not check out Gamestop at the mall while waiting. And there he was, the Goldar exclusive figure from the Power Rangers Lightning Collection. And damn is this figure beautiful, well, you know, it's Goldar so maybe beautiful isn't the right word but wow, he'll look great next to Lord Zedd, and Kimberly whenever she hits the shelves. Now she will be beautiful. And this has been one hell of an evening for toy hunting.
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