Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Random Buys of a Random Guy: Old toys!!!

All right... the time has come. I am officially getting ready to delete the content from Really Rather Random Guy (dot blogspot dot com) and in preparing for that, I wanted to import a bunch of the content that I know will then be lost forever, by bringing the posts over here to Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks (dot blogspot dot com). So, with that in mind, I thought I would preface these entries with the fact that they are indeed OLD blog posts from an OLD, now DEFUNCT blog, and cross my fingers and hope that folks will still want to read them.


This post was originally published back on February 12th, 2014.

Just a quick post to show off some vintage finds I made at Goodwill over the past weekend: 


I think I paid a total of 5 dollars for the three items you see here, and I was pretty happy to find all three. Let's take a closer look, shall we? 


First up was a pile of girly-girl stuff for my wife. A grab-bag of vintage Barbie clothes (which included the pair of baby My Little Ponies) and a vintage Strawberry Shortcake trolley. My wife's not huge into collecting vintage toys, so I may even end up passing these all along to a good home. I especially found the Ken-Doll Cosby sweater in the bottom left corner to be hilarious. The whole pile was pretty ridiculous though. 


First up, is this See 'N Say from Mattel. I was all agog when I saw the date stamp on the back said 1964. So I was a little disappointed when I saw the date on the large animal sticker running around the front of the toy said 1978. I don't typically make my old toy purchases based on age or value, I just buy stuff I like, or that bring me back to childhood, or that I think someone else might like. But the idea of this See N' Say being from the 60's really did get me excited. But still, it being from 1978 was pretty awesome too (I was born that year so... it was a good year). Then I noticed the copyright on the Zoo Keeper sticker in the center had 1983 on it. Sigh. I still smiled when I bought it. I actually had one of these as a kid, and THAT was why I wanted it anyway. 


Next up is this Fisher-Price Fire Engine which looks like it has a little person sitting in the front, but really just has a head attached. I've seen these for sale in antique shops in MUCH better shape... but I really love the look of this thing, and don't mind how beat up it looks. The ladder is missing, but the wild shoestring hose is still attached! This little guy is from 1968. And finally, drum-roll please...


A Fisher-Price Kermit THE Frog hand-puppet from 1978 (again... a good year). I've stuffed his head full of tissues to keep it from crumpling for display purposes, and honestly, it sketches me out a little bit sticking my hand in a hand-puppet that is 35 years old (it FEELS sketchy) but it was the item I was most excited to find. Now when I sing karaoke in my best Kermit impression, I can have a Kermit puppet to lip-synch with. (This is not a joke. It is something I actually do. I once did a version of the Carpenters' "Close to You" as Kermit the frog at my company picnic. I followed it up the next year by singing Dolly Parton's and Kenny Rogers' "Islands in the Stream" as both Kermit AND Piggy... I'm not bragging... but it was a pretty epic performance. Let's just leave it at that.) 

ANWAY! That's it for tonight kids! I've got some Valentine's Day goodies that arrived in the mail courtesy of Tommy Day over at Top Hat Sasquatch that I want to share tomorrow... And I'm currently working on a MASSIVE post about Scooby-Doo... but for now, this is all you get. Keep your peepers peeled here for more randomly random randmoness!

9 comments:

  1. Sweet grabs Derek! I remember that Fire Truck or something like from a while ago i don't think i had one but again maybe i did because i had a lot Fisher-Price stuff when i was younger.

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    1. Yeah, I've actually just seen another one at the Dream Catcher antique mall for 15 bucks that was in much better condition, but I like the fact that I'm saving mine from being simple land-fill fodder.

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  2. GAH!
    This is too much.... too much! I was way impressed with your Kermit puppet when I saw it on fb. I need to see video of your karaoke as Kermit. You have mad skills! I use puppetry a lot with children's ministry and it is not an easy task to voice two characters at once, I know.
    I can't believe you covered Strawberry Shortcake, My Little Pony, Muppets and vintage Playskool all in one trip. This like I said is all too much. Great haul :)
    And did I say GAH?!

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    1. You MAY have mentioned a GAH or two... not sure. I will try to get video of myself singing something as Kermit the frog this Summer. I usually do it at my company picnic. The Kermit and Miss Piggy thing was so much fun but I doubt very much I could pull it off again.

      Thanks as always for the kind words m'dear!

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  3. Any score that includes Kermit is a good score indeed! I actually have that exact same Kermit that I found at a second-hand kids' stuff store last year, and recently found the fully stuffed version from '76 at another thrift store. The stuffed one I had as a kid, so he's extra special to me now.

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  4. Puppet Muppet Kermit for the win!

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  5. Nice find on that See 'n Say. I never see the ones with pull strings at sales. Always the later battery powered ones with the lever on the side. I'm kinda surprised they were still using the pull string in 1983.

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  6. 'Islands in the Stream' has been a secret favourite of mine since I was 12. And as Kermit AND Piggy....
    I would have loved to have seen your performance!
    I was in Florida in 2012, where we went to an AMAZING thrift shop. The amount of toys and collectables was astonishing! I wish I had more time and more money....*Le sigh*... That is why I enjoy your site so much.
    All those neat discoveries.

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