This Week In Finds #5

There were three really great estate sales in my town this past weekend and, despite my battles with a mustachioed hipster weeny boy, I managed to score some decent loot!

A couple more Dream Pets for my recent collection. I was pretty thrilled to find the St. Bernard with his cool hat and barrel collar. The other guy is both a Dream pet knock-off and an apparent Snoopy Knock-off. I don't recall Snoopy ever wearing thick-rimmed glasses and a plaid bow....I also need to find him a nose!

I've been wanting to get some more 45 cases lately, but didn't feel like paying $20 (and sometimes more!) for one on Ebay. Luckily I found a couple of great ones for El Cheapo. The jean Platter Pak is my new fave, the other I'll stick on the 'bay and get myself a little piece o' the action!

A couple jugs for my mini-jug/hillbilly collection.

I found oodles of great mags and comics too. There is tons of cool junk hidin' inside these babies, plenty to share here later!!!

A few neato buttons. "Cavalier Power" is a 70's pin from my old high school in Corunna, MI. The "Patriots" pin has moving eyeballs! I'm not sure if "Pepper Power' is referring to Dr. Pepper or not, but just plain peppers are cool too.

A friend of my mom's hooked me up with these happenin' shades!

A devil dragster by Hot Wheels, a Jaguar D-type by Tootsietoy, a Capn' Crunch Whistle and a Mattel major Matt Mason helmet. I snagged three of these helmets, which fetch between $20-30 on Ebay! I guess kids always lost 'em! 

The whistle has a pretty funny story: This guy John Draper, a Vietnam Vet, used the whistle to hack phone lines in the early 70's and make free long distance calls! The whistle produces a 2600 hertz tone used by the phone companies in them days to open lines for long distance calls to go through. Draper later developed "blue boxes" which could produce many different tones to fool the phone lines.

Some Andy Capp books. I was surprised to find out that this dude has been around since 1917! Damn, I love them Cheddar Fries too....

This 70's custom van model was my coolest find of the weekend, and at $6, my most expensive. Not bad really, seeings how it's still sealed in plastic. Unfortunately, I have no talent or patience for building models, but it will look cool on a shelf!

This Week In Finds #4

I haven't had one of these updates in a while mostly because I really haven't been buying much lately. Now that my tax wealth is spent, I guess i have to be a little more selective, and stay the heck off Ebay! I did pick up some cool stuff at some estate sales recently though. It was the month of Dream Pets!

I don't know what you call these dudes, but they were worth a buck a piece I guess. They did need some HEAVY grooming, hahaha! I need to paint in the eyeballs on the green fella too.

 Here are some Holiday friends. I think the Valentines girl might have been holding a big heart or something. I think she looks uncannily like Carol Channing! My mom found the funny lil leprechaun in a pile of junk on St. Patrick's day!

 I dug this old phone out of a dumpster, still needs some cleaning up, but it looks cool. I really dig the avocado color.

 This pink poodle appears to be a knock-off Dream Pet. She is made of Naugahyde like material, rather than velveteen like the real ones. I also picked up these cool 60's joke books.

 This skunk is a genuine Dream Pet. He needed a little TLC, but is lookin' gooood now!

I'm gonna have tons of new junk to display this Christmas, including a new knee-hugger, this Dream Pet reindeer, and these awesome Christmas 45's from the 50's! My, how the Chipmunks have changed...

This Week (and last week) in Finds #3

Most of this weeks purchases were Ebay goodies, I did find a couple cool things at the thrifties and a weird sale that I may share later too.

This nifty hillbilly guy is by Norcrest, but is exactly like a hillbilly made by Kreiss for their "Psycho Ceramics" line. Is it a knockoff or the original? I kinda wanna get a nicer feather for him too, but I guess a mountain man would have a grungy feather, eh?

This lazy bum is a no name "Made in Japan" dealio. I am working on a collection of bums, hobos, winos and tramps too!

This is about 6" tall. It matches my similar "Hang Loose" hand!

Oddly enough, this is the wrong finger!

I had to get this dirty hippie! My great Aunt had the same one when I was a kid. She used to get me down a box of cool 60's toys to play with every Thanksgiving. He also has a parachute, but looks cooler without it on.

This naughty minx is an A.M. radio! Unfortunately it doesn't work, but it was a steal for $13 (I just saw one go for over $100 on Ebay!) She's about a foot tall.

Her "thingies" are the radio knobs!

My folks picked me up this far out fiber optic lamp. It spins around and changes colors! Psycho-delic!

Here's a video of this baby (and my Fantasia lamp) in action!

This Week In Finds: Week #2

Lately I've been mostly interested in collecting two things: Hillbilly stuff and Risqué Barware stuff. Most of this weeks purchases fit right into those categories. I don't know why I'm so attracted to these things. I guess it's the low brow sense of humor they are made with and the chinsy craftsmanship above all. This is the kind of stuff I remember my Grandparents having high up on shelves when I was a kid and watching all the grownups get a kick out of 'em. I like to imagine somebody bought this junk at some second rate novelty store as a gag gift for a buddy at work back in the 70's or something...

 This ashtray was an Ebay purchase. Her nips are actually sparkly rubies.

 I have another cup that's very similar to this one. I've seen lots of variations of these on Ebay and hope to get a couple more soon.

 Here are more cups in the same style. These ones are miniature size.

 Found this here hillbilly boy at the antique mall on Monday. It was worth the $5 since I've been looking so hard for some of these dudes lately.

The guy in the center is very similar to the other hillbilly, but I think he's missing his hair, beard and hat. i haven't decided if I wanna try to make some up for him or leave him alone since he does look pretty funny without 'em! The little salt and pepper shaker jugs were a present from some pals and are a great addition to my mini jug collection!

I actually have a bunch of this type of stuff that I will share when my collection gets a little more impressive. If anybody out there has any Hillbilly or Nudie items they wanna unload, let me know!

This Week In Finds: Week #1

If you can't already tell, I'm an avid collector of  other people's trash. Be it cool old kitschy stuff or literal trash, I love it! I frequent many a thrift store, junk hole, garbage sale, estate sale and dumpster during any given week. Starvation Army, Badwill, Volunqueers of America, you know the places. Soooo, I guess I might keep ya updated on my weekly finds, interesting or otherwise!

I dunno who this dapper dude is, but I like him. I actually had to think about whether he was in fact cool enough to snag or not, but I'm glad I did! He's a bank too.

That irreverence, that wit. I'd recognize it anywhere. It's a Ziggy!

My new favorite mug. Imagine drinking ice cold root brewski outta this baby!

A Tasco periscope. I can't figure out if this is old or not, I'm getting conflicting facts from Ebay. Anywho, I guess it's pretty cool for 86 cents. This will come in handy in the middle of a snowball battle, peering from behind my snow fortress wall.

This cassette contains Christmas music from the future.

Easyrider's Video Magazine. Video magazines must have been pretty popular in the late 80's-early 90's, as I've seen many of them on various subjects. This was the most entertaining video I've seen in a long time (that is, when the tracking started working!). Ugly biker chicks flashing their saggy boobs, a scary-ass biker comedian, Skanky bar chicks dumping beer all over their bodies, crazy dudes jamming bikes through the mud, tanks and flame-throwing robots....Oh and let's not forget the "Biker Home Videos".

Yes, that's Al from "Home Improvement" and Dave Thomas of "Bob and Doug McKenzie" fame. This is one of those super cheesy Feature Films for Families tapes. I can pretty much guess the plot from the cover art, and I'm pretty sure little else happens. I haven't watched this one yet, not cuz I'm afraid it will suck, but cuz I'm afraid I'll like it.

Detail of the cover art: Notice the "Scan-A-Scam" scanner and the gloriously ancient computer.