Thursday, December 27, 2012

Schwinn 1980 Catalog

Remember your first real bike?  Mine was a Banana seat Schwinn passed down from my brothers and to them from, who knows?  It was kinda ragged, but I thought it was awesome.  I wish I still had a banana seat bike.  I remember the day I learned to ride it.  When  I felt comfortable I just took off and kept going, my mom behind me yelling to stay on our street.  I did.  For a couple of days.  We lived near a park with lots of cement paths.  I remember meeting friends there and riding our bikes around with our candy cigarettes hanging out of our mouths.  We thought we were so cool!

I didn't get a chance to fully scan this catalog, but if you want to see better pictures of it, you can own it!  I have it for sale at Ebay now! First $10 gets it!
Vintage Schwinn Catalog 1980 Bicycle Sting Ray Tornado BMX Hurricane Unicycle












 

Friday, December 21, 2012

Pee Wee's Big Adventure

Who doesn't love Pee Wee's Big Adventure.  We can enjoy that movie and conveniently forget about Paul Rueben's crude behavior.


Last January we visited the Hollywood Museum, and guess what!?!  Pee Wee's Bike is not in the Basement of the Alamo!  It's in the Attic of the Hollywood Museum!  They wouldn't let us take it for a ride though.  :-(

 
If you don't own Pee Wee's Big Adventure, and I don't know why you wouldn't, you can buy it for $5 at Wal-Mart.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Thursday, December 6, 2012

1982 ME- "Oh yes! That Michael Jackson doll will be mine!






 







































There are some awesome toys in this 1984 Woman's Day Ad.  I saved forever to get that Garfield Phone.  It got broken in a brawl with my brother.  The Michael Jackson doll was the most popular dude in Barbie Land!  And what can you say about those amazing Cabbage Patch Kids and Koosas!  Well, maybe not the Koosas.  My sister loved them, but I didn't get it.  Why were the pets the same size as the dolls?  They looked so weird!  That Nerf Pool set is pretty awesome too.  I bought it about 10 years ago, at a garage sale, for my afterschool program.  The kids absolutely love it.  And it's Nerf so it took like 5 years to break one of the balls.  And it was probably already like 20 years old then.  Sweet Lego Minifig and Space Ship.  You know how much those minifigs cost now?!?  Did you have any of these toys?

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Black Friday!

On Sale $34.99
Yes, I shop on Black Friday.  I have been getting up in the wee hours of the morning to shop 'til I drop, every Black Friday for about 15 years.  Maybe longer.  I remember the good old days when stores would give you prizes, merchandise and even cash(gift cards) to come into their store.  We would race around from store to store getting all of the goodies and then do our shopping. And by race I mean it.  We could run from one end of the mall to the other.  Meier & Frank(Macy's) had a $15 gift card and Sears did too, and they both opened at the same time!  There haven't been much in the way of giveaways this year, but plenty of good deals.

The problem with this year was that stores started opening earlier.  I liked it last year.  Stores opened at Midnight and I was done with my shopping by 3am.  I am a night owl, so that's about my bedtime.  This year though, stores opened at 8pm.  Lots of people, still full of turkey, and maybe a little too much liquid holiday cheer, crammed into the stores.  So many people came out for the first time ever and boy were they cranky.  "There's too many people!"  "This is crazy!"  "Why don't they have an unlimited number of these $5 items that usually cost me $40!  What a rip off!"  There were lots of angry faces, lots of grumbling and complaining, lots of bored kids, lots of annoyed husbands, lots of line cutting and rudeness all around. 

Now I miss the days of "Doors Open at 4am".  The grumpy husbands and kids stay home.  There's lots of people bundled up with their coffees, chatting and making new pals while waiting in an ice cold line, too excited for a good deal to be in a crabby mood.

People shouldn't have to leave their loving family early on Thanksgiving to get presents to make their family happy on Christmas.  It makes no sense! 

Retail workers shouldn't have to miss out on Thanksgiving entirely because they have to work, even if some do get paid more to work on that day.

My plea to major retailers, at least hold off until midnight! 

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Sea Wees

I just loved the Sea Wees in the 80's.  I thought they were so cute and fun to play with in the bathtub.

My all time favorite blog www.PlaidStallions.com has got a great post which includes the entire 1982 Sea Wees Catalog and another post with the 1980 Sea Wees Catalog.

You can also check out this blog for all things 70's including some fun fashion mockery!  This blog is not only totally awesome, they have their own action figure you can purchase, his name is Brick Mantooth.



Sunday, November 18, 2012

Awesome T-Shirts at Target NOW!

Target usually has some pretty awesome t-shirts in their men's department.  I saw these cool threads last night.

"It's All Good in the HOOD!"  ET T-Shirt

Yoda in 80's Sunglasses Long Sleeve Baseball Shirt.
 

Friday, November 16, 2012

Shipping or buying online for the holidays?

I love toys!  And the best way to find the cool toys you want is the internet, but that involves shipping.  If you are buying for Christmas, keep the shipping deadlines in mind to get your awesome gift there on time!

 Take note of domestic shipping deadlines. Ensure gifts will make it to your buyers in time. Here are the USPS®, FedEx, and UPS® ship-by dates:

December 14—Parcel Post®
December 20—First Class Mail®
December 21—Priority Mail®
December 22—Express Mail®

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

16mm Theater "Chicken Power, A Fowl Look at Economics"

I just can't get enough of 16mm films!  The simple joy of sitting in your classroom on a Friday afternoon watching films so that your teacher can take a break.  The click, click, click of the projector, or getting to be the lucky kid who gets to load or rewind the film, good times!

This film stars the SAN DIEGO Chicken!  It's called, "Chickenpower, A Fowl Look at Economics".  Basically the film is trying to convince us that it is a good thing that gas and energy prices have gone up!  Yeah right!  This is the late 70's when gas prices tripled.  They say that now that prices have gone up we will learn to conserve gas and energy.  Cut to over 30 years later and we are still working on it.


The San Diego Chicken has his own radio show!  Who knew?  I didn't think he talked.

When the Chicken goes to the store and can't find his favorite bird seed, and he is outraged!

Can you believe how much it costs to power the Chickenmobile? The San Diego Chicken must find a better way to get to the ball park.

He could try the bus, but the fans will mob him!
He could try hitch hiking, but it's dangerous!  The driver is eating a bucket of Chicken! YIKES!
He could make some new friends by hopping on the back of a Chicken truck.

Energy efficient modes of transportation took the Chicken too long to get to the field.  The game is already over and the San Diego Chicken gets a stern talking to by the owner of the team!


The San Diego Chicken get a scooter to save money and get to the game on time!

But, at home the electric and gas bill is too high also!

So, the San Diego Chicken goes out and buys an Energy Saving Wood Stove to warm the coop.

But them he has to chop his own wood!

Then he tries to insulate the coop, but that's not so easy either!

I guess he's going to have to turn down the heat in the bird bath.
 

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Pac-Man Headstone - Happy Halloween!

I woke up one morning this summer with this great idea in my head for a Pac Man tombstone.  I wrote it down right away, because I always forget my morning inspirations. 




In my hometown there is a fantastic home haunt, called the Davis Graveyard.  They work miracles with special effects in their front yard, to delight Halloween passers by.  They put massive amounts of money and time into their yard each year.  A few years back they started sharing their ideas in classes.  We jumped into the first class, "Making Your Own Tombstone"  and have been making a couple more each year.  These babies are quite a bit of work, but so fun and a great creative outlet.

Here are a few others we have done.

Here Lies our Beloved Stan, his only sin was being a Yankee fan. 1918-2004  Red Sox fans would recognize that 1918 is the last year they won the World Series before the curse of the Babe.  And 2004 is when the curse was broken.  Maybe  it was all Stan's fault!

This year we are having a little pet cemetery.  This is Zero from Nightmare before Christmas.
"All that time thinking outside the box for this?"  My friend Rocky came up with this clever idea, and I knew I wanted to be the shape of an old time coffin.

This is my mom's! 
 
I'll share more of the graveyard later this month!

Jody

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Mego Fashion Candi, again!

A while back I did a feature on a Mego Fashion Candi Doll.

Here is a larger version of the advertising booklet.

About a week ago I found aMego 1979 Fashion Candi Supersize Doll she is the same size as Supersize Barbie.  She doesn't have the white face that the rest of the Fashion Candi dolls get.  I listed her today for $10.  She will close October 29, 2012. 

 

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Crazy for Cabbage Patch Kids!!!

I was absolutely crazy for Cabbage Patch Kids in the day.  In 1983 my mom fought for a doll in the Christmas rush and got me one.  My second doll, which I had saved up for, took six months to get.  Toys R Us had waiting lists a mile long for people who wanted the dolls.  I would walk down to the store every week to see how close I was to the top of the list. 

This booklet came with one of the hundreds or thousands of Cabbage Patch items available in 1984.

Visiting the Advertising Information page to see the booklet larger and lots of other fun items.






Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Lego, I never did get you.

1980 Lego Ad

For most young boys, if you ask them what their favorite toy is, the answer will be something like, Lego Star Wars, or Lego Batman, Lego Anything is popular these days.  Lego has cartoons and video games, and all of those awesome Minifigs (The Little Lego Guys). 

     Last weekend I bought a Lego Creator set at an estate sale. The creator series includes buildings and objects in kits to build.  The set I bought was a Lighthouse.  Set 5770 LightHouse Island.  I knew that if I wanted to sell it on Ebay I would have to put it together  and make sure it was complete.  I was never into Legos as a kid, and as I started working on this set I started to remember why.  After three hours I got the 518 piece lighthouse together, including rotating electric light, mini boat, and the light house with opening door.   This set is kind of cool because the pieces are made to look like the lighthouse, but I just could never get my legos to look like anything except a square building.  Maybe because we didn't have all of these fancy figures and different shapes in the 70's and 80's.


My hard work.
 

Thursday, September 13, 2012

This is why I sell on eBay.




Fantastic story.

I was once at an Antique Mall and there were some ladies in the same booth with me.  One gal spotted a Beatles record tote in the cabinet.  She said to the other, "I had one just like that.  I lost it in the move after my mom died."  The other gal said, "it's probably yours. Let's get them to open the case."  "No it can't be mine.  I couldn't afford it anyway."  Her friend walked to the counter and got them to open the cabinet.  She pulled it out, and her name, first and last,  was written on the back.  She screamed and held onto it like it was a long lost friend.  Her friend ended up buying it for her.  What a nice thing that was to witness.   

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Ice Cream Mania!

WWF Ice Cream Ad 1986


I had one of these ice cream bars at a WWF event in 1986.  I think it was a Hillbilly Jim.  It tasted awful, but I couldn't complain because I had to beg my mom to let me get one.  Even though it tasted so bad, I secretly wanted another one in case I could get a Macho Man!  I was, and still am, a sucker for, "Collect the All!"



Sunday, September 9, 2012

Sons of Anarchy Season 5 Starts Tuesday!

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I love this show.   Yes, it is based on a Biker Gang, and while many might think that isn't their kind of show, me included, it is truly amazing.  The writer and creator Kurt Sutter does a fantastic job of making these outlaws into perfect anti-heroes.  The writing is done so well that you have a roller coaster of emotions with every show. You laugh, cry, get angry, anxious, feel devastated and hopeful, all within the same episode. In addition to superb writing, the acting is fantastic.  There are some real emmy moments on this show.  It's truly sad that this show isn't the recipient of the industry accolades it deserves.

 The real basis of the story is relationships, friends, family and brotherhood.  If you haven't seen it, check out the first season on Netflix.  If you can get passed the language and violence, the deeper story will grab you and hold on! And if you are into action, you will get plenty of it here! A warning though, each season is only 13 episodes, you have to enjoy every moment. 

Sons of Anarchy airs Tuesdays at 10pm on FX.

It's Oktoberfest Time, let's have a Fondue Party!

In the 1970's Fondue Parties were all the rage.  People bought their own avocado green, mustard yellow, and burnt orange fondue pots with matching forks.  They dipped everything in that yummy melty cheese.  So, of course, the kids had to get in on the action too!




See this and other fun ads full size  1970s Advertising Information

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Serendipity Books by Stephen Cosgrove and Robin James


Leo the Lop Poster sold to Stephen Cosgrove!

A while back I found this great poster at a thrift store in Salem, OR.  I kept if for a while, because I just loved these books as a kid.  Leo was probably my favorite. I always wanted a lop eared rabbit named Leo!

Once I finally decided to sell the poster, I sold it on ebay to Stephen Cosgrove himself!  How cool is that?

You can still buy these books at most book stores and online at http://robinjames.net/ , the illustrator, Robin James, own site.  They are fun stories that also teach important lessons.  Fantastic character education and great discussion starters with kids.




Coloring and Activity Book.

Serediptiy Anime Cartoon.








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