Thursday, April 25, 2013

HELP! I Can't Find This Toy!

Hey gang! I turn to you, my intrepid fellow nerds, to help me find this exceedingly obscure toy from my youth.

I have been searching for years for these particular toys and I'm just about to give up.

Here's the skinny...

Way back in the late '70s (probably '77 or '78), my mom came home from the grocery store with this dinky little rack toy package that she bought for me just because she thought the toys inside were cute. And what they were, were these little stackable plastic men and each one had a different profession; a fireman, a policeman, an astronaut, etc.

I absolutely loved these little dudes and would kill to find them again.

The closest thing I have ever found was this...


The little robots in the toy above are the EXACT same size and shape of the little guys I'm looking for. But, again, mine were little human city workers.

The ones I had were carded in a similar fashion. They were just a cheap grocery store rack toy.

Anyway, if anyone knows what these are, knows where I can find some or has any helpful information whatsoever, please let me know!

Thanks, kids!

Monday, April 22, 2013

It's Toy Show Time and I Went a Little Crazy!

Hey fellow Hordytes! Sorry I haven't been blogging much. Work and personal life has just got me slammed. I really do miss you all.

This past weekend, I did manage to find a couple of hours to hit up our local twice-yearly Lake City Toy Show and I just wanted to quickly post my scores. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to blog about them all in greater detail at some point. God knows when that will be. But I can hope.

Also, sorry for the crappy pics. I just snapped these with my phone really quickly.

 First up, I made some pretty decent scores in the Star Wars department, snatching up two vintage Kenner figures I needed for $1 each, a vintage Micro Collection set for $5 (complete!) and a Power of the Force Oola, because even though I hate the POF line, green chicks are hot.




Another personal epic find for me was this lemon yellow Empire Gnome, which was a line of Smurf knock-offs that came out in the late '70s and early '80s. I had a couple and loved them. Now they're hella rare.


And speaking of Smurfs, I just couldn't resist these guys at $1 a piece...


But where things got crazy was when I, a person who has never bought a vintage lunch box in his life (except for my Dukes of Hazzard one), ended up catching lunch box fever with the purchase of these 5 beauties...






So, it looks like I'm a vintage lunch box collector now. Oh boy. I'm going to try and fight this, but man, they look sweet on my shelves...


Anyway, that's my latest score.

Truth is, I've been piling up all kinds of toys and comics and other cool things that I keep wanting to blog about, but just haven't found the time lately. Hopefully, I'll get around to them all eventually.

In the meantime, I hope you all are doing great out there!

Thanks for joining me on this little moment of show and tell. :)

Friday, April 12, 2013

The Obvious Cause of Death Online Store is LIVE!

Hey there, everybody!

I just wanted to take a quick moment to officially announce the grand opening of my Obvious Cause of Death Ghosts online store!

Now you can buy your very own little glow-in-dark clay specters complete with axe wounds, bullet holes, shark bites and more!

You can visit the online store at ocodg.storenvy.com.

Also, if you're on Facebook, please feel free to "Like" our official OCODG Facebook page, where you'll get updates on newly released ghosts, see behind-the-scenes pics and get in on give-away contests!


If anyone is interested is helping me spread the word through links, shoutouts, reviews and whatnot on your blogs, please let me know! I'd be more than happy to hook you up with a free Ghost!

Okay... end shameless plug. ;)

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Vintage Fleer Mr. Bones Candy Coffin!

Hail, fellow Hordytes! It's been a while since I did any serious blogging. Life has been keeping me pretty busy.

But I found myself with a few minutes to kill so I thought I'd take a moment to snap some pics of a recent eBay score, an item which remains in my heart as one of the greatest pieces of molded plastic of my entire childhood.

I'm talking about the legendary Fleer Mr. Bones Candy Coffin!


If you didn't have one of these in you childhood, then you just didn't have a good childhood. Sorry. That's a scientific fact.

Found in candy aisles just about everywhere when I was a kid, I most often scored mine at Bailey's Pharmacy back in Blissfield, Michigan during the late '70s and early '80s. My friends and I collected all sorts of candy containers, but it was the Mr. Bones candy coffin that we often went back to time and time again.

At one point (during 4th grade I believe), I probably had about 6-8 of these empty coffins which I used as scenery for my Indiana Jones adventures.

Most of you probably remember the candy inside, which was made up of fruit flavored inter-locking bones that made an entire skeleton, if you were lucky. I remember sometimes getting a bum coffin with a missing hand or too many skulls, which meant that you couldn't build a complete Mr. Bones. So it soon became a sign of good luck amongst my crew if you had a complete skeleton in you coffin.

I also always thought it was neat that it had a loop at the top so you could string it around your neck like some sort of morbid pendant. I vividly remember painting one of these coffins black and gluing a small plastic skeleton (that I got at the dentist's office out of the treasure chest) inside and wearing it on a length of chain (that my G.I. Joe dog tags came on) for a good part of the summer of '82.


Let's take a look at the inside... whoa! 


Beat it, Lego Vampire. We've got vintage candy containers to study.


Another thing I love about these were the little skeleton diagram inside. For the record, they show only using one arm bone, but we didn't roll like that. In our gang, you needed two arm bones on each arm to make a proper complete Mr. Bones.


And just look at that beautiful inscription on the top of the coffin lid.


I'd like to take this moment to give my heart-felt thanks to Mr. Vero Ricci, the man who designed the Mr. Bones coffin among many other of our favorite keepsake candy containers during the heyday of my youth.

I recently spoke via email with his son, Steve, who has started a blog all about his father's creations.

I'm not entirely sure if this man fully understands how much he touched our youth, how much fun and imagination he sparked within us by simply putting some sweet-tart candies inside these brilliant pieces of packaging pop-art.

I strongly urge you all to please visit Mr. Ricci's blog, read about how some of your favorite candy containers came to be and if you feel moved to do so, leave a kind word or two.

You can visit his blog at veroinventions.blogspot.com. Make sure you click through all of the pages, each one showcasing a new legendary toy container.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to get to a little monster dance party going down on my desk. It seems that they like the new addition to my collection, too.