Happy 2nd Birthday to Ronn's BPoS!

Today marks the second Birthday of Ronn's Big Pile of Stuff. I started this blog on July 30, 2006 as a goof, and just keep going. I remember back in 2006, I was starting to find and visit a lot of blogs and I remember thinking to myself, there are so many of these blogs, that sooner or later there would be more blogs than people looking at them. I wanted in on the ground floor (or close to it) and started this blog, which now I am thrilled to say gets up to 100 visits a day. That may be small numbers compared to many of the blogs I visit, but I am still amazed that anyone is visiting, let along 100 people a day! So to those of you visiting... thanks! I'd love to hear from you all, so please take a moment to post a comment on the blog to let me know what you are enjoying or not enjoying in my posts.
And if you enjoy this blog, you can now check out two new blogs I have started the Disneyland Records Blog and Ronn's Minor League Hockey Mania Blog.
Before you go, be sure to enjoy a piece of our virtual birthday cake.

Touche Turtle and the Fire Dog

Ever since 1983 when I started Firehouse Magazine (1983-2000), I have always liked collecting things with a firefighter theme. Here is a great Whitman book from 1963. It is Hanna-Barbera's Touche Turtle and the Fire Dog by Jean Lewis and illustrated by Mel Crawford. Check out this great artwork on the front and back covers. This cover alone was worth the $4 price tag I paid for this at the local used book shop.

Little Golden Book Monday #61

Today's Little Golden Book is Cars. We are almost at the halfway point of the summer vacation, summer vacation usually means lots of car trips to fun and exotic new places. But with the gas prices what they are this summer, I am thinking our family will be taking a lot less car trips, and spending a lot more time around the home.
So, in honor of those fun car trips of yore, I present this great book from 1973, which celebrates the automobile and all the fun you can have just driving around.
There are lots of great illustrations inside this book, including this great drawing of the ABE Motors. I love that retro looking showroom in the background.

Then there is this great drawing of a suburban home. I just love the architecture of the 50's and 60's. The cars in these drawings, lack a little pizazz though.

Sgt. Rock from REMCO

While reading some old comic books, I came across this ad for the Remco Sgt. Rock action figures and vehicles. As a child of the 70's, I was overly excited to play with war themed toys, tanks being the coolest of them all! I remember having the A.T.C. Amphibious Armored Troop-Carrier "with working action gatling gun" as shown in this ad. How cool was a vehicle that could drive on land and cruise on water, AND had a BA (Big Ass) Gun to blow stuff up! I also had one G.I. Joe figure, but because it was the larger size figure, it was only good for being the attacking giant that all my other action figures would battle. My G.I. Joe was also pretty rough looking, as I remember trying to burn off his beard!
Sgt. Rock first appeared in G.I. Combat #68 (Jan. 1959). His rank is not given in this story; instead, he is merely called "The Rock." The Rock returned as a sergeant in Our Army at War #81 (April 1959) with his unit, Easy Company (the precise US Army infantry regiment to which Easy belonged was never identified during the history of the character). Sgt. Rock steadily gained popularity, until, in 1977, the name of the comic was changed to Sgt. Rock. The comic ran until Sgt. Rock #422 (July 1988). In addition to the semi-regular comic, several "digests" were sold, under the DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest banner, reprinting stories from Our Army at War or Sgt. Rock. Some were subtitled as OAAW or Sgt. Rock, some as Sgt. Rock's Prize Battle Tales.
A line of 3-3/4" action figures bearing the SGT. ROCK name was released in the 1980s.

Little Golden Book Monday #60

After a short absence, I'm back with another LGBM - Little Golden Book Monday. Todays book is Walt Disney's Mickey and Friends Lets Go to the Vet.
This book is from 1997 and one of the last Disney themed titles for a period of time. I'm not sure of the exact dates and titles, but I do know that there was a period of years where Disney and Little Golden Books parted ways. I remember being very disappointed about this as in 2001 when Disney released Atlantis the Lost Empire, one of my favorite Disney animated films, I found out there would be no Atlantis Little Golden Book for my collection. You can check out my fake edition of the Atlantis Little Golden Book here.
Luckily, some time after 2001, Disney and Little Golden Books kissed and made up and have been putting out Disney themed books ever since.