Little Golden Book Monday #127

Today's Little Golden Book is Bert's Hall of Great Inventions featuring Bert and Ernie and other Jim Henson Muppets including Franklin and Prairie Dawn. The book is originally from 1972 (this is an eleventh printing edition from 1981). I certainly remember this book from you childhood. I was always a big fan of Sesame Street and the Muppets, so I am sure I owned my own copy of this one at some point. I have scanned two of the pages from the book that I particularly like. The first is a great drawing of Bert and Ernie hanging out in the dark with their firefly friends. The second is a silly drawing of Bert whacking Ernie on the head with a fly swatter. I like that the fly is saying "Ha ha."

KISS Super Big Gup Cups

Just saw this today. I have not been collecting KISS merchandise for years now, but this looks cool! New KISS Big Gulp cups from 7-11. I guess its partly that they look cool, and partly that I have a nostalgia for the old 7-11 Slurpee cups that I used to collect as a kid. I'll have to stop by my local 7-11 this weekend to see if we have these in Canada so I can pick up my set. The last Gig Gulp cup I purchased was the really cool 3D Iron Man cups promoting the first Iron Man movie.

Hanging out with The Famous SD Chicken

Back in 2008 the family and I got the chance to hang out with the Famous SD Chicken (aka the San Diego Chicken). He attended the February 9, 2008 Delta Ice Hawks hockey game in Ladner, BC vs the Delta Devils of the PIJHL. Being a huge fan of the SD Chicken, my wife requested that we purchase tickets for the game as soon as she found out he would be attending. Being as the Ice Hawks generally draw about 150-250 fans per game, we knew we would have a great chance to meet the chicken. Kaden spent a good part of the game sitting front row, side by side with the chicken, even helping him out with some of his props! I'm not sure Kaden really knew what to make of some guy dressed in a chicken costume making such a ruckus against the glass all during the game!

As well as a ton of photos that I took, both Sara and Kaden got autographed photos for their collections.

Terry David Mulligan's Good Rockin' Tonite

Back in 1984 there were a ton of rock videos, and if you wanted to see them, you had to turn on the TV and wait for one of a plethora of video shows to show them to you. Unlike today when you can just go to Youtube and watch any video you want, any time you want. But back in 1984 you watched video shows such as the grand daddy of them all, Friday Night Videos, or Canada's version called Good Rockin' Tonite. GRT was a 90 minute weekly video show hosted by Terry David Mulligan. I can remember watching this show regularly for years, always hoping to see videos by my favorite bands such as; KISS, Motley Crue, Helix, Def Leppard, Lee Aaron etc. They were also always having contests, usually for signed albums and posters. On one occasion when I entered, I didn't win anything, but I did receive this really snazzy postcard, which wasn't even hand signed - the signature was printed on the card. On a separate occasion, I entered a Motley Crue contest, and won a signed Gary Moore album (go figure)! I was never a fan of Gary Moore (I actually had no idea who he was at the time) so wasn't all that thrilled with my win. But years later I traded it to a friend for a copy of the ultra rare Wendy O Williams (Plasmatics) album titled Deffest and Baddest. Being a huge Plasmatics fan, I was pretty excited to acquire this Wendy O Williams album I had never even heard of. A quick Google search today finds this description of the album: Originally, the album was to be credited to the fictional rap group "Ultrafly and the Hometown Girls," with Wendy's name left off it, but the distributor wouldn't back it without Wendy's name. On this disc, Wendy slams hair bands, creates interesting sexual scenarios between Jerry Falwell and Jessica Hahn, and oh yeah, becomes the first person to fuse rap and speed metal. Thanks Good Rockin' Tonite... that Gary Moore album turned out to be a pretty awesome prize!

Little Golden Book Monday #126

Today's Little Golden Book is Susan in the Driver's Seat. I had never seen this book before, so was happy to add it to my collection for a hefty 20 cents at a local thrift shop. The book is from 1973 and was written by Kathi Gibeault with illustrations by Jane Ike. I always like to see who my new books used to belong to. Apparently this one belonged to a child who is now in the witness protection program.

The Wonderful World of Pixar

I picked up this copy of the June 2004 WIRED magazine with a great Pixar cover story for 20 cents at a local thrift shop. I am a big fan of the Incedibles movie, so it is always great to find something to add to my collection. Inside the magazine is a great 8 page article with the title "Welcome to Planet Pixar, How the pixel-packing upstart became an animation superpower and left Disney in the dust.

Little Golden Book Monday #125

Today's Little Golden Book Monday book is another one that I am not sure if it is actually a Little Golden Book. It looks a lot like an American Little Golden Book, but does not say Little Golden Book anywhere in it. It does have a very worn golden spine resembling a LGB. When I did some online translating, the cover translated to "Little Book" and the title translated to "Suffers the infernal rabbit." I'm not sure how good that translation is, but it is kind of funny. I also scanned in the inside two pages. You will notice that much like the American LGB is has a full page pattern on the left page which is very reminiscent of the American LGB. And if you didn't notice from the front the cover artwork, the story and artwork is by Richard Scarry. One last translation tells us that this book is an "edition of two cocks gold".

American Express Print Ad

Here is another of the ads I pulled out of all the magazines I got last week. I don't usually collect American Express ads, but this one made me chuckle while I was flipping though the piles of magazines.

Give Old Magazines A New Life

While we were out the other day we visited a few thrift shops I had never been to. One of them had piles and piles of old magazines. It took a while to go though them all (OK, not all of them, but lots of them!) and I found a ton of great full page ads for my collection. There were great ads for Apple, Saturn, Disney, Coca Cola etc. Once I was home, I had a ton of fun sitting on the couch listening to music while flipping though them all and pulling out the ads I wanted to keep. Any of the magazines that still have covers and are only missing a few pages will end up back at another thrift shop, and the rest that are to mangled to pass on will be send to the recycling bin.
One of the ads I kept was a two page ad that was promoting the idea that magazines are still relevant in an internet age. The text in the ad reads: "We surf the Internet. We swim in magazines.
The Internet is exhilarating. Magazines are enveloping.The Internet grabs you. Magazines embrace you. The Internet is impulsive. Magazines are immersive. And both
media are growing.
Barely noticed amidst the thunderous Internet clamor is the simple fact that magazine readership has risen over the past five years. Even in the age of the Internet, even among the groups one would assume are most singularly hooked on digital media, the appeal of magazines is growing.
Think of it this way: during the 12-year life of Google, magazine readership actually increased 11 percent.
What it proves, once again, is that a new medium doesn't necessarily displace an existing one. Just as movies didn't kill radio. Just as TV didn't kill movies. An established medium can continue to flourish so long as it continues to offer a
unique experience. And, as reader loyalty and growth demonstrate, magazines do.
Which is why people aren't giving up swimming, just because they also enjoy surfing."
The next ad is a recycling ad from the Publishers of America, which reads: "Give old magazines a new life. We all love our magazines, but when it's time to let go, it just takes a little extra effort to recycle. After all, helping the environment is everyone's responsibility. For more information on how to recycle your magazines, go to www.Earth911.com. Make it a habit. Recycle"
The third ad is for the Apple iPad. The ad shows a person sitting at home reading The New York Times on their iPad.
The last ad is for Movies on Demand.
Why do I include these four ads in this post? Because I think it really does show that we are in an age where physical things such as magazines, movies, CDs, and DVDs are becoming less relevant to many people, which means they could slowly (or perhaps quickly) become a relic of the past along with VHS tapes and 8-Track cassettes. Does this make me happy... hell no!
As a collector, the idea that physical things such as magazines, DVDs, CDs, even concert/sports ticket stubs could disappear is a very depressing thought. I bought tickets recently for a concert (a band I love called Skillet) and was disappointed to see that instead of traditional paper tickets they had wrist bands. The young person selling me the tickets actually made the comment that these were so much cooler than old fashioned tickets. I didn't bother getting into it with her, as she would probably just laugh at the old guy blathering on about the past. But I have been collecting tickets for as long as I can remember. I even purchased some ticket books from www.ticketalbums.com to keep all my concert tickets nicely organized. A piece of paper printed on my ink jet printer just isn't worth keeping as a souvenir of the event. As for my magazine ad collecting. a digital ad collection just isn't the same as the binders I have filled with page protectors full of ads. I have books for Apple ads, Coca Cola ads, Disney ads etc. Again, I have been collecting ads for as long as I can remember and my binder collections of ads are quite impressive. The ads I have collected on my iMac (and use as a screen saver) just aren't as cool. And then there is music. I am a self professed Apple fan boy, and I do love using iTunes to listen to my music - I have not had any other stereo for playing music since I started using iTunes. But I prefer to buy the physical CD and rip it into my iTunes collection. Paying to download the music online may be convenient, but if you don't get something physical for my cash, it just seems wrong. Collecting music CDs in my iTunes collection just isn't as cool as having a shelf full of my favorite records and CDs. But then I guess that's the point for so many people. They would rather have a hard drive full of music and movies as apposed to a taking up a bunch of space on their shelves with stuff that is just going to collect dust. So to those people... I can help you recycle your stuff. just send it to me!

Little Golden Book Monday #124

Today's Little Golden Book is Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree. I have never been a big fan of Winnie the Pooh, and ever since he forcefully removed the Country Bears from their home at Disneyland I have had even less love for the the chubby little bear. That said, I was impressed with the artwork by Russell Hicks in this book enough to pick it up for my collection. At just 69 cents this book was well worth adding to my collection. I hope you enjoy the two interior illustrations I have scanned to go along with this post. I have to saw that the honey that is covering Pooh looks a lot more like chocolate than honey - and its not just my scans - it looks like that in the actual book!

Homer and the Circus Train

I Just got a copy of Homer and the Circus Train by Hardie Gramatky. My wife was visiting her nephew, and in the lobby of the building was a bookcase with magazines and children's books. She noticed this one and instantly knew I would love it. She took a photo with her iPhone and sent it to me. As she guessed, I loved it. On her next trip to visit her nephew, I went along with a pile of books from my collection (all extras) and asked if I could trade my pile of books for the copy of Homer and the Circus Train. The woman made some jokes about how the book was probably worth lots of money etc, but was convinced to let me trade when she saw that one of the books I had brought was a brand new copy of Green Eggs and Ham which she said was her favorite. I went home with my new treasure. The book is from 1957 and was part of the Greater Victoria Public Library collection before becoming a discard. The book was written by Hardie Gramatky who also wrote Little Toot, another favorite of mine. The list in the back of the book also lists other books by Hardie Gramatky: Little Toot, Hercules, Loopy, Sparky, Bolivar, Nikos and the Sea God, Little Toot on the Thames, Little Toot on the Grand Canal, and Happy's Christmas.
This book features Homer a little circus train who looks a little bit like a few other cabooses I have featured on my blog previously. I absolutely love the artwork throughout the book and this one has made me want to search for more of Hardie's books, especially Sparky, which is about a little trolley car that looks very similar to Homer, except that he is yellow instead of red.

Happy 4th Birthday Big Pile of Stuff!

Today marks the 4rd birthday of Ronn's Big Pile of Stuff! The blog was started as a joke when I started to see how many blogs there were out there. I figured at some point there would be more blogs than people, so why not jump in and start my own. My first idea was to do it for one year, and post something every single day during that year. My experiment lasted 75 days, before I forgot to post something one day. I abandoned the idea of posting every day, but continued to post anytime I had something I wanted to share which turns out to be a couple of posts a week. It is great knowing that when I get something new that I am really excited about, I have somewhere I can share it with others who 'may' actually be as excited about it as me!
I have received a few emails over the 4 years from readers telling me how much they enjoy my posts, but I would love to hear from more of you. Use the comment link at the bottom of any post and share your thoughts.
Thanks again for visiting my little corner of the internet. If you enjoy this blog, why not visit a few of my other sites. Find the links to the right under "My Other Stuff". And be sure to check out all of my "Favorite Blogs" also listed to the right. There is am amazing amount of cool stuff out there to be oogled!
- Ronn Roxx Aka the Unfocused Collector

Coca Cola's Vending Machine of Friendship

This large Size Coca Cola vending machine is an advertisement created by Ogilvy Argentina Agency to celebrate Argentinian friendship day. I translated the text from the ad using the Google translator and this is what it said: The Machine of Friendship. On the day of the friend we invite friends to celebrate with a 2x1 Coca Cola. To do this we placed a Coca Cola vending machine with a higher than common coin slot, so that the only way to reach the button is with the help of a friend.
Turns out, that if you and your friend(s) can figure out how to get up high enough to place your coins into the machine, you will be rewarded with an extra bottle for free... for your friend of course!

Little Golden Book Monday #123

Today's Little Golden Book is Rabbit and his Friends with story and pictures by Richard Scarry. Originally printed in 1953, this copy is the Third Printing from 1974. I picked this one up because I liked the cute animal artwork on the cover. It wasn't until I got home and had a look though it that I realized I recognized the artwork. A quick flip to the front inside cover revealed that it was none other than Richard Scarry who had done the artwork, along with writing the story.
The story is about Rabbit who finds an egg who he believes belongs to Mrs. Hen, but when the egg hatched, there stood the strangest animal that ever was!
"He doesn't look like any animal I have ever seen before", said Rabbit. "He has a big beak and little webbed feet just like Duck."
"He has a tail and a fur coat just like Beaver," said Mrs. Hen. "And he is very shy, like Squirrel." "What are you, my dear?" asked Mrs. Hen.
But the roly-poly animal said, "I don't know." Then splash, kersplash! that roly-poly animal jumped into the river and swam right down to the bottom.
The strange little animal turns out to be a platypus, the rarest and most interesting animal in the whole world.

CAPTAIN CANUCK 35th ANNIVERSARY Art Contest

Check out the cool Captain Canuck 35th Anniversary Art Contest going on over at deviantART.com. As well as info on the contest, be sure to read the complete blog entry when you get there, as there is some cool info about a possible new, kid-friendly "Captain Canuck Jr." project.
And be sure to click on the 'current entires' link to see all the great submissions of Captain Canuck artwork.
Along with the post, I have added a few of my favorite submissions from those posted so far.

The Sheldon Comic Strip Makes Fun of Me!

I was going though some stuff I had dropped into a folder on my iMac and came across this cartoon I snagged from the Sheldon Comic Strip Daily Webcomic by Dave Kellett. This simple cartoon made me chuckle at myself as I realized how many times I have sat and watched something on TV (with commercials) that I own on DVD, but was too lazy to get of the shelf and load into my DVD player! And, I don't know if I am the only one who thinks this, but I find some sort of satisfaction in watching something that I know others are watching at the same time... even if they aren't watching it on the same TV as me!

Pancho The Parrot 45 rpm Record

While checking out a local thrift shop the other day I found this Pancho the Parrot picture sleeve 45 record. I remember seeing this parrot back in 1979 when I visited the San Diego Zoo with my mother on my second trip to California. I also remember seeing him on TV on a few occasions on shows such as That's Incredible.
If you would like to check out an mp3 version of Pancho singing "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" you can over at abMP3.com.

Bob Kane signed Batman comic book

What a find! I visited one of my favorite out the way comic shops today and spent an hour digging though the back issue bins. I ended up coming home with some great old Batman, Detective, Daredevil and Amazing Spider-man issues, including one very special Batman issue. I picked up Batman issue #254 from February 1974 for just $8. Imagine my surprise when I opened it up to read it tonight and found that right there on the first page, it was signed "Bob Kane". And later on in the issue it was again signed with a note "to my friend." How lucky is that!? You don't think it could be a fake do you?

Little Golden Book Monday #122

Today's Little Golden Book is Casper and Friends, BOO-O-S On First from 1992. I have been wanting to pick up a copy of this book for a while, but never seem to find a decent copy. This one was in fair shape and at just 69 cents I could not pass it up. I happen to be a fan of Casper the Ghost, and I love the title of the book (gotta love Abbott & Costello). It also gives me an excuse to do a post about the Casper Ghosts minor league baseball team and their awesome logo... I do love logos you know!
I first heard of this team (and their logo on The Clink Room web site.
The Casper Ghosts are a Minor League Baseball team in the Pioneer League based in Casper, Wyoming, where they play at Mike Lansing Field. They are the Rookie-level affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, established in 1978.
Unveiled in 2007, the Casper Ghosts are the only team in Minor League Baseball to wear glow-in-the-dark caps. The Ghosts official colors are orange and black.
In addition, they use as an alternate logo the image of Casper the Friendly Ghost with permission from the Harvey Entertainment division of Classic Media.
And hey, notice this book, features Casper playing baseball!

Little Golden Book Monday #121

With the upcoming release of Toy Story 3 later this month, I went hunting for a new Little Golden Book based on the film. I managed to find it listed on Amazon, but when I visited my local book seller, they did not have any copies of this book. They did however have a large display of other Toy Story 3 story books, coloring books, sticker books etc. Looks like I will have to order this one via Amazon if I want a copy. Back in 2008, I had to order the Little Golden Book version of Presto which I never found at my local book sellers. Seems that many stores no longer carry the Little Golden Books and the ones that do, seem to carry a rather strange selection of Little Golden Book titles.

[UPDATE July 7, 2010 - I found a copy at a local Walmart today and on the front cover was a sticker that read "Only at Walmart", so it would seem to explain why I could not find this book at any of my usual book sellers.]

iCade - iPad Arcade Cabinet

Didn't think you needed an iPad? Think again! When the iPad was announced, we all crammed into a conference room to watch live and drool over every shiny corner and reflecty icon. After the glow of the initial announcement wore off, many of us came to the conclusion that the iPad was actually pretty useless. "It's a giant iPhone!" some said. Others exclaimed, "WTF, no Flash!?". Still, we knew that most Apple fanbots (us included) would have to have one anyway.
Knowing that many of our loyal geeky customers would eventually get their retractable claws on an iPad at some point, we knew we needed to take it to the next level. What cool things could we do with the iPad that you, our lovely geek customers, would squee over? A few brainstorming sessions later, the idea of a MAME cabinet came up and we knew we'd struck gold. How cool would it be to slide your iPad into a desktop-sized arcade cabinet and rock it old school with some Pac-Man or Space Invaders?
Enter the iCade iPad Arcade Cabinet! To use the iCade, gently slide the iPad into the docking cradle. The docking cradle uses a standard 30 pin connector to link the iPad to the professional-grade arcade controls. Once the iPad is in place, launch the iCade App (available free in the App Store April 3rd) and it's game on! We didn't want to take any chances you'd run out of juice during your favorite game, so we included a 10w USB power adapter so you can charge the iPad through any electrical outlet. Now you're all set to make an uninterrupted run on the Dig Dug World Record!
This article was on Think Geek back when the Apple iPad was released and I am sure many a video game geek ran to their local electronics store looking to pick one up. Problem is this item does not actually exist - it was just a tongue in cheek hoax, which is too bad because I really, really want one!

Little Golden Book Monday #120

Today's Little Golden Book is Walt Disney's Cinderella. This is a nice reprint, originally published in a slightly different form by Simon and Schuster in 1950. Once again, this is a LGB that doesn't seem to have an actual print date listed, but my best guess is that it is from the past 4 or 5 years.
From the the back cover: Dear Reader, Each of us remembers our own favorite Little Golden Book. I've searched our archives for the best Little Golden Books ever published to bring back as keepsake editions. You've just selected one! I'm sure this cherished classic will delight parents and grand parents as well as today's fun-loving kids. After all, lively, satisfying stories never go out of style. Look for your favorite Little Golden Book Classic! Sincerely, Diane Muldrow, Editor.
I have been meaning to pick this up for a while and finally found this copy at a local thrift shop in perfect condition, earlier today.

Little Golden Book Monday #119

Ok, so I have managed to escape from the zombies and am back for another Little Golden Book Monday. Today's book is We Help Mommy, originally from 1959, but I have no idea what year this edition is from. It has a UPC code on the front, so it is obviously not 1959, but as so many other Little Golden Books, this one doesn't seem to have a a date of printing. I have done a little Googeling to see if I could find a simple way to figure out what year a LGB was printed, but there doesn't seem to be a simple way to figure it out every time. If anyone knows of a simple way to date this and other Little Golden Books, let me know!
I particularly liked this illustration of Bobby and Martha at the grocery store. Apparently little Bobby is a fan of Little Golden Books... OR kittens... OR Little Golden Books about kittens.

Hey Look... I'm in a Groo Comic book!

I've been reading comics for over 30 years now and one of my all time favorites is Sergio Aragones GROO the Wanderer which had been going on and off all most as long. My mother is not a big comic reader, but over the years of my collecting there have been a few comics they she always looked forward to each month, two of those being Kevin Smith's Bone and Groo. For years when I would come home from the comic shop, she would ask, any comics for me??
Dark Horse just published a 4 issue mini series of Groo titled Groo the Hogs of Horder. I read issues #1 and 2 and passed both along to my mom, but I had not read issue 3 yet. When I came home with issue 4 I realized that I had never passed issue 3 along to my mom, so I gave her both 3 and 4 before I had a chance to read them. A day or two later when I picked them up, she said, "Wow, you have a letter in there!" which was news to me! I quickly snagged the comic from her and flipped to the back to have a look at the letters page, and right there on the first page was a letter from Ronn Roxburgh... wowee! There was even a response from Mark Evanier and a silly little drawing to go along with it! This is so cool as I am a big fan of both Sergio and Mark. Have been reading the Groo comics since the first appearance in Destroyer Duck and I visit Mark's blog every day!
I was thrilled to get my letter in a Groo comic book, and I didn't even have to mention the word 'mulch'.