Grave Digger

In the early to mid-2000's Monster Trucks hit the mainstream, appearing on TV and attracting a wider audience. The most mainstreamiest and well known Monster Truck is arguably Grave Digger. It was certainly my favorite. This was picked up for a few dollars at a consignment store and will be proudly displayed as a decoration for this holiday season. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_Digger_(truck)

If the truck weren't awesome enough this thing has SOUND!

The Hobbit LP

This was a personal find. I have always loved this movie. Possibly entirely because I watched it originally as a kid. It's kind of terrible really but I loved it then and do to the heady mixture of nostalgia and a great bargain I'm very very glad I found this. I'd eyeballed these on Amazon and EBay but they go for 40+ bucks. I snagged this from a local Tag Sale for one dollar. 

Blade Bank

I decided earlier this year to switch from expensive modern razors to classic safety razors. Partly just for the novelty of it and partly because 7 bucks for 100 razors seemed a lot better than 30 bucks for 12. I get less shaves per razor but still works out to be much cheaper in the long run. 

However Safety Razors introduced a problem, what to do with all the used double edged razors. I did a bit of research and what is usually used to for this is whats called a Blade Bank. Basically a Tin box with a slot in it for dropping used blades. You can still find these floating around on the internet for 10-15 dollars but I figured TSS could get me one for under a buck so I put her on the job. 

This is what she came back with 

Fortunately, I love it! My wife likes it a bit less but I think it looks fabulous in our bathroom. I've been using it for a few weeks and it works perfectly. Razors fit nicely in the top.  

And for those interested here is my shaving set up. A Merkur HD and Omega Brush. Using Dr. Conks soaps. The almond is pictured but I prefer the Bay Rum. Not really a fan of the Nivea Balm. Still hunting for something I'd like better. 

Blood Bank

I absolutely love kitschy Halloween stuff and have been working on building a collection of stuff to put out for the Hallowember season. I found just one of these on EBay for 15 bucks. Got the two below for 2 bucks. Looking forward to adding them to my collection and getting them all lit up on September 1st. 

Wooden Skeleton Dresser

mmmk...I wasn't able to dig up much about this. I'd love to know more about the art style and where this thing came from. It does make a great addition to my Man Cave. I did find a similar one on auction in England. It went for 23 Pounds, whatever that is in real money. 

Star Trek: TOS Crew Members Exploration Pack

Another Star Trek find. This is an odd little duck. Looks like one of those unique oddities you find in the showroom area of Barnes and Nobles. These came out in 1996 probably as a push for the 30th anniversary of Trek as the TOS originally aired in 1966. 

There is some quirky stuff in there. ID Card, 3D map complete with 3D glasses to view it with. I particularly like the paper craft communicator. 

I think this was a 50 cent find, prices on E Bay seem to float in the 13 dollar range for used ones.  

Space Songs, Ballads for the Age of Science

To go along with the Crosley Record Player I mentioned in a previous post, TSS has been bringing me records to play on it. As Santa knows my tastes are eclectic I get all kinds of oddities. I'll eventually get around to posting about all the rest of them, but today I felt especially moved to post about this one. I love everything to do with Science and in particular Space Science, so this was right up my alley. I was completely blown away with how cool the songs are. 

I immediately turned to ye old Google and did some research. Apparently "Space Songs" is from an entire collection of scientific children's albums published in the 50's and 60's called "Ballads for the Age of Science". I can only hope the the others in the collection are as awesome as this one is. I believe this was a 50 cent find. I found one used copy on Amazon for 20 bucks. The sheer awesome factor of discovering that these albums exist is priceless however. 

Additionally, the album came with two inserts with all the lyrics for all the songs.

I found this video on YouTube of the of the catchy songs from the album if you want to see a little of whats on the album. 

Star Trek: The Next Generation Lunch Box

 

Another great Star Trek find. This time a TNG lunch from 1988. We will probably see a lot of Star Trek stuff on this site as Tag Sale Santa knows it is one of my greatest loves. I found two different lunch boxes from this era of Star Trek on EBay. This one and another that features Wesley more prominently on the cover. I do think it kinda hilarious that this one seems to be valued about twice as much as the version with Wesley. All these years later and still the Wesley hate. 

 

Star Trek: The Game

Our next find was Star Trek: The Game. From what I've researched this game came out in 1992 probably brought on by the resurgent popularity of Star Trek due to Star Trek: The Next Generation. It seems to take the basics of Trivial Pursuit and gives it a Star Trek makeover.  

The folks over at Board Game Geek only give it a 4.4 out of 10 rating but its a nice collectible piece and I love the art style. The going rate on Ebay for these seems to be in the 25-50 dollar range.

Crosley Record Player

 

 Next we have this Crossley 48PH Record Player. You'd think old record players would be easy to find cheap but with all the Hipsters into Vinyl these days you'd be wrong. Even these lower end players go for up to 120 on Ebay. However thanks to my Tag Sale Santa this was obtained for considerably less. 

 I'd been looking at some old pics of family in the late 70's and early 80's and had been feeling a little nostalgic for that time period. In particular the old record player I'd seen in a few pics reminded me of the one my Dad had while I was growing up. I'd used that thing a lot before the advent of CD's. My first album was Michael Jackson's Thriller when I was 10 years old. Over the years I'd amassed a few more but in time got rid of all of them except for Blue Oyster Cult's Fire of Unknown Origin, which I'd kept around mostly as a poster. When my mother in law showed up with this thing I was able to listen to that album again for the first time in almost 20 years.

 

Tag Sale Santa

First up is the nominal guy for the site and one of the first things I received from my own Tag Sale Santa. A vintage light up blow mold Santa figure. The first blow molding machine was created and sold in 1938. These kind of decorations reached their peak popularity as pop art icons in the 50's and 60's. Their popularity has wained these days but I do love cheerfulness and optimism represented in the art style and am very happy to have this little guy on display for the season. I suspect this will be the first of many. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blow_molding