More fun with charity shops and Ebay

So i've got more ability to go out and about now, which is nice. I've missed being able to walk more than 100 meters without feeling dizzy and exhausted.

We've had a few days out and about, not going far, but enough to get me out the damn house.

My muscles hurt. A few weeks of sitting around on bedrest I don't think has helped there. My ankles ache and my stupid deformed foot is giving me a lot of trouble with an old pain I haven't had to deal with for years.
Stupid foot.
I hate this foot. It's a jerk.

But I did come across some fun stuff in my brief travels, so let's talk about that! horah




So before we start, an update on that whole blood test thing? remember I said I had blood drawn and it hurt?
well the next day I took the plaster off and uh...

that is hemorrhaging from a teeny tiny blood test needle. WTF!?? I've never, ever, in all my years of having blood tests ever seen anything like it. I mean christ, it's so dark and it's swollen just above too and it doesn't really hurt so much as it just looks horrific. So.. that'd be why my arm was hurting.

Anyway, body horror aside, we decided to wander down into town with eldest (the younger two were at the movies with my mother) to grab lunch.

In the local charity shop they always have a huge plastic bin full of plushies for 50p. They used to be "4 for £1" but I think they realized they could sell more of them if they did them individually.
That bin is a freaking goldmine seriously. I love that bin.
I've found legit Alpacaso, weird think geek plushies, blue nose bear stuff, even a vintage Dam troll once.
today I spotted on the top a familiar looking shape.

It's a goddamn popple!

One of the 80s ones!

We had 3 of these little buggers when I was a kid. I had Puzzle, who was orange (and I want a new one damnit), my sister had a medium white
one and the small yellow one Potato Chip.
I ended up kinda inheriting them when my sister moved out.

This little one is, like potato chip, one of the smallest sized popples and her name is "pretty bit". Which is a bizarre name. I mean wtf?

Anyway, she's in pretty good nick for a 30 year old toy. Her hair is a little matted but otherwise she's all pretty good and clean.

I cuddled her all day, I couldn't help it. she's just so cuddly. A little girl in one of the other shops was totally jealous. Yep.

Also in the charity shop we spotted this for £5.
Sealed and heavy with rattling bits.

Inside was most of the wicker furniture set (missing a few plates and cups)
Another set of cups in a slightly paler pink

And these bits.

the umbrella is broken and needs gluing back onto the pole but otherwise everything's pretty good.

The bbq is cute.

When I got out of hospital I kinda went on a tiny splurge as a "yay i'm not dead" celebration.

Those started to arrive too.

First to arrive was this Living Dead Doll as the Mad Hatter. I've wanted her for a while but the price in coffin is always a bit eye watering. This one was cheap because she's got no coffin, no death certificate and was covered in cat fur.
I'm pleased to have her. She's awesome.

I also got this girl for just over £20.

I already have a Little Apple doll I bought years ago, Animula. But she's a bit lonely and i've wanted Vates for years.

I find the handprints super creepy and different.

She's minty just like my Animula was, still attached to the box and no pins stuck into the apple. I never could bring myself to stab the apple with my other girl, it's made of foam and so once you stick the pins (included in a little baggie) in there's no real going back.
I mean it looks freaking cool all full of pins, but nghhh, it's so minty fresh and... argh.

These dolls also come with a little book that tells their story. it has somewhat abstract artwork and the stories are pretty odd.

In Vates' case, from what I could establish from reading it, she showed up in the middle of a light storm on this creepy island where all the kids died young and the adults had just sort learned to accept that they wouldn't get another generation.
She starts having visions and goes into the woods at night and finds the "dead" kids who tell her they're not dead but just lost because of a curse from the fallen sky goddess. She's pissy because she fell in love with a mortal, hooked up with him and he fell for another mortal and married her instead.
To be fair, he did think the whole sex with a goddess thing was a dream.
Anyway, she got pissy and threw herself out of the sky and cursed this guy and all his descendants and all who dwelled in his lands because basically she was a total bitch.
Which happens to be that island (it's part of the goddess's body? I dunno, it all got a bit weird)
anyway, the kids want to go home to their parents and tell Vates they have a spell that can do this, she just has to collect some stuff. So she goes and does that and then PSYCHE, the kids are gonna sacrifice her to appease the sky goddess and then the curse will be broken because uh.. the sky goddess will have company or something.

So they bury her alive.

Nice.

The handprints are where the children grabbed her and held her down.

then Little Apple Red intervenes because he always does in these stories, he fights the goddess and brings Vates to his realm instead.

I really can't see Little Apple Red as a good guy to be honest, he seems to collect children, intervening in their deaths and just dragging them back to his realm for... no apparent reason.

But that's Little Apple Dolls for ya, they're a bit strange.

 The all come with a mask too, but the mask is never explained in canon. I dunno what it's all about, but it's creepy.

they're about twice the size of a living dead doll, which means I haven't got a shelf high enough to display my two really. Drat.

Oh well.

I'm happy to have Vates and Mad Hatter. They might be somewhat strange ways to celebrate not dying but eh.
I'm a bit weird lol.

Then Bank Holiday Monday we met up with my dad and his partner to grab lunch in a nearby rather posh town. I go there sometimes to look at their charity shops because rich people donate NICE stuff. But I hadn't intended to go charity shopping on a family outing.
But my dad's partner ALWAYS excuses herself from the socialising to go browse the shops so I tagged along briefly.

Fara Kids had some interesting bits and pieces, but a lot of it was quite expensive. They had an EAH Hunter for £3 and a Funko Pop Rey bobblehead for £4.
Hidden amongst a lot of fake mlps I spotted a familiar little pony.

This is Cuddles, she's a g1 baby mlp and she was £1. SCORE.

She's a little grubby but in fairly decent condition for a 30 year old toy.

I also picked up this Mighty Max set for husband (it was £2). it's incomplete and missing the Max but these things are really hard to find. I've honestly never seen one in a charity shop before and I see Polly pockets from the same era fairly regularly.

Like the Bluebird Polly Pockets, the Mighty Max sets are detailed and have lots of little hinges and cubby holes. It's rather awesome.
This set needs a cage, a big rubbery eyeball, a demon and a max to be complete. Those bits I suspect will be quite hard to find and quite expensive.

But hey, Mighty Max playset! It made husband smile so totally worth the £2. Also middle kiddo spent ages playing with it.

And the final thing I found was this 2012 Furby.

I got my old 98/99 furbies working the other day after years and years. One of them is working mostly okay but his tilt sensor seems to have kinda, died making him hard to wake up and the other one's speaker has failed so she's mute, but my kids fell in love with them and asked for one of their own.

When I spotted this adorable little thing for £5 I knew I had to grab it for them.

Middle son immediately claimed it and named her "Boo Boo". Apparently she's a girl (he insists) and yes, she works perfectly.

The 2012 furbies are quite different to the old ones, they move a lot more (she kinda shuffles around my desk thanks to two little paddles on her base), her eyes are electronic and never stop moving (making them hard to photograph) and she has multiple personalities.

Doing certain things will trigger some sort of seizure in the furby, who's eyes close and start flashing like crazy. They scream "c. chhh chaaaanging!" and then seize up and when they wake up again their eyes are different and their voice has changed.
it's a little disconcerting.

Middle kiddo loves the "sweet" personality with the big eyes with the hearts. In this mode she sings a lot, sometimes farts and laughs saying "big noise!" and giggles a lot.
We've also encountered "pop star" who shows up if you play music and talks a bit like a bratty valley girl (like omg, gag me with a spoon)  and "evil" who mutters, growls and has narrow scary eyes. Omg it was so angry in that mode, it was hilarious.

It's a little too easy to shift it into a new persona, and then you have to sit and spend ages petting it and tickling it for it to go back into sweet mode to appease middle kiddo.
I find this a little bit annoying.
I'd kinda like it if you could just FIX the damn personality to the one you liked so you didn't have to worry about playing music around it or feeding it too often or whatever.(yes, overfeeding it turns it angry and muttery)

These 2012 furbies are fatter, softer and squishier than the old ones, but weigh a lot more. They also have rubbery ears which is a much better idea than the very very fragile "bones" of the old ones. (this is May May, my second 1st gen Furby who my dad bought me back in 2001/2 for cheap)

2012 Furbies also have another sensor in their tail. Which is interesting. Yanking it makes me feel guilty though.

So now the kids are asking for a Furby Connect each (eldest not so much, he doesn't care) so off to ebay I go to find two cheap connects to entertain them, because i'm way too soft hearted.
To be honest, I kinda love that a physical TOY, even if it is a robotic one, is capturing their attention and drawing them away from their Minecraft and Roblox.

Right now Boo Boo lives on my desk, because middle son decided that's where she should live. *sigh* she is rather cute.. and very pettable. Her fur is soooo soft.

And so I may have fallen a wee bit into the Furby thing again. Oops? Resurrecting my original Furby Kah Da was very nostalgic, he was bought for me by my parents as a "sorry we dragged you across the planet and away from all your friends and family, here have a robot to keep you company" present. I loved him then and yeah, i still find him strangely endearing. He pretends to ring like a phone if you ignore him, hums to himself, makes silly noises and generally is just a bit of a brat. I find that quite cute.
Boo Boo on the other hand sings and giggles and after about a minute of ignoring her, puts herself to sleep which is quite nice as a parent. The old ones take FOREVER to get bored enough to sleep (a good 5-6 minutes)

so in my search for a couple of Connects for the kids, I ... might have.. kinda.. accidentally bought a tlc furby <_<

Apparently the battery compartment is all corroded. I'll have to see if it can be sorted out with a nice cleaning.

But yeah... this is.. a rabbit hole.

Dear god help me.
The nostelgia is too strong.

I'm thinking I might customize this guy, even if I can't get him working. Paint his beak black maybe heh.

and my funko Hudson FINALLY CAME OMG.

I preordered this guy back in like, July?
He came into stock about 3 weeks ago and the store i'd bought him from still didn't dispatch. I sent them an email and they weren't very helpful.
Finally after a good week he dispatched and then... nothing.
I've waited TWO FRICKEN WEEKS for this to finally be delivered and suffice to say, i'm not impressed by this company's service at all. They told me when I asked that I would have to wait "up to 20 working days" for this guy to finally show up after being dispatched which I think is frankly unacceptable.
I'll be buying the rest from Amazon.
This company had a chance, they blew it.
Only reason I ordered from them was because of Funko's stupid "specialty series" crap which means only certain stores get this specific figure in.
What does that mean really? Scalpers. Scalpers galore.

I didn't want to risk having to pay obscene inflated prices for this guy, especially as he's actually my favorite character from the series (I just love grumpy old guy characters okay? hahaha)

I paid a little more than i'd have liked for him, but getting him at flat retail in the UK wasn't really a sure bet. I don't know if forbidden planet will get any in, or if the local comic store will, but I know Amazon won't because they aren't one of the "exclusive dealers" for Funko. Amazon do however have the other 5.

Gargoyles was a bit of an obsession of mine as a kid, it was so damn good. I used to rush home ever day from school and sit glued to the tv to watch it. Oh my god I loved it so much, and I still do. rewatching it as an adult, DAMN it's good. I mean there's some episodes that are a bit "PSA afternoon" and a little cringe as a result (reading is good mmkay? guns are bad mmkay?) but generally speaking? it's a damn good series and I wish Disney would do more merchandising for it.
These pops are the first Gargoyles product we've had (that I know of) since Disney decided to abort releasing season 2 part 2 on dvd back in 2005 (looking it up, apparently they finally released part 2 in 2013 but I have no idea where you could buy it. They never released any of them outside the US so my part 1 and 2 sets are region 1 and I can't bloody play them on our dvd player due to stupid region locking bullshit. Do you want pirating disney? because this is how you get pirating! assholes)

Anyway, global merch of Gargoyles is pretty special.
there's still a fairly large community of fans out there so i'm hoping these pops do well and we might see a few more. Right now it's just the main clan and Demona available, I desperately want Elisa and Xanatos and Owen to get pops damnit!
I DEMAND an Owen pop!
There's a lot of characters they could do and i'd be so happy to see like, literally any of them. pleeeease funko, pleeeease. We havent' had gargoyles toys since the 90s!

I love the cartoony artwork.

not a bad likeness.

The back shows the rest of the set. I really cannot wrap my head around WHY they chose Hudson to be the exclusive hard to find one. I mean, he's a main character. Demona would have made more sense purely because while an important character, she's not part of the main clan. Not being able to have every member of the Manhattan clan would drive me INSANE, far more so than not being able to have one of the other characters.
I just think it's a really weird decision. It means most people will only be able to get 5 of the 6 and that's gonna really bother people.

He's a damn nice pop though. His paintwork is pretty good. A little messy on his yellow eye but otherwise pretty neat.

I love the sculpt for his feets. I always loved Gargoyle feet hehehe.

I'm really delighted with this guy. I can't really justify buying the rest right NOW, but i'm hoping they're available for long enough for me to slowly collect them up piece by piece.

Finally, at last, Gargoyles merch!

I want MOOOOOAR!