If an Invisible Weeble Falls Down, Would You Know?

Way back in 2017, I showcased one of my childhood grails, the Weebles Haunted House.  But, there is an even rarer Weeble grail I was only made of aware of in recent years.  It was a promotion with 3M Scotch "Magic Tape" in the 1970's.  You might remember the Magic tape spokesman, The Invisible Man, from the commercials.

At an estate sale this past summer, I was in a crowded basement, both with items and people.  While I was breezing by for a fast pass seeing if anything jumped out, my daughter was digging through a box of small craft items.  She suddenly pulled out a Weeble, but not just any Weeble, an Invisible Man Weeble.

Pirates of the Harried Being

You may have noticed a slight deluge of posts lately.  Okay, maybe "deluge" is a bit strong.  Let's say a slight swelling of posts.  The reason is, I've been going through my blog drafts; those posts I began writing and abandoned for one reason or another, usually because after I began writing them, I deemed them not interesting enough to post.  And hey, here's one of them!  By the way, I have no idea what that title means.  I wrote it way back in 2020 and probably just liked the way it sounded and the wordplay on "Pirates of the Caribbean". I'm not changing it.

I had a next door neighbor who was a few years younger than me when I was a kid.  He was probably only 4 years younger, but when you're 12 and he's 8, that's a lot. But he had a lot of cool toys, so I did spend some time visiting him just to get the chance to play with toys I didn't have. I've previously written about the Weebles Haunted House he had.

One day, I noticed he had a small pirate bank in his bedroom.

 

Pockets of Fun

Pardon me if my age shows while I switch into "kids these days" mode. 

It seems the sole source of entertainment for kids these days (see, I told you) are video games.  Sure, they come in a variety of platforms, but they're still video games.  Pre-Atari, I didn't have much exposure to video games.  But there were variety of options for game play I could choose; board games, cards, outdoor physical *gasp* games, and early electronic games.  And for a brief time in the late 1970's mixed among those other choices was a line of mechanical pocket games made by Tomy and other companies.

I remember going through bins of these at a local store as a kid, trying to decide which held the most fun and game play.

I found a couple of these this past summer. I had this Jackpot game in yellow.  Pull the lever, let it spin, push to button to stop the reels on a dime.  Of course, nothing ever dispensed for hitting the jackpot, but it felt great just the same.

Shaker Maker Hairy Bunch

Happy Halloween all!

I can't believe how fast this season has gone.  It's been a very busy October for me and I felt like I barely kept up on these posts, usually finding myself creating them in a rush on the night before.  

But it's day 31 and I made it.  Today's offering is a find from this past summer.  Ideal's Shaker Maker from the days when crafts were a hot item for kids, specifically 1972.

Come Along with Me and I'll Garage Sale with Thee

I have a special treat for everyone today.  Well, "treat" may be a bit strong.  But if you've ever wondered what it was like to garage sale with me, this is your lucky day. Okay, "lucky" may be a bit strong.

Okay, let's not quibble with words.  You're wondering, What is Tom babbling about?"  I'm babbling, I mean, talking about my first (and maybe last) Garage Sale Finds vlog.

I've been toying with the idea of creating some vlogs of my garage and estate sales adventures for a while now.  I've been on the fence whether I wanted to go that direction, but thought I'd give it a shot.  I've watched other garage sale vlogs and have thought, "I find better stuff than that".

My next concern was, is it legal?  Of course, there are countless Youtube videos out there doing exactly this, but I was curious.  From what I've read, essentially, even if you on private property, but are "asked" to enter, you may videotape.  Kind of like a vampire.  I didn't plan on filming any actual people, so I decided to proceed (more on that later).

So this past weekend, I took my camera with me along for the ride (or walk as the case may be).  Videoing the sales was the easy part.  Editing them was something else.

My first challenge was, for obvious reasons, I didn't want people's faces to be shown.  There are a lot of people at garage sales these days.  Not like the old days when I'd be the lone person there.  Consequently, they bounce in and out of the video.  I tried to point the camera to shoot at waist height, but still ended up catching a lot of people. So finding software that could blur faces was my first task.  I ended up playing around with the online video editor Flixier.  It wasn't terribly hard to figure out how to use, although the blurring feature is fairly clunky.  It doesn't follow faces, so you have to blur out large blocks of video and move the blurring area frequently.  I did my best.

Second was adding some narrative to let you know what was going on.  I didn't talk too much during the actual video and I didn't feel like doing a voiceover, so I added some text explaining what I was looking at and my thoughts.

One last warning: it's long.  It's 17 minutes and 36 seconds long.  I'm sure there are long sections I could have edited out, but if you want the full effect of just 1 garage sale (I went to about 5 garage sales and 4 estate sales that day) it's all there.  You can always double the playback speed and watch it in 8 minutes and 48 seconds.

Will I do this again?  I guess it depends how much everyone enjoys the video...and if I can find some decent video editing software.

P.S.  I'll follow up with a later post in more detail of the actual items I bought.

P.S.S. That's my daughter with me in the video.  The garage sale force is strong with this one...

Child World/Children's Palace Video Toy Chest

I don't normally pick up VHS tapes at garage or estate sales unless the content is unusual or unavailable in other formats.  This tape meets both qualifications.

Ten Thousand and One Grimaces

No, not that purple monstrosity that loves McDonald's shakes.  These:

Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting!

I recall seeing this toy in the Sears and J. C. Penney's Christmas catalogs of my youth. I'd always assumed it was a G. I. Joe toy made by Hasbro.

Knock Off Wars

Trips to grocery stores in my youth always included a visit to the toy aisle, pathetic limited as they were.  There you could always find cheap throwaway toys which sometimes featured non-licensed knockoffs of popular intellectual properties.  And there was no bigger target for knockoffs than Star Wars.

How's About a Nice Hawaiian Blog?

Aloha!

I found this Hawaiian cutey at a recent sale.  She's plastic and tin and a wind-up.  She was made in Japan and probably dates to the 1960's.

 

Great Giant Jigglin' Skeletons!

"Great Giant Jigglin' Skeletons" may be my new phrase of astonishment and it's what I said when I saw this set of twin jiggling rubber bones at a recent sale.

Invaders from Mars! or at least my Neighbor's House...

I'm afraid I'll need to stretch my inclusion of not-necessarily-Halloween-related items again today.  But hey, aliens are scary, right?  And these are supposed to be aliens, I think...or maybe they're just supposed to be our own astronauts, who technically are aliens when they land on other planets.  Oh, heck, let's just get on with it.

Two Heads are Better than...Five?

This purple two-headed dragon from Imperial toys reminded of Tiamat from Dungeons & Dragons, minus a few heads, maybe. Yes, I'm a nerd.

Miss Match -- A Horror Story

Today's Garage Sale Find may be on the extreme periphery of Halloween, but all dolls are haunted, right?

This 1970's "Miss Match" comes from the fine folks at Uneeda.

 

She's soft, cuddly and floppy.  Like a line torn from a Dolly Parton song, Miss Match wears her coat of many colors proudly.

Marx Brontosaurus

This 1959 plastic Brontosaurus made by Marx Toys reminds me of the Sinclair dinosaur.  

McDonald's Memories

The 1970's were the golden age of fast food, and the toys of the era reflect that.  From Pizza Hut playsets and ovens to Pepsi fountains to Kentucky Fried Chicken playsets.

But the fast food king is, and has always been, McDonald's.  As a child, we went so infrequently, to me, it was a magical experience when we did.  One Christmas in the early '70's, my cousin received a Playskool McDonald's playset. I was so envious.  I recently came across some home movie footage of my aunt handing it to my cousin.

Then years later, I found one at an estate sale.  It was still magical.

Mighty Men & Monster Making

While this Tomy "Mighty Men & Monster Maker" drawing set came out in 1978 and should have been right in my wheelhouse, I somehow missed it and my vague memories of the commercial place it in the early '80's when it wouldn't have been on my wish list, having migrated to the Atari 2600 and handheld electronic games.

Bony Tony

I found this MPC "Bony Tony" figure among some small toys priced at a quarter each at a recent sale. 

A Halloween (F)Renzi

This Jack O' Lantern is pretty unassuming and common looking from the front...

Rattle Me Bones

I almost didn't pick up this 1970's Bayshore skull rattle when I first saw it in the basement of a home I was perusing at an estate sale.  I pegged it for something more modern, but I liked the look of it, so I picked it up anyway. It was only $1, so how could I pass?