Let’s Pretend it’s 1988
July 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment
We interrupt the smurfs to bring you a couple of circa 1988 commercials including a classic NES Zelda commercial.
Let’s continue with this theme and check out what Saturday Morning Cartoons were like in 1988.
And this 5 minute vintage commercial montage from 1988 that brought back some long lost memories…including Zach the Lego Maniac.
Big featuring Tom Hanks made everyone my age want the same thing: To own a giant keyboard like this one.
Beetlejuice was another big movie this year. Remember Day-O ?
Other top movies from ‘88 include: Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Die Hard, and Rain Man.
NWA was Straight Outta Compton.
One hit wonders of 1988 included: Pump Up the Volume, Don’t Worry Be Happy, and It Takes Two - Rob Base!.
Watch the Rob Base video to see how awesome rap used to be when you could really dance to it.
I get stupid…I mean outrageous. Stay away from me…If you’re contagious.
- Rob Base
(I still dance like it’s 1988 and I’m in a Rob Base video).
As you view the videos don’t forget to check out the acid washed jeans and poofy hair.
Hit it!
Rare Video Game Gold
July 29, 2008 | 3 Comments
Did you know that rare video game cartridges can be worth thousands of dollars?
I recently stumbled upon a few great websites devoted to rare video games of the past, and found some interesting info about valuable games.
For instance: the 1990 Nintendo World Championships: Gold Edition is a often considered the holy grail among video game collectors.
Nintendo only produced 90 Silver Editions and 26 Gold Editions of this special competition cartridge. A copy of the Gold Edition recently sold for $15,000 — and out of the 26 cartridges that exist, only 12 are accounted for.
Can you imagine finding one of these at a garage sale or thrift store?
Further Reading:
RareVideoGames.net - Nice blog + growing database of collectible video games along with reviews and prices. If you want to start learning about video game collecting, this a great start.
Nintendo World Championships - Wikipedia article
Garage Sale Survival Guide - Part 2
July 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Click here for Part 1 of the Survival Guide
The Swag
Whoever said “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” must have frequented a garage sale or two.
Yard sales are a lot of things, they are a communal social event, they are museums of forgotten (and in most cases, pointless) gadgetry, and they are the last great bastion of the ancient barter system. Above all other things though, yard sales are possibly the ONLY opportunity for you to find and purchase some very unique and nostalgic items.
Look at all that beautiful junk! On tables, in boxes, a buck a piece, three for a ‘dollah, chipped, faded, used, brand-new, it’s all here!!!
Clothing - If you ever wanted to know what your neighbors wore a decade ago, their yard sales will shine a light upon some dark periods in fashion. Checked vests, old sweat pants, lumberjack shirts and whole outfits from the 70s and 80s are still haunting closets these days, and yard sales are their moment in the sun before they are trashed. You can score clothing at a yard sale for a fraction of the cost they’re asking at Value Village. Great for less-than-picky friends and relatives.
Toys - Don’t be fooled by the re-productions of classic toys and action figures lining the shelves of Toy’s-R-Us these days, if you want original GIJoes, He-Men, Skip-Its, Baseball cards, Thundercats, Hot Wheels, Video Games and all the rest… you gotta hit those shoeboxes hard. Just remember; When at a yard sale, do as the Scroungers do…
Survival Tip #4 - Scrounge
Scroungers have developed a compulsive need to rummage through boxes of vintage toys and booklets of trading cards looking for the last piece to their never-ending collections. Follow their rodent-like example and get in there !!! move stuff around, get under the tables, pull stacks out of the book bins to find out what is beneath. Trust me, you never know when the dusty bottom of a shoebox will yield up a nostalgic treasure.
Children’s Stuff - During the formative period of a child’s life, they have growth spurts, mobility phases, and the attention span of goldfishes. As such, parents tend to discard an alarming amount of clothes, toys, and strollers within a very short period of their child’s life. All this baby swag ends up on the tables for other parents to use and abuse for a brief time with their children. Ah, the circle of life.
Vinyl - Unless you live in a major city with access to smoke-filled bomb-shelter-sized record shops, yard sales are probably the only way your going to get your hands on good vinyl. I’m not talking the scads of Zamfir or Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass LPs that populate consignment stores, gimme The Stooges, Moby Grape, or maybe a rare MC5 disc. Check out this rare Bob Dylan demo I found at a yard sale down the street.
Antiques - The Holy grail for the professional yard saler is to find some tarnished tea set or faded watercolour painting, pay a buck for it, and find out it’s actually worth thousands.
Appliances and Furnature - Is your electric hair curling iron not er, curling enough? Try one from three decades ago ! Is your easy chair not easy enough ? Slip into a Laz-E-Boy so broken-in that you’d believe it was owned by elephants. Tape decks, egg-shaped record players, mod lights and those bizarre 60s chairs shaped like hands can sometimes be spied on local lawns. If you absolutely HAVE to buy this stuff at a yard sale, be prepared for missing parts, and don’t be surprised if your brand new hand vacuum just plain doesn’t work.
The Weird Stuff - As you stroll past the tables piled with all the aforementioned junk, something strange and wonderful will inevitably catch your eye. Nine times out of ten, these unique artifacts don’t really fall into any other category of sale, they just make you think “WTF?”. Weird as they are, you have to possess them, even if you don’t understand why… believe me, I know. There is a porcelain teaspoon holder shaped like a squirrel in my kitchen that reads “Spooning For You In Virginia City“. It is the most hideous thing you, I or anyone have ever seen, but for some reason Crystal needed to own it.
Survival Tip # 5 - Channel Your Inner Pack-Mule
Once you’ve spotted an item or two that you’re interested in, for goodness sake PICK IT UP !!! The law of the jungle is: If something is on the tables, it’s fair game, so grab as much as you can and keep it in your hands until you reach the cashbox. This may sound paranoid, but I’ve seen lots of stuff punked right out from under people just because they hesitated for too long.
Okay, you’ve got an armful of junk, and that ten bucks is burning a hole in your back pocket. It’s time to face the music, so you’d better know how to dance.
The Haggle
Some people go to yard sales and simply grab an item that interests them, pay the owner whatever the little price sticker tell ‘em to pay, and then they leave. This system is efficient, but not thrifty, and completely avoids the fundamental yard sale experience… Haggling.
In just about every other culture on the planet, haggling is the established norm for all major purchases. In Markets, street vendors, and even privately owned stores around the world, little old ladies argue with sellers about the proper price markup of everything you can imagine. Grandma wants that rug, or chibatta bread for the lowest price she can get, and the vendor wants to make as much profit as he/she can… The battle of wills commences. Garage sales are no different, do you really want to pay two dollars for a CB Radio from the 60s that may or may not work ? No way !!!
Survival Tip #6 - The Sticker Lies
Like some obscure Sun Tzu quote, you must prepare your mind for the coming haggle by first fixing a price in your mind that you will pay for an item, and then fight to attain nothing less. The sticker price is a reflection of the seller’s “best case scenario”, one that will slide into “Whatever I can get for it” as the morning burns into afternoon.
Start off with “I’ll give you…” as opposed to the more natural “How much for…?” and the battle will begin. If you’ve nabbed an armful of items, the seller might settle on a price for the whole lot together instead of individually. This will work in your favour, and again, is more likely to happen later in the morning.
With a couple of dirty tricks up your sleeve, you’ll have a better chance of landing your target sale price. Small-talking up the seller, or sharing merchandise-related stories creates familiarity and might entice a bit of sympathy. Pointing out chips, dents, scratches or any other imperfections in the merchandise could go either way; the seller lowers the price out of shame, or declines to sell when insulted. A good poker face doesn’t hurt your chances either, of course it’s no substitution for a well laid plan… and you have a well laid plan don’t you ? Remember when you left your wallet in the car ? Here’s why;
Survival Tip #7 - Forget Your Wallet Pt. 2
This trick has always worked for me, no lie. The seller just won’t budge on his/her price, it’s a little above what you want to pay, and you can sense the deal closing with or without you… Don’t panic! Simply put your items down, fish around in your back pocket, pull out your crumpled ten dollars in front of the seller and frown your most believable frown. “All I got is ten” is the line, how convincingly you sell it will determine how your precious trash/treasures get sold to you. The seller doesn’t know you’ve got Fort Knox in the car, in most cases he/she will feel the tension of a potentially lost sale and settle for some money over no money.
One “Make or Break” technique that I caution against is scouting your purchases, then leaving the merchandise till the very end of the sale and returning just before everything goes back inside the garage. The theory is if the items aren’t gone, they’ll be practically free… but I find that nine times outta ten, they are just gone.
Remember to keep your ideal price in mind during the haggle, and try not to let the deal go sour. The haggle isn’t an argument, it’s a light-hearted game of strategy and chance. Sometimes you’ll make your goal, and sometimes your price hits a little higher on the board. It’s all part of the hunt, and one of the reasons you got up so freakin early this morning!
“Look at all the sexy swag you scored! Is that an Omni-Bot ? Toni will freak !!! And my buddy Jess will dig this Tiki thing from the 70s, hes been dying to build a Tiki-Bar. How ’bout the Etch-a-Sketch ? I haven’t seen one in years!“
The trudge back to your car is the a little surreal after the first couple sales. You feel a little giddy with adrenaline from haggling, and sunstroke is only ten minutes away. As you pass the lines of cars parked along the curb, you nod to your fellow hunters with a shared ironic smile that says, “Geez, did I really just pay ten bucks for someone else’s old junk ?”
Yes… yes you did.
Pack all your booty into the trunk and speed to one last junk swap, or bloated with success, you return to your lair and put on a proper pot of coffee. It is only 11:00am after all. Check the newspaper again before you start your day (they might advertise NEXT week’s sales), and for godness sake’s relax! It’s Sunday! Your day off! Flip the news back on and maybe start on a little brunch. Sunday afternoons are wonderful things.
Happy hunting, and much love.
Garage Sale Survival Guide - Part 1
July 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Sunday mornings are wonderful things.
No work for the working, no school for the schooling, maybe some church for the errr…. churching, but for the most part it’s all pretty laid back. A time to enjoy your coffee a little longer, sit out on the patio if it’s a sunny day and browse through your local newspaper. Now flip to the local advert section and grab a big ‘honkin red pen for highlighting, ’cause Sunday mornings are also the perfect time to take part in that most nostalgic of summer rituals, the garage sale… Just remember to put pants on before you leave the house.
Whatever you may call ‘em ; yard sale, garage sale, rummage sale, junk swap, it’s all part of the same monetary-based social phenomena. It’s truly amazing. When people unfold a couple ‘o ping-pong tables full of junk in their driveway and staple cardboard signs with arrows on ‘em around the neighborhood… we will come… oh yes, we will come to rifle through their used and abused bits of personal history, and maybe score a little nostalgia for ourselves.
The Hunt
One way to enjoy this celebration of summer is to just drive around in the morning looking for signs and hoping you get lucky. Of course, if you’re serious about rocking the garage sale scene like a pro (more on them in a bit), the best way to score a juicy deal or two is to plan ahead of time.
Survival Tip #1 - Newspapers Are Your Wingman
In most cases, sellers advertise a sale the day, or the week before a major yard sale. The biggest and the best sales (ie. group sales, charity sales, and property liquidations) usually have big ads detailing what you can expect to see out on the tables, which will help you sort out what to hit, and what to avoid. By selecting in advance what sales you want to haunt you can make the most of your morning and even plan out a route through your town to save some gas.
It really doesn’t take that long to scan the newspaper ads, do it the day before and get back to watching the Saturday afternoon Jaws movie marathon… And now that you’ve got a plan a day in advance, you can relax and prepare for Sunday morning with the coiled posture of a deadly thrift store rattlesnake (a rare variety of viper, noted for it’s love of weakened prices). Just remember to set your alarm, ’cause you want to be up early for the hunt.
Survival Tip #2 - Sleep Is For The Weak
The early bird gets the 1970s patio set, it’s absolutely true! If you’re up at 8:00am you’ll have enough time to leisurely sip coffee and watch the news before you hit the streets. Most Garage sales have a narrow window of existence between 8:00am - 3:00pm (on average), but by noon all the good stuff will be gone, SO GET OUT THERE !!!
Don’t worry if you haven’t had time to get pretty, or your socks don’t match, everyone you’ll see during this critical morning hunt is gonna look the same way. It’s part of the ritual to wander around town with a coffee to-go and your hair all over the place… It’s the eye of the tiger so to speak, the way you’ll identify other professional garage sale stalkers.
The Culture
As you head out into the dewy morning, and along the route you’ve planned in advance you’re going to notice lines of cars parked along the road as you near the first sale. Don’t worry, you are never going to be the first one there, someone out there is always a wee bit more obsessed than you. These people are fellow yard sale addicts, they are your kin, and in some cases, your competition.
The call of cut-rate used clothing and paperback books draws many types of people out on a Sunday morning. Some are just out for a stroll or a drive (morning people… ugh), some are looking for nostalgia, or additions to their collections, and some are a more determined breed of “all or nothing” junk traffickers. Everyone you meet at yard sales have interesting personalities, even the sellers. Something about these red-eyed, unshaven Sunday mornings can turn even the most mild-mannered suburbanite into a howling street vendor from Calcutta.
You can easily identify the castes of people who frequent yard sales while simultaneously sorting through shoeboxes full of vintage buttons. I like to separate them into four groups based on key habits:
The Strollers : Morning people can be so weird. Just out for a walk with their dog or partner, Strollers really just happen upon yard sales by chance (sometimes without any money at all). Casually glancing around and rarely touching anything, Strollers present little to no threat to more experienced yard sale hunters.
The Browsers : One step up from Strollers, Browsers arrive as a family unit and tend to scrounge just about everything at a yard sale without actually buying anything. Tending to differ to a patriarch or matriarch for advice on purchases, the lower level Browsers just run around, touch stuff and make noise. Watch the alphas though, they typically have a pretty good head for haggling and may snatch up a potential deal before you can. They prefer to nab furniture, appliances and clothing.
The Scroungers : Also known as “Collectors”, this strata of yard sale lover is all about those big cardboard boxes fulla records, action figures, or comic books tucked underneath the tables. Scroungers have very selective and erratic tastes and will typically buy only to increase a personal cache of certain items. They do tend to haggle a lot, and enjoy knowing what items true value is (even if it’s only in their mind). Scroungers sometimes hunt in packs, during which they communicate through an almost constant stream of sarcastic pop culture criticisms (ie. “Gawd, look at this gem from a dead era !!! How did people think shag was hip ? A fan ? Not really, I only listen to their early stuff.” etc.)
The Pros : The kings and queens of the yard sale jungle are the professionals, identifiable by their cold stares, hard haggling techniques, and abillity to rifle entire boxes of records with one hand. Some run consignment stores, some re-sell on eBay, and some just really, really like mountains of junk. Whatever the reason, pros come to yard sales early, grab anything they can get their hands on, get the very best price they can and leave as fast as their Chrysler LeBarons can take them. Of course, not all pros are heartless haggle machines, some make the rounds because they love the culture. Check out the brilliant Yard Sale Bloodbath Blog for a loving pro’-eye-view of all things with a price tag.
The yard sale culture is out there waiting for you! But before you lock up the car and saunter on over to your first garage of the day, there’s one thing you should do… you’ll thank me later.
Survival Tip #3 - Forget Your Wallet Pt. 1
Leave your wallet in the car… I’m completely serious. Take out a couple ‘o bills, shove them in your back pocket and just leave the rest. No-one at a yard sale is gonna take plastic, don’t worry. This simple act will allow you a couple of important psychological defenses against the onslaught of serious yard sale haggling. The first of which is the limit that you just put on your spending for this particular sale. Ten bucks will get you a ton of swag, and help you sort out what is just impulse buying. The other benefits of ditching your wallet will be discussed later…
Continue on to Garage Sale Survival Guide - Part 2
What a Bombshell !!!
July 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Like Nintendo ? How’s about 1942 ? And Street Fighter as well ? You’re just the kind of Joystick Jockey that the t-Shirt messiahs over at Meat Bun need. Drool at their exclusive new design featuring a WW2-era Cammy from Street Fighter 2 and the iconic bomber from Nintendo’s thumb-busting arcade game. Never played 1942? Fire up the ‘ol NES or play it online HERE!
The Dark Knight Arrives !
July 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Today is the day Batman finally comes back to the big screen with an enigmatic killer clown in tow! Chris Nolan’s masterpiece “The Dark Knight” is getting rave reviews, and will undoubtedly break box-office records of some sort. For everyone who forgot to buy their tickets in advance, fire up the ‘ol VCR and re-live The Original Movie… I’ll see the rest of you in theaters.
Hypercolor Heats Up… Again.
July 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Yeah, the title pretty much says it all… This morning I was bombing around online with my usual coffee’n'jazz-colada in hand and I ran smack into a brick wall of disbelief. It seems clothing giants American Apparel have decided that it’s high time to re-live the heat-reactive clothing trends of the early 90s. Yes ladies and gentlemen, Hypercolour Clothing is back! Again!
Originally created by Generra Hypergraphix (now known as PCC) the Hypercolor line of T-Shirts were normal cotton treated with a pigment that changed from one colour to another when exposed to heat. Neato !!! Released upon an unsuspecting public in 1991, this phenomenon hit it’s target demographic (children) as hard as school yard pavement and made millions within it’s first few months of sale. I had a blue one that changed pink when I mashed my open, sweaty palm into it… wait… I really wore pink…?
Every kid in school had, and I mean HAD to have a Hypercolor shirt, it was one of the early 90s most indispensable pieces of pre-teen fashion. Check out the Hypercolor Commercial if you still don’t “Get It”.
Of course an obvious flaw in the shirt’s design became apparent the minute gym class began. Heat reactive shirt right ? Sweat is both sticky and hot right ? I think you can follow where this is going… As my good buddy Charlie once said : “The moment I witnessed the horror of technicolor armpit stains, I was glad I was the only kid in class without one of those damn shirts !” I, sadly, did not escape such a fate.
Nor could Generra escape a horrendous plunge in Hypercolor sales when the public realized that the colour-change effect was destroyed if the shirts were accidentally thrown into a warm/hot washing machine. Only a couple ‘o cycles was all it took to change my light blue miracle of modern science, into a tye-dyed runny pink mess. All that was leff untouched by the pink bleaching process was the Dark, mocking font of the “Hypercolor” label.
Shortly after making such a huge splash on the adolescent fashion scene, Generra filed for bankruptcy. Could American Apparel be revisiting tragedy as well as the past ? If so, then they aren’t alone. Custom sneaker pimps Puma have released a “Colour Change” line of kicks that change depending on interior heat levels (hopefully not odor levels), and Change Me Clothing has gone completely back to basics with Hypercolor-inspired designs of their own.
Get ready for those sexy technicolor pit stains on the basketball courts this summer !!! Much love.
8 Movies From the 80s…
July 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment
…that quietly changed our childhood.
If you grew up in the 80s, you’ll probably dig this article at Hypernation which reminisces over classics such as The Flight of the Navigator (personal fav), Weird Science, The Dark Crystal, and… well just go read it yourself.
Strolling Le Retro Salon
July 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Looking for inspiration online is easy.
My tabs are packed full ‘o amazingly talented artists and nostalgic enthusiasts that collect and display little bits ‘o visual joy. Grab a glass of wine and stroll through le salon:
First up, Fubiz.net has a fantastic gallery of classic 8-bit images imposed over real backgrounds. Simple yet elegant, tres french no ?
Then saunter over to Blog.sans-concept.com to get your fill of Vintage 70s Logos.
Modern Fred’s got your rubber monster fix covered with a Flickr set of Godzilla and Japanese Monster Movie Art (including a look inside the monster’s physiology). Enjoy !
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- Let’s Pretend it’s 1988
- Rare Video Game Gold
- Garage Sale Survival Guide - Part 2
- Garage Sale Survival Guide - Part 1
- Hypercolor Heats Up… Again.
- My 80s Dream Toy Chest
- Future Nostalgia
- The Man Who Laughs
- The Monks - Bad Habits (1979)
- The Haircut Hall ‘o Shame
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