Thrift Justice – Walk On By

I’m back! Thrift Justice has been on a mini hiatus, but I figured it was time to get back to basics. By now, you’ve come to realize that I simply can’t buy everything I see “out in the wild”. So, here’s another one of those posts of things I chose to leave behind.

I never had SNES, so I had no real affinity for the Super Scope 6. I do have one particular memory about it, though. You see, when it first came out, Nintendo took it on tour to various shopping malls so that kids could demo it. Locally, it came to White Flint (you’re not supposed to add “mall” to its name, snooty bastards), and I remember they had promo eyepatches to wear while sampling the gun. I really wanted one of those eyepatches, not realizing there was a scourge known as pink eye. Anyway, I didn’t get the patch, but I did end up with a Nintendo Game Journal that I still can’t bring myself to throw away 20 years later. I didn’t need the gun, and I didn’t think I could make any real money off of it, so I left it behind.

I’m usually a sucker for a carded vintage action figure, but not this time. I, like most of America, never saw The Last Action Hero. I used to have a poster for the movie that came in an issue of Superman/Batman Magazine, but I know next to nothing about the film. Plus, the thrift store has moved to a different price tag that I felt would damage the card if I tried to remove it. So, I kept on walking.

If you know Aaron Carter, you probably just know him as Backstreet Boy Nick Carter’s little brother. Oddly enough, though, Justin Bieber owes more to this guy than you might realize. Aaron was the prototypical Bieber AND he beat Shaq! Anyway, it looks like Aaron’s party is over, as this guy never even made it out of the box. I guess someone gave up on it ever being a “collector’s item”.

This is a Mattel music box from 1968. The thing I love about it is that it shows Matty, Mattel’s mascot, during happier times. Nowadays, he looks like a smug asshole, but this is a Matty who truly seems to be about fun and customer service. I miss this Matty. Based on the date, though, be may not be too fond of Negroes. So, I guess you win some and you lose some.

As a bonus, I thought I’d show you a couple of thrift fails I experienced recently. You can’t win ’em all, and there are situations where I most certainly lost.

I’ve been on a board game kick lately, and tend to gravitate towards any that catch my eye. I found this at a church sale while I was with Special Forces, and I was sure a church wouldn’t rip me off. Well, that’s what I get for my naivete. I’d say that only about 30% of the game was present, and none of the electrical components were there. So, I immediately redonated it. Some folks might think that’s dick, but there could be someone out there who needs those particular parts. I’d much rather give them a shot than banish it to the landfill.

I don’t think I’ve ever eaten a Bonkers, but I remember them advertising all the time in old comics. Candy tie-in games aren’t something you see every day, so I jumped at it. And then I realized it wasn’t complete. There were more pieces present than the Super Spy game, but not enough for me to waste my time. So, back to the thrift store it went.

So, as you can see, things haven’t been all that exciting in the land of Thrift Justice. I’m not sure what’s going on, but the pickin’s ain’t as sweet lately. Many of my thrift stores have reset their layouts, and that always causes problems. It’s like it takes a good few months for things to settle into a groove again. So, maybe things will be better as we get closer to Halloween, but things are slow now. What kinds of things have you all been finding. Let me know in the comments!