Spinning Some Sesame Street Songs

Fisher-Price again!

Whether you need need to spin some classic 45s at the local hop, or your looking for a way to create a sophistocated atmosphere for the "item-check room" at you latest "benefit" event, nothing beats a classic beige #825 Fisher-Price Portable Record Player.

But if your in a bit of pinch and no beige model is available (and good luck finding the rare blue and white one), this Sesame Street variation will cover for you.

Great for playing Sesame Street songs, like this one where a drug dealer tries to sell Ernie and "O" for a nickel.

Fisher-Price does it again

One of my favorite toys from my childhood, the Fisher-Price Movie Viewer. And we got 2 of them!

Just pop in a cartridge (usually Sesame Street but this time we have the animated Spider-Man) and crank the advancing wheel. Want to watch it in slow-mo or reverse? No problem.

I used to watch the Sesame Street "size" reel on a loop for hours.

2-XL: the 8-track Robot

Nice try, Steve Jobs, but here is something your fancy iPod Touch can't do...

...Be a large plastic robot that plays 8-track cassettes tapes, and whose eye light up in rhythm to the music.



If, like me, you want to know all about 2-XL (for instance, is he double-extra large?), this video will explain everything:

"Adult can't resist him."   ...Playboy

For about a week in 2009, 2-XL was on Twitter.

Wild In The Streets

Awesomely, and yet sadly, complete skateboards are not an uncommon donation here at the Junk Store. We probably get over 10 a year, and that doesn't include all those crappy plastic-truck toy store generics. We get so many, we actually sell them to customers!

We get the really ancient clay wheelers, your bright orange banana boards, your mid-80s fat boys (often with rails and copers and such), your early 90s small-wheel brittle boards, those shop graphics and blanks, and your modern street set-ups. We even have a flat-rail stashed behind the dumpster for some lazy Sunday sessions. And oh how I wish I took some photos of the time Big Merl and Top Cat built a quarterpipe up the side of the loading dock using scrap wood. We told the boss it was a ramp for the dolly. 

So here is a mere sample of the many boards that have gotten me to the deli and back over the past couple of years. I keep a constantly rotating collection of about 7 boards in the Sorting Room (even though I'm the only skater working at the Junk Store these days) that we have just in case a gnarly curb sesh pops-up unexpectedly. 

Such a sweet AntiHero graphic. Probably late 90s

Think Drehobl from probably 1994.

The Battle Wagon

Unused post-Rocco World complete

And I'll end it with traditional "Rounded Bolts with Washers" hardware set up. 

Check out all the Tales From The Junk Store skateboarding donation posts.

And treat yourself to Thrashin' - Wild In The Streets - in French:

Bayou Power Trio?

I don't know where this large, framed band portrait came from or who these well dressed swamp rockers are, but I can speak with 100% certainty that they kick ass.
A band with such solid taste in both photo location and choice of hats just has to be good.

If anybody can provide definitive identification on this band, perhaps with a youtube link to one of their songs, you will win a free copy of the latest issue of Junk Pirate zine, postage paid!

Cat with a Human Face

All other pieces of fine artwork can now be burned or otherwise disposed of in some over-the-top manner because the greatest single piece of Junk Store art has arrived...

Hans 2012

Let's take a moment to check in on our good buddy Hans, the creepy Junk Store plush-mannequin.

There he is. Hoarding panties over by the water cooler.
And it looks like he has made a kitty friend.

I highly recommend you take a comprehensive look at the many shades of Hans (featuring a special appearance by the Cyclops).

How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb

Now here is something. The tail portion of a vintage bomb. For real.

It's hollow and seems to have been used as a flower box in someone's garden for the past several decades, so there was a lot dirt and crud in there. Nevertheless, it sold for mucho bucks in a matter of minutes after it hit the sales floor. We should have asked for muy mucho bucks.

I took this picture with the paint can in there to give you a relative size reference. This bomb was big and heavy.

I'm also proud of my fortitude in not using the phrase "Da Bomb" anywhere in the text of this post. Especially the title.

I Want Those Days Back

Even more Junk Store nostalgia:

You are being watched.

Nuetron Vs RoboLove 22

The classic "Flush" sign from the old employee bathroom.

Slip Molds

Big money accordions.

The Tony Cantina Clones.

Baby Zombies

When We Were Young

More pictures from the early days of the Junk Store documentation:

Gorilla Music

The Kitty Shelf

Mini-Bizarro

Binders to the horizon

I Invented the slide lampshade!

Picasso

Coming Up: A Look Back

That last Cock-Mug post got me all nostalgic for vintage Junk Store imagery.
So, buckle-up, cause for the next few posts I'm dusting off some old classics from the gritty early days.

Fo Any Reason Anywhere Any Time

Bashful

Burns and the Dancing Budweiser

No Bumping

Crazy Legs O'Brien!!!

The Classic Double Basket

The End of the Basket Room

Where It All Began

For the first post of the glorious new year I'm gonna take us back to the beginning.

Almost a decade ago, from amongst the Heap (this was in the days before the sorting boxes) emerges a ceramic mug with a boner. The Jammer snaps a low-res digital picture (I think we were working with maybe 1.5 megapixels back them). This photo spawns a few more pictures (mostly of the crazy customers), and that eventually leads to a little website on a free server celebrating our wonderful horrible job. That website is still out there because we no longer have the password to log in and update or remove it.

Several years later, I merge the Junk Pirate zine and artwork idea with all these random snapshots of fucked-up donations into the Tales From the Junk Store Blog.  

And he I am today, still working the same shit job. Sigh.