Clearing OUT!

I just got back from a trip to Columbia. I was house and puppy sitting for my brother. On the way home I stopped by a few places and picked up a few things.

Of course they were cheap... you all know me!!!

You may recall this Skull King figure I got when I was in Georgia...



Now... watch my monster GLOOOOOOWWWWW!!!!



How did I do this? I stuffed him with glow in the dark Airsoft pellets.



You can get a big bottle of 5,000 of them for 10 bucks at Walmart. I still have over a third of the bottle left. I wonder what I'll use them for.... mwaaaa haa haa haa!!!!!



I have so far resisted buying any of the Transformers RPM (Robot Powered Machines) toys from Hasbro. For one, they're really not that impressive. Second, they cost too much. Are they worth 3 bucks? No. Are they worth 2 bucks? Nah. One? Yeah!



I stopped at a Dollar Tree on the way home and snagged this Optimus for a buck.



They're basically Hot Wheels style vehicles of the Transformers movie characters.



On the bottom of each one there's a sculpted representation of the robot form. See Optimus looking at you from the bottom of the truck?



They had a TON of these suckers. The characters were Optimus, Bumblebee, Ironhide, Ratchet, Sideswipe, Jolt, Megatron, Long Haul, Mix Master, and Sideways. If you dig 'em hit up your local Dollar Tree... you might get lucky! I already have a nice die-cast Optimus Prime vehicle, so I'll keep mine in the package... it's a swell looking package!

I grabbed a couple of civilian clothes Wolverine figures from the Walmart next door for $2.50 each to use for customs. They're really nice bases for regular dudes.

I was getting ready to head out on the long trip home when I heard a little voice in my head say "Go to K-Mart." K-Mart isn't exactly on the way home, but I decided to go anyway. Boy... I am so glad I listened to the little voice!

They were having a HUGE clearance sale. I don't know if this is a nationwide thing or not, but this one had all their regular clearance prices slashed in half! I grabbed some stuff I would never have paid full price for.

Here's the recent Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Goldar figure I had wanted when I first heard about it but changed my mind as soon as I saw it. It's a horrible, horrible toy if you pay 6 or 7 bucks for it. But when you pay the $2.50 I did... well... it's still a crappy toy, but it's a little bit easier to justify owning it.



See those shoulder pads and that skirt there? They're solid, hard, ABS plastic. That basically means that the ball jointed shoulders and hips are pretty much frozen in place. Sheesh! On top of that, he has no knees or elbows. He's pretty much a statue... a really static, neutrally posed statue.



The sculpt is not totally bad with some nice little details here and there, but this guy is still a horrible, horrible toy. I mainly bought it because it was Goldar.



See how good he looks with the other Goldars I own? OK, so he still looks bad, but I'm glad I found him!



Another toy I'd never buy at full price: The Wolverine Stasis Chamber.



It's basically the big glass box they used to put the metal in Wolverine's body. Right. More custom fodder. I dunno how much this thing cost originally, but it's freakin huge.



It has a wheel on the side that you turn, and Wolvie smashes the glass out. Sure. It's going to be dismantled and used for custom projects. It cost me $2.50. Yay, K-Mart!!!



Here are the other Wolverines with the derpy looking Wolverine that came in the stasis set. He has a nicely sculpted body... I might make a small He-Man with that body.



I'm not really a Pokemon fan-- I never have been. I find the show to be annoying and the cards to be vomit-inducing. What I do like, however, are some of the character designs. Let's face it... some Pokemon are just darn cute.

I picked this little guy up.



His name is Mantyke, and he is A-FREAKIN-DORABLE.



His retail price was 6 bucks. I paid 99 cents for him. Booyah.



I love how he has the option to display him on his big stupid water base or on a smaller transparent one. He was well worth the price. I dunno about 6 bucks, but 99 cents? Oh yeah, baby.



And then there's this guy:



I have been looking for a decently priced Optimus Prime Mighty Mugg since before they ever hit stores. I never was crazy about paying 10 and 12 bucks for these things, but seeing how hard it is to track down a regular Prime I would have been quite happy paying full price for him. When I saw him in the clearance section I literally yelped. There was a lady at the end of the aisle with her daughter-- she grabbed her by the hand and pulled her out of there faster than I have ever seen a human being move. I ran over to the price checker and this is what I saw on the screen "CHECK SHELF TAG FOR PRICING INFORMATION." Whaaaaaa? I hunted down someone in toys for some help but I couldn't find a soul (go K-Mart!). I brought the little guy up to the service desk and asked the lady to check the price-- I wanted it, but I'm cheap... sue me (don't! I don't have the funds!). She had to go find a manager who wouldn't answer the calls to the service desk (go K-Mart!), and told me that if I wanted to keep shopping she'd keep the figure at the desk until the manager surfaced. I went back and grabbed a few more things that I can't show here (Ooooo! Secrets!!!) and made my way up to the desk a few minutes later. I asked the lady how much it was, and she said the manager had priced it at 5 bucks. I almost yelped again, but kept it down this time. The best part of this whole deal? When she scanned it it automatically applied the clearance discount... that's right: I got it for $2.50 (YAY K-MART!!!)!

Looks nice standing there in my Optimus Prime collection, huh?



Yeahyuh!

I love deals.

The moral of this story? Keep your eyes open right now... there's a lotta clearing going on!

K-Mart rules.

Not because it's a great store... more often than not K-Mart stores are cluttered, messy, and filthy, and the prices are usually about a buck more than Walmart's regular prices. No, K-Mart rules because their clearance prices are FABULOUS!!!!

One thing I have found is that K-Mart's stuff sits in clearance for ages without being touched because the initial "clearance" price is only a bit less than the retail price. What many people don't realise is that the prices in the store computers continue to go down as the stuff sits there and rots on the shelf.
Chances are that if you see something on clearance and you're patient enough you can get it dirt cheap down the road. I saw a huge $44.99 G I JOE Rise of Cobra fighter jet today that rang up as $11.00!

Walmart plainly marks their clearance prices on their products and people snap them up before you even know they're gone. I was in a Walmart one day when they put the Avatar figures on clearance, and they marked them down from 9 bucks to 1 buck in one fell swoop. People flocked to the clearance rack and pretty much picked the meat from the bones. I managed to grab one figure.... the one figure left. K-Mart, on the other hand, keeps the same clearance price on the toy even though the price has dropped below the floor.

My regular practice is to grab a buggy, head to the clearance section, fill up the buggy with stuff, and scoot over to the price checker. Sometimes you don't find much... other days are better. Today was one of the good days.

I picked up an armful of stuff today for 10 bucks. The retail price on it all was supposed to be 39.99. I think I did ok!

First up is this Batman: The Brave and The Bold deluxe figure set. Retail $11.99... I paid $1.50!!!



It has Batman with Nth Metal Bat Knuckles, the Gentleman Ghost and his Ghost Steed.



Whatever... I bought it for the horse. That thing is awesome! Forget everything else in the set-- that horse RULES! The Gentleman Ghost isn't so bad either, but the horse-- yeah... the horse, man.



Best part of all? THEY GLOW! YEAH-YUH!!!!



This is supposed to be Batman with Nth Metal doodads.. yeah, whatever... I'm calling him Prison Beat-Down Batman and that's final.



Next up? Crappy Wolverine Origins figures. Retail $8.99 each... I paid $2.00 each!

Yay. I bought em to use as customs. I liked their pants.
We have Logan and "Deadpool."



Yay. The guys on 4chan's /toy/ who pretty much hated the character of Deadpool in the movie started calling him "Dudepeel." I agree with this practice. After having him a while I might just keep him as is because it's just a stupid looking toy.



But this is the highlight of my haul. I've been wanting this Bandai Creation (the American end of Bandai) Destroyah figure for a while now, but it's just never been worth 10 bucks to me, really. I'm cheap... sue me. He's never been one of my favorite Godzilla villains, so he wasn't a top priority. But when it's only 4 bucks? YEAH!



It's not as nice as the Japanese figure, but that figure can run you around 15-20 bucks (which it is totally worth because the paint on that beast is a beauty).



One thing it has over the Japanese version is the extra articulation. From what I have read the wings on this version have a much better range of movement, and the legs and arms are articulated as well. In total he has 9 points of articulation which is pretty darn rare with vinyl kaiju figures.



After actually getting him out of the package and goofing around with him, I can say he'd be well worth the full retail! He's a fun, creepy looking guy who'd look great in any kaiju collection! His wing-span is impressive!



On the way out I found these little dudes! Bok Choy Boys! These little suckers were 50 cents each and they are adorable! Keep an eye out for them in your area!