Happy Halloween!

At Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash, we don’t take the ‘normal’ in ‘paranormal’ too seriously, do we?  The young lady who came in with the Franz Joseph Star Trek manual and blueprints was not our average customer.

From time to time, we get people who bring in Star Trek memorabilia and this always elicits snide comments and rude gestures from the rest of the boys.  I happen to like and respect Star Trek. Star Trek is true science fiction.  There are ethical and moral dilemmas, usually involving technology and scientific “progress”, that frame out this series.  Star Trek paved the way for public acceptance of science fiction presented in a mainstream, visual medium.  Roddenberry performed a jailbreak for sci-fi which before Trek had been imprisoned in ink and paper and occasionally, B-movie reels.

The customer wasn’t a Trekkie, but her father was.  After he passed away, she was convinced that he was haunting her, trying to get a message across that his collection should go to someone who would appreciate them.  Why she brought them to Walt…I have no idea.  I wonder if he’s pissed that she brought his treasures to a guy who doesn’t like Trek and only paid her $15 for them.  Maybe he’s back, haunting her right now, knocking crap over and moaning his anguish from where no man has gone before….

Actually, Walt must have really felt for her because normally, he wouldn’t have taken them for free.

Next up, Thundercats.  Thundercats loose action figures…I think I’ve mentioned this before but loose action figures are problematic at their best.  The fact that these were in mint condition and in acrylic boxes went a long way to Walt purchasing them.  You can’t walk in to just any toy store and find vintage Thundercats figures.

There was a quick turnover time for these items and he nearly doubled his money.  I wouldn’t doubt that Walt might just take a chance on this line again.  Beyond the thrill of picking up a cool item, practicality has to be factored in to every purchase.  The longer we sit on an item, the less likely it is we will sell it, and it takes up valuable real estate in the store.

Thundercats was a pretty cool show with some weird sexual tension between Lion-o (mentally still about twelve years old) and Cheetara, the gymnast Thundercat who was most likely in her thirties.  This show aired around the same time as GI Joe and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.  These are all examples of toy lines that spawned a cartoon.

Geek Note:  In this Rankin/Bass cartoon Panthro was voiced by Earle Hyman who was also famous for playing Russell Huxtable, Cliff Huxtable’s father, on The Cosby Show.

The Jersey Devil — That was so awesome.  Ming actually called us morons for propagating the myth of Mrs. Leed’s thirteenth baby boy.  Huge props go out to Rob Bruce.  He went above and beyond just jumping into a pair of horns and wings.  He went the full nine yards with hair, makeup and prosthetic teeth.  Walt borrowed a thermal camera from a friend of his that clocked in around thirty-thousand dollars.  I’m really surprised that he trusted Ming to carry it.

I’m almost afraid to find out how Rob made the tail heat up so it would show up on the camera…

That’s all for my commentary about this episode.  Thanks for all your comments so far.  Glad you’re engaged and enjoying the show.  See you next week.

And there you go.