Treasure Hunting At The 2nd Annual Syracuse Horror & Sci-Fi Garage Sale!

Well, I successfully lived up to the promise I made myself at the start of last week; to spend one entire week away from the blog, in celebration of not only four years of running this thing, but also of my birthday and my recent wedding.  I gotta say, though it was pretty nice to be free from the constant pressure of generating content day in and day out, and though I'm glad I took the week off to recharge my blogging batteries, I definitely missed it and I'm glad to be back here behind the keyboard.  Needless to say, it looks like you're just gonna have to read the blog for many years to come, because I don't see myself going for any extended periods of time without it in my life.  It's just something I need to do!
 

Me in all my hipster glory

The week ended with a trip to Syracuse for the 2nd Annual Horror & Sci-Fi Garage Sale, run by Jason West and David Royal, who are also the guys behind new shot on video distribution company Vultra Video (more on that later!).  A six hour trip to attend a garage sale (even a horror & sci-fi one...) may sound a bit silly, but my brother and his girlfriend actually live up there, so we figured it'd be a nice excuse to head over to their neck of the woods and spend a weekend with them.  Such an event so close to their place was simply too good to pass up and since we missed out on going last year, we were not about to sit this one out!

Jennifer Hall's Freaky Deekys!

Run out of a small American Legion hall, the Horror & Sci-Fi Garage Sale is basically a fusion between the vending room at a horror convention and a yard sale at the home of a hardcore horror fan who has to reluctantly sell off some of his beloved possessions so he can pay rent, with a couple dozen vending tables chock full of both handmade goodies as well as vintage treasures from the past, things like action figures, comic books and VHS tapes.  Throw a bar in there, turn off the air conditioning and drop some body odor bombs and you've basically got yourself this past Saturday in a nutshell!

Handmade Crystal Lake picnic table that my brother's buddy Clint ended up buying

The event ran from 11am to 6pm and we spent from about 11 to 1 there, kicking back cold beers and taking a few trips around the room.  Quite happy with the treasures I ended up finding, a couple of which I have in recent times almost bought for a lot more money on eBay.  So yea, it was a big success on the treasure hunting front, and the event was a blast all around.  I've been to many a garage sale in my day, but this one was definitely the coolest!

Without further adieu, here's what I came home from the 2nd annual Syracuse Horror & Sci-Fi Garage Sale with!

These were both done by an artist named Isaac Bidwell, whose table was one of my favorite spots at the sale.  Picked up the 'Hang In There!' one because the cat looks like my two Russian Blue cats and my brother bought me the other one, after he saw me eyeballing it for an uncomfortable amount of time.  Yes, that is indeed Steve Buscemi and Christopher Walken as Bill & Ted!
 

Sometimes, a DVD case is so awesome that you need not even have the DVD in it to buy it.  Such is the case with this one, the rubbery Book Of The Dead case that at one point housed Evil Dead 2 inside of it.  I already own the movie (a different release) so I was happy to see just the case at a table for only 2 bucks, which will make a nice display piece in my collection.  Sad to report that the eyeball does not make the "push me and I'll scream" sound effect that it once did, but the case and the booklet inside are good enough for me.
 

There were a couple different VHS tables at the event, one in particular that was nearly a video shop in and of itself.  Naturally, given my hardcore love for VHS tapes, I spent a good portion of time there.  Though I probably should've bought many more, I ended up walking away with these four tapes for $8 total; Faces of Death 2, Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2, Mandroid & Prom Night 2.
 

For a mere two bucks I scored this vintage Masters Of The Universe children's book, along with a badass Skeletor bust/bank.  I ended up gifting my brother with the bank but kept the book for myself.  This thing has got serious sentimental value for me, being that my dad used to read my brother and I these when we were kids, only he would replace random words from time to time with words like 'shit' and 'damn', which back then were of course seriously taboo curse words to us.  Those little story time gatherings are truly some of my fondest childhood memories.  As for the bank, I ended up getting repaid for my kindness when I scored a little clip on Skeletor figure at a flea market in Syracuse on Sunday, so it was a win win for all on the Skeletor front!
 

This was my biggest and best purchase of the whole shebang, the original Alien model kit from 1979.  I spotted this bad boy immediately upon entering the stinky Legion hall, but I refrained from buying it right away due to the fact that it was advertised as being "half assembled and half painted".  Though I was worried that what was inside the box was going to be a total unsalvageable mess, I ended up taking a $30 risk on it.  The risk paid off when I got back to my brother's place and realized that, aside from the arms not being connected to the body, this vintage Xenomorph was fully painted and looking incredibly badass.  A couple dabs of glue later and I've got myself one of the coolest pieces in my entire collection.  Words cannot even express how much I love this thing, and it's but the icing on the cake that the box is in such great shape too.
 

Remember when I blogged about this board game a couple months back?  Well since then I've looked around on eBay several different times for one.  And there it was at the garage sale, for $15, at the same table as the Alien model kit.  I offered the guy $40 for both, so I ended up getting this for 10 bucks, a whole heck of a lot cheaper than I've seen it going for on eBay.  Score!

Though the game is missing the red marker tipped foam teeth that leave little bite marks on your skin at certain unlucky points upon placing your finger in Drac's mouth, everything else is in tact here and in great shape, including the box, the game board, and even the player pieces.  I'm sure I can rig up replacement teeth if I ever want to actually play the game, but for now I'm pretty happy just standing Dracula in front of the box, and putting the game on display.  Still can't even believe I found one of these so soon after I discovered it and blogged about it.  It's almost like it was meant to be!

We left the sale around 1, after Jason and David premiered their debut venture under the Vultra Video banner; a faux trailer for a shot on video flick from the 80's called The Fumigator.  The trailer was posted online shortly after premiering at the sale, so check it out below!

This past weekend was one of the best weekends I've had in a long time, the absolute perfect end cap to a nice relaxing week off from the blogging scene.  To say I needed this would be a serious understatement.  And to say that the Syracuse Garage Sale is going to become a new yearly tradition for us would be the absolute truth.

Gotta give a huge thank you to Jason and David for spending all the time and money on putting this thing together.  So cool for us horror fans to have something like this, and I can only hope that it gets bigger and better with each passing year.  With a bit of a larger scope, this event could really become something incredibly special for the horror community.  I look forward to watching it grow before my very eyes!