Another journal showing off some of the more interesting items I’ve found at fleamarkets this season (and possibly the season before that as well; things have kind of piled up). Due to length, I’ve this time tried sorting everything into roughly defined categories.
Figures & Figurines
A set of plastic figures from the Watership Down TV series. Was very surprised to stumble over these when going to a random fleamarket at Heggedalshallen in Heggedal (which was a pretty good fleamarket overall). I actually didn’t know what these were when I got them, but I thought they looked cute and interesting and I saw they were all part of the same series. It wasn’t until I got back home that I realized what they were, looking up the different names printed under the different figures. I got a couple of double ones (I bought all the ones I could find), but sadly there are a couple missing to make a complete set. I regret not using more time to browse in the boxes in the toys section, as maybe the missing figures were hiding there somewhere.
The bulk of figures I bought this fleamarket season.
Wile E. Coyote, Taz the Tasmanian Devil, and Sylvester and Bugs Bunny on surfboards. All well-known Looney Tunes characters.
A mouse by the name of Colette who’s from the Geronime Stilton book series, an unknown something or other (see below for more pictures and speculation), Fifi the pink poodle from Rugrats in Paris, a mole wearing a monocle pointing at his crotch while holding a caterpillar (no idea where he’s from, looks like something from Aardman Animations – see below for a close-up), and a pretty ugly version of the bloated duck from the Bonbon Andemad candy bags. (See below for more, and prettier, Bonbon figures.)
Finally we have Amy from Sonic the Hedgehog, Fluttershy from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and Puss from the Shrek movie-series and more recently the the Puss in Boots movie. As it’s a chubby version of the Puss character, it must be from Shrek Forever After.
There are two things I really like about this mole figure. The first is that his monocle is see through plastic (with gray painted along the sides), giving a neat effect. The second thing I like is his rather obscene gesture, pointing down while grinning. I do not know what movie or show this character is from.
Another mystery character. It looks like a mouse or an otter maybe. He (or she) has a football, has the Norwegian flag on his shoulders, appears to be wearing a captain’s / pilot’s hat, and has SAS on his back. (SAS being a Scandinavian airline.) An old mascot SAS used, perhaps? Something related to some football team or event? I have no idea. The figure itself isn’t bad though, and it has some impressive paint work and details.
Buttercup and Blossom from The Powerpuff Girls. A great show, and these figures look pretty good too (though Blossom’s hair is slightly damaged, but you can’t see it from the front). Sadly they can’t stand on their own, so I’m guessing they were a part of… something that would keep them erect. Maybe some sort of decorative mobile you’d hang in the ceiling?
Figures from the Danish Bonbon brand of candy which was popular here in Scandinavia, who’s schtick it was to feature somewhat vulgar anthropomorphic animal characters on their candy bags, with the contents made to simulate whatever the vulgarity was. Below you will find the mascots for: Andemad (translates to “duck food”; the bloated duck), Tisse-bleer (translates to “pee/wet diapers”; the baby hippo with the blue head), Puh-bæ (I think it translates to something like “yucky poop” or “smelly poop”; the pig on the potty), Bladlus (translates to “aphids”; the green bug on the leaf), and Bøvsss (translates to a long “buuurp”; the baby lion laying on its back). These are very small and easy to overlook when you’re looking through containers of toys.
Three figures from Rugrats. Some googling reveals that these are actually pencil holders/huggers (in the same series as Fifi the poodle seen above). I actually thought they were supposed to combine together in some way to be a decorative piece, so I was keen on getting more of them. Pencil holders are slightly less exciting, but the figure designs are still nice.
A sassy/saucy/sexy reindeer ornament. Unlike Santa, she doesn’t care if you’ve been a naughty boy.
I presume this figure is supposed to be of Minnie Mouse, but it really just looks like Mickey Mouse in a dress. Or did Mickey wear a dress at some point in some cartoon, and this figure is based on that?
Games
Some random video games I picked up cheaply. Alas I own neither a Sega Dreamcast, nor a Sega Genesis (nor a Sega Mega Drive for that matter). But who knows what the future might bring; I never thought I’d get a PlayStation 2, and now I have two of them! (See below.)
Yes, that’s right, I now have two PlayStation 2 consoles. A friend was kind enough to donate one to me a couple of years back, complete with game pads and a memory card. Then at a recent fleamarket, I stumbled over one for sale. But they didn’t know whether or not it was working; they only had the power adapter for it (and one controller), and not the TV cable. So they weren’t able to test the picture. But as it was clearly able to be turned on, I figured it was a fairly safe bet that the picture and everything else would be in order. So I got it for 100 NOK, and indeed when I came home to test it with the TV connector from my other PS2, it worked fine! (Unlike the PSOne I’d bought at a previous fleamarket, which didn’t work at all. But thankfully I’d only spent about 20 NOK on that one. If I had the necessary skills, I’d try making it into a waffle iron or somesuch.)
Books
Some near mint condition Disney story books. They had a few more, and I now regret not buying more of them.
Various Lion King books in varying states of decay. The hardback ones are in pretty good condition, the non-hardback ones… in less good condition. I’m particularly interested in spin-off books, those that tell original stories not seen in any of the films. Those are harder to come by. I believe the most famous and sought after ones – compiled in the Six New Adventures box set – were never published in Norway, so there’s not much chance of ever stumbling over those. Still, I can hope.
I loved Tiny Toon Adventures as a kid. (Or Tiny Toons, as I’d normally call it.) One of the funnier cartoon shows at the time. Then Animaniacs came along, which made TTA seem dull and dumb in comparison, making it effectively obsolete for me. Anyway, here are two story books, both in pretty decent condition, and one still even has its price tag.
A horror manga I hadn’t heard of before: Cat Eyed Boy by Kazuo Umezu. Looks to be in almost mint condition, except for a slight tear at the side. Annoyingly it’s just volume one, and I need to purchase volume two to complete the story. I guess I should be thankful that there aren’t even more additional volumes.
Eventyrbånd
Turns out, Evetyrbånd are fairly collectible. I was actually contacted by someone in relation to my find of two sealed copies of Alf Blir Detektiv, who offered to buy them from me. Then later I was contacted by yet another guy wanting to buy them from me, but by then I’d already sold them to the first guy. Sorry!
So I’ve started picking more of these up when I’m able. They’re often in pretty bad shape though, and those copies I usually just ignore. But here are a few of the ones I ended up picking up.
I found two almost sealed, almost mint condition copies. There’s Barnas Ønskejul, which seems to have been meticulously opened so as to cause the least amount of damage, and the book has been re-inserted. I guess whoever owned it wanted to enjoy the contents, but at the same time appreciated the packaging and wanted to keep them in as good condition as possible. Hence this compromise. But, it was missing the tape, though at the same fleamarket I actually found both another copy of the book, and the tape. They were in a plastic bag, somewhat hidden away. The tape was in mint condition. Which made me believe that maybe the tape was the original one from the packaging. Rather curious.
Then there’s Dumbo, which seems to have sustained some damage. Maybe at the fleamarket when being shuffled around, or maybe prior. So the plastic container for the tape has been kind of crunched. But other than that, it doesn’t look bad, and unlike Barnas Ønskejul it doesn’t seem to have been opened at all.
And two worn copies of just the books without the tapes: Bambi – Sommerfuglenes Hemmelighet, and Den Lille Havrfruen. The former I got because I haven’t seen many Bambi spin-off stories and it’s one of my favourite Disney films, and the latter because it was a plastic bag sale (you buy a plastic bag and fill it as much as you want and are able) and I had the room for it.
VHS & DVDs
I was very surprised to stumble over five movies by renowned B-movie studio and distributor Troma Entertainment. But this was during the first day of the fleamarket, so the prices were still steep, and knowing I’d come back the next day I figured I’d buy them then, when the prices were lower. What were the chances anyone would be interested in these?
Of course, two of them were gone the next day. But thankfully it was Toxic Avenger (which I already own a copy of) and Sizzle Beach, U.S.A. (which, from what I’ve gathered, is a forgettable soft core erotica comedy film starring Kevin Costner), which were the ones I was the least interested in. So I ended up with Surf Nazis Must Die, Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D., and Troma’s War.
Four “films” by the Spanish animation studio BRB Internacional. I say “films” as I believe they’re all just heavily abridged versions of cartoon series with the same name. The “films” are: Gnomenes Fantastiske Reise, Willy Fog: Jorden Rundt På 80 Dager, Dogtanian: En For Alle, Alle For En, and Sondokan.
Two more DVDs: Dunderklumpen, a Swedish animated film I’ve been curious about, and Den Lille Gjetergutten, which I’ve no idea what is.
A VHS special collector’s edition of Titanic, which I only bought because I thought it could be worth something. Plus, it was cheap. I don’t care for the movie at all. The box comes with prints from the film, as well as a few frames from one of the film rolls.
Of course, it turned out it was pretty worthless. So now I own a worthless copy of the Titanic collector’s edition VHS.
A collection of animated films (and series) on VHS. Most of which are fairly obscure, and I don’t think they’re available on any other formats (yet). At least not the Norwegian dubs.
Jungel Patruljen: De Tre Små Grisene, Leo The Lion: Jungelens Konge (curious that they didn’t translate the title of the film into Norwegian, but that they did translate the sub-title), Skriket Fra Villmarken (which is a slightly odd translation of The Call Of The Wild, as it translates back to The Scream From The Wild; I think Villmarkens Kall would have been a better translation)…
… Jungel Boken (written incorrectly as two words), Jorden Rundt På 80 Dager…
… and another Jungelboken (this time written correctly), and De Morsomme Kattene.
More VHS tapes! More animation, and a few live action ones.
Beyond: Behind The Scenes – Universal Studios Hollywood (still sealed and unopened), Panda På Äventyr (the Swedish dub of a film I remember watching as a kid, which I’ve been wanting to get my hands on for a while; while a neat find, I still need to get a hold of the Norwegian dubbed version)…
… Sealab 2020 (am a big fan of Sealab 2021, so figured this could be a fun and interesting watch), Aladdin Og Den Vidunderlige Lampen…
… and finally, Løvinnen Elsa (original title: Born Free), and Born To Be Free (the follow-up to Born Free).
CDs
Four CDs I bought because they seemed potentially interesting, and they were cheap or free. There’s Ophelia Ragtime Orchestra with From Ragtime To Radio (which I got because I was undergoing a minor ragtime music kick at the time), Seljåsen with Dyretrall Og Trollevers (which I got on a whim as I had no idea what it was, and which actually turned out to be kind of wonderful when I listened to it), Sver with Fruen (which I got because of the artwork; see more pictures below), and Total War: Eras (compiling music from the Total War computer game series, which I got because, hey, it’s video game music and I like video games).
Fruen by Sver. I bought this CD due to the neat artwork, predicting it would either be a punk or a Norwegian folk music album. It turned out to be folk music! It’s not half bad either.
A promo copy of the album Do Things by Dent May, an artist I’m a very casual fan of. The seal is still unbroken. I was amused to see that this was a copy addressed to Thomas Talseth, a music journalist now working at the Norwegian newspaper VG. He used to be the editor and a writer for the Norwegian youth magazine Spirit, and usually wrote the bulk of the album reviews. I remember I used to get quite annoyed with his writing, as it seemed so forcefully youthful; I was never a very youthful youth.
I’m curious how it ended up in a fleamarket in Lommedalen, my hometown. Does Thomas Talseth actually live here? Shouldn’t he have turned the copy in or destroyed it, rather than letting it end up being resold?
I’m also curious what the heck “watermarked audio” means.
Miscellaneous Electronics
A folder of home-made MiniDisc compilations, and a MiniDisc player. Sadly the player doesn’t seem to work.
A keyboard! A Casio SA-21. I think I paid 20 or 30 kroner for it, getting it cheap as they had no idea whether or not it was working. When I came home and got it powered up, I found that it did indeed work! While not a Casio PT 30 or 50, nor a Casio VL-Tone 1, it’s definitely a nice find.
Prints
Three framed prints of stills from the Norwegian animated movie Solan, Ludvig Og Gurin Med Reverompa, set in the same universe as the cult classic Flåklypa Grand Prix and featuring many of the same characters. I’ve yet to see it, but from what I know it’s not supposed to be very good. I will probably watch it eventually.
A framed (though the frame is way too big) shiny metallic print thing of The Lion King. It’s hard to see the effect properly here, but it doesn’t look half-bad. Need to find a good frame for it, as this one doesn’t fit at all. (The white borders aren’t part of the print, they’re just empty space.)
An adorable art print of what appears to be a black/brown bear cub snuggled up with a bigger/older polar bear. I just wish it didn’t say Cliff Wright in big letters at the bottom, which somewhat ruins the aesthetic. I wish the white borders were thinner too (which here are a part of the print and not just empty space between the print and the borders of the frame), or that they were entirely absent.
A drawing of a river boat. At the bottom it reads “Steamer Natchez, New Orleans”. Can’t quite make out the artist. “Don” something, and it says “copyright 1976”. I’m pretty sure this is just a print of the original drawing, and not the actual original. It has a nice detailed sketch look, and I rather like it.
Miscellaneous
This got me pretty excited: a My Little Pony cup from 1986. I was really surprised at the condition it was in, as it looked unused, with very little wear on the image print.
A Disney’s Gummi Bear jigsaw puzzle. While the box is worn and tattered, the actual pieces are in almost near mint condition, and I was happy to find that none of them were missing.
Sweden
When I was in Sweden earlier this year, we were able to stop by a fleamarket on one of my last days there. It was a gravel field where people could bring their cars and sell their wares from tables set up by their car trunks. It was the first time I had been to a fleamarket like that. While I didn’t make any super exciting, jaw-dropping finds, I did find some nice items – which I’ll of course list below.
Starting off with more figures. Here we have Scar from The Lion King, Sebastian and Flounder from The Little Mermaid, Thomas O’Malley from The Aristocats (and for some reason, the figure has wheels so you can vroom around with it – since when do cats come with wheels?), Wakko from Animaniacs, and Friend Owl from Bambi.
The Scar figure looks really nice! Except for the fact that he’s a wind-up figure, so his front legs both have visible screws, and there’s an obvious line dividing his body in two. I wish it had just been made as a normal, decorative figure; the sculpt and paint job are both great.
Two Disney cups: one with a 101 Dalmatians motif, and one with a Baby Mickey motif.
A children’s book with some cute looking art. While neat, I could have skipped it, but I was urged to buy it by my friend.
And finally, a jul-themed animated quasi movie entitled Den Magiska Julnatten. Depicting a creepy looking 2D drawn Santa and a clunky looking CGI mouse. It might be fun!
