Found Out Way More Information Than Anyone Could Possibly Care About that 1965 Slurp Stuffed Animal.

So, a little over five years ago I wrote (what I thought was) a throwaway blog post on this oddball stuffed animal from the 1960s called "Slurp" that I found at a thrift store. It was pretty difficult to find anything, but some Googling showed that it was produced by a company called Spectacular Products. Spectacular Products folded at some point and became Princess Soft Toys, a more traditional stuffed animal manufacturer that was a frequent staple of hospital and tourist trap gift shops. Since the writing of the original blog post, Princess Soft also dissolved in a complete mess of financial shenanigans. But that's neither here nor there.

Apparently that blog post has been finding it's way around various internet collectible fora, being the only post laying out any sort of history for the thing. Not sure if it was through that forum or just Google or what, but a particularly resourceful collector of these toys tracked me down from that blog post, contacting me through my Google+ profile attached to this site. We did some haggling, and unfortunately couldn't reach a price we were both comfortable with for me to part with my Slurp (yes I still have the weird little thing). In the meantime, however, I managed to goad some background information about them.

"These were made by an old company in my home town. Cannon Falls Minnesota. The company name was Spectacular Products. That's my reason for the interest. Some people collect them because they were made in the 60's - hippie era.

Some of the local high school kids who had a small band in the 60's, probably influenced by beatnik music, like Dylan and the Beatles were, worked at this company making the Slurps. I'll see if I can dig up an old photo of the band. They played at local fairs, and eventually went off to Viet Nam. One was killed.

I was born in 1960 and had a slurp as a kid. Have no idea what I ever did with it. Some of my friends still have their original Slurps.  I have about six. I know there's a guy in my hometown, a year older than me, who very seriously collects them. I've heard stories."

Unfortunately, I never got to hear any further about these "stories", but the potential buyer did tip me off with this Youtube video of the band discussed in the anecdote.  They were called The Shades, and get a load of their wicked station wagon. 

 

 

Apparently members of this band worked in the factory hand-stitching these toys. It's entirely possible that one of them hand-stiched the one I still own, the company was just starting and most accounts say there were between 8-10 employees when they rolled out this toy as their first product.

Robocop Archive - The Source For All Things Robocop.

While doing research for a piece for my new blog gig (don't worry, I'm not quitting this one, just reorganizing what I'm gonna start posting where), I came across this cool fan site/resource for all things Robocop. The look is still Web 1.0ish-looking, which I find endearing, but it's up to date enough to be commenting on the Robocop statue.

Spirit Hoods Totally Stole My Fucking Idea.

These are Spirit Hoods:



Anyone that came to this site more than a few weeks ago might remember my old Blogger profile photo:



That's a pic of me from a house party somewhere around Halloween 2006. I made that hat from a beach towel I found at a thrift store. You can't see it, but it even has little paws dangling from it. Now, I'm not gonna flat out say that they stole my idea, but...

Oh wait, I already did. In the title even. They stole my fucking idea.

Fuck you Spirit Hoods.

Oh well, inb4 Hipster.

Destroyed For Comfort Live At Tx Industrial Music Fest.

Found a little bit of footage from our sweltering early evening performance (5:45 PM, 99 degrees in the shade) at the Tx Industrial Fest hosted by Austin Cyberpunks. Looks like we got a new fan! =)

The VP Of Human Resources At NBC Bought Something From Me On eBay.

So, I was going through my Paypal preparing some recent eBay sales for shipping and came across this transaction-



Does that name look familiar? Not to me either, but when I looked at the shipping address, I flipped out. Assuming it had to be a scam of some sort, I did a Google search to confirm and found this-



In case you're curious, this was the item purchased:



Pretty cool stuff.

EPILOGUE: I dropped a note in the package with my name and email address and said if there was anything cool on the film I'd love to hear about it. I got a email back saying that it was bought for decorative purposes and that restoration may not happen. The End. Maybe.

Junk Food Is Teh Evil.

Got a snack craving when out picking up batteries, and wound up with this snarky retort from the universe.

Well played, universe.

Hipster Slurp Craves Imported Beer.

Found this guy at a garage sale a few years back. Between the date on the tag (1965) and how completely batshit he looked, figured I really had something here but couldn't find any information on him at the time.

Turns out this guy, who's name is Slurp, was put out by a company called Spectacular Products (now called Princess Soft Toys). Apparently, this was their first product, back when the company was just starting. In all likelihood, he was hand sewn by one of the original six employees of the company forty-five years ago.

I decided to give him a hipster mustache.

So, there ya go.

Okay, This Is Stupid. (Chapter 2) - Lookit That Douchebag.

Ladies.
This guy didn't contact me, I just caught this classy fellow's profile update in my dating site news feed. Man, this guy couldn't be more of a toolbag if his name was Black & Decker. The saddest part is that this Young Republican douchelet probably thinks that vomit ghoulash of recycled Tucker Max-isms make him sound downright hee-fucking-larious. Look out ladies, this guy is not afraid to tell it like it is. He is Edgy McEdgerton, The Edgy Edge-ucator! This Ayn Randian is downright randy. This... okay I'll stop.

I was half-tempted to leave un-blurred his lopsided Sloth-face, but that seemed mean-spirited. Just take my word for it, dude looked as ugly as that paragraph makes him sound.

Atlas Obscura - A Compendium Of The Worlds Wonders, Curiosities, and Esoterica.

Atlas Obscura is, basically, a collection of reports of oddities and strangeness from all over the world; sort of a "Ripley's Believe It (Or Not)", but without the "(Or Not)".

SEXY PEOPLE - A Blog Of The Perfect Portrait

SEXY PEOPLE is a photography blog with a collection of family and personal portraits from the 1960s to the 1980s.

Minilogue - Animals from Ljudbilden on Vimeo.

Minilogue - Animals from ljudbilden on Vimeo.

Wish You Were Here

Wish You Were Here.

Things Are That Easy. Just Not For You.

Times are rough, and people are having to cut corners to make ends meet. A lot of you may have been finding yourselves shopping at more thrift stores lately; sometimes even non-ironically. Don't feel bad though. Some of the lowliest of us in our Writers Pen have had to pull in extra shifts actually working at the local Family Thrift Hole to make malt liquor money.


The Dorkstuff Writers Pen, which I guess is technically more like a cage. Full of strippers.

However, where some people see hard times, others see opportunity. With a bit of trial and error, a good eye, and some time invested checking out trends in the "Completed Listings", one could easily supplement their income reselling odd thriftstore finds in the bottomless pit of grandmas and homebound reclusives that is eBay.


Waiting in line to buy that jigsaw puzzle and ceramic angel you just listed.

You're probably thinking "I don't want to do all that research! What do you expect me to do, spend all day on the internet?"

And you're right, it's quite a pain in the ass.

Why can't we find a painting worth $40000? We'd even take $8000.

Or like this or this guy, finding near priceless unreleased promo games in a junk bin at a flea market. We wouldn't even mind finding that shoebox full of photos from the Swordquest tournament.

That is, if we can't just find a big wad of cash just lying around and be done with it. Seriously, that happens, too.

Cake Wrecks - Where Cakes Go Wrong.

If you haven't had a chance to check it out, Cakewrecks is a blog about tragically misshapen "professionally" made cakes found by the author. Valentines Day has proven to be a boon to the author this year, and there's some really funny ones today.

50 Feet Of Color-TV Wire!

Found this at Goodwill Blue Hangar a while back. My girlfriend at the time, who was 26, was like "Color TV Wire? What do you use this for?".

She had absolutely no idea what it was used for. Odds were pretty likely she never had to set up a classic pair of "rabbit-ears" antennae, or was too young to remember.

It was such a strange object to set up such a noticeable rift in age (we're only 5 years apart!) I had to pick it up. The End =)

Dorktastic Photos Of The 1984 Atari 2600 Swordquest:Fireworld Championship.

Here is a site containing a brief summary and scans of pictures from the Championship Competition for the Atari 2600 game Swordquest Fireworld, including pics of the winner Michael Rideout with his prize, the chalice. Apparently the photos were discovered in a random shoebox of Atari games found in a thrift store.