New items added to the Bat Cave

In yesterday’s post, I wrote about my latest visit to the DC Big Flea, and this post will show you the items that I brought home to add to my collection.

When I go to shows like the Big Flea, I rarely buy big ticket items, and tend to seek out the bargain bins. For whatever reason, buying expensive things is easier for me on eBay when it’s just a click of a mouse, but when I have to physically hand over a stack of twenty dollar bills, I’m a LOT more judicious.

One of my main collecting areas is figural items — whether it’s a clock, a radio, a bottle, a bank — whatever, I just really love items that are shaped like characters. This Hulk bubble bath bottle was a must-buy.

He looks right at home next to the Hulk bank!

I was hoping to see a lot of Halloween items at the show. There were plenty of pumpkins and ghosts, but I snatched these two vintage masks up as soon as I saw them. I’m pretty sure they are Ben Cooper masks, but I haven’t looked them up yet. I was debating on just getting the Batman mask, but the seller swooped in and said I could have them both for the cost of one. Three bucks was a huge bargain for one, but for both, it was a steal!

Cue the Soundgarden music: I really don’t know why I bought this but “Spoon Man” won me over. I assume this figure was sold as an incentive to get the toddlers to eat their pureed peas, but I thought it was pretty fun for a buck.

I have had this plastic Batman transistor radio for a while and when i saw this Spiderman one, I instantly pulled out eight bucks for it. Now, I REALLY want to track down that Superman one!

I’ll pick up vintage magazines whenever I find them in my travels. I found a few of these old men’s magazines for $2 each. The covers make these rags look so salacious, but compared to what’s out on the newsstands today, these are pretty tame. These magazines usually have a single photo spread of a Hollywood beauty, posed in what may have been risque in the 50’s but you see those kinds of images everywhere you look today. The articles tend to be about manly men doing manly things, but there’s also quite a bit of misogynistic tales as well. Let’s just say there aren’t many strong women portrayed in these pulps.

The Creepy and Eeire magazines were from the early 80’s and have some great ads that really capture what was popular in that time period…

That’s a wrap!