Camp Anawanna- Everything good about being a child in the 80's and 90's

Reasons to LOVE Halloween Day 10

2012-10-05T15:04:00.002-07:00

Today we have maybe the best Real Ghostbusters episodes ever! "When Halloween Was Forever" enjoy!

Where do you find all this crap??

2012-10-05T14:57:00.001-07:00

A lot of people ask me where I find all of the stuff in my collection. How in the hell do I fill an entire roon full of stuff from our childhood that has other people wanting to come over with their wallets open?

It's simple. SHOP SHOP SHOP.

Every morning before I leave the house, I check Craigslist. First and most importantly, I always type in Ghostbusters, then it goes to Star Wars, Power Rangers, Ninja Turtles, etc.

9 times out of 10 there are no postings, so then I look under Garage Sales and see which ones might have toys listed. When I get time, or am not at work, I hit those up.

When there are no garage sales, or I'm done with those for whatever day it is, that's when I go to thrift stores. The town I live in has about 10 thrift stores to raid. Usually I find something good at one.

Also go to antique malls and flea markets. While sometimes things are more expensive than they would be at a garage sale or thrift store, sometimes they aren't. Just the other day I got a whole set of unopened Power Rangers from McDonalds at an atique mall for 5 bucks. I also scored a 4th Ecto-1 for 5 bucks.

If all else fails, start hitting up your friends. I've always found that anybody the same age as me still has their junk sitting in their parents basement that they will sell to you.

The trick is not to just do this once in a while, but every day. Places like thrift stores add new items multiple times a day every day.

If you have some cool finds of you own, feel free to comment below.

How am I doing??

2012-10-04T19:25:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers,

It's been about 8 days since this blog launched and we have 1600 (as of this time) views. So Thank You for that!!!

I'd like your feedback. Please comment on this or any other post and let me know how you like the blog.

Also please make sure to +1 your favorite posts.

And lastly don't forget to "LIKE" us on Facebook, just Facebook search "Camp Anawanna Everything good about Being a Child in the 80's and 90's"

Wonder Ball

2012-10-04T17:20:00.001-07:00

These things were genuinely amazing. I LOVE Nestle Crunch, or anything they make for that matter, but a whole ball of chocolate? Hell yes! If that wasn't good enough, the ball was hollow inside and contained a toy, and more candy! Nestle, I beg you, BRING THESE BACK!!

Goof Troop

2012-10-04T17:11:00.001-07:00

When I think back to about 1992, every day getting ready for school, I watched Goof Troop.

The single father Goofy and his son Max are a middle class family who live next door to Pete and his upper class family.

Goofy always seems to foil any of Pete's get richer quick schemes in any form. Pete is even more perturbed that everybody else in his family gets along with Goofy. PJ and Max are even best friends.

PJ is Pete's son, who longs to have the respect of his father, but usually doesn't get it.
Pete's daughter, Pistol is obnoxious and spoiled rotten, and his wife Peg seems down to earth, yet has the same lust for money.

The series was so popular they made 2 movies from it. A Goofy Movie, and the ill fated Extremely Goofy Movie.

As of this time only one dvd has been released with 3 episodes. No plans have been made to put out the entire series which is pretty disappointing because it truly was one of the better Disney shows.

Reasons to LOVE Halloween Day 9

2012-10-04T17:05:00.001-07:00

Today we have Pumpkin Spice Eggo Waffles. They are now in stores, and freakin awesome! I picked some up the other night. It literally tastes like a pumpkin pie waffle. Grab some now!

Power Rangers found!

2012-10-04T17:03:00.001-07:00

While at the antique mall, I finally came across a complete, unopened set of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers figures and zords from McDonalds. As you will recall, I posted about these the other day. Now I have extras. I found all 6 unopened for $5.

Also scored another Ecto-1 (yes, I have 4 now) for 5 bucks.

Top 3 WORST movies of Childhood

2012-10-04T07:33:00.001-07:00

toBefore any of you go saying, "Aww man you suck, I loved that one, it's a classic" hear me out. Just because you like something doesn't mean it's good. I like plenty of stuff that I know is just total garbage. Sometimes, it's just so awful, that it's good.

So below I give you the Top 3 (in my opinion) worst movies of the 90's.

These are not ranked or in any particular order. Just 3 awful movies.

1: Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead

After huge success on Married With Children, somebody decided to give Christina Applegate her own movie. Well, that's a fine idea, but when your writers are a bunch of monkeys, it usually doesn't turn out to be a good movie. The main character, Sue Ellen (played by Applegate) is left in charge of her siblings all summer long after the babysitter (you guessed it) dies.

She must go find a job, hide the fact that she is fresh out of high school with no college education, and make money.

She takes up as a clothing designer, where she is immediatley promoted to VP. She steals petty cash, her siblings buy all kinds of crap, and then the company may go under.

Really, doesn't sound so awful, except that the dialogue would have been better acted by 2 year olds.

Please just stay away from this movie, even though you're tempted to hear "the dishes are done man"

2: Batman and Robin

After a string of successful Batman movies, including the much underrated Batman Forever, Hollywood was at it again, Bringing back Chris O'Donnel to play Robin, they teamed him up with a new Bruce Wayne / Batman, none other than George Clooney. Also making her debut was Alcia Silverstone as Batgirl.

Our villans this time around were Poison Ivy played by Uma Thurman, and Mr. Freeze played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Where to begin?

Basically the whole movie is built around a made up disease called McGregor's syndrome. Mr. Freeze's wife had it and now Alfred the butler has it.

Freeze is trying to find a cure while teaming up with Poison Ivy to take over Gotham City.

Meanwhile, Batman and Robin fight over the love of Ivy who had cast a spell on them.

Just an awful movie all the way around. Arnold did not deliver here. He looked good as Mr. Freeze, but any time he had to speak, it hurt the movie. The Poison Ivy character was made out to be nothing but a lazt whore. George Clooney may very well be the worst Batman ever, and adding Batgirl was just plain awful.

3: Home Alone 3

I don't remember a ton about this one, but I remember just enough to know how awful it is.

Did the people at 20th Century Fox really think that after 2 hugely successful movies, they could go and make a third one 4 years later, and take out the main star?

In fact they didn't just take out Maculy Culkin, they took out everybody. No Harry, no Marv, NOTHING! It was a whole new kid with a whole new set of robbers who were looking for a micro chip that was placed in the kid's toy car he got for Christmas.

What was even worse is they made Home Alone 4, which visits the original characters ) played by new actors.

Did you think it could be worse than that?

Well it can. Home Alone 5 debuts this Christmas season on ABC Family.

Nick Game shows. We could have done it better, but never had the chance.

2012-10-03T20:19:00.001-07:00

Face it. You always wanted to run the slopsticle course on Double Dare. You always wanted to find Mikey on Nick Arcade. You wanted to take on any challenge on Wild & Crazy Kids, you wanted the chance to scale the Agro Crag on Guts, and you wanted to stump the celebs on Figure it Out.

You always knew whatever kids were on that show were totally stupid and you could do it better, and win it all!

But you never had the chance.

You lived in some state, with fields and fields of corn and nothing to do. You lived all the way across the country, going to bed at night only dreaming of one day being at Nickelodeon studios.

But it never happened.

You're now in your late 20's and you still wish you could go, and haven't. You've never even been to Florida. For all you know, the place doesn't really exist.

To this day, you long for it. You want nothing more than to win a pile of crappy prizes to show off to your friends.

But you weren't one of the lucky ones.

That's ok, neither was I, and I turned out fine. As fine as one person can be when they never had the privilege of hoisting a piece of the Agro Crag over there head, or never showing off their mad gaming skills on Nick Arcade, but hey, we can still dream.

Reasons to LOVE Halloween day 8

2012-10-03T18:51:00.000-07:00

In today's Reasons to LOVE Halloween I give you McDonald's Halloween Buckets.

Sure, they weren't THAT exciting, but in a way, they are. Not only did these serve as a toy, and container for you Happy Meal, but they could also be used for Trick or Treating, although the intention was good, nothing, i repeat, NOTHING could beat a pillowcase full of candy. For me I would have to have about 90 of these things to make the trip count.

Still though, it's amazing to come across these. I was out and about this evening and picked up 3 different ones for under 2.00.

There have been many versions of these done by McDonald's over the years, dating back I believe to 1986, with the latest being last year.

They were all similar looking, but all a little different as well. Some were just buckets, some had tops that doubled as cookie cutters, and some had different designs from previous versions.

I miss these days, and I'm glad that I was able to score a few of these, not only to have as decorations this year, but also for my collection of nostalgia.

Where is my Ghostbusters Firehouse!?!?!?!

2012-10-02T15:06:00.001-07:00

So, I was going to save this, but, I couldn't help myself. My legendary rant of not getting a Ghostbusters Firehouse for Christmas when I was 4.

It was 1989. Christmas was coming. I couldn't wait. For weeks and weeks my parents had asked me what I wanted. They even took me to Santa, the one man in the world who would do it for me. He wouldn't disappoint me. Never. He had ALWAYS brought me good stuff in the past.

I was 4 years old. Gone were the easy years for my parents. Instead of just getting me whatever action figures they saw fit, and me being happy, they had asked me what I wanted. It was my call this year.

At the time I lived in a small town that didn't have many shopping options. There was Wal-Mart, and Pamida. That was it. No mall, no Target, no Toys R Us, nothing.

A couple months before that, we had gone to the big town. We were shopping in the toy aisles of Target, and my mission was to pick out a toy I wanted. As we turned the corner to the action figures, there it was on an endcap.

The Ghostbusters Firehouse playset.

I begged, I whined, I screamed, but no. Not today they said. So I ended up settling on a Power Pack Heroes Louis Tully figure.

But as the approach to Christmas grew, I knew this was my shot.

Christmas morning had arrived. I rushed out of the bedroom. Santa had come!

In my stocking was a Real Ghostbusters video tape.

I got some Lego's, Mario pajamas, a Ninja Turtle vehicle, a Ninja Turtle Shooting Gallery and some other stuff I don't remember.

After it was all opened, came the question, "Where is my Ghostbusters Firehouse????"

The response was "I guess Santa ran out"

Ran out?? How the fuck does Santa the one guy who has every freakin toy known to man just "RUN OUT???"

Well, after that disappointment was over, I did eventually get a Ghostbusters Firehouse. I still have one to this day, as well as the Ninja Turtle Vehicle and Shooting Gallery.

But Santa, you let me down, and I'll never forgive you for that.

Reasons to LOVE Halloween day 7

2012-10-02T10:02:00.000-07:00

If your'e looking for Day 6, it's under yesterday's post Welcome To October, Welcome to HALLOWEEN.

For today's edition of Reasons to LOVE Halloween I give you :

McDonald's Pumpkin Pies.

At just 69 cents, these little baked bars of goodness come around every fall. Be sure to eat up, because come December, they will go back into hiding, giving way to Custard pies.

Ode to a Nicktoon

2012-10-02T07:04:00.002-07:00

In this edition of Ode to a Nicktoon, I give ou

Ren & Stimpy

I found a vhs tape (orange, of course) at a yard sale last weekend, and decided to pop it in.

MAGIC.

It was the episode where Stimpy farted, but had never discovered that he had the abilitl to do this, prompting him to say

"Ren, my butt made a noise"

Of all the magic this cartoon gave us, here are a few highlights

Powder Toast Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnn

Log

and finally, Happy Happy Joy Joy

Beanie Babies, the stupidest thing ever made

2012-10-02T06:50:00.001-07:00

There have been millions of bad products marketed to the general public, however only one disgusts me to no end.

Beanie Babies.

They were EVERYWHERE. Every kid had to have them. They came in Happy Meals. Except for the fact that every time you went to McDonalds they were all sold out.

Perhaps the most disturbing thing about these sad little animal shaped sacks filled with plastic beans, is that it inspired every 350 pound 45 year old woman to collect them. And don't you dare fuck up the little heart shaped tags! They will be worthless. They even made little plastic cases for the tags.

I can remember going to a yard sale a couple years after these things had kind of died down.

Somebody picked up one of these stupid things that was shaped like a rooster, and asked how much it is,

The slack-jawed redneck lady then said "$20, that one is retired"

Retired?? WTF!

Yeah, as if it wasn't bad enough that these idiots told people that these things would be worth money, they even went so far as to "Retire" certain animals, so that price and demand would skyrocket.

Well my friends, here we are in 2012. Now these things can be found at every garage sale, and thrift store nationwide. Even better? THEY'RE WORTHLESS!!! Totally freakin WORTHLESS!!!!!!

I still find it funny to see these at a yard sale ran by some old woman in her 60's, and she wants at least $5 a piece for them. NO!!!

These things aren't even collectable now. You can't tell me that anybody who has an education higher than the 2nd grade would possibly go tracking these things down and paying good money for them that could be spent on action figures.

R.I.P. Beanie Babies, nobody misses you.

The foods of the 90's that we wish we still had

2012-10-02T06:50:00.000-07:00

For me, when I think back to my childhood and growing up in the 1990's, there is a myriad of things I wish were still produced. In fact, just yesterday I wrote a post about Hidden Treasures Cereal, which you can view just down below.

I've attempted here to go way way back in my memory bank (which was harmfully clogged with crap I had to learn in school) to find some of the things that I think we all wish we still had.

This post is the first of what will be an ongoing journal of 90's foods. If there is any you'd like to see covered, all you have to do is comment here or on our Facebook page.

SURGE!

If ever there was a drink that was the equivalent of beer to a 5th grader, it was Surge. I can remember people freaking out about how bad it was, or how it could kill you. Then again, living where I do, most people are so dense it's scary.

I can remember when this came out. I would go to my Grandma's every weekend. Every Saturday we went on our usual run to the grocery store, and then McDonald's. Every Saturday I made sure I picked up either a 6-pack or 2 liter all for myself.

Sadly Surge was discontiniued in 2002, and a few years later the Coca Cola company gave us Vault, which was not at all the same.

Seeing this old can inspired me to look on ebay to see if I could find one for my collection of nostalgia. Sadly, while there is a few listed, they are going for very very hefty prices of nearly $100. Hopefully one day I can come across one.

Nickelodeon, the Ginger Network

2012-10-01T18:48:00.002-07:00

Nickelodeon in the 90's saw plenty of quality kids programming, but what many don't realize is that in most shows, there was always a token Ginger kid.

Let us review.

Bobby Budnick- Salute Your Shorts

Roger Klotz- Doug

Chuckie Finster - Rugrats

Ferguson Darling- Clarissa Explains it All

Big Pete, AND Little Pete- The Adventures of Pete and Pete

There was even a whole show devoted to a ginger named Ginger! As Told By Ginger,

We all know the logo was orange, but for god sakes, even the video tapes were gingers!

MMPR The Movie McDonalds toys

2012-10-01T15:00:00.002-07:00

Back in 1995 when Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Movie was released, McDonald's gave us yet another reason to scream our heads off at our parents until they took us there. But this time, it wasn't just to gorge ourselves with awesome food, it was a more urgent reason.

The Power Rangers had arrived.

For just $1.99 with the purchase of any large sandwich or Happy Meal you could get 1 of 6 Power Rangers Figure and Zord toys. They were all there, White, Red, Black, Blue, Pink, and Yellow.

I'm lucky enough to have a partial set of these. I do still run across them from time to time, I even have the White and Yellow Rangers in their package.

Unfortunately, there are still some I need. I need the Blue Ranger and Wolf Zord, and I need figures only of the Red, and Black Rangers. If you have them, please send my way!

Anyways, these were actually really cool toys. The figures themselves were about 3 3/4" tall, and each fit into their respective zords.

And lets not forget the Happy Meal toys.

Yes, I had to "borrow" this picture from Ebay since I spent over 32 seconds trying to find one with no luck.

First we have the Communicator (I SOO NEED ONE OF THESE. ONCE AGAIN SEND IT MY WAY!!) which when flipped open shows a picture of Zordon.

Next we have the Power Morpher, complete with 3 double sided Power Coins that display each rangers animal.

The Power Siren was a weird toy. Nothing that was ever used in the movie or tv show. Basically you blew into it and it made a whistling noise to annoy the hell out of everybody.

Lastly we have the Alien Detector. Once again nothing used in the movie. But you had a knob on the side that when you scroll through showed pictures of Ivan Ooze, Lord Zedd, and Rita.

The first of many Power Rangers tie ins with McDonald's. After all these years, I still need a few of these, but luckily run across them from time to time.

DID YOU KNOW?? We are on Facebook., Just search Camp Anawanna.

Hidden Treasures Cereal Crack in a box

2012-10-01T15:00:00.001-07:00

In the days of eating healthy, high fiber content, and American obesity, I take you back to a better time.

Hidden Treasures cereal was just that, a treasure. You would eat who knows how many bowls just to find those special pieces filles with red sugar.

There was truly no better cereal, even if you had to beat the sh*t out of your friends or little sister and make them cry, just so they wouldn't eat it.

Every morning that summer I can remember eating a bowl of this while watching "The Alvin Show" on Nickelodeon.

A picture and memories alone can never do this cereal justice. This cereal was what made us all learn that when something says "For a limited time" you better go out and buy way too much of it because just as you get hooked on itm it's gone.

There have been numerous imposters, most recently Kellogs Krave, but none stack up to the original.

To this day I would gladly do anything, and I mean, anything just for one more bowl.

Welcome to October! Welcome to HALLOWEEN!!

2012-10-01T15:00:00.000-07:00

Thats right kids, it's October 1st! Who says Halloween should only last one day? Here it lasts ALL MONTH LONG!

For today's Reasons to LOVE Halloween here is our theme song for the year.

Yes everybody, This is Halloween.

The time of the year of leaves falling from multi-colored trees. Pumpkin flavored everything. Bats, skeletons, Dracula, Frankenstein.

Time to stock up on Halloween candy, not to give out to Trick-Or-Treaters (because let's face it, if your any kind of fan of Halloween, you're somewhere in a costume contest) but to enjoy for yourself while watching every episode of The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror.

It's the time of the year for all the great Halloween specials and Horror Movies.

Do I need to go on? No? Well, I will anyways.

Everybody break out your favorite costume (or get to work if you haven't started yet, TIME IS RUNNING OUT!) and be sure to send me pictures. I do believe I will be holding a costume contest of some sort depending on how many entries we get.

If you decide to enter said contest, post your photo on our Facebook page. Wait, what??? You didn't know we had a Facebook page?? Where the hell have you been? Quit masturbating to 35 year old pictures of Princess Leia, and check it out!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/campanawanna8090

Halloween is in full swing! WELCOME TO OCTOBER!

My thoughts of the Dinosaur Dracula site

2012-09-30T20:18:00.001-07:00

I used to be a big fan of X-Entertainment / Dinosaur Dracula. In fact it's partly what inspired me to start this blog.

A few days ago when I launched this page I went to Facebook to put the link on the Dinosaur Dracula page, even praising him for his work, to which I got NO response.

Well tonight, I visited that page again, only to find out I have been blocked from commenting on anything.

From now on, I can honestly say I will no longer read his page. I have no respect for someone who can't help out someone else. I have always thought that the idea of buying toys that are over 20 years old only to open them and take ridiculous pictures of them was absurd, however now I can see that this man is nothing more than a self absorbed douchebag.

If any of you know this guy, or read his page, feel free to tell him what I wrote, at least that would mean that he's reading.

Pee-Wee's Playhouse the set everybody MUST own

2012-09-30T16:48:00.002-07:00

Where to being?

Pee-Wee's Playhouse has to be one of, if not, the best Saturday Morning shows EVER.

This box set (divided between 2 volumes) was a great Amazon.com score for me a couple years ago.

While most every episode follows the same pattern, they are all in their own way so different and entertaining. Pee-Wee's Playhouse was very much ahead of it's time in the 80's. It allowed us all to use our imagination, and be creative, while at the same time, having educational and comedic value to it.

Nearly every episode stars right away with Pee-Wee telling us all good morning. Then one of the other characters (Chairry, Magic Screen, Globey) ask Pee-Wee what the secret word is.

The "Secret Word"?????

Pee-Wee then turns on Conky 2000 to ask. Conky prints us out the secret word.

You all know what to do whenever anybody says the secret word, right?

Of course! SCREAM REAL LOUD!!!

The story continues with Pee-Wee in all sorts of adventures (and misadventures) featuring all his friends like Miss Yvonne, Cowboy Curtis, Mrs. Renae, Reba the Mail Lady, Ricardo, Tito, Captain Carl, and the ever important King of Cartoons.

And we always have such prominent features like, Snack Time and a Penny Cartoon.

If you've been living under a rock for the last 25 years, or just need a good way to re-live your childhood, Pee-Wee's Playhouse is the way to go.

While you can pick up these tapes on Amazon for about $9 a set, they are also on DVD.

And don't worry, I haven't forgotten about the Christmas Special, I'm simply trying to contain myself and hold off on that until December.

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Now on Facebook!!

2012-09-30T13:45:00.004-07:00

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$5 Halloween movies at Best Buy

2012-09-30T12:45:00.001-07:00

Went to Best Buy today, hoping to pick up The Pee-Wee Herman Show on Broadway dvd.

Of Course, I get there and they don't have it at all.

While walking around looking for something to salvage the trip, I noticed a couple racks of Halloween themed dvds for $5. They have tons of Goosebumps movies, the usual Nicktoons, and Charlie Brown.

But one stuck out more than anything. A GREAT movie that I remember watching time and time again.

Little Monsters

Starring Fred Savage and Howie Mandel, this is the story of every child's biggest fear, Monsters under the bed!

But little did we all know, even though they are awful looking, they live in an underground world of junk food, video games, and staying up all night!

Being a big Wonder Years fan, I love how this movie has Fred Savage, and Daniel Stern playing his father.

Head to best buy and grab a copy of this. You'll get every bit of $5 of enjoyment out of watching it.

Reasons to LOVE Halloween Day 5

2012-09-30T08:58:00.001-07:00

Reese's Pumpkins

at 99 cents a piece, they are easily the best tasting rip-off you will ever find.

go buy $20 worth now.

Exactley how I felt when I found this today

2012-09-29T13:30:00.000-07:00