the argonautica of planet x

Bizarre toy knockoffs, random junk. flea market finds.

Monday, November 22, 2010

tips for messing with the backscatter scanners this holiday season

With all the hype surrounding the privacy concerns of backscatter x-rays, I thought I would put together a little list to help you get through this holiday season.

If there is a remote possibility of having a naked Tron-like image of yourself posted to the internet, you might as well make it as memorable as possible.

1) Cover a comically oversized dildo (or suggestive vegetable) in stainless steel tape and shove it down your pants before boarding. Make sure you shoot the horns in homage to Spinal Tap during your scan.

2) Fun with letters! Get 2 inch Steel letters and use a little spirit gum to deck your hiney out with "USDA Grade A Beef".

If you do not want to experience the discomfort of having to endure a flight with sharp-edged letters glued to your ass, you can even get letter charms and tastefully arrange them on a chain around your hips to spell out such witticisms as "Scan this you fascist pigs" or "Sheik Yerbouti". But just remember, fonts are important. Comic Sans has no place in a scan that could be posted to the internet.

3) After refusing the scan, and being asked to go into a room to be groped, refuse, and start flinging off your clothes so they don't have to touch you. This works best if you apply some weird abnormal latex parts to your body. Like ears where your nipples should be. Or the appearance of giant beetles burrowing through your skin. Get creative!

4) Have a replica of Princess Lei's metal bikini made. Wear that whenever you fly. For the more modest traveler, chain mail tunics are also easily made.

5) Many people are worried about having personal medical secrets leaked by these scanners. If we all adhere material to our bodies to give the appearance of fake limbs and colostomy bags, nobody will ever suspect anyone of actually really having either of these. If you want to go a step further, you can glue wires and small bits of metal to every surface of your body so that you actually scan as the 6 Million Dollar Man (or Bionic Woman, depending on your gender preference). Extra points for replicating either haircut.

6) Brillo pads can be an uncomfortable, yet hilarious, way to give yourself the chest hair of a Sasquatch that is still readable by the scanners. You can recreate the man-o-lantern scene from 40 year -old virgin!


7) Insist on seeing your scan. Then insist on taking it again because they "didn't capture your good side".

8) When all else fails, get a tattoo of an alien chestburster
or simply paint one on with t metallic face paint.


Just remember. Just because it is mandated, doesn't mean we can't make the people who have mandated it look like assholes. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Stardate, FALL!

So, this summer was quite a flop when it came to flea marketing and thrift storing. Very much to the minimum, due to working tooo tooooo much

The past few weeks finds:

Friday, Sept 26th:
Pembroke, MA

Salvage Chic
Theis place was excellent, with many adorable vintage kitschy kitchen things and shabby chic furniture (mostly faux shabby chic as in the paint was applied and then distressed, but the furniture underneath was still good and old)

B

Found
a vintage Beistle halloween cat head (probably late 60's early '70's), $8
chip and dip set from the 50's or 60's that matches some glasses I have, $24
a rad as hell bottle, $5
vintage green and yellow striped stockings. $5

reed hallow barn
Semi country crafty, with lots of classic collectables, everything dirt cheap!
B-
Found
vintage AH sugar dispenser, $3
a chrome foil/wax paper/paper towel dispenser $9


the hexagon house
More classic pieces, good selection, quite pricey.
c-
Vintage 1966 stuffed bambi $12


REVISIT
Lancaster Marketplace
Crept up to a B for reliability. Good doll dealers.
Mork doll $5
Sunshine family Mom + assorted clothes $5
TWO remco Jan dolls $2
Creepy gnome dude $3
Assorted boomboxes $1
Whale- free because the dude was nice

Lancaster flea market haul

Monday, April 14, 2008

and we are BACK!

Flea market season is officially underway in not-so sunny Mass-a-whatsits.

The old Husband and i have decided to expand the horizons of this little site to include reviews of the places we find our junk, so here goes:

The list of places hit on April 12/13th

Saturday:

Derry Depot Antiques:

Great if you are a collector of depression to mid-century glassware +/- a few years, vintage planters and kitchen items. EVERYTHING is colorized, the prines are reasonable, and i have often had great success in this little place.

The staff is friendly and helpful, the layout is not too cramped and everything is well organized. there are no boxes of surprises to dig through, but then again you don't have to worry about a pile of junk toppling over on you.



Minimal Furniture, minimal clothing, glassware, tchotckies and ephemera in abundance.

B+

items purchased:
60's-70's bradley knockoff mod cloth doll - $6
50's green and white vinyl stuffed deer - $3
_____________ (item pending)
______________(item pending shhhh. it's a secret)

Route 28 Thrift Store (underneath route 28 Roadhouse)
Disaster zone. If you love rummaging through piles of stuff, this is the place for you. It;s like a flea market threw up in there, which can be good, can be bad. In this case it's slightly annoying. Some treasures to be had, but if there are more than 5 people in there, forget it. the dude running it is of the overly fake-friendly "haven't got a clue" calls everything "really old" or "Vintage" sketchy asshole variety.

No Furniture, minimal dishware, mostly knicknacks, toys and clothes.

c+ (would have been a d if not for the flower girl clip-on and teela)

Walked away with (for $10)
80's avon beehive cologne
round bee pin
Teela (ok condition) Masters of the Universe figure
70's flower girl clip-on doll
70's tiki necklace

SUNDAY
Lancaster marketplace Flea Market: http://www.lancasterfleamarket.com/

I'd stayed away from this one for quite awhile, since i'd heard it was one of the typical "dollar store leftovers" sorts of places. Granted, there was a great deal of the dollar store leftovers, paintball guns, and expired potato chips to be had.

However, the outer perimeter is pretty friggin awesome when it comes to stuff i want to buy. That's where the junk in piles (but not toppling over on you), hidden boxes of things stuff is.

Plus they have a hot sauce stand.

a little bit of everything, including a musical instruments booth.
Food: yes, bad hot dogs.

b-

Purchases:
40's West German Cockoo Clock - $15
1976 Bradley Dolls - $7
Kunstlerschutz squirrel - $2
bag of vintage sylvanian families knockoffs - $5
bag of kamar/napco elves and carolers - $10
maple down bear - $1


Savers _ Worcester

I am a big fan o' "The Save" as we call it in my house, so we decided to trek out to to the next-cloest location to see what there was to see. Typical Savers. They had more clothing, and considerably less junk than the one on West Roxbury, and it was cleaner (which is not a hard feat).

I was a little disappointed, because junk was what i was after. The toys were actually in their bags, though, so that was a plus.

On the saver's scale it deserves a C. scale of thriftstores in general, D.

Walked away with:
70's wind up bee -$1.49 (VERY COOL)
my little pony (rare-ish g3) .69
My little pony boring g3 .69
weird shift dress- $4.99
cowboy shirt (carlos) - $4.99


Notable Mention goes to That's Entertainment in Worcester.
http://thatseco.ipower.com/index2.html

Just a neighborhood comic book store that has a little bit of everything crammed into a warehouse like space. This place was kind of fucking awesome for 2 reasons. 1) they had a good selection of indie comics, which is rare for places that also have loads of baseball cards 2) they had BLACKSTAR FIGURES.

Things purchased:
vintage Lando Calrissian figure - 2.99 (expect his debut post later)
Blackstar figure (Neptul) + Trobbit, + ORANGE DEMON (*squeeeee*) -4.99
Vintage Ken Horrifying Plaid suit and mustard pants - $6.99
"universe man" comic book (obviously made by a 7 year old, but it was 15 cents, so why not support it.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

hiatus

argonautica on hiatus until flea market season is in full swing.

not that anyone's reading enough to notice.

hiatus

argonautica on hiatus until flea market season is in full swing.

not that anyone's reading enough to notice.

argonautica on hiatus until flea market season is bqack in full swing.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Very Small Girls.

Mint Tulip and Sunny Sunflower clothes switch

Sorceress and Snowbird

Riley and the dead tree

Golden age Bat Woman and Bat Girl

Magical Do Re Mi doll

Saffron and Cinnamon

pear and acorn fairies

Mystery Mod doll

Enchanted Petal Lounging

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

the enchanted forest of sickeningly cute

deadwood and squirrel

raccoon, littlest pet shop

deer

more scary shimmers

caterpilars

twee fairy

deer squeak toy

stuffed owl

scary as hell shimmers

snow bunny

owl

fairy winkle

sweet owl

pixie

dandy lions

kewpie

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

He-Man Knockoffs and other space barbarians. and a Robot.

dragon queen
vultura
moth lady





Derry Flea Market 7/15/2007



Rubber town and its guardian unicorn. 7/15/2007 Derry Flea Market. $2 for all.




Unicornelius, just wants to be pretty like the other ponies.

Derry Flea Market 7/15/2007 $2



TURBO! the faux-pony, Summer 2007 Yard sale, Centre Street, Jamaica Plain. $1

His coca-cola radio he needs in order to stand properly: Derry Flea Market .25


Wind up circus from 1981. Derry Flea Market 7/15/2007. $1