Tique Talk by Marianne Dow: Antique Mall Crawl / Photo Safari

Off on another antique mall photo safari today -- let's see what I found that made me stop and think, "Hmmm... is this something?..."

Enough little colorful cardboard houses to build an entire Christmas village. All marked JAPAN with 29c price stickers from the local extinct 5&Dime store -- at $5 each, I thought about them, but thanks to technology, I looked them up on via my phone, and found there are tons of them available on ebay -- not a home run here, so I passed.

Now this is something that is probably a one-of-a-kind -- it's a crazy cool 4' tall model of FRANKENSTEIN'S MONSTER hooked up to a -- here's the crazy part -- mortuary blood pump, and some power source, and then originally it was hooked up to a player piano, and he DANCED to the music! I wish I could have seen that. (click the pix to enlarge)

Detailed painted hard plastic head and hands. I did not see a maker's mark. Loved him, but at $400 he will have to wait to find a new owner. We'll see if he's still there next time I go to this mall. A quick look at FRANKENSTEIN items on ebay did not turn up anything even close.

I have a fondness for these oversized Victorian prints, but with no more wall space at home, I just visit them.

Now here was a case of film clips -- movie trailer/teasers -- that made me pause and consider. Again, like the Japan Christmas houses, the prices were a bargain, but none of the titles thrilled me. Again, technology showed me that these film clips are also available on ebay. Different titles, of course, but still no home runs. Or are there?

Back in the 1930s and 1940s, before everyone had electricity, radios had these huge batteries -- the top 2 are 1/4 of the size of the bottom 2. The METEOR battery is 8" x 7" x 3" and heavy. I loved the colorful graphics on it the best, so that's the one I bought. Yes, I actually ponied up the dough ($15), and took it home.