McDonald's® Happy Meal® Toys from the Nineties Book Review

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 McDonald's® Happy Meal® Toys from the Nineties Book Review

About the Book: The world of McDonald's® Happy Meal® collecting continues to grow! In this third volume devoted to McDonald's® toys, you will find a complete listing and updated price guide for the thousands of toys, promotional items, and other McDonald's® collectibles distributed in the United States from January 1990 through mid-1998. With hundreds of color photographs, this book lists, describes, and pictures the broad variety of Happy Meal® promotions from the 1990s, including boxes, bags, premiums, and advertising materials.The authors have established a definitive numbering system which identifies and distinguishes each of the items, and check-off boxes are provided to help you organize and document your own collection. Brief historical comments from each year chronicle the ongoing growth and success of the world-renowned McDonald's® Corporation For the fast food collector and enthusiast, this is the definitive guide to Happy Meal® toys from the 1990s! Be sure to complete your McDonald's® library with the Losonskys' companion volumes, McDonald's® Pre-Happy Meal® Toys from the Fifties, Sixties, and Seventies, McDonald's® Happy Meal® Toys from the Eighties, and McDonald's® Happy Meal® Toys Around the World.

Our Take: The Losonsky's are back in this great comprehensive book from the fine folks at Schiffer.  This one focuses on McDonald's Happy Meal Toys from just the 1990s.  This was a great era for toys featuring everything from 101 Dalmations to Hook, Barbie and what can easily be called the hottest craze of the 90s...Teanie Beanie Babies by Ty!  This book is right on par with their other archives and features hundreds of full-color pictures that show you the toys, employee premiums and actual translite signs and in-store displays.  The book is absolutely fantastic and a must-have for any fast food collector!

How to Buy: Amazon.com

Halloween in America, 2nd Edition Book Review

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Halloween in America, 2nd Edition Book Review

About the Book: Next to Christmas, more money is spent on Halloween decorations and novelties than on any other holiday. This wonderful book has been credited with inspiring the Halloween collecting craze, giving its devotees a chance to celebrate the holiday all year round! In addition to color photography and a brand new price guide, there are also many fascinating insights into Halloween. Most people are familiar with the symbols—ghosts, Jack-O'-Lanterns, witches, bats, skeletons, and black cats—but few know about Halloween's past. Why does it exist? What is the origin of trick-or-treating? Why does it fall on October 31st? Through these pages you will experience Halloween celebrations of the past and take a look at Halloween today. For collectors, this is one of the largest collections of Halloween memorabilia.

Our Take: We love collecting here at the Legion and antiques are right up our alley!  Amongst the funnest and most elusive of vintage items are antique Halloween props.  This book chronicles decades of cool items from paper goods to paper mache and a helluva lotta pumpkins!   Many of the items featured in this one are from the first half of the century when Halloween really took off in America.  There are so many items that its hard to know whats out there and books like this one are invaluable when it comes to knowing what you're looking for.  We highly recommend this one for anyone interested in collecting or if you just enjoy having a look back into the past!

How to Buy: Amazon.com

Dracula Illustrated Classic Book Review

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Dracula Illustrated Classic Book Review

About the Book: Prince of the Night. Lord of the Damned. King of Vampires. He is Dracula, the most well-known vampire in the world—and this new illustrated edition of Bram Stoker’s classic tale of terror offers Dracula as you have never seen him before. Brought to life through the stunning visual artistry of Eisner Award-winning illustrator Becky Cloonan (Demo, American Virgin, Victor Von Doom), this new graphically compelling novel offers a spellbinding, edition of the book that launched the world’s enduring fascination with vampires: Bram Stoker’s complete and unabridged Dracula. Illuminated and accentuated by the visionary hand of one of America’s most gifted illustrators, Dracula is perfect for fans of the ghastly and paranormal, and unmissable for fans of True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, and Tim Burton’s macabre new film, Dark Shadows (release May 11, 2012) starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham-Carter, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green, and Jackie Earle Haley.

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Our Take: This book is an absolute epic classic tale of the macabre from Bram Stoker.  Who doesn't know Dracula, right?  Well, this is a great re-release of the classic book in hardcover format with cool comic book style artwork by Becky Cloonan.   Cloonan has done art in the past for big names like Marvel and Dark Horse....thats some cred.  This one isn't a graphic novel or comic by any means..it has a very attractive illustrated cover and a great set of full-color partial page illustrations every 7 to 10 pages or so.  This one is a great way to appeal to a younger audience and get them to read a classic, which can often be misconstrued as dull.  We highly recommend it!  Very cool.

How to Buy: Amazon.com

McDonald's® Happy Meal® Toys from the Eighties Book Review

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McDonald's® Happy Meal® Toys from the Eighties Book Review

About the Book: Welcome to the world of McDonald's® Happy Meal® collecting! Within the pages of this comprehensive book you will find a complete listing and updated price guide for the thousands of toys, promotional items, and other McDonald's® collectibles distributed in the United States from June,1979 through the end of 1989. Hundreds of color photographs illustrate the wide variety of Happy Meal® promotions of this decade, including boxes, bags, premiums, and advertising materials.The authors have established a definitive numbering system which identifies and distinguishes each of the items, and check-off boxes are provided to help you organize and document your own collection. Brief historical comments from each year chronicle the phenomenal growth and success of the McDonald's® Corporation during the 1980s. For the fast food collector and enthusiast, this is the definitive guide to Happy Meal® toys from the 1980s! Be sure to complete your McDonald's library with the Losonskys' companion volumes, McDonald's® Pre-Happy Meal® Toys from the Fifties, Sixties, and Seventies, McDonald's® Happy Meal® Toys from the Nineties, and McDonald's® Happy Meal® Toys Around the World.

Our Take: This book is a very specialized offering from the Losonskys about McDonalds toys from just the 1980s.  Its great to have a specialized book that really delves deep into cataloging from a specific decade.  They also have an edition for the 1990s that we're going to review next, so watch for that.  This one starts in the early 1980s, which was before they really got into licensed kids meal toys.  The offerings were mostly McDonaldland characters.  Then, they started to get into the Star Trek Movie and Dukes of Hazzard and it took off from there!  This one covers everything from one of the best decades for toys and cartoons and is an absolute MUST have for any collector!   Thanks to ebay the price guide is rather irrelevant and obsolete, but their collection of information and detailed pics of toys, happy meal boxes and employee premiums are out of sight!

How to Buy: Amazon.com

Timeless Halloween Collectibles, 1920 to 1949 Book Review

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Timeless Halloween Collectibles, 1920 to 1949 Book Review

About the Book: The definitive reference guide for vintage Halloween collectors looking for accurate information on each piece, as well as for designers looking for the best in Halloween graphics. The collectibles showcased span what some people consider the "Golden Years" of Halloween production—1920 through 1949. You'll be charmed by the artwork of the many invitations shown and wonder how a host ever survived without the myriad party helps. Dozens of die cut items have graphics so vivid they almost jump from the pages! See the artist's creativity at its best when you pore over the party games and hats. And what Halloween would be complete without the Jack-O'-Lantern? The stock number, initial release year, and object's proper name, are taken directly from holiday sales catalogs and interspersed with the author's comments. Over 350 photographs include some never-before-seen items. A value guide accompanies each entry.

Our Take: We enjoy collecting here at the Legion.  We have gotten way more into the antique Halloween items in the past few years.  Let me tell you, for those that don't know..the market price on these items is HIGH!  Its hard to locate a lot of these items..mostly you rely on flea markets, antique walks and antique stores to find and identify what was out there.  This book, published recently in 2005, chronicles items from 1920 to 1949.  This great guide features hundreds of full-color items, mostly paper goods.  We learned SO much about what is out there and it really helps to go through books like this, because you can train your eye to be on the lookout and know what you're seeing!  We highly recommend this one for anyone interested in Halloween collectibles.

How to Buy: Amazon.com

Collecting PokéMon: An Unauthorized Handbook and Price Guide

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Collecting PokéMon: An Unauthorized Handbook and Price Guide

About the Book: Meet an electric mouse and 149 of its closest friends in the volume that introduces you to the world of Pokémon collecting! Hundreds of beautiful color photographs display the hottest Pokémon collectibles produced for the American market today. Topping the list are the cards and characters from the immensely popular Trading Card Game, followed by comics, figures, toys, and electronic games sure to excite every collector. Also included in the text are brief histories of Pokémon's development in Japan and successful export to America in 1998, and of the rise of trading card games in the 1990s. As a bonus, this book explains Pokémon basics to anyone who can't figure out what all the excitement is about! Values are given for the items displayed and listed in the text.

Our Take: My wife and I are both long-time collectors.  We collected Pokemon back in the day from about 1999 to 2001, both USA and Japanese items.  This book was a great starter book for collecting back in the day.  Published in the year 2000, this one focuses mostly on cards, since there wasn't much for other toys out there at the time.  There is some mention of figure packs, plush and video games in the book.  We'd love to see an updated second edition of this one, its long overdue!  In the meantime, this one is a great starter for fans on where the collectibles began in this country.

How to Buy: Amazon.com

McDonald's Happy Meal Toys in the U.S.A. Book Review

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McDonald's Happy Meal Toys in the U.S.A. Book Review

About the Book: Welcome to the world of McDonald's Happy Meal*r collectibles. These two books(USA and Worldwide)present a thorough list and complete Price Guide for the thousands of toys and collectibles distributed with Happy Meal*r boxes and bags. Together, they are the most authoritative references. Thousands of all-color photographs show the toys, boxes, bags, advertising materials, buttons, pins, and variations given out both in the United States (one book) and in all the other countries around the world(another book). The authors have established a definitive numbering system to identify each and every item distributed with an alphabetical/numerical listing, and a cross-reference superseding numbering systems in other books. This set of books gives a time line of McDonald's Corporation history, check-off boxes to help you organize your collection, and the catalog of the items distributed with a Happy Meal*r in the USA and worldwide. Read along and enjoy the fun!

Our Take: We have a huge love for fast food toys here at the Book Legion.  My wife and I have been collecting for nearly two decades and books like this one have been haunting antique malls forever.  This one covers American McDonalds toys up to 1995.   This book was written by the Losonsky's, as are all three of the books we're going to cover today.  They are fast food toy experts to the Nth degree and their books are so comprehensive that its unreal.  I have a very extensive knowlege of McDonalds toys from 1983 onward, but this one is nice, because not only does it fill in from the 1950s onward, but it also includes a lot of employee items that I'd never seen before.  For example, a Mario employee button from the Super Mario Bros. 3 series.  We highly recommend this book for anyone looking to identify and learn more about McDonalds fast food premiums.  This is also great for ebay sellers looking to identify items they come across!  We highly recommend.

How to Buy: Amazon.com