Summer Swap Box 2015 Comes Home!

At the end of the holiday season, the 2015 Summer Swap Box made its way back to the AEIOU home base. It's traveled to 11 other people all around the country and logged over 9000 miles in the US postal system!

Somehow, it was still in the original box that I mailed out oh so long ago with stickers placed on it by the various participants. And yet, I forgot to take photos of it. D'oh!

The other shocking thing is that there were less than five items I put in it that were still in there. Dracula made it back safe and sound as well.

So, what was in this mystery box that had been bouncing around the country for a little bit longer than a summer?

There was a whole lotta plastic people...

Plenty of army men, a good amount of Indians and just a few cowboys. Were there more cowboys in there when they got shipped out? I didn't find any tiny plastic scalps in the box so I don't think so.

A smattering of various kids meal toys, a couple of Street Fighter GI Joe figures, some Duck Tales figures, and even an old school Fisher-Price Adventure People fireman.

Perhaps the most disturbing find in the box was the nude-looking Sly Stallone figure (top right). A good cross section of the best 80s toys.

Someone chucked in a heaping handful of 70s Star Wars cards! I've been doing a lot of online trading with the new Topps sets that have come out and I'm going to start tossing a few of these into each trade. Whoever put those in, know that they will be finding a new home with Star Wars fans around the country.

I hadn't heard of Once Upon a Zombie (center) before but maybe that's because it looks like they were put out by a UK company. They look sort of Monster High-ish but are still pretty neat. A quick search shows they also made dolls of the characters.

Five, count em, five movie novelizations! And unlike the ones I had as a kid, they still have their photo pages in them. I have no idea what possessed little me to cut out the photo pages from my movie novelizations, but I did. The Batman book is an illustrated story, not a comic. And the A-Team book doesn't even have the puzzles already done, score!

More books in the top row including a Pigs in Space adventure! Voltron up there is a few party hats folded flat. And this is just a small sample of the stack of comics that were in the box: TMNT movie adaptation, GI Joe, and Sleepwalker!
You can't go wrong with Sleepwalker!

Speaking of art...

There was also some pretty rad art inside! I have no idea who did any of these, so if you want to make yourself known, go for it. Not sure what happened to the page on the left. I heard there was a toxic slime spill in the box, maybe it was a victim of that. I really dig the horizontal piece at the top.

More kooky art. Dinosaurs and Mars Attacks?! Shut up and make that movie!

Here's the stuff that really grabbed my attention.

I don't know why but I'm definitely going to check out this book, it looks like fun.  But is Hitch really in the book like the title suggests? Is he hanging out with a trio of aspiring boy detectives? Not that there's anything...no, wait. There is something wrong with that.

These are the first Monster in my Pocket figures I've ever owned. I really can't figure out how that is the case considering I have a good sized army of Battle Beasts. There was some other figure I pulled out to put in the photo but I must have forgotten it...oh well.

This isn't everything that was in the box. It was really packed to bursting! A huge thanks to everyone that joined in the fun on this. And if you're still planning to post about your experience with the box, just let me know and I'll pass the word along.