The Slatington Marketplace
Route 873 - Slatington, PA
The expression on the face of this mannequin head made me chuckle. I'm getting a lot of judgmental mother vibes from it, as if she's about to ask if I really need four more old Phillies magazines. Fair enough, Miss Kim... fair enough.
I'm not sure what expression this vase was supposed to have, but if you told me that someone's soul was trapped in here by an evil wizard, I'd be half tempted to believe you.
The same could be said for this derpy Elvis lamp. You have to wonder if the King ever thought that he'd be immortalized in a tacky lamp that would be sitting behind a horseshoe at an antiques mall nearly fifty years after his death.
Speaking of entertainers who have been horribly exploited, here is the Brooke Shields Glamour Center by LJN. This is a toy that was meant to allow children to practice styling hair on the disembodied actress. Thankfully, there were no other separated body parts of The Blue Lagoon star laying around at Slatington, but it wouldn't surprise me if a company produced and sold them at some point.
Another 80's icon from my childhood was represented in toy form, but unlike Brooke Shields, the head of Wheel Of Fortune co-host Vanna White was attached to the rest of her. On a side note, it was reported that Pat Sajack is stepping down from the game show at the end of this season. I don't really follow the game show scene, but I hope that the producers are at least considering her to replace him as the host next year.
There were a lot of pirate ships crafted out of aluminum cans available, including these four made out of Robin Hood Cream Ale, Coca Cola, Diet Pepsi and Yuengling beer. I don't want to own one, but I think they're actually kind of neat!
One of the coolest things that I ever found for sale at Black Diamond was a complete 1959 telephone booth that was modified in such a way that it could be installed in your home and hooked up to a traditional landline (click here to see a video of it).
Route 873 - Slatington, PA
You know that you're at an interesting place when you see a sign like this. The selection of things for sale at The Slatington Marketplace is unbelievable. It really does feel like you're walking through eBay because you have no idea what you're going to see from one stand to the next, but you know it's going to be weird.
The expression on the face of this mannequin head made me chuckle. I'm getting a lot of judgmental mother vibes from it, as if she's about to ask if I really need four more old Phillies magazines. Fair enough, Miss Kim... fair enough.
I'm not sure what expression this vase was supposed to have, but if you told me that someone's soul was trapped in here by an evil wizard, I'd be half tempted to believe you.
The same could be said for this derpy Elvis lamp. You have to wonder if the King ever thought that he'd be immortalized in a tacky lamp that would be sitting behind a horseshoe at an antiques mall nearly fifty years after his death.
Speaking of entertainers who have been horribly exploited, here is the Brooke Shields Glamour Center by LJN. This is a toy that was meant to allow children to practice styling hair on the disembodied actress. Thankfully, there were no other separated body parts of The Blue Lagoon star laying around at Slatington, but it wouldn't surprise me if a company produced and sold them at some point.
Another 80's icon from my childhood was represented in toy form, but unlike Brooke Shields, the head of Wheel Of Fortune co-host Vanna White was attached to the rest of her. On a side note, it was reported that Pat Sajack is stepping down from the game show at the end of this season. I don't really follow the game show scene, but I hope that the producers are at least considering her to replace him as the host next year.
There were a lot of pirate ships crafted out of aluminum cans available, including these four made out of Robin Hood Cream Ale, Coca Cola, Diet Pepsi and Yuengling beer. I don't want to own one, but I think they're actually kind of neat!
I'm not sure what the deal was with these things. Slatington is set up as many different spots that are rented by different vendors, but with a common point-of-sale at the front of the store. These four ships (and several other similar ones) were spread across the building at different tables. Either these things were extremely popular at some point, or there's a rogue can artist at this antiques mall who has been sneaking his work into the building wherever they can.
One of the coolest things that I ever found for sale at Black Diamond was a complete 1959 telephone booth that was modified in such a way that it could be installed in your home and hooked up to a traditional landline (click here to see a video of it).
This rotary pay phone at Slatington reminded me of that phone booth, and I thought at first that someone had taken an old pay phone and modified it to work as a landline. When I got a little closer to it, I saw that it was a little too small to be an actual pay phone, so my next thought was that it was a plastic replica of an old pay phone, and maybe it was set up to connect to your cell phone through bluetooth or something along those lines. It was only when I turned it around and noticed the original box sitting behind it that I realized that this was a Jim Beam bourbon decanter. If that isn't weird enough, it's apparently the fifth in a series of historic phone decanters.
This Game Of Death poster was tempting. It wasn't in perfect condition, but it looked like an original poster from the film's 1978 release and it was being sold at a very reasonable price, but I really don't have enough wall space for it.
This is one of those things that I would have bought back when I was working as the trainer for the Nestle USA confections team. I'm a great big nerd, so I used to decorate my desk and the training room with old product packaging and advertising for the products that we handled, and Baby Ruth was one of them. This box was part of a store display that sold candy bars in stores back in the 40's or 50's when Baby Ruth bars were still being produced by the Curtiss Candy Company who first introduced them in the 1920's. I had to chuckle at the price because my grandfather used to love to tell me how candy bars used to cost a nickel when he was in school. I often catch myself doing the same thing today when I see something in stores that is much more expensive than it was when I was growing up in the 80's and 90's. It's like I can almost hear his voice coming out of me.
I thought that this Heathcliff metal lunch box from the early 80's was pretty cool until I saw the ridiculous price tag. If it was bit more reasonable, I might have picked it up for the home arcade that I'm working on in the basement because the Space Invaders parody would have fit in perfectly, but... naah.
These brought back a lot of memories. My dad, my grandparents and I went to Wildwood and Atlantic City, New Jersey every summer for our vacation when I was growing up, and we always brought back a few boxes of salt water taffy. These two empty boxes didn't have a year on them, but they look exactly as I remember from the mid 80's. Hell, for all I know, they're still selling taffy in these same boxes today. They were a little too expensive so I didn't buy them, but I'll probably pick them up if they're still there next time I'm at Slatington.
There are so many other random oddities for sale at this antiques mall, and I'll post more of them soon, but I've got to cut it off here for now. If you live within a reasonable driving distance of this place, and if you don't mind being in the heat, I'd highly recommend checking it out. Even if you don't buy anything, it's fun to just walk around and see all of the different things that are here.
This Game Of Death poster was tempting. It wasn't in perfect condition, but it looked like an original poster from the film's 1978 release and it was being sold at a very reasonable price, but I really don't have enough wall space for it.
This is one of those things that I would have bought back when I was working as the trainer for the Nestle USA confections team. I'm a great big nerd, so I used to decorate my desk and the training room with old product packaging and advertising for the products that we handled, and Baby Ruth was one of them. This box was part of a store display that sold candy bars in stores back in the 40's or 50's when Baby Ruth bars were still being produced by the Curtiss Candy Company who first introduced them in the 1920's. I had to chuckle at the price because my grandfather used to love to tell me how candy bars used to cost a nickel when he was in school. I often catch myself doing the same thing today when I see something in stores that is much more expensive than it was when I was growing up in the 80's and 90's. It's like I can almost hear his voice coming out of me.
I thought that this Heathcliff metal lunch box from the early 80's was pretty cool until I saw the ridiculous price tag. If it was bit more reasonable, I might have picked it up for the home arcade that I'm working on in the basement because the Space Invaders parody would have fit in perfectly, but... naah.
These brought back a lot of memories. My dad, my grandparents and I went to Wildwood and Atlantic City, New Jersey every summer for our vacation when I was growing up, and we always brought back a few boxes of salt water taffy. These two empty boxes didn't have a year on them, but they look exactly as I remember from the mid 80's. Hell, for all I know, they're still selling taffy in these same boxes today. They were a little too expensive so I didn't buy them, but I'll probably pick them up if they're still there next time I'm at Slatington.
There are so many other random oddities for sale at this antiques mall, and I'll post more of them soon, but I've got to cut it off here for now. If you live within a reasonable driving distance of this place, and if you don't mind being in the heat, I'd highly recommend checking it out. Even if you don't buy anything, it's fun to just walk around and see all of the different things that are here.
