Abraham Lincoln's Big Lots

I was in Springfield, Illinois, a few weeks ago.  Everything in Springfield is about Abraham Lincoln.  The Big Lots I visited there didn't reference Lincoln, but I have dubbed it "Lincoln's Big Lots."

And what a great find.  I left with sixteen new cans for my collection.  The cashiers must really think I'm a thirsty person.  I found some Big Hero 6 cans, which my son loves.  And this pile is full of energy.

My general rule of thumb when visiting different cities: Always check Big Lots.

HoJo Can #1

While out and about on a short roadtrip today, I visited a few antique stores and flea markets (as usual).  I saw a lot of soda bottles and beer cans (as usual), but only one soda can.  Can you find it in the picture on the right?

A Howard Johnson's restaurant

When I was real young, there was a Howard Johnson's restaurant near where we lived.  The building looked so different and the orange/blue motif caught my eye every time we drove past it.  A few years ago I learned that Howard Johnson's had their own line of soda back in the 1970's.  I instantly fell in love with the orange/blue retro design of the logo on the cans.  

A Howard Johnson's can

And then a couple of years ago I entered a bidding war on eBay for a set of Howard Johnson's cans.  After some intense key pressing, I was unfortunately outbid.  

But today I finally found a HoJo can out in the wild.  I hesitated to buy it because what if I find another set for sale and end up with two ginger ale cans?  But then I realized I wouldn't have a collection if I based my collecting on "what if," so I bought the can and now I can finally say I have a Howard Johnson's can in my collection.

My Destiny

In September 2014, a video game company called Bungie (makers of the Halo game series) released a little game called Destiny on the Playstation and Xbox.  I was in a couple of the betas earlier in 2014 and I was there for Destiny's launch.  Next month, a new expansion is being released.  Bungie and Red Bull got together to promote the release by selling special "Destiny" cans that contain codes under the tabs.  You enter the code on Bungie's website and it gives you an in-game consumable that awards extra XP and it unlocks a special quest in the game that won't be available for everyone else until January 2016.  I love this game.

Blah-blah, right?  So I've been waiting to find a Destiny can to call my own.  They were exclusive to 7-Eleven stores in July, but the ones in my area aren't very convenient for me to get to.  I heard Walmart was getting them in August.  While at Walmart this morning, I found them!  They only had about 6-7 of the cans mixed in with the regular ones, but that was enough.  I grabbed one and now it sits in my collection.

So if you're on the PS4, look up the gamertag MuneMud and we can run a strike or do some patrols.  Or talk cans.

eBay Strikes Again

Last weekend my daughter looked up a couple of things to buy on Amazon for school.  I told her before I buy online there are a few different websites I check, including Amazon and eBay.  She had never been to eBay so I went there.  I told her she could look up anything and it's probably on there.  I tried to think of something crazy to look up but my mind went blank.  So as an example I typed in "bunch of soda cans."

And then I saw a listing of a seven can set from the 2002 movie Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.  Each can featured a different character from the movie.  And they were delivered to my house on Wednesday.

Gollum design

Introduced in September 2002, dnL was the "opposite" of 7up (including its name which is an upside-down "7up".)  It contained caffeine and had a stronger citrus taste than 7up.  It was discontinued in 2005.

original can

What made me push the "Buy It Now" button on this collection was the special dnL can.  I thought the original can was somewhat rare, but here was one with Gollum on it from the movie.  Wow, I HAD to have it!

I've resisted the temptation to look up cans on eBay for a long time because every time I look, I buy.  But if I hadn't looked this time, I wouldn't have this treasure in my collection now.