I am just tickled pink, I went to my local thrift store (Savers) that I check from time to time for cake stuff, and found a whole lot of pans! I have two favorites though...the GIJoe pan (because my brother is in the Army and getting ready to go back to Iraq, so may have to do a good-bye cake soon) and the back half of the stand-up Santa Claus (because I already had the 1st half, and didn't even realize he needed another half!).
I am also very pleased at my find of another 3" deep 9" round pan with a removable bottom, to match the other I have - now I can make some REALLY tall 9" rounds! hehe...

PLEASE HELP - does anyone have instructions for the 2-sided santa pan? It is Nordicware (and on their website goes for $16 - I got it for $5 or less). I found no instructions on their website, and it seems no one I looked at on Ebay was selling it with instructions. The back has a small hole in it. The 2 pieces fit together well, and the front side is smaller than the back side.

Congratulations! This is one of the few places where you'll find people as excited about pans as you are! I found a little projector at Michael's for $16 that my hubby says he can rig up so it'll be just like a Kopykake projector! Only about $250 less!!!! See? It's a sickness!

oh that sounds so cool! you need to post pics if you get it done, that sounds like a good project.

ps - i had another 4 or 5 pans in my arms and decided I probably had enough - 2 small pans (train engine and bear), and a large bear with bow around neck and holding flower?, and the horseshoe shape. i may just go back tomorrow and get them, i hate leaving anything there that will fester in my mind of 'why didn't i get that?' for weeks later!

Way to go Rainbow_Moon. That is awesome!! I need to check out our Thriftstores!! I have a Santa that I bought at a garage sale. I will go downstairs and check to see if he is the same and let you know.

From the picture, your santa pan looks like the same one I have. I dont know if I have a copy of the directions.. but you would fill the front half with batter, place the back on and if I remember correctly you need to secure the two halves in some way. I used a length of wire that I would wrap around the mold in two spots. Heavy duty kitchen twine will work too. The hole in the back is a good place to check the doneness of the cake. Just stick your cake tester in! Remember to use a fairly dense cake recipe so that the santa will stand up.

thanks gingoodies...i was thinking it was something kind of like that - i just bought the stand up lamb pan (20% going out of biz sale at Craftmart locally) and the directions are similar...

Congrats on your great buy!! I'm never that lucky that I stumble across used pans anywhere lol

Sorry I didn't get back to you. I had a friend come in from out of town to visit!! The directions that Gingoodies gave are pretty much the same as what I have it says:
Heat oven to 350. Generously grease both sides and dust with flour. Pour batter into front side of pan until level with the top edge (about 3 1/2 cups) Place other half of pan (with hole in it) on top, locking the two halves together. Place on baking sheet and bake for 30 to 40 min. until toothpick inserted in hole comes out clean. Remove top half of pan. Cool 10 min. then remove from pan. Cool completely. Hope this helps some and sorry it took me so long to "go downstairs!!" lol

You guys are so lucky with the tins you can get. Shaped tins are hard to find over here as most of the supermarkets hold the copyright licences on character cakes, which means Wilton are not allowed to release those tins over here. When we do find the tins (usally ebay is our best bet) they tend to go for £25-£30. When you convert that into dollars you can imagine what we have to pay.

I did not think to check thrift stores for cake ware.
Thanks for the tip!!!!
I'm fleeing the hurricane so I'll check every thrift store between New Orleans and Dallas.

Wow...you really hit the jack pot....
Nicole

That's totally a cool find... Wish I'd have some luck like that with pans...
I found a glass pedistal cake stand with glass dome lid... I got it for $2.50... everything was 50%off yesterday...that's the only thing I found..
But I keep looking...you never know what you may find..
cakegal