Pushin’ Coins With Grogue

  • August 14, 2026

I went to Dave & Busters for the first time in years. Even if I was snooping to see if there were new cards in the Star Trek coin pusher I wouldn’t admit it. The place was dead and I was surprised by the number of gigantic gun and shooting cabinets based on licensed properties:

As I staggered toward the latrine I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw this:

Holy smokes, a Mandalorian & Grogu coin pusher?!?!? What madness led to this? The film was a failure and probably shouldn’t have even been made but someone thought they’d turn it into a coin pusher?

A quick scan of the playfield revealed cards featuring all our forgettable favourite characters from the film. I had to play this immediately!

I instantly forgot about my need to urinate and near-ran over to the counter to get a gamecard. The pretty attendant seemed relieved she had a customer and I barely reacted when she cheerily told me the minimum cost to get a play card was $28! I quickly handed her cash and hurried back to Grogu.

Using this professionally annotated image, let me describe the ‘gameplay’. A (pink) ring of targets continuously rotates and every time you push a button a coin rolls down the (yellow) ramp. If the coin hits a target extra coins roll down the (green) ramp onto the playfield. Some targets give you other rewards, including the ability to launch a ball – pinball style – up a (blue) ramp.

You get tickets for every coin that falls into the hopper, when you shoot the ball, and if you redeem any cards at the shop. I was barely interested in the tickets, I just wanted to win all nine cards. My target was the large clump of cards right at the edge, as shown in the first pic.

My $28 got me 150 coins, which feels like a crime but is actually less than a quarter per coin. I’m one of the best medal game players in the world, so I knew with 150 attempts I’d be walking away with a pocketful of cards. I wasted no time and began my quest!

At first I was dropping coins with wild abandon as I gained the measure of the machine. About 30 coins in I fell into a comfortable rhythm of dropping coins at periodic intervals so they always hit a target and often got me a ball to shoot. Coins were dropping like rain, but the massive clump of cards was proving stubborn. This continued for about 20 minutes, with only one or two cards dropping and the pile at the edge growing over-larger.

Then – with only a dozen or so coins remaining – I won a jackpot spin from a ball shot and (as you see above) my prize was ‘party mode’. This gave me free coin drops for ten seconds. I released all my limiters and smashed the coin drop button like Takahashi Meijin! I must have dropped over 100 coins in those ten seconds and I giggled like a simpleton as the playfield overflowed with coins which led to the massive bounty of cards all falling over the edge at once.

These are the sort of moments that make you feel truly alive.

And then I was done. 150 coins – all $28 – had been given to the machine. I reached into the hopper and pulled out 13 cards, including the 8 outlined in red above, and 5 doubles. Notably, I didn’t get the ‘Mandalorian’ card, which means were I going to redeem them all for points I was one card short of 3000 tickets.

The 9th card was tempting me near the edge, but as an renowned medal game master I knew not to throw good money after bad, and returned to the store counter to see how many tickets I had won.

After turning in my 5 card doubles (for 50 bonus tickets each) my total was 1072 tickets! This was much more than I expected, and I had no doubt I’d be able to get a fine prize or two from the shop.

Alas I was only 179,000 tickets short for a Switch 2 so I browsed the other options and eventually chose these (total cost: 1065 tickets):

At only $28 for a small bag of Swedish fish and some sort of liquid spray candy I felt like I should have got a free slap in the face as well…

Here’s a better look at my winnings. The cards are plastic, have nothing except a logo on the back, and have already been placed into a box never to see the light of the sun ever again. I’ll forget them as quickly as I forgot the film, but the joy of winning them will be with me for ever!

Finally, a 2DS!

  • August 13, 2026

Several years into the lifetime of the Nintendo 3DS, they released a new version called the Nintendo 2DS. Apparently marketed at children (for whom the size of the 3DS was a liability) it was a lower cost and more robust version of the console that would play all games but lack the stereoscopic 3D feature. It also dropped the clamshell form-factor and became flat:

It launched (in the USA, Europe and Australia) in 2013 at $130, then the price was cut in 2015 to $100, then again the next year to only $80. I had multiple different 3DS versions during these years, and when the 2DS reached its lowest price the (exceptionally good) New 2DS XL was imminent. So I never purchased a 2DS, something I’d regretted for a decade.

About five years ago I wanted to remedy this situation, so kept my eyes peeled in retro game stores and during trips to Japan. I didn’t just want one, I wanted one in good condition. Even more so, I wanted one boxed, which proved to be a mighty challenge. And then during my trip this past summer, I purchased this:

The system wasn’t actually launched in Japan until 2016 – three years after the USA. The above is a boxed example of the final colour released in Japan – translucent black – which came out in 2018 at a price of ¥9980. I bought it at a Suruga-ya in Osaka for ¥39000 ($245), or 391% of the launch price!

I was apprehensive about this purchase not because of the price – it was the only boxed version I’d seen in five years – but because they wouldn’t let me inspect before buying. I had to do my very best to charm the manager into letting me check the quality of the screen before buying, and he only relented because I was ‘polite’ (he said so!) and the store wasn’t too busy!

I had nothing to worry about. Not only is the system pristine, but it may have also been brand new since the bag containing the system was still sealed when he opened it.

I had never held a 2DS, so I was surprised how comfortable and lightweight it is. I never used the 3D feature of the 3DS, so I don’t miss it at all, and looking back I think the only reason I never bought one of these was because I feared the screen would more easily be damaged. That was me being a fool!

The 3DS is infamously region-locked, and buying this now gives me the opportunity to purchase and play Japanese 3DS games. I didn’t find anything I wanted in the few remaining days after I purchased the system, but I’ll surely pick up a few on my next visit. The above is me using the system to play a Japanese DS game, which of course work on this system.

It has all the normal features of other 3DS systems, including two cameras, a microphone, internet support, backup memory etc. In short, it’s a fully functional 3DS albeit with a new form factor and no stereo screens.

I’m extremely happy I finally completed my DS collection (this is my sixth DS), and that I now have a way to play Japanese 3DS games. Another grail checked off the list 🙂

DlroSkeleton

  • August 9, 2026

When I was in Japan I was unable to buy a new model kit since it was sold out everywhere. Luckily I found it on Amazon and here it is:

This ’30 Minute Fantasy’ kit is part of Bandai’s ever-expanding line of fantasy plastic models, and the first in what I expect to be a series of ‘monster’ kits. Here’s the blurb explaining these creatures:

I made the kit today, which was a bit challenging since one of my thumbs is still not fully operational. But even under these circumstances it only took a few hours, and likely would have been faster if I wasn’t getting distracted often.

The box contains two skeletons, and a variety of weapons. As part of the ’30 minute fantasy’ line they are slightly robotic and contain ‘hardpoints’ on which to attach armor pieces from other kits. I wasn’t interested in this; I just wanted the skeletons 🙂

They look great and are very poseable. I equipped one of them with a couple of blades and the other will lurk dramatically on a bookshelf:

An obvious thought that pops into your mind when you look at these is the T-800 endoskeletons of the Terminator series. A quick look online shows many skillful customizations, with this being one of the better ones I found:

This is an easy-to-make, inexpensive (about $12 in Japan) and impressive model kit. I look forward to whatever monster they produce next!