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Vintage

Saturday, July 18th, 2020

This little guy is over 40 years old:

He’s our Jawa Star Wars figure, which was probably purchased in about 1978. I saw ‘our’ since B and I used to mostly share these as I recall, although some figures were bought in pairs so we both had one.

This guy was one of the earliest we bought, and was one of at least a pair. Originally he had a little gun as well, but that’s long-lost by now. He took part in many elaborate Star Wars dioramas we made both indoors and out, and as with the others figures shown here today miraculously survived being melted by fireworks in the mid 1980s.

We also used to throw our figures into ponds, take them to the beach, and even tie them to parachutes and throw them off our roof! It’s a miracle he’s in such great condition.

That’s an original Yoda figure, from about 1980. As with the Jawa we had two of these, and this guy is in extraordinary condition considering his age. I always loved this figure due to its tiny size and large amount of accessories.

I remember we used to occasionally get one Star Wars figure each when we went shopping, but when the Empire figures hit shelves in 1980 dad bought us a whole bunch at once, including this guy. I can remember being overwhelmed as a kid by all the new figures before I’d seen the film, and had fun imagining what roles some characters would have.

That’s the final vintage figure I have, a guy named Squid Head from the Return Of The Jedi line that came out in 1983. I always loved this character (who was on screen for only seconds) and it was one of my favourite figures from that film. This figure I recall as being distinctly mine, although I don’t recall why.

I remember a trip to Sydney with B and dad in the early 1980s. We stayed in a bright apartment and went to a nearby mall every day. We played video games at a tiny arcade and dad let us each select some Star Wars figures from the toy store. I think that’s when we got Squid Head, because I recall playing with him (I would have been 11) in the garden patio of the apartment.

I asked dad about that trip last year, but he couldn’t remember. I wish I knew more about where we stayed and exactly when.

When I came to America I didn’t bring these guys with me: Bernard sent them to me years later. Back in the day we had loads of Star Wars figures, but some were melted and some sold off. Maybe these were saved because they had cloth parts? Maybe just because they’re cool? I wonder if B remembers?

Whatever the reason I’m glad they survived, because they’re now amongst my oldest possessions. Each of them trigger many happy memories of my childhood, and I’ll treasure them forever 🙂

Posted in Blog, Collecting, History, Miscellaneous, Otaku, Toys | 2 Comments »

My Collection: GameCube

Wednesday, May 27th, 2020

Nintendo released the GameCube in late 2001, and I was out on the US release day (Nov 18) to buy mine. There was a lot of anticipation for the console after the somewhat clumsy Nintendo 64, and we were all eager to see what Nintendo could do with games in 480p (what was then) high definition.

The GameCube (GC) featured a fantastic controller (the basic design of which continues today in the Switch Pro controllers), four inbuilt ports for multiplay, progressive scan graphics, removable cards for save files and optical disc media. During its lifespan it would add the first wireless controllers, GBA connectivity and even a device that would allow it to play Gameboy and GBA games (this is the black object connected under my GameCube in the above photo).

As with all consoles the hardware was nothing without the games, and while the Mario game (Super Mario Sunshine) has developed a bit of a bad reputation (I love it!), the system brought us the amazing trilogy of Star Wars games from Factor 5, an incredibly playable Mario Kart, the Viewtiful Joe series, two installments in the Phantasy Star Online series and two new Zelda games.

It was also the console on which the Pikmin, Metroid Prime and Animal Crossing series began (yes I’m ignoring Animal Forest here…). Animal Crossing in particular evolved from just being a game to became a way of life for a couple of years: I literally played it every day! I fired up my save file to check in on my town this past weekend and found my neighbors were a bit mad I hadn’t talked to them in quite a while:

Those graphics are primitive, but that’s the game not the system (since AC was originally developed for N64). It hardly mattered; Animal Crossing was another example of Nintendo showing us that graphics were far less important than gameplay 🙂

The GC used proprietary 1.5 GB mini DVD discs (for anti piracy reasons) which were initially sufficient but after a few years some games came on more than one disc. Nintendo was also generous with demo and promotional discs, and I’ve got several in my collection:

During the life of the console I bought just under 50 games, only 2 of which I ever traded in. By about 2005 new game releases had slowed, and by late 2006 the system was in its final days and many games were budget releases. I bought my last game in mid 2007, and Nintendo discontinued the system later that year.

As with most of my collection my games are complete in box and in pristine condition. The GameCube is not yet as collectible as some of its predecessors, but some games sold poorly despite being excellent and have become quite valuable these days.

The game on the left is known as the ‘big box version’ of Pokémon Box and is the rarer of two versions of a game that was rare even upon release. I bought it direct from Nintendo in 2004 for only $20 but could probably sell it for fifty times that price today. The other three in the picture are collectively worth about $500. The Pokémon Collosseum game and bonus disc (see above photo) are also worth considerably more than I paid. In fact quite a lot of my games have appreciated in the years since I bought them.

It makes me wonder if I should sell my GameCube games next!

The GameCube was followed up by the Wii, which was successful beyond even the wildest dreams of Nintendo and has since overshadowed the GC for most. I still remember the GameCube as the superior console, and taking it out and giving the games a spin for the first time in a decade made me remember just how much fun the little boxy console is 🙂

Posted in Collecting, Games, Otaku, Retro, Tech, Time | Comments Closed

More Of This Old Nonsense

Saturday, April 11th, 2020

I bought these, one of the last ‘nonessential’ amazon purchases I made:

Two packs each of Duran Duran and Tron trading cards. Let’s open them, starting with Duran…

These were released by Topps back in 1985 as part of the marketing Blitz for the Arena album. At the time both KLS and myself (and Bernard, and most of the world) were big Duran fans but I can’t remember ever seeing these cards. Naturally having found packs on Amazon for the low, low price of $8 each (sixteen times their 1985 price) I had to buy some!

Each pack has 3 cards and 3 stickers (from a pool of 33 of each). Here’s what I got:

Can you believe it?!?!? The two packs were almost complete duplicates, differing only in one sticker slot!! Furthermore the card images are pretty poor and the stickers have lost their adhesive.

The card backs are dull too:

But at least the sticker backs form a puzzle so they’re useful even if you use the sticker:

And here’s a closeup if the 35-year-old bubble gum:

Don’t worry, I didn’t eat it 🙂

Overall this isn’t a great card set, but I reckon in 1985 I may have liked it especially for the stickers. While it’s disappointing I got mostly duplicates, at least it takes care of Bernard’s Christmas gift this year!

Let’s move on to Tron:

Released by Donruss way back in 1981, each pack has 8 cards, a sticker and – a weakness then but a strength today – no bubblegum! The pack design is great, but the cards themselves are even better:

The images are crisp and immaculately printed and the black borders look great. In my opinion these are some of the best trading cards ever made and a wonderful showcase for the film.

In fact I already had four packs of these but I’m always looking for more since they’re hard to find now at a reasonable price (these were the only two the seller had; I paid $6 each pack).

The backs don’t tell the film story, and instead create a fantastically massive puzzle of one of the film posters:

The sticker cards are unusual since they’re based on the Tron arcade game and contain tips on the back (which I’m sure no one ever used!):

Unfortunately after 40 years they too have lost their adhesive. You can peel them off but he’ll never stick again.

Apparently this set had limited distribution since the film was an unknown quantity. I’m reasonably sure these never made their way to Australia because if they did I would have bought as many as I saw (for 25c/pack!). A wonderful card set that I’d love to complete one day.

In case you’re wondering I’m always on the lookout for other vintage pop culture card packs. Topps made loads of sets I’ve never even seen a pack of – like Masters Of The Universe, Fright Flicks or Marvel Super Heroes (from ’76, which has Conan comic cards) – but I’d also love to get my hands on more vintage Star Trek or Alien or Indiana Jones cards. If you ever see such things for cheap, please keep me in mind 🙂

Posted in Collecting, Otaku, Retro, Trading Cards | Comments Closed

The PEZ Factory

Saturday, March 7th, 2020

We went for a day trip today to here:

The PEZ factory! In case this is a mystery PEZ candies are those little sugar bullets that are sold in special dispensers. You flip back the head and a candy comes out. I’ve amassed a collection of Star Wars dispensers that I’m not proud of but I hate the candies and never eat them!

It was a bit of a drive away: over two hours and two states, but it was worth it.

It’s where they make the candies and package them (the dispensers are made in Europe). They have a factory and museum, but since it was a Saturday the factory wasn’t on. But the museum was fantastic.

They have an incredible amount of dispensers on display. Thousands I’m sure, in every category imaginable. Although I secretly hate them I was fascinated by the displays.

The older ones are quite crude (Peter Pan here was from 1969) but the modern ones – almost all licensed – are much more sophisticated.

They had an astonishing amount of slight variants of some of them…

Strange old foreign versions…

Super rare dispensers…

And some very old ones that predate the current ‘head-on-a-stick’ style…

They also had – to our amazement – licensed Japanese ones including Gundam and Ultraman!

But there was so much more than just the dispensers! PEZ is after all a candy (invented in Germany in the 1930s) and they also had an incredible amount of packaging and marketing ephemera on display:

And advertising posters (many featuring the ‘PEZ girls’ used heavily in European advertising):

Bizarre items such as vinyl records:

And then truly strange stuff like a calculator, CCG pack, electronic game and very old sticker:

I loved this museum! It was basically PEZ otaku paradise. I hate PEZ’s (surely they’re the worst ‘candy’ ever made?) but I really loved looking through the small but jam-packed museum.

They even had a treasure hunt going on that we completed and won a prize from:

It was absolutely worth the trip: this place was PEZ-tastic!

But I still hate the candies 🙂

Posted in Blog, Collecting, Otaku, Retro, Toys | 1 Comment »

In The Coins

Saturday, February 1st, 2020

I brought back quite a few Australian coins with me this trip. I’d been doing this every year and it was time to sort them!

Australia has minted many variant designs for most of its coins, especially in the years since I left. Whenever I find something new in my change I hang on to it and over the years I’ve accumulated many different coins.

These are the 20 cent coins, with the normal version in top left. Some of the these commemorate such things as the United Nations, volunteers and even the taxation office! One stands out in particular, mostly since it’s a bit hideous:

The world went crazy for that wedding didn’t they?

I’ve got seven unique 20 cent coins but there have been nineteen in total! I’ll have to keep looking in future trips.

There’s a lot of 50 cent coins in my collection! This is unsurprising since the earliest commemorative coins were 50s and some of the above date to my youth and came to America with me back in 1993! Including this one:

That’s from 1970 and was the first ever Australian commemorative coin. Others in the above picture were minted for various Commonwealth Games, in memory of wars, to commemorate federation or social events.

Then there’s this interesting example:

The normal 50c is at left, and a 2016 variant is shown at right. I only learned of this preparing this post but in 2016 to celebrate 50 years of decimal currency Australia minted coins of every denomination with variant ‘heads’! I only have the 50c, but am very interested in the others since they include the only commemorative 10 and 5 cent coins!

There’s the dollars, with the normal version in top left. There’s lots of different types, commemorating things like women’s suffrage, ‘the international year of older persons’ and scouting. My favourite is this one:

That’s actually to commemorate the first fleet, despite being an aboriginal design. It’s another coin I brought with me when I came here.,

The current gems of my $1 collection are these:

‘The Great Aussie Coin Hunt’ was a series of 26 $1 coins minted last October and exclusively available in change from post offices in Oz. I knew about them and wanted them and mum said she’d try and get some. Cagily she had told me she only found a few but on Christmas Day my gift from her was the full set! She’d collected them all in secret 🙂

They’re all whimsical, and the best is probably this one:

My $2 coins are a weird bunch:

First of all yes, many are colourized! Secondly, most of these aren’t actually listed in the list of commemoratives I’ve been referring to (and I don’t actually have many on that list). A quick search online revealed that most of these (including Possum Magic and – an Xmas gift from AW – Mr Squiggle) were exclusively distributed at one Australian grocery store during very limited periods!

I reckon it’s mostly luck I have so many of these given how limited they were, but now I want the actual commemoratives I don’t own!

In addition to these I have some ‘retired’ coins:

A set of uncirculated coins:

And a selection of special coins purchased directly at the store at the Canberra mint:

But I’m most a fan of the actual coins that are circulated; the ones I’ve collected myself during my visits. Making this post has educated me on how many more there are, so you can bet I’ll be keeping a close eye on my change for many future trips to come.

Now where is that merino ram 50 cent coin I was sure I owned….?

Posted in Australia, Collecting | 4 Comments »

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