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The Inevitable List Of Ten Things My Brother Will Buy Me For My Birthday!

Sunday, February 13th, 2022

It’s been a whopping eight whole years since I’ve posted a list like this, but yesterday I was thinking that my brother may be having difficulty finding a birthday gift for me. Ever the helpful sibling, I decided to give him some assistance.

So here you go brother, ten simple suggestions!

Let’s start with an action figure! Darth Plagueis was released eight years ago in the 3.75″ ‘black collection’ and as with most figures of that era was frustratingly difficult to find and hardly made it to store shelves. Had I seen it I would have bought it for sure, but now mint-on-card versions are only available for $100+ on eBay. I’d love to put this guy in a box and never look at him again!

Speaking of figures, I recently learned about a series of Guyver statues by Prime 1, including the above showing a Guyver-0 standing atop a defeated T-Rex. It’s an amazing piece, standing almost one meter tall and weighing over 25 kg! Unfortunately it’s sold out but even if it wasn’t the $1300 price tag (not including the insane shipping cost from Japan) is something I would never spend myself but think is entirely appropriate for a birthday expense!

Vinyl is really hot now, and while my record player no longer works I think it’s obvious that I’d love the above vinyl album (not CD!) from 1962. This was long before Pertwee became (the best) Doctor, and apparently he was already famous enough to release an album full of bawdy ditties! You can listen to the songs on YouTube and they are of course abysmal, so the album would be one ‘for the collection’.

Let’s switch to games! I’ve got an impressive Fighting Fantasy book collection but despite my efforts have yet to obtain an original 8-bit FF computer game. There’s a few available, for 4 systems (C64, Spectrum, BBC, Amstrad) so it shouldn’t be too hard for Bernard to get me one (on eBay UK most likely) for around £25! Naturally I want it in the original cassette case and in NM or better condition.

Speaking of games Ive seen the above myself a few times on recent Japan trips, and every time I do I nearly buy it. But the astonishing prices (¥40,000+) have always given me pause, and as a result a hole in my Wizardry collection remains unfilled. Bernard’s going to have to be careful when he buys this one though: ‘discount’ ($200) copies are easy to find, but they almost certainly don’t include the trading card!

Naturally, since Bernard will probably become an expert in navigating Yahoo Auctions Japan for the last item, he should keep his eyes peeled for the above as well. This is the Xevious gamebook released by Namco in the mid 1980s and, much like the game, this book tells the story of Mu and Eve as they pilot Solvalou to travel to Garu Andor Genesis and destroy GAMP. Apparently the game system is very similar to Fighting Fantasy but I wouldn’t know since I don’t own the book. Yet.

Let’s take a sidestep into toys. The LEGO Old Fishing Shack is a masterpiece of design, and several years ago I was with my brother when I picked it up in a shop and said I may buy it. I didn’t, and now it’s $500+ on the aftermarket. But B should realize: a LEGO for me is also a LEGO for him, since one day I’ll take it apart and send it to him so he can enjoy it too. While paying the ludicrous aftermarket scalper prices would be the act of a fool, at least it would be an act that one day benefits him!

We had ministecks as kids and loved them, and it’s time to love them again. Though they are still being released, they’re weirdly hard to find and the few kits I’ve seen for sale here are very kid-centric, like puppies or doll pictures. I reckon B has contacts in Germany that could help him snag me this monster Neuschwanstein kit, don’t you?

Who doesn’t love View-Master? I know I do, and my measly collection would receive a wonderful boost with the addition of the above set. Sadly it’s hellishly rare these days, with single reels (of the three-reel set) going for $25 or more in poor condition. If he gets me this, naturally in the original packaging, I promise I’ll blog it in detail!

And what better thing to end on than a pair of shoes! You didn’t see this coming did you? Yes my friends these are the 2016 limited edition Ultraman Converse All-Star shoes sold at only one store in Japan. Once again condition and packaging are important since I’ll never wear them, and unused examples in the original boxes go for silly amounts on Japanese auction sites these days. Indeed, you’d have to be a ~~damn fool~~ brother looking for a birthday gift to even consider entertaining some of the scalper prices…

So there we go, ten easy items only a click or two away. I wonder how many of these he will get me this year?

Posted in Blog, Books & Comics, Collecting, Crafts, Gamebooks, Games, Music, Otaku, Retro, Toys | 2 Comments »

Gamebook Update

Friday, June 14th, 2019

Late last year, motivated by the blog post I had made referencing it, I bought this:

It wasn’t too expensive (~$30) but took about 3 months to arrive from Japan. It’s the third of three Fighting Fantasy reprints from a decade ago, and since I had the other two I naturally had to own this one as well. This is now my fifth different imprint of House Of Hell!

As with the others the player character is now a young girl and the art (and text?) showcases this. House of Hell is a notably grim gamebook – inspired by the darker elements of 1970s gothic horror – and our poor protagonist gets herself into some tight spots in this book. I bet in the Japanese it’s a good read.

The adverts in the back suggest that Hobby Japan also printed Dungeons & Dragons manuals with an ‘anime girl’ makeover. I’ll keep my eyes open for one of them in the future…

The above is an ‘Esper Gamebook’ published by the same publishers of FF books in Japan. It’s very similar in design and style, but seems to be more of a choose-your-own-adventure than a system-based RPG book.

I can find very little about this online (it’s not on Demians for instance) and there’s no adverts or listings of any other titles at the back so maybe it was a one-off? Based strictly on the art I’m guessing the story is Akira inspired, although it contains androids and aliens as well. I bet it’s crazy!

The above is a real treasure, and I paid about $40 for it. It’s called The Four Kings and is the fourth of four ‘original gamebooks’ published by the Japanese licensor. It uses the standard Fighting Fantasy system and character sheet, and probably plays the same as well. Aside from the fact it’s not one of the original series titles, it’s essentially an FF book.

Much like the other Japanese releases from that time (this book was published in 1990, just after Sky Lord came out in Japan) it uses the Japanese numbering and writing (vertical text) system throughout and even google translate has trouble with it. I doubt therefore I’ll ever be reading it. But as a curio it’s as good as they get, and I’d love one day to find the earlier three.

It’s also loaded with advertisements for other books at the end, including all preceding 32 FF titles, all the Advanced FF books, various related titles (such as Maelstrom) and something quite unusual:

Look at the ad on the left. Google translate tells me the book is called ‘Cube of Tantalon‘ and is a JP-exclusive Advanced FF module! Here’s the translated synopsis:

“Shimomura House Keiko & Group SNE’s first fantasy RPG scenario! The Kingdom of Galantria has been repeatedly attacked by militant neighbors, and now the flag color of the front line has become worse and depressed. According to the court magistrate, if you get the “cube of equilibrium”, a mysterious item that is described in the book left by the former King Tantalon, you might save the kingdom of Galantria.”

King Tantalon, famous for his tasks perhaps?!? Sounds fascinating! This book is probably impossible to find these days, especially since it’s also seemingly nonexistent online, but it’ll go on my ‘list’ just in case I stumble upon it on a future trip to Japan 🙂

Posted in Books, Collecting, Gamebooks, Miscellaneous, Otaku | Comments Closed

Deathtrap Dungeon

Sunday, December 2nd, 2018

That’s Deathtrap Dungeon, the 6th Fighting Fantasy book that was published way back in 1984. It’s a classic title, one of the most famous books in the range, and has inspired countless other gamebooks and video games.

Here’s some more editions from my collection:

Clockwise from top left they are the 2017 Scholastic version, the 1984 Dell USA version, the 2009 Wizard version and the 2002 Wizard version.

And here’s another version:

The above has been one of my ‘Holy Grail’ gamebooks for years. It was published in 2009 by Hobby Japan, and as you can see it’s definitely not like the others.

It’s still Deathtrap Dungeon, although obviously translated into Japanese. This isn’t the first Japanese version either, since FF books were published there during their original run too. But in 2009 Hobby Japan gave the books a distinctive anime makeover with a short-lived reprint series.

Whereas in FF books you are the hero, and therefore the player character is rarely described and even less commonly named, in this edition the player character is this adventuress named ‘Philia’ (according to my translation software). She still challenges Baron Sukumvit’s evil Deathtrap Dungeon for fame and fortune, but her experience is distinctly different from the one I first had in 1984.

For instance here’s the ninja I encountered in the original version:

And here’s Philia’s ninja opponent:

What about the iconic Manticore? Whereas originally it was the focus of the art during its encounter, now it seems to be photobombing a Philia selfie:

The fighting hobgoblins:

What about the disturbing (to my 12-year old self in ’84) one-handed man:

There are other cases where opponents switch gender (a crazy old man becomes a young witch etc.) but most of the illustrated sections are actually new and don’t correspond to the old ones.

I can’t read Japanese, so I can’t determine if the text itself changes. But it must if only slightly to accommodate the gender switch of some of the encounters? I wonder if it’s still in the first person though, or if Philia is directly referenced in the text?

As for the makeover, it’s undoubtedly because Hobby Japan was trying to market these to otaku in the wake of the success of the Queens Blade series. The all-new art is possibly due to the original art becoming pricey to license since the artist (Iain McCaig) had become quite famous in the intervening years (he designed Darth Maul for instance).

As best I can tell, there were three books in this reprint series. Deathtrap Dungeon is #1, I also have #3:

And #2 was House of Hell, advertised here in my copy of Deathtrap:

As I suggested, these are both difficult to find now and pricey when you do. My Deathtrap cost me $40 and took three months to arrive from Japan. One day I hope to get House of Hell, but I’m not sure it’s worth $50+ to me. Further books in the same series exist, but don’t seem to be FF titles (for instance one is an AD&D gamebook (?) based in the ‘Eberron’ game world).

As a curiosity though it’s lovely, and I’m extremely pleased I finally own it 🙂

(I obtained a few other gamebook curiosities this year. Maybe I’ll do a future post on them…)

Posted in Books, Collecting, Gamebooks, Otaku | 1 Comment »

A Few Gamebook Reviews

Saturday, June 30th, 2018

My Gamebook collection ever expands, and while I still mostly pursue the fantasy RPG style of book, I’ve recently acquired a few unusual ones based on licenses. Here’s a few reviews…

Dinobot War was written by Dave Morris (author of countless other gamebooks) and released back in ’85. It’s for kids obviously; short, linear, predictable and with terrible art. It’s also nonsensical with the ‘plot’ involving Dinobots, time travel and Disneyland probably having taken at least half a lunch break to devise. Arguably not worth the $1 I paid, although the Achilleos cover is nice.

Another book based on a cartoon series and also released in 1985 Snowmen Of Hook Mountain is even simpler and easier than the Dinobot book. I beat it (by retrieving the ‘Thundrillium’) after only two selections, and my playthrough didn’t even include Hook Mountain or any Snowmen! This one cost me a few dollars – $5 maybe? – but probably isn’t worth that.

R.L. Stine is famous for his Goosebumps series of kids books but early in his career was a prodigious author of gamebooks. This is yet another one based on a cartoon and is one of many GI Joe books. Operation: Mindbender (1986) tells a story of a brainwashing plot by a Cobra lackey who wants to usurp Cobra Commander. I don’t know if he succeeds or not since in my playthrough I failed. The writing is leagues better than the previous books and I imagine this one would be fun for a young fan of GI Joe.

There were several Indiana Jones books released and this one, Eye Of The Fates is the oldest book I review here from 1984. In the story you assume the role of a child who (of course) helps Indy find a mystical artifact. My playthrough ended anticlimactically – with a conclusion that suggested the mystical eye didn’t even exist – so I can’t explain that bonkers illustration. It’s fast paced and reasonably well written, but ultimately forgettable.

This book was an incredible find at a thrift store in Scotland. It’s one in a series of He-Man books from 1985 but unusually this was the only one that is a gamebook, the others being normal novels. Furthermore it’s got a simple system of dice-rolling (compared to the choose-your-own-adventure systems of the others books I describe here) and is hardcover and full colour. The story is crazy and it’s (possibly) impossible to fail to win by actually killing Skeletor! A fun little book and a lucky find.

This is one of only two James Bond books and is one of those weird licensing oddities since it’s based on A View To A Kill and not the entire Bond series. The story is based around a portion of the film (the horse-doping) and is short and frankly boring. But the art is spectacular and if nothing else the book gives us a little more information about Grace Jones’s May Day character. Given that these books are a little pricey now, this is strictly for collectors only.

And that’s it for now. But I own several other licensed gamebooks and if you’re interested could do another post like this. Let me know.

Posted in Books, Collecting, Gamebooks | 3 Comments »

Hexenmeister you say?

Monday, July 24th, 2017

In response to B’s comment on this post, I decided it was about time to kick the gamebook collection into the next stage. What’s next when you own all the books in English? You start buying foreign versions!

From the left, those are two French and one German copies of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. The middle (French) one is a reissue from 2003; both others are original imprints.

Le Sorcier de la Montagne de Feu is an interesting version. The paper is thin and glossy, reminding me of a bible, but aside from the translated text the book seems more or less the same.

However when you turn the book over and flip it around it contains a few dozen dense pages of puzzles! From what I can tell they are fantasy themed versions of classic logic and word puzzles and solutions are even included at the end. My copy seems to be a special edition for younger readers (is the text different?); there was also a normal (sans puzzle) version released in France as well.

Der Hexenmeister vom Flammenden Berg is a beautiful book. Trade sized, with rigid card covers and the almost Tolkien-inspired cover my copy is in astonishingly pristine condition considering its 35 years old!

Interestingly the text seems to omit about half of the art! I can only speculate why, but perhaps it was due to it being a children’s book and some images were considered a bit too grisly? Compare entry 275 with the French edition above:

The book seems lacking with so much art missing. I can only hope they reinstated it for later versions!

I also purchased these three:

Two French and one Spanish. The left two are reissues, the right an original. All are in fantastic condition (as new actually). Because of my Japanese copy of Demons I had to get a French one; the other two were bought because they were exotic 🙂

Needless to say finding foreign versions isn’t easy (I bought these online) but I find them very interesting and may try and get a few more languages. (I also got a French Lone Wolf.)

That’s an photo of my FF collection right now. In a week or so it will expand even more due to the brand new books that just came out!

And yes, they’re still good reads. Every time I do a post like this it always takes much longer than expected since I get sidetracked reading through the books. Maybe I should review a few here on the blog?

Posted in Books, Gamebooks, Miscellaneous, Otaku | 1 Comment »

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