Category: History

Gumball Machines

  • November 10, 2022

As a child, no trip to a grocery store was complete without a coin spent on a gumball machine, usually near the exit. The same was true for visits to the mall or cinema or any other place where the machines could be found.

There were two types of machines: those that vended lollies, and those that gave toys. Usually the lollies – almost always gum – only cost 5 or 10 cents. Toys cost more – up to 50 cents! – and we’re usually either ‘super balls’ or a motley collection of plastic trash.

As far as the lollies were concerned, I always preferred the standard gumball, and would often spend the coin mum or dad have me on one. Sometimes a machine would sell a (child’s) handful of tiny gum pieces, and since these seemed to be better value for money I could never resist them. As I grew older the gumballs became more exotic – some even had fizzy crystals inside – and I occasionally bought them all the way up until I left Oz.

As mentioned the toys were usually dreadful: cheap tchotchkes from China that would have cost the machine owner considerably less than 20c apiece! But as a kid I hardly cared, and one type of toy in particular I loved: the tiny rubber car. These were about an inch long, molded from hard unpainted rubber, and usually quite detailed for their size. If ever I saw a machine that sold these I always had to get one, and as a young boy I had a small, prized collection of them. Coming home from grocery shopping was always more fun with a tiny rubber car in my pocket!

Recently I’ve been paying attention to the gumball machines in our local shops, and all the photos in this blog were taken these past weeks. There are fewer machines than there used to be – Covid killed many it seems – but they’re remarkably similar to the ones I recall from my youth. The stock of machines is remarkably similar to what I remember from my youth, and still contains mostly gumballs, super balls and disposable ‘toys’.

The above was the closest I could find to the rubber cars of my youth. These are about the same size, seem to be made of similar material (or perhaps a flexible plastic) but as you can see are painted now, which gives them an extra dash of sophistication. At $0.75, I couldn’t resist buying one…

I reckon I would have loved this tiny rocket as a kid. It’s probably the ‘worst’ in the machine, but it’s also the one that my young imagination could have easily thought of as an alien spaceship. For me, that would have been enough 🙂

My Collection: SNES

  • July 13, 2022

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) was released in Japan in 1990 and worldwide starting in 1991. In those days, still in Australia, I knew about the SNES but was content playing NES and PC games. It wasn’t until shortly after I arrived in America (in 1993) that I bought my SNES.

These days this system is renowned for a large library of high quality games. In particular it heralded the arrival or best installments in many famous series including F-Zero, Mario Kart, Castlevania and Metroid. The first (and only!) Mario game on the console – Super Mario World – is considered to be one of the best platform games ever made, and the system includes many famous and beloved RPGs in its library.

In time I would buy 35 games for the system, most of which are shown above. For several years the SNES and Game Boy were my only consoles, and I have very fond memories of long nights playing epic RPGs such as Final Fantasy 6 (one of my favorite games of all time) or Wizardry 5.

Games were expensive in those days! The above game cost me $74.99, which is about $150 today! I recall I used to save up for games and treasured every one I got 🙂

Due to the quality of the library, the large amount of RPGs, and the fragility of the cardboard boxes the games were sold in, the SNES has become arguably the most collectible console. Some games have skyrocketed in value, and very rare ones are bought and sold these days for thousands of dollars. If you wanted to collect a full library of SNES games today, you’d need very deep pockets.

I don’t have any of the super rare ones, but a few of mine are worth a tiny fortune these days. The above game, Chrono Trigger, is probably worth ten times what I paid for it in 1995, or possibly even more since I’ve kept mine in pristine condition!

For me the legacy of the SNES are the very happy memories it has given me. This was the system that really got me into console gaming. The system that hooked me on Japanese RPGs. And the system that inspired me to start my fanzine which eventually led to a job (of sorts) playing and reviewing games. The SNES represents the foundation of one of my personal stories, and for that reason will always remain special to me.

  • Posted in Blog
  • Robert

Ancient Me

  • July 11, 2022

While in Australia, an email from a cousin of mine revealed that she had found letters I had written her when we were kids! Even more surprisingly, she scanned and sent them to me. Here I share them with you: three letters I wrote between 1982 and 1984!

This first one is a postcard and was sent in 1982 (as dated by the bridge comment). The Sydney excursion was Bernard’s year 6 trip, which means I was in year 5 (which once again dates this to 1982). It has the feeling of something written by a child (I was 10) who was being forced to write to his cousins, since I seemed to have simply transcribed what I read in an encyclopedia!

But then we get to the bizarre non-sequitur last line: My hobbies are basketball and stamp collecting. Basketball?!? I don’t remember ever being interested in basketball, and certainly not to the extent I would describe it as a hobby. I once ever played the game at a stadium (for kids) but didn’t enjoy it and never returned. I don’t recall ever watching a game, or even owning a ball (much less throwing a ball at a hoop). What a puzzling inclusion!

The description of my confirmation and the issue date of the Aerogramme used dates the above to 1983. immediately it dives into long-forgotten memories: I participated in three acts of a school concert to celebrate a nunnery!?! I wonder what I did? And was I even in the bible dramatization? Surely I would have played Jesus? I wish I could go back and whisper in my ear to write a few more details in the letter 🙂

And while it’s good to know Bernard ‘likes’ high school, I’d love to know more about that excursion (ie. school trip) to Sydney. Could that have been the one at which PM broke his arm immediately after going out on an ice rink thus robbing our class – some of whom were still getting our skates on – of the chance for a fun afternoon of ice-skating?

Krull was released in August 1983 in Australia. I loved it then and I love it now. You’d have thought I may have mentioned as much in the letter, but perhaps it was enough to have said I saw it. Maybe I asked Dad if he thought I should write anything else but he didn’t hear me due to half-deafness (no, I don’t remember anything about that), so the end of the letter leaves us all hanging. I even blatantly say I can’t think of anything else to write! I suppose I had other things on my schedule that day 🙂

This last one is dated to December 1984, which means I was 12 and in my first year of high school. I’ve become a bit more sophisticated by now and have switched to cursive, which is a puzzle to me since I never liked using cursive and (as I recall) abandoned it as soon as possible. Perhaps in those days school was forcing us to use it, or perhaps I thought it may make the letter look a bit more posh?

In the very first paragraph I boast about skipping school (I was only 13!) and having a ‘good time’ in town (playing video games no doubt). I wonder who those two friends were? My guess is MMcN and MT, which were two of my partners-in-crime in those days.

I find it amusing that I knew what my Christmas gift was. We got cassette players (‘tape recorders‘) each and it was the first time we had our own, which lead to an explosion in us purchasing cassettes. Of all the Christmas gifts of my youth, that’s probably the one I remember most fondly.

I don’t remember the teacher I describe in the letter (apologies to Miss Mackenzie if she is reading this), but I do remember not enjoying any language classes in school. I don’t remember ever going to Luna Park but I fondly recall the trips to Nabiac (yes we did go again as described in this letter) including falling off a horse and getting stung by wasps!

I wish I’d written more about specific interests in this letter. What games I was playing and music I was listening to. Of course I remember (more or less) but it would have been fun to read my opinions at that age.

Martina mentioned that when the earliest of these letters would have been received by her she would have barely understood English, which means she probably had someone translate. And I imagine her responses to me were in German and translated by Dad. I didn’t keep any of them, or any of the other letters sent by other cousins. Back in those days the thought probably never would have occurred to me, but I imagine they’d like to read their own words 40 years later and enjoy them the same way I loved re-reading mine.