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The Strong

Saturday, December 16th, 2023

We’re in Rochester for an early Christmas and today visited The Strong museum. We’ve been here before but they’ve had a major expansion so it was time to see the new attractions.

This included a massive room housing the Video Game Hall of Fame, as well as a fantastic interactive exhibit on gaming in general. We played lots of games and had a lot of fun but it was the many, many displays of toys and games and associated paraphernalia that I particular enjoyed. Here’s a selection of only a few of the interesting things we saw:

That’s a prototype table for the official Lord Of The Rings pinball, as well as the actual (playable) table on the right.

Here’s the Vectrex 3D accessory, which is famously rare. I’ve never seen one, much less a boxed one!

The above are two examples of overproduced Atari cartridges once buried in New Mexico. Long considered an urban legend, this was proven to be true after they were dug up a few years ago and the city donated a few to the museum.

An actual World of Warcraft server ‘blade’ that housed one of the realms for several years! This is physically about as big as a skateboard.

An actual Atari store display from the early 1980s, stocked as how it would have been in those days. I wanted to grab one of the catalogues!

The above is a fascinating item. Those of us that have been around for a certain vintage recall these home-packaged games but to think this one has survived for so many years!

An original piece of hand-painted art that was scanned and used as a backdrop for an early Leisure Suit Larry game! They also had other prototypes and original art examples, including of consoles and arcade games.

Speaking of original art, that’s a hand-drawn sketch of Sonic The Hedgehog done by the original designer!

A lcd game based on those Japanese ‘nammeyano‘ delinquent cat art photos from the 1980s. This is an example of how varied the museum collection is. (Needless to say I’m not showing any of the vast display of more common game or toy items.)

Esoterica like the above I love seeing: an ancient McDonald’s happy meal box (from the late 1980s) and a series or Japanese World of Warcraft scratch-off cards that came with meals over a decade ago!

Or this unopened box of Pac-Man candy. This (which is about the size of a playing card) is 40-odd years old.

And some Donkey Kong ‘action figures’. I imagine the one on the right wasn’t a big seller!

A variety of game-related books. I’d love to read the two on the left, and last year I actually bought and sent the calculator one to Bernard!

Bridging video games and other pastimes, look at these two sets! Kristin recalls she even had the one on the right and put them on her bedroom door.

Here’s some rpg miniatures from decades ago. The grenadier ones even came painted! They also had lots of early D&D products and even an original photocopy of one of the earliest design documents co-written by Gygax and Arneson!

Look at this absolutely beautiful (not to mention unusual) board game based on the BBC Narnia series! I’d love to play this one.

A Wonder Woman trio: artwork for an unmade Atari pinball, a box of colorforms and a funky looking record with ‘songs and stories’ on it.

This is a talking doll invented by Edison and produced in the late 1800s! It’s a little retro-futuristic isn’t it? It’s also in extraordinary condition for something that is over 130 years old. I wonder if it still talks?

Speaking of dolls, the above is apparently the world’s most glamorous ‘teenage doll’. This is another fantastic condition and sealed-in-box item that is decades old and full of nostalgia.

Can you guess who the above doll is? It’s a pretty good likeness for when it was released (the 1970s)…

The above toy set of ‘missiles’ was released in 1958 and appears to be cardboard cutouts. I googled this and it was popular and rereleased (and updated to plastic) several times into the 1970s! What boy wouldn’t want to play with world-destroying nuclear missiles?

The museum was incredible, and there’s so much to see. It’s bigger and better than ever and I’m glad we visited it again. I hope you liked seeing some of the many wonders we saw.

Posted in Art, Blog, Books, Books & Comics, Games, Retro, Toys | 2 Comments »

LEGO Rivendell

Sunday, December 3rd, 2023

I bought this for my birthday earlier this year, and after many months of letting it age, it was time to build it:

This is Rivendell, the legendary elvish sanctuary in Lord Of The Rings and home of the powerful and ancient Elrond. Rivendell has always been depicted as a fantastic and beautiful place, and the LoTR films followed in the tradition:

When LEGO revealed this set I was simultaneously astonished and in love and appalled. The price was very high and it’s so big… but after several months of denying myself, I bought it 🙂

The box is gargantuan and heavy and there were fifty bags of pieces inside, as well as a sticker sheet (for the paintings, see below) and a hobbit-sized stack of instruction manuals:

The set is built in three large sections, and I did it in twelve sessions of about four bags apiece. It was a fascinating and fun build, and although I didn’t keep close track I would estimate it took me 25-30 hours in total. Some parts (the filigree and roof tiles) were a little frustrating, but it wasn’t exactly a difficult build. Here’s the finished set:

It’s so large photography was difficult! It’s about 80 cm wide, 35 cm deep and 50 cm tall. Here’s a view from the rear:

It can be separated into five different sections for ease-of-transport (and display). The first is the side of the main building, with Bilbo’s accommodations and the tower with statuary:

The middle section contains the elvish library, and the council platform where the Fellowship was first assembled. If you look close you’ll notice the small entry on the right side is at an unusual angle compared to the main building. This and several other slopes in the set were cleverly achieved using 3-4-5 Pythagorean triangles:

The last section contains the blacksmith, a waterfall and a removable pagoda. The instructions say the engineering of the base of the hexagonal pagoda was the most difficult part of designing the set. The small mushrooms you can see on this piece glow in the dark!

As you can probably see the detail is exquisite, with all sorts of furnishings and little touches that fans of the movie will spot. For instance the walls feature several cute ‘LEGO paintings’ such as this one depicting the forging of the rings:

And there’s also the shards of the legendary sword Narsil, no doubt waiting to be reforged at the smith:

The chairs on the platform are made from popsicle and frankfurter parts repurposed! Several of the mini figures have variant parts for sitting down:

Speaking of mini figures, the set has fifteen:

From the top, they are Bilbo, Frodo, Samwise, Pippin, Merry, Gloin, Boromir, Gimli, Aragorn, Gandalf, Arwen, Elrond, Legolas and a male and female elf. The set also includes many extra weapons, so even Arwen could wield a couple of axes were she so inclined!

The set has over 6000 pieces, but a few hundred of them are the roof tiles. These are applied to a single stud at a 45 degree angle, and getting them all aligned was not a trivial task! By far this was the longest and most tedious step, and I daresay I’ll shed a tear for this when/if I ever disassemble Rivendell.

Which brings me to the obvious question: Where the heck will I put this? It’s easily the biggest LEGO set I’ve ever built, and as far as I can tell fits on no surface in our house.

I think I’ll just leave it on the craft table in our library for now, and worry about that question when we return from our upcoming vacation!

Posted in Crafts, Movies, Toys | Comments Closed

LEGO Pac-Man

Saturday, September 9th, 2023

Kristin bought me the LEGO Pac-Man set earlier this year, and last week I assembled it. I went into this set ‘spoiler free’, and it was a delight to discover it’s special feature!

You first built the (removable) character display on top, which features Pac-Man and two pursuing ghosts. At the push of a button the all turn around to replicate what happens when Pac-Man eats a power pill. It’s a nice trick, but just a side dish to the main act. Oh and see those tiny Pac-Men and ghosts at the bottom? They’re printed tiles:

The main cabinet took me several overs over a few days and was an intriguing build because for a while I couldn’t see how the set was coming together. As mentioned I was initially oblivious of the special feature so half-way through the build of the main ‘screen’ I had no idea why I was adding a chain drive:

Then adding an axle attached to a crank on the back made it clear this set had hand-powered animations:

But I still wasn’t prepared for how smooth the movement was once finished, and how good the ‘screen’ looked:

Pac-Man, all the ghosts and the cherry all animate in some way, moving in various cycles around the board. There are two chains and a lever attached via different gears to the crank axle, so they don’t even all move at the same speed. It’s incredibly well done, and needs to be seen in action to appreciate it. I’ve made a lot of legos over the years, including some gigantic technic sets, but the engineering on this one surprised and impressed me more than any I’d ever seen.

There’s a few other nice little touches, like a moving joystick and light up ‘coin slot’, and even a cute little diorama hidden behind the back panel:

One interesting aspect to this set was that it’s slightly on the ‘harder’ side as far as assembly was concerned. A few steps required a second or even third look to make sure I was doing them correctly, and I was extremely careful for the screen part itself since errors there may have taken a long time to fix! Overall assembly was fun, and I the only real negative I can think of is the usual one: I wish LEGO stopped using stickers entirely.

The success of this set is just how great it looks assembled, and how smooth and wonderful the movement is when you turn the crank. This is one I’ll be happy to leave on display for many years to come 🙂

Posted in Blog, Crafts, Models, Toys | Comments Closed

Star Wars Friday: What I Kept

Friday, July 21st, 2023

I sold 94% of my Star Wars figure collection, but I kept every R2-D2 figure, as well as similar droids. The R2 figures have always been my favorites, and it warms my heart to have kept a little bit of my collection. Today I’ll show off a few of the R2 (and similar) figures I kept.

The above shows the first three (‘modern’) R2 figures sold, starting in 1995 and to (on the right) 1997. R2 was in the very first wave, which makes my red carded figure 28 years old! R2 was my favorite from the very start, since he was metalized (which is no longer common) and proportionally correct unlike the human figures. All of my figures are in great condition as well, as you can probably see.

The above show three packaging variants between 1998 and 2000. Episode 1 figures were overstocked everywhere, and Hasbro changed the packaging to differentiate the newer releases (note that they kept a small Obi Wan on the card). There were several R2’s released during these years (as well as other, similar, droids) and I have them all.

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I stopped seriously collecting around the release of Attack Of The Clones, and from around then (2002) there are gaps in my R2 collection. The middle figure in the photo above is the packaging that was introduced with Episode 2, and the year later saw the irritating ‘Saga’ curved packaging which is very difficult to store! While there was an R2 released in that range, I don’t own it.

More years go by, as we transition past Episode III into the Clone Wars era. I didn’t own a single Episode III figure, including R2, which is a shame since it had a unique type of packaging. As you can see above, they changed it almost every year to try and re-energize the line.

The interesting Darth Maul design was around the time of the 3D rerelease of Episode 1 (remember that?) and I think works well, but shortly thereafter Hasbro switched to smaller figures which were beloved by collectors like me. By this time, I usually had only a single figure in each type of packaging, and often it was only an R2 unit since that’s all I bought 🙂

There was no R2 released in the small Rebels line, and since the figures were poorly distributed in the USA I bought mine in Germany! The black packaging in the middle is my favorite ever packaging, but it was short-lived since the sequels came out and Hasbro developed new, white packaging.

Bringing us to the present time we have the very successful (almost 400 figures as of today) ‘vintage’ line, such as the above left figure. And the above right – bought in Australia – is a remake of an old figure from the 1980s. I’ve shown about 20 different types of packaging here, and as best I can tell there’s been about 25 since 1995.

All told I have kept 38 figures, about 25 of which are R2 and the others similar droids like those shown above. As best I can tell I’m ‘missing’ about 20 others, but I’m in no hurry to buy them. But if I ever spy an R2 in a shop that I don’t own, and if the price is right, then I’m sure I’ll buy it.

In addition I have these two, both made by me at the ‘Droid Factory’ at Disney in Florida many years ago. Since they’re unique, surely they are the prizes of my collection?

But what about these? Technically neither are Hasbro-made R2 figures so perhaps they don’t count, but I love both for various reasons. The one on the right is a small (about 1 inch tall) metal figure made by a Japanese manufacturer that I bought about five years ago, and the one on the left is a bootleg I won in a ticket arcade in Margate (England) about a decade ago as well. It’s shoddily made and the head only turns one way but I love it not the least because it reminds me of that wonderful day we spent in Margate 🙂

And so ends a week showcasing parts of my Star Wars collection, such that it is. As I’ve hinted there’s more weird stuff, and I know of one or two items in the attic that would probably raise your eyebrows. Maybe I’ll show them off in another ten years…

Posted in Collecting, Miscellaneous, Retro, Toys | Comments Closed

Selling Another Collection

Tuesday, July 11th, 2023

I’m selling my Star Wars figures. I’ve spent much of today getting them ready for sale, and have indeed already dropped half of them off at the shop.

All told I’ll be selling about 530 figures, as well as two dozen vehicles and figure multipacks. They’re all ‘modern’ figures, which means released after 1995. They’re all mint on card, and in fantastic condition.

I started collecting – as did countless people my age – when Kenner (now owned by Hasbro) relaunched the Star Wars figure line in 1995. I collected fairly seriously until 2003, sporadically until about 2007, and then only infrequently purchased any figures after that.

I have fond memories of weekly runs to Toys’R’Us and Walmart looking for new figures. Those were the early days of the internet so purchases were made in person. The figures were very popular and distribution was good so it wasn’t that difficult to get them all. They were inexpensive as well: my records show in the mid 90s I was paying under $5 for each figure!

As the line got more and more popular a silly amount of figures were released, and the quality continued to improve. Then the prequels came out and it felt like a lot of collectors lost interest overnight! The prequel figures were very high quality, but (for some) the films weren’t, and this killed interest.

I kept collecting, but around the release of Attack Of The Clones a pivotal change in distribution began: online exclusives. For me the joy of the hunt was a big part of collecting, and I had no interest just buying them online (or even worse, preordering). At that point, I stopped being a serious collector.

There’s not a great demand for modern Star Wars, and they’re hard to sell, so I’m happy the same shop that bought my games agreed to buy my collection. I won’t get anywhere near what I paid for them, but regaining the space they took up (10 large plastic tubs!) is worth a lot to me.

To end this post, let’s open one! The above is the most recent figure I bought. It’s a 1998 ‘Clone Emperor’ figure, which I bought brand new in Japan this past January for the princely sum of ¥300 (about $2.10)! I already owned one, so I bought it again just to open.

The package has a gimmick, and forms a ‘3D’ backdrop when it opens. It looks… well terrible. I understand that it’s supposed to replicate a scene from a comic but surely they could have gotten some better art? Also this doesn’t look anything like Palpatine. Maybe he’ll look better with the coat off:

Yeah, still nothing like what I think a clone of Palpatine would look like. But we know now such a future never came to pass, and Sheev’s actual (non-clone) return in Rise of Skywalker was much, much better:

I really love that film 🙂

Anyway the next few posts will likely be Star Wars collection related as well, since I’m not selling everything and I also found a few other strange items worth showing off while sorting…

Posted in Collecting, Toys | Comments Closed

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