Robot Claw – Page 145 – “Life In The So-Called Space Age”

Let’s Open Some Cards!

September 17, 2023

When we went antiquing a few weeks ago, I picked up a motley collection of old trading card packs for a song. In addition, I had a couple of other notable packs aging on a shelf. Let’s open them all now…

These Fievel Goes West cards date to the release of the film in 1991. This was the ‘junk wax’ era, when publishers gave anything a card set, and one wonders what the demand was for these cards? I’ve never seen the film and after glancing at the pictures on the cards never want to. The only positive I have about these: the card stock is heavy, the print quality high, and twelve cards per pack is bounteous. But I’ll be trashing these regardless 🙂

I once saw an entire box of these All My Children cards on sale for only a few dollars, and almost bought it only because it was so cheap. I’m glad I didn’t, since these cards (also released in 1991) are trash. Of the ten cards in my pack 4 of them were quiz cards with no art (the bottom two in the pic are the fronts and back of such cards) and the others are just studio photos of characters. I’d say even a rabid fan of the soap (which I have never seen) would be disappointed with this low-effort set. Into the bin they go!

These six packs of Megametal cards (from – once again – 1991) cost a shiny quarter each. I’d never heard of the set but gambled that with six packs my chance for a hologram was decent so I bought them all. The cards are decent if generic: a photo or album cover image on the front with some fluff quote on the back. What makes the set amusing are some of the included bands: have you ever heard of M.O.D., The Front, Heaven’s Gate or Dark Angel? Sets like these puzzle me, since it’s extraordinarily unlikely someone would be a fan of all these bands and would they buy multiple packs just for the 8% of cards that are Bon Jovi?

I got a hologram! A shame it’s L.A. Guns. If you want it, leave a comment, otherwise it’s heading to the trash with the rest of these cards!

A more recent pack now, from 2018. The Doctor Who card license is currently in the hands of a company called Rittenhouse, who prints high quality card sets with lovely art reproduction, loads of informative text and overloaded with chase cards such as autographs and costume pieces. The problem is their cards are too expensive, and a single pack of these Who cards retail for $10. With only five cards per pack, that’s $2 a card and they’re absolutely not even close to worth this price. It’s easy to ignore these sets right now because they’re ‘new Who’, but if Rittenhouse turns their attention to classic Who and in particular the Pertwee era, I’ll be miffed!

I picked up this pack of Bass ManiaX cards earlier this year in Japan for only ¥50 (about 40 cents). Released in 2000, this was a trading card game that seems to have disappeared from the internet as I can’t find anything on it (even the official webpage printed on the packs is gone). From the contents of this pack it seemed to have fish, lure, event and technic cards, and translating a few cards I’m guessing the goal was to catch fish – that were upside down on the table – for points.

I love buying clearance card packs in Japan because you never know what you’ll get. This is a classic example of ‘weird Japan’ (who was the target audience for a bass fishing tcg?!?) but even though the set was probably doomed to fail the production quality is high and the cards themselves feel better in the hand than an MtG card printed today.

So there we go. Five more card sets never before seen on this blog, many of which arguably should never have been seen at all! I’m always on the lookout for more, so let’s hope this isn’t the last post of its kind 🙂

LEGO Pac-Man

September 9, 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 🙂

Ramen 23: Let Us All Chook Together

September 8, 2023

The ramen review madness continues. I’ve lost track of how many it’s been. Is it over 50? Let’s go…

Maruchan Instant Lunch Select Chicken (280, 12 g fat, 730 mg sodium)

I was initially put off by the flavor dust being obviously baked into the noodles, since in other products this has produced an unsatisfying broth, but once I added the water and let it steep for a while I was rewarded with an acceptable taste and nicely cooked noodles. However the dehydrated veggies remained a bit flat and chewy, and I think this product may have benefited with fewer of them. Also the cardboard cup (obviously they’re trying to phase out styrofoam) wasn’t very insulated and it got a bit too hot to hold, which may be a strike against it for some. I’d eat this again: 7/10

Pho’Nominal Bowl, Chicken (200 Calories,1 g fat, 649 mg sodium)

It had loads of flavor powder and herbs, and was attractive before I added the water. But as with all pho products I have tried, it stunk of cut grass when made, tasted even worse (like greasy dirt) and the noodles had the consistency of elastic bands. Abysmal: 0/10.

Sapporo Ichiban Chicken Flavour (270 kJ, 10 g fat, 730 mg sodium)

I used to love Sapporo chicken noodles, and until I discovered Gefen it was my ramen of choice. But that was a brick ramen and I was surprised to see they now do a cup. My first thought was it took longer-than-usual for the noodles to soften, and the smell was unpleasantly strong. The taste was solid though, if a bit salty, and in a world without Gefen I believe I’d eat this one regularly. A respectable 8/10.

I’m not stopping the plain chicken ramen reviews since I’ve learned that as long as the world turns I’ll still occasionally find new versions. But I’ve grown to love reviewing food, and think it may be time to expand my culinary review talents into a new product category. Stay tuned…