Canned & Cool

Hi there,

Two thumbs up for Benny from GameMania for sending me these three custom made soda cans. Well, in fact there's spring water in them, but nevertheless, these are nice collectibles.

As you can see the cans show artwork from the Wii-games 'Red Steel' and 'Rayman Raving Rabbids' by Ubisoft and the incredibly funny PS2-game 'Buzz: Jungle Party' by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

Here you can find GameMania on the web.

Cheers

R.

Caveman, anno 1982

Hi there,

25 years after this fine tabletop left the Tomy factory it's in my collection, thanks to eBay. I was able to buy it for just 5 euro. It's in excellent condition (except for the scratch on the screen) and still working great. Caveman (1982) is a VFD (Vacuum Fluorescent Display) tabletop that boasts some very nice and colourful sprites (see second picture).

The Great Game Database has a good explanation of the gameplay.
You were a caveman and had to steal eggs from a dinosaur. If you waited too long, the egg would hatch into a bay dinosaur and you'd have to wait till the dinosaur lay another. Throwing your club at a specific point and timing to the dinosaur's actions would result in the dinosaur being knocked unconscious for a period of time. Once you got the egg, you had to get the egg back to your cave before the dinosaur decided to wake up and walk forward, even breathing fire to kill you. Collecting certain numbers of eggs led to harder levels. Ptrodactyls would fly in the sky and swoop down to take the eggs. A volcano would explode and drop bits of lava which killed you.

As you can read - and see - on Handheld Games Museum, Caveman can be found in two different colours (red and beige) and was also sold by Radio Shack under the Tandy brand name. In the U.K. the game was sold under the Grandstand name.

Unfortunately, I don't have the game boxed. That's a shame because the artwork on the box is pretty cool, as you see on the pictures shown at the Handheld Games Museum.

Game on

R.

Meet Piggsy

Hi there,

It's been almost a week since I published my last post. Not much happened, so that's why I introduce you the pièce de résistance of my figurine collection.

Meet Piggsy, the bad-ass motherfucker from the ultraviolent Rockstar game Manhunt. You know, the fat guy with a boar's head as a mask who's trying to slice you up with his chainsaw in the last level of the game.

If you look closely, you'll see will see that this figurine is well detailed. With cuts and bruises all over Piggsy's body, a nice broken sewer pipe between his feet and a huge chainsaw with the word TENNANT on its blade.

Perverts that can resist the urge to peep under his skirt, can even see his tiny dick, swinging nuts and some warts on his ass. Great humor, Rockstar style.

This statue is a one that's much sought after. I remember an auction on eBay that gained more than 850 dollar (655 euro). Not surprisingly, since this Piggsy collectible is limited to only 500 pieces. As you can see on the second picture, mine is handnumbered 293 of 500.

Piggsy measures 24 centimeter and weighs a little bit more than 2 kilos.

Visit Rockstar on the net: www.rockstargames.com

Game on

R.

Next stop: Area 51

Hi there,

Flea markets are great, much better than websites like eBay where people demand way too much money for game paraphernalia.

For just 1 euro I bought this beautiful piece of electronic plastic... err... I still haven't figured out what it exactly is. It's way too big and clumsy to be a handheld, but it's a tabletop neither.

The original box was missing but the UFO Attack in my collection is still functioning. It requires fourAA-batteries to run the magic, colourful sprites on the narrow screen.

I like this game very much. The gameplay reminds of good old Space Invaders, the very stylish design of its case could only be made in the eighties.

The great website Handhelden.com catalogized it as a game by Tomy Electronic from the 1980, so that confirms my statement. Retro rocks!

Still searching for more...

R.

Construct-a-Mario

Hi there,

If you want to collect game goodies, but you're not a game journalist who's constantly being pleased by these kind of gifts, you can always make your own figurines of your favourite game characters.

Some Japanese guy figured out how you can make a Mario out of Lego. The only thing you will need are 87 Lego bricks in different sizes and colours. With this construction plan it's easy to find out which ones you need.

Be creative and have fun!

R.

Jägermeister on a Lost Planet

Hi there,

On Tuesday January 9th game developer Capcom invited Dutch and Belgian game journalists for a rather unusual press presentation of the game 'Lost Planet: Extreme Condition', a Xbox 360 exclusive.

The game sets place on the ice planet E.D.N. III and the guys from Capcom thought it would be funny to introduce the game in an ice bar in the heart of the Dutch capital.

By temperatures of minus 7 degrees Celsius the only thing I remembered is that a shot of Jägermeister kept me on my feet and that the game has some great features like multifunctional Vital Suits that are great to explore the vast spaces or to maul thousands of alien Akrids, some of the best explosions ever experienced in a video game and a great storyline.

Things even got better when I received a great miniature (see picture) of a PTX-40A, the ultimate Vital Suit, equipped with a brainwave-reading supercomputer which allows the pilot to control it by thought alone, as stated on the backside of the package.

Bad news: these magnificent collectibles aren't for sale. You can only cross your fingers and hope that one of the attending journalists will sell it on eBay. But trust me, that wouldn't be mine.

For those who want to learn more about the game: www.lostplanet-thegame.com

If you rather have a drink in Amsterdam while growing an icicle on your nose: www.xtracold.com

Cheers

R.

Beware of the rabbids!

Hi there,

I must admit I never was a big fan of Rayman, but that changed pretty fast. Last year a legion of fluffy white, but full-blown evil rabbits pulled my attention at the Ubisoft booth during the E3 convention in Los Angeles. After a few minutes of playing Rayman Raving Rabbids on the Nintendo Wii, I was convinced. These rabbits are cool as fuck.

At the end of E3 all of the white rabbits that were used for demonstration purposes were snatched by the public, within like two seconds. Luckily, Ubisoft started with UBIart, an online shop were you can buy plenty of goodies from the game.

Right away I ordered a set of four vinyl mini figurines (Raving Cook, Rabbinho, Rabbmoo and Rabbmaid - see picture), a plusch rabbit doll for my 2 year old son and the resin toy figurine Bunny Gonzales, a punk version of Rayman riding a mean rabbit. The guys of UBIart surprised me with free extra goodies like a bloc-note and fridge magnets.

And here's the best part. A few weeks ago, as a game journalist, I received during a special press conference for this game in Paris, France a goodie bag, including a button, an inflatable frisbee and a set of wooden tennis rackets for the beach. Great job, huh.

You can order your own stuff at www.ubi-art.com. Enjoy them like I do.

Game on

R.

The best Xmas gift ever

Hi there,

I would like to thank my girlfriend and her father a zillion times. She told me that she used to play in her childhood with some of Nintendo's Game & Watch. Except for a drop dead Atari 65XE computer, the search-and-rescue mission into the basement of her father's house ended up with no result.

But then there was Christmas. The best period for miracles. While munching chocolates, my girlfriend's father suddenly said the magical words. "Remember those Nintendo's we were searching for? I found them." I can't describe the chemical reaction between my ears and brain, but it felt great.

Turned out that we were looking in the wrong place, as if we held the treasure map upside down. Nevertheless, since then my collection has expanded with some great Game & Watch:

- Fire (wide screen, 1981)
- Mickey Mouse (wide screen, 1981)
- Oil Panic (multi screen, 1982)
- Mickey & Donald (multi screen, 1982)
- Donkey Kong Junior II (multi screen, 1983)

All of them were in great condition, except for Mickey & Donald that misses the battery cover and the left metal buttonplate. Besides that there was also a great Donkey Kong Jr. (tabletop, 1983), still working and in great condition. Gosh, I'm still speechless.

Donkey Kong II was already in my collection but that one has a white plastic interior. This one has a yellow one. I'm wondering if Nintendo used two different colours of plastic interiors. Or maybe this was the result of extreme exposure to sunlight (see picture). If you know the answer, feel free to post a comment.

More info on these great handhelds: http://www.gameandwatch.com/

Game on

R.

First post

Hi there,

Until now I was very sceptic about blogs. But limited floorspace forced me to the infiniteness of the world wide web. As an avid collector, my house is stuffed with videogames, consoles, handhelds, game memorabilia and all the goodies a gamefreaq possibly could gather.

Right now I'm putting away a great part of my collection in cardboard boxes because I don't have any space left. That's why I started this blog, as a inventory of all the great things I collected until this far.

From now on I will use this blog to list up my collection and make reports about new goodies I find on flea markets and yard sales.

Hereby, I invite you to send me your gamestuff you want to get rid of.

A great cheers to all those gamefreaqs around the globe

R.