#21.Where's
Sonic? book
*What is it?!
A book in which you search for Sonic, Tails and various other
Sonic objects on each page.
Indeed, just like the 'Where's Wally?' books, but with Sonic
'zones' and objects instead.
A second book (called 'Where Sonic now?') was released as
well, so that'll be another
thing to look for.
*What's the
purpose?
'I can find the little blue bugger before you do!'. 'Oh yeah?
Bring it on! I've already found
them Starposts!'. Hours of fun etc. etc.
*I want one!
Where can I buy them? How much?
Shouldn't be too expensive, but finding them is another matter.
These books where released
in 1994 and can be pretty tough to find these days. Try Ebay.co.uk
(these books were released
by Ladybird in U.K. and that's where I bought them in the
first place).
#22.Megadrive
promotion tapes
*What
are they?
Promotion video tapes of various Megadrive games. In
this case Sonic 3 & Virtua Racing.
*What's
the purpose?
They were probably used in shops to give people an idea
of the actual gameplay. On the back
of these tapes there's the release date plus price and
some more information, which could mean
that these tapes were also for rent.
*I want
some! Where can I buy them? How much?
As you can see, the tapes above are Japanese ones. You'd
say American and European tapes should be easier to
find, but they're not. These Japanese tapes are fairly
common and can be found with relative ease on Yahoo
Auctions. However, don't expect to find a wealth of
different tapes; Virtua Racing is one of the easiest
tapes to find. They shouldn't cost too much, unless
you're looking for exotic titles.
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#23.Chu Chu
Rocket! plushes
*What are they?
Toy plushes/dolls of the KapuKapu's & ChuChu's
from Chu Chu Rocket! The KapuKapu
is around 15cm/7 inches tall, the ChuChu is (naturally) slightly
smaller. These dolls came in
a series of seven (the complete series also features Rentahero,
Ulala, a Space Channel 5
alien, the Let's make a pro baseball team mascot
and an unknown female Rentahero(?) .
They were used as UFO Catcher / lucky game prizes
as a promotion of the Dreamcast games.
*What's the
purpose?
Buy 200 ChuChu's and letta rip; mouse mania!
*I want them! Where
can I buy them? How much?
Another 'good luck finding this outside of Japan' item? 'Fraid
so. I got mine from Japanese
auction site bidders.
Keep an eye on either that or Yahoo auctions; that's your
best bet.
They shouldn't be too expensive, even while they kick serious
ass! (well, that's my opinion).
#24.Sega
Saturn Shade III light development toolkit
*What
is it?
The box describes it best: 'Three dimensional geometric
modeling, rendering and animation software for Sega
Saturn. Released in 1994(!) by Expression Tools
(a company that still exists,
I think). The kit consists
of: 4 HD floppies with the program on it, 2 floppies
with the 1.2 upgrade it, a dongle for your keyboard,
multiple (THICK) manuals and a user guide. Every item
(including the dongle and the outer box) includes the
serial id of the package! Judging from the pictures
in the (Japanese) manuals, it seems like a very sophisticated
bundle (well, for the time anyway). Oh it's for Macintosh,
but that didn't stop me from buying it, obviously.
*What's
the purpose?
It was probably used by quite some developers back in
the day. These days you could use it if you're into
Saturn homebrew developments.
*I want
it! Where can I buy it? How much?
The kit set me back roughly 7000 yen. I suppose that's
roughly a tenth of what the kit would've cost a developer!
Two of these kits were sold in two weeks time, and both
went for 6-7k yen.
I didn't see them before, so I think they're fairly
rare. There's little chance of finding the kit outside
Japan, so Yahoo auctions or the like is your
best bet.
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#25.I Miss
You magazine
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*What is it?
A Japanese dating magazine? No, far from it, really. It's
a magazine released by Compile in 1997
to promote Japanese music such as 'Noaki' (uh?),
the 'Flying Kids' (who?) but in particular -
Tanaka Katsumi with his single 'I Miss you'.
'All fine and dandy' you might think, 'but why would I
care'? Plain and simple; it comes with a Saturn disc. Now
this has a story for me and I am going
to tell you if you like it or not.
I bought the 'I miss you' labeled disc
back in 2006, as I never heart of it before and it seemed
like
a nice goodie. When I got it in (together with roughly 25
other sampler discs) I tossed it in the closet,
because if there's one thing I dislike it's these Japanese
girl adventures. One day I had nothing
better to do and popped it into my Saturn. And..it turned
to out to be something rather different than
I expected it to be!
The disc contains the music video of 'I Miss you',
some mini games, a karaoke version of
'I Miss you', a rather funky alternate version of 'I Miss
you' and a virtual version of Tanaka Katsumi's
studio (full of gags and items you can play around with).
The first time you watch the video you think
'Hmm, not too bad'. But then it starts to grow on you and
the next moment you can't get it out of
your head! Tanaka might not be the the type you'd
expect to star in a music video but it really makes
a nice change from the plastic boobed bimbos and 'tough guys'
starring in todays videos.
*What's the
purpose?
The magazine is forgettable (although the 'Making
of I Miss you' feature was rather welcome)
featuring mostly 'has been' Japanese bands and pages full
of Hello Kitty / Miffy / Doraemon
merchandise (eh?) but the disc is pretty good, actually. (that
said, a friend of mine totally failed to see
the point of it and laughed at the crappy 3D models used in
the studio bit... maybe it's just me then?)
*I want it! Where
can I buy it? How much?
A bunch of them landed on Yahoo auctions recently,
so I was finally able to get the magazine that
came with the disc. Some fool sold the loose disc on Ebay
for something like $99 a while ago.
While it's a fun disc, it's not exactly worth that insane
amount of money. If you like obscure Saturn
stuff this one's a must. I challenge you to find all the hidden
animations in the studio (and there's a
lot of them!).
#26.SEGA Electronic Slot Machine Toy
*What
is it?
An electronic slot machine toy. It does not take coins or pays out, instead you press the button to stop the LEDs. If you match either three bells, sevens or BAR's you -uh- win. Silly people might argue 'this toy will turn our children into gambling addicts!' but then again perhaps not.
It's hardly one of the best toys SEGA did, but because it comes from waaay back in time (1991) it's old enough to turn us nostalgic, if only slightly so.
*What's
the purpose?
Like said above, match the symbols and listen to the sounds. SEGA could've done a little more with the concept and it's not exactly on par with the Jet Set Radio slot machine they did some years back, but it should entertain you for -oooh, at least five minutes-.
*I want
it! Where can I buy it? How much?
It came Yahoo Auctions Japan (no surprises there) and wasn't that expensive. Considering how well Japanese people take care of their stuff, you might even find a complete one, like me. Just don't pay much more than 1.000 yen for it..
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