Golden Security

G1 / Encore

In a few weeks I'll travel to Singapore & Hong Kong for a vacation and pay a visit to our grandparents (HK) with my brother. Of course the vacation isn't complete without a good hunting for Transformers G1/Encore and especially Masterpieces. Lately I've been scouring around on the internet and was wondering how our heritage from the Golden Age of the 90's would perform on such platforms as e-bay or our own Dutch Marktplaats.nl.

Masterpieces

Well......after doing some searches the results were incredible. The G1 was performing outstanding. For instance, my G1 Dinobot Slag's condition is Mint In Box (No insert card although), but the asking price is about up to US$ 140,00 sometimes. My grandmother bought it for me way back in 1989 for HK$ 139,00 which is in nowadays currency US$ 18,00.
G1 Ratchet about the same story, it was a birthday present from my father in 1987 when I turned 10. It costs in those days HFl 45,00 (Dutch Guilders) - US$ 29,00. That was typically for an medium Autobot Vehicle. The modern reincarnations known as Masterpieces are even more jawbreaking. MP-10 Convoy is already up to € 250,00 to € 300,00 and still rising. The only one which is being out of this world is  MP-08 Grimlock, the current bids are topping on more than a Grand.....

Zelda - A link to the past MIB

So....the coming weeks I should probably hunt for  dinosaurs.......perhaps MP-08 might be as even extinct as it''s real counterpart....I'll let you know if my hunt is succesful.

There is also another  source...games from the 80's & 90's. As some followers may know that we played a lot of games in the 90's and went hunting RPG's around the end of the SNES' lifespan.
Somehow I never managed to get the 2 classic Super NES systempushers 'Super Mario Kart' and 'Zelda - A link to the past'. Why I didn't? Don't ask....I don't know myself either......on the Dutch site Marktplaats (Marketplace literally) I found a US version of Zelda - A link to the past in very mint condition. The only thing missing was the map. But hey....e-bay has everything!! It cost me a few bucks, but the result is that I've composed a MIB Zelda for SNES!!!! 

More Gold!!!

I prefered the US version over the PAL version, since the US card runs 15% faster than it's European counterpart. (60 Hz vs 50 Hz). During those days NTSC - PAL regionlock was still an issue.

I did the same way for Super Mario Kart. I purchased it at a retailer which is also selling 2nd hand and retrogames. The condition was very good, so I am very happy with both new acquisitions! I know it's a shame to get these game only in 2013, 21 and 22 years after their respective initial releases. But hey...better late than never.

Running another e-bay test and research resulted that most of these precious 'gold' is skyrocketing nowadays. You should try a few of the games shown on the 4th picture and don't forget to support your jaw to prevent it from dropping on the ground......Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy III are sometimes going all out for a mindblowing US$ 800,-!

Protection for SNES games

To protect these golden pieces I purchased some neat stuff at retro-retailer named The RetroGameFreak. Got some dustcovers for the US cards, some paper inlays to refurbish my old game-packs and....25 (together with my brother) so called Snug-fit box protectors. These transparant protectors are made from Polyethylene which has the size of a SNES game pack. This prevents the paperbox from scratches, dust, bumping and crashes.

Most of the games are covering a story. When and why I purchased it. How come that it is invaluable to me.
Nearly every game-pack has a story. So it's not the economical worth that I cherish, but it is - like many - the emotional worth of an item. How much the price is rising, these games and TF's will never leave the establishment where I also live..... 

As a result all of the precious gold from the Golden Era of the 90's is secured now........A Golden Security! 

Hereafter some pics.

Do you have similar items you cherish that much?

US cards now with dust covers

Chrono Trigger 1995 - MI(S)B with snug-fit protector.

Golden Age

Born at the end of the 70's means that I am one of the so-called (pre) Nintendo generation. Compared to the current Internet generation, claiming their agenda is full continously, a teenager in the 80's & 90's seems to be very blurry nowadays. But there are also some remarks.
The music back then was real music , written by real musicians who were also able to play instruments, had a fantastic live act and more importantly, had a content. Unfortunately, this kind of music isn't anymore today. Wacko Jacko didn't retreive his nickname yet. Today, the only ingedients consists: Be pretty, have a good voice, wrong manager and a Magic Music Maker 178.0 and let's get rich! (or fall very hard)Teenagers were more mature back then and didn't have to be cautious about capsizing when traveling by boat due to corpulence or obesity.
Besides, the time we spent outside was about 20.000 times more than today, because there wasn't anything to do at home. We hadn't that much of pocketmoney, neither we needed it, since we didn't get drunk every weekend. A cell phone was something no one had ever heard of and so we weren't bothered 24/7.
In 1990 we saw the NES as an upcoming home entertainment system. Of course, it was nowhere in comparison with the Neo Geo , but hey, who cares! We now have entertainment at home! At that time, Sega had a similar system called the Mastersystem (II). There were no other competitors at that time (Sony was still sleeping), so our (game)life was sooo good and so easy, because there was nothing else to choose, thus nothing else to overthink about. Every time when a game was released we bought it, whether it was good or not. Fortunately, we were clever enough to recognise quality and inferiority.
Then in 1992 the Super Nes appeared, known as the giant and winner of the 16-bit era in the Golden Age of videogames. This system didn't only wipe Sega's Mega Drive/ Genesis from the face of the earth, but was also killing for us, leading to spent more times with the SNES rather than boost up my school results (sounds familiar?) Super Mario Kart was one of the carts we played a billion times. It still amazes me that the cart has survived! At the end of the 90's we were (still are) also RPG mad and the SNES still posesses the finest RPG's ever like: Chrono Trigger, (+DS version), Final Fantasy VI , Secret of Mana (2) and so on.....without disqualifying today's videogame entertainment (They are good)..... I miss those days with this exceptional machine.
So I guess it wasn't all that blurry backdays.......It was a Golden Age...OUR Golden Age!

Do you cherish your teenage years?

How the Gundam madness began...again...

As a long time fan of Sci-Fi like Transformers back in 80's (Only G1, the rest was crap), Battlestar Galactica TOS and Battlestar Galactica 2003, there was also place for Anime. In the 90's there were besides Anime, Manga. This is a different style and fundament, but that aside of it.
As a kid I've watched many Cantonese versions of Anime like Mobile Suit Gundam (Not aware of all the storylines, but the action was great), Dairugger XV - Kikoukantai, Six Gods, LionBot and so on.

At the end of 2005, after purchasing a HD-DVD recorder to record BSG 2003, my brothers attended me that the series mecha do have a lot in common with Mobile Suit Gundam Seed, and more importantly, have a good and decent storyline.
After buying the first 2 DVD's (10 Phases) to give it a try, I was completely hooked. That was about Jan. 2006, a time-span of 22 years since the first show of the Transformers. A lot has happened.
While searching for some information on the internet, I remembered my brother purchased some kits from Gundam Seed way back in 2004 in Hong Kong SAR. The kits, HG 1/144 Freedom & Justice made me curious about the franchise and before I realized what has happened, I had a tons of kits. Thinking about being able to build just one kit at a time, the idea to sell Gundam Model kits was born in no-time.
Since then, there is not many left untouched of this franchise and grew out to a serious hobby of mine, again.....