Year 8: October Update

My last update post was in July and not much has changed since then as I still haven't done many videos this year. I actually haven't even played any games since July but I really should. Recently, I flipped through my comic book collection, something I've not looked at in quite some time. I was mostly looking for duplicates and recall what I have, and I did scan some ads from them. I'll have to do another video game ads backfilling post soon, probably for post #500 which I'm very close to. Vault 1541 began as a video game ads project so it's only fitting that I dedicate #500 to that. This blog update is post #497 and I'll have a magazine article scan for #498 this week.

A few months ago Hasbro announced a Transformer based on Knight Rider's K.I.T.T. Being a fan of both Transformers and Knight Rider, which ranks as one of my top five shows from the '80s, I think this is an awesome collaboration. However, the robot is named Agent Knight rather than K.I.T.T. It is set to release on January 10, 2025 for $49.99.

In other cool toy news, LEGO unveiled an X-Men mansion play set this month that releases November 4th for $329.99. Yeah, the price is a bit steep, though not unusual for LEGO toys. Despite the size of the 3,000+ piece set, the rooms in the mansion look rather cramped. Aside from the mansion build, it also includes a sentinel, Magneto, and nine X-Men mini-figures.

As far as video game news, Nintendo didn't announce a Switch 2 yet but it did show off an alarm clock which isn't software, it's an actual clock that is priced at $99.99! Unfortunately, one of the last video game magazines in the U.S. abruptly came to an end as Game Informer closed at the start of August. Last week I received an email from a video game website called SpriteCell that you might enjoy. The person that runs it asked if they could use some of my catalog scans, something the site specializes in. Finally, as I end every October update, here is the classic McDonald's Halloween sign:

Happy Halloween!

-Jonathan

Nintendo Family Computer (Electronic Game Player - July/August 1988)

Earlier this month Nintendo opened a museum in Kyoto that, of course, features the history of the company that began life as a Hanafuda card maker. It has many interactive exhibits and displays the numerous video game hardware that Nintendo has released over the past 4+ decades. To sort of tie into that, I scanned an article from the third issue (July/August 1988) of Electronic Game Player that originally appeared in The Games Machine, a U.K. magazine. It's about Nintendo's Family Computer (Famicom) that was brought to North America as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It's  an interesting read, especially if you aren't familiar with the Famicom as it has some unique differences that set it apart from the NES, namely a microphone in controller two and a disk drive with a built-in modem. I acquired this magazine second-hand and edited the cover image quite a bit to clean it up due its condition so it might not look too good.

Tokyo Game Show Fall 99 (Official Sega Dreamcast Magazine - January 2000)

Here is another post that relates to the Dreamcast's 25th anniversary, as well the Tokyo Game Show that is currently in progress and ends on Sunday in Japan. It's the Official Sega Dreamcast Magazine's coverage of the Fall 1999 Tokyo Game Show from the January 2000 issue. I scanned this a while ago on a copying machine because the magazine is oversized but these scans are a bit on the small side, and I'd rather not try to redo them on my scanner. It wouldn't be too bad if not for the orange print on a red background on the second set of pages. That's a poor color combination that makes it difficult to read, though you can easily see the game titles in white.

The Making of Sunsoft's Batman (Video Games & Computer Entertainment - March 1990)

It's the third Saturday of September which means it's time for another Batman Day! This is the only post I have planned, though I will be posting some comic book and food product ads over on the Vault 1541 Facebook page today. These scans are from the March 1990 issue of Video Games & Computer Entertainment (VG&CE) magazine. It's a relatively short article about the development of Sunsoft's Batman game based on the 1989 movie starring Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, and Kim Basinger. Work on the game began in 1988 before the film actually released so Sunsoft had to work from artwork, photos, and storyboards. You'll see screenshots at the bottom left corn of each page which is explained on the final page of the article. This issue of VG&CE doubles as flipbook allowing readers to animate Batman by flipping the pages quickly.

Dreamcast 25th Anniversary

Five years ago I went all out on Dreamcast coverage for its 20th anniversary in the U.S. and now I don't have a lot leftover that I can post for its 25th anniversary. Of course, it originally launched in 1998 in Japan so today is, again, a U.S. launch anniversary as Sega's final game console debuted here on 9-9-99. I'm going to post a few random scans I didn't use in 2019 and I'll provide links to the 20th anniversary posts below as well. 

From the June 2001 issue of Next Generation magazine is an article about the passing of Isao Okawa. He became president of Sega in 2000 and was the person who made the call to discontinue the Dreamcast, effectively turning Sega into a software-only company. Okawa-san actually wanted Sega to drop hardware before the Saturn launched and helped keep the company afloat using $500 million of his own money. The two other scans are interviews with Peter Moore (then Sega of America president) and Tetsuya Mizuguchi, producer of Space Channel 5 (plus Sega Rally Championship and later Rez).

All the Dreamcast posts from the week of 9-9-19:

Dreamcast 20th Anniversary: NFL 2K

Dreamcast 20th Anniversary: Official Sega Dreamcast Magazine

Gaming Ads: Dreamcast

Dreamcast 20th Anniversary: Press Materials

Dreamcast 20th Anniversary: It's Thinking...

If you're a Dreamcast fan and new to the blog, you might also enjoy this post about Shenmue! Lastly, it's worth noting that Limited Run Games announced a variety of Dreamcast merchandise today and has begun taking pre-orders for Dreamcast trading cards.

[YouTube] 1970s/80s Character Cups

https://youtu.be/2nZm2kSBS2U

As I mentioned in the previous glassware post, I've got a bunch of similar plastic cups too. I know the Child World cup has appeared on the blog previously in the post about toy stores and maybe the G.I. Joe cup has but I can't seem to find a post with it, so maybe not. There are quite a few Disney cups here, many likely purchased at Walt Disney World, however, they could have been available at other stores as well and none have copyrights on them. In the event that you don't watch the video, the western-themed cup with Donald Duck came with a blue hat topper which I couldn't find so I used the mouse ears which is meant for another Disney cup I don't have. Also, many of these were used and went through the dishwasher numerous times. 

Hanna-Barbera's Grape Ape & Snagglepuss (Cookie Crisp, 1979)

Camp Snoopy Collection (McDonald's, 1983)

Kool-Aid (Kraft Foods, 1980s/90s)

Disney

SpaghettiOs (Franco-American)

G.I. Joe - Cobra Commander (Maramor Candy Co., 1988)

Masters of the Universe (Burger King/Pepsi, 1985)

Child World/Children's Palace