Nintendo & Sega Seals of Quality

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, below is the third page from the September 1990 issue of Video Games & Computer Entertainment magazine's "Story of a Nintendo Licensee" article. It discusses what Nintendo's Seal of Quality meant and primarily focuses on the financial aspect of it. There are some things in the article that I thought were fact, at least now but perhaps not in 1990. For example, the writer is unsure if Nintendo enforces a quota on the number of annual releases from a publisher. I'm fairly certain Nintendo did which is why Konami created the subsidiary Ultra Software Corporation. It also states that Sega hadn't allowed third-party licensees until recently, however, that had to do with Nintendo having most of the third parties under contract, plus it did have a few third-party publishers on the Master System. Perhaps things were more secretive at the time and the press were unaware of what was going on. 

The second scan, about Sega's Seal of Quality, is from the April/May 1993 issue of Sega Visions. Whereas Nintendo's quality seal revolved around control of the manufacturing and distribution of third-party titles, Sega's seal did actually apply to the quality of a third-party publisher's game. Sega of America had a quality assurance department that played in-development games from other companies and rated them across ten categories, and sometimes a publisher would have to make changes before Sega would approve the games for release. I'd guess Sega wasn't too strict because there are plenty of poor quality games available on Sega platforms. Today Sega doesn't have a seal since it no longer makes consoles while Nintendo eventually dropped the word "quality" from its seal, with game boxes now displaying "Official Nintendo Seal."

Story of a Nintendo Licensee (Video Games & Computer Entertainment - September 1990)

This article from the September 1990 issue of Video Games & Computer Entertainment is about Tradewest. It covers the beginning of the company business, its entry into video games, and how it found success publishing games on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). You can read more about the publisher in my ads post here: Tradewest. There is a third page related to this article, though it's not about Tradewest, just third-party NES publishers in general. I'll post that tomorrow alongside an article from Sega Visions. 

[YouTube] Star Wars Droid Factory

https://youtu.be/qNkfKr7XR9U

The Star Wars Droid Factory is an original playset from Kenner that draws inspiration from the Jawa Sandcrawler scenes of the first film. It was released in 1979 and again in 1980 when the packaging added The Empire Strikes Back logo. Included in the set are a base measuring 10" by 12" that supports a crane and has grooves that hold many of the droid pieces in specific spots. A variety of generic droids can be built in addition to an R2-D2 with center leg. Some pieces connect to one another via permanently attached pegs and some require using the additional connector pins.

This is one of only two classic Star Wars toy boxes I still have and, although it was wear on the edges, it's not in bad shape. The front and back of the box feature the same image; I'm posting photos of both sides so you can see a "clean" side and the side that still has the price tag, indicating it cost $11.99 at Bradlees. I also scanned the Droid Maker Blueprints booklet and parts sheet. Unfortunately, I'm missing the R2 head and some of the orange "hydraulic tubing" pieces.

Some scenes with additional action figures:

May the 4th Be With You!

[YouTube] Nerf Blast-A-Ball Game

https://youtu.be/e0k8xw_DM6M

Although typically written as Nerf, NeRF is actually an acronym that is short for "Non-Expanding Recreational Foam." It was invented by Reyn Guyer of Minnesota who pitched it to Parker Brothers as an indoor American football game. Parker Brothers purchased it but skipped the whole game part, initially only making a soft round ball. The basic ball released in 1969, a basketball hoop (Nerfoop) and foam football hit stores in 1972, and a baseball game in 1983. Through most of the '80s, Nerf was primarily a sports toy line that also included table tennis and indoor golf sets.

While Nerf calls it a game, Blast-A-Ball, which released in 1989, is basically a gun-like toy that launches a single ball at a time. Most likely any kids that owned this and had a brother or sister, used the ball launchers in sibling warfare. The instructions do reference shooting others in a game of tag, or using the blasters for target practice, golf, or a game of "Blast-Against-the-Wall." Included in the box are the instruction sheet, two multi-colored blasters, and four yellow balls. When firing a ball there is a loud "pop" sound and it does launch with a decent amount of force, traveling as far as 30 feet according to the box.

Hasbro acquired Parker Brothers in 1991 and while it does still manufacture Nerf sports products today, it produces more weapons in the Nerf line than anything else. My Blast-A-Ball box has a big mark on the front that I believe is from a shipping label.

Year 8: April Update

March was a busy month for the blog as I posted six times! That's the most I've posted in a single month since June 2021. Four of those posts are about the X-Men, however, I don't have a subscription to Disney+ so I've not been able to see the new X-Men '97 cartoon which was the reason for posting about Marvel's mutants last month. At least it sounds like it's a great continuation of the original animated series. This month has been slow as I've just not been able to get myself into a routine this year but I should have something to post tomorrow and then I'll try to post for Star Wars Day, even if it's just a single image of something. I did finally launch a new YouTube channel (VHStatic) for hosting all the commercials I previously had on Vault 1541's channel, plus many other commercials. In my last blog update I mentioned I'd planned to use a Kermit toy in the header image but then I didn't like it and stuck ET in there. Tt might be better off with no characters, I just though ET gave it a good '80s vibe. 

Since the last update there has been a fair amount of toy related news. While I completely missed that McFarlane Toys released a new series of action figures based on Batman: The Animated Series earlier this year, it has now announced a second wave. Each of the wave two figures includes a piece of the character Lock-Up so that if you buy Batman, Commissioner Gordon, Joker, and Riddler, and open them, you can build a fifth action figure.

Hasbro recently announced a licensing deal with Playmates Toys to create a new line of Power Rangers toys in 2025. Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), which is owned by Hasbro, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. There will be a variety of new D&D products, including clothing from Converse, a Pop Tarts tie-in, and an already released LEGO set. The Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon's Tale set ($359.99) features a castle, red dragon (of course!), owl bear, gelatinous cube, beholder, displacer beast, and six mini-figures. To celebrate Star Wars Day, LEGO is releasing a TIE Interceptor set ($229.99) on May 4th.

There has been a fair amount of Transformers movie news of late as well. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the original cartoon, the first four episodes of the show will be in select theaters May 15, 18, and 19. A behind-the-scenes table reading will be shown on a split-screen alongside the first episode. Paramount announced that a Transformers/G.I. Joe crossover movie is in development with Steven Spielberg attached to the project as an executive producer. Lastly, the animated Transformers One film, hitting theaters on September 20, 2024, now has a trailer. I'm not entirely sure what to think as the trailer has a lot of humor, or attempts at it at least.

Speaking of humor, Comedy Central announced that it is developing an animated series based on one of my favorite video games: Golden Axe. I'm not sure why the network or Sega chose to turn that property into a comedy as Sega has some silly stuff whereas Golden Axe has a mostly serious tone to it. Ubisoft announced Star Wars Outlaws has a release date of August 30, 2024 and THQ Nordic will be publishing an updated version of Epic Mickey with physical editions coming to PlayStation 5 and Switch, likely in quarter four of this year. Outright Games, makers of numerous family-friendly games, will be publishing more titles this year based on Gigantosaurus, My Little Pony, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Thanks for visiting,

Jonathan