Figure Painting Total - July 2023

I was finally able to get some zombies and gorilla for Dust Tactics.  Which was the whole reason I wanted to get into the game in the first place.

My package from BlackSite studios finally showed up.  It had been delivered to the wrong address and when whoever got it opened it, they realized it wasn’t for them and they dropped it off on our doorstep.

I didn’t get anything painted yet, but did pick up the new model in the month from Games Workshop, or Warhammer as they now like to be called.

 

Bought

Unmatched – Brains and Brawn – 3

Unmatched – Teen Spirit – 4

40K – Primarus Marine – Infernus – 1  (model of the month – July)

DLB – Taste of Vitae – 1

DLB – The Gourd Reaper 3 – 4

Dust Tactics – Axis – Gorillas – 3

Dust Tactics – Axis – Zombie – 5

 

Painted

 

 

 

July total – 21 figures bought, 0 figures painted

Running total 2023 – figures bought 151, figures painted 26

Figure Painting Total - June 2023

 In June I was able to get the special edition Leviathan box for the tenth edition of Warhammer 40,000.  I started with Space Hulk and Rogue Trader and, while the last few sets have been placeholders, this return to bugs versus Marines may be the push needed to actually play this edition. 

 

Bought

Unmatched: For King and Country – 3

40K Leviathan – 72

 

Painted

 

June total 2023 – figures bought 75, figures painted 0

Running total 2023 – figures bought 130, figures painted 26

 

The original big three - there is another

 In talking about the big three, I should mention that there was actually a fourth - The Magnavox Odyssey2.  It first came out in 1978, making it part of the original three with the Atari 2600 in 1977, and the Intellivision in 1979.  It was the lowest selling of the three and, even though it lasted until 1984, by the time the Colecovision came out in 1982, it was already largely forgotten. 

It had 8-directional joysticks more akin to early computer joysticks, and came with a built in keyboard.  The cartridges also had a handle to make them easier to remove.  One of my friends had one of these so I was able to play a few of the games. 

But with the choice of this, the Atari 2600, or the Intellivision, the choice was clear for me.

The original big three - video game systems

 When they cleaned out their basement, my parents passed along the Intellivision and cartridges.  I looked through them to see what I had.  I might be missing a few, but I seem to have 28 original Intellivision cartridges and 4 extra ones by other companies.  Only two of the boxes (Space Armada and Triple Action) were in really rough shape.  The rest of them seemed okay.  I was only missing two of the overlays (1 for Major League Baseball, and 1 for Triple Action).  

In another box was a silver Atari 2600, and a Colecovision with one of the controllers opened up and the wires cut.  They said that they got these much later when they helped someone move.  I never had these as a youth.

Of the three systems, the Atari came out first, in 1977.  It had a joystick and you could also get paddles.  My cousins had one, but I was never impressed with the quality of the games.  It was a lot of people’s first game system so it usually ranks high but it was the lowest of the three to me.  People usually give it higher marks as it had the most games, but both the Colecovision and even the Intellivision had emulators that would allow you to play Atari games on their systems.  The Atari was finally discontinued in 1992.

The Intellivision came out in 1979.  The graphics were miles ahead of the Atari.  It also had some solid sports games for the day.  Their controllers has a keypad as well as a disc instead of a joystick.  People either loved or hated the disc; I loved it.  This is the system that I pushed hard to get, and played deep into the 80s, even after we had upgraded to the Nintendo Entertainment System.  It was discontinued in 1984 but it continued under different labels until 1990 as INTV.

The Colecovision did not come out until 1982.  Of the three, it had the best graphics, with any games looking identical to their arcade versions.  It also had, what I consider the worst controllers.  They had a keypad like the Intellivision but the controller was a bit thicker and did not fit the hand as comfortably.  It did have a stubby joystick with a flat top.  It did have a lot of expansions available, with a normal joystick and buttons, a steering wheel and pedal, a roller controller (track ball), and a super awkward super controller with a nice joystick.  One of my friends had a Colecovision so I was able to try it. It was discontinued in 1985

Sealed N64 Zelda

 When Tribute.ca launched, way back in 1996, we were some of the first people to frequent it.  I know as we won a lot of the contests that they had. The prizes were usually for movie passes but they also had some merchandise.

In 1999 I won a copy of the Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the N64.  Since that was not a system that we had at that time, we didn’t open it.  We didn’t know any friends with a N64 or we would have probably given it to them as a gift.  It used to hang around on my bedside dresser for a while until we moved a few years later.  Since then it has been boxed away.

In going through our storage locker recently, we came across it again.  Since it was still sealed, I was wondering if I could trade it in for maybe a copy of the Wii Sports Resort.  But I was not in a rush to deal with it. 

One of the people at work mentioned that it might have some real value.  So we looked into and discovered that some highly graded sealed copies went for some really crazy amounts – like over $200,000.  But they were usually selling in the $1400 - $4000 range.  Finally getting around to checking with PnP games (a local used video game store) and they offered $450.  If they had offered $1000, we probably would have taken it.

Instead we looked online for where to sell it and contacted Heritage Auctions to see if they were interested in 

selling it.  They were.  I sent them a few pictures and they gave an estimate of $2000 to $6000 but this would greatly depend on the condition.  They would take 15% for auction costs and would take the grading costs (they figured about $100) out of the total price for which it sold.

I shipped it to them (insured of course).  So if nothing comes of it I am out the shipping costs of $120 as well as the $450 I could have gotten from PnP.  They had some issues with the box, thinking it might be resealed, so they returned it without getting it graded.

So I will wait a bit before I send it WATA directly to get graded.  Then we will see.

 

Figure Painting Total - May 2023

We had company come over in May so we had to clean the basement.  It was time.  It had been accumulating clutter over the last few years as I have been painting figures.  They are now boxed up much better than they were.  

My figures from the Black Site Studio sale arrived.  We also picked up a Deltof glass cabinet from Ikea.  This allows me to put out some of the painted figures on display.

I didn't find any time to paint in May.  The May Model-in-a-Month was an Arbiter.  This would have been a cool model to work on but I didn't the time to fish it so I didn't pick up one.

Bought

BSS – FBI Agents – 2        

DLB – Sideshow Slaughter – 5

DLB – The Gourd Reaper II – 1

DLB – The Whistler – 1

 

 

Painted

  

 

May total – 9 figures bought, 0 figures painted

Running total 2023 – figures bought 55, figures painted 26

 

 

Cleaning up the storage locker

 We have a lot of stuff. 

We have put some of it into storage to make room but, it’s been packed in waves.  With the pandemic, we haven’t really be keeping up with sorting and sending more to storage.  We’ve also gotten to the age where we are less precious about what to keep.

We took some time and spent a day in the storage locker moving a bunch of it out, and sorting it back in.  My dad had picked up some nice metal racks for cleaning up his garage and gave one to us.  We spent another day moving more boxes out to make room for it, and then moving them back in.

This has allowed us to go through some of the things we stored and take a second look at them.  A lot of the kid’s toys and books got packed away over the years, and they were able to go through them and decide what they actually wanted to keep.  We moved four or five bins of toys, and two bins of kid’s books in which they had no interest.  Most went to Value Village, and some went to a local place for Ukrainian refugees.

I started getting rid of some games that I had thrifted when I thought we would have room but didn’t live up to expectations.  I’m trying to at least play the games before moving them along. 

We got rid of three bins of VHS tapes.  I kept back two bins – with mostly Disney and some Anime.  Plus two movies that I have not been able to get on DVD yet – The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey, and the theatrical release of Highlander 2.

I also found a sealed copy of Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time for the N64.  When Tribute.ca first launched, they weren’t very busy and we won a lot of the contests that they had.  This was one of the prizes but we never had a N64 so it just got put away.  Apparently it is worth quite a bit now.