Low Tech Weekend: 80's videogame pocket pinball games

Remember the days before X box? How about the days before PS1 or even the NES. Well, okay, NES was around at this point, so were the arcade games. This is a look at 2 old school pinball games. Not the big ones that were at the Arcade, No. these are the "Tiger electronics" equivalent.

Feel the power yet?

Anyways, to review these, I made a video on youtube!

Deadstocked - vintage building toy clean-out

I've decided to change gears for a while. I've gotten pretty dedicated with my local library trustees group which eats up a good chunk of my time, so I've been bouncing between work to meetings with little time to do much at home. By the time I get home, I'm tired and it's already nightfall and don't feel like writing much.

Other than that, I feel like my writings on old games are somewhat rambling and lacking in interest. Because I  focus on older games, and most of them have been done to death. I've only written 2 or 3 articles about them, I need to spend some time coming up some fresh new ideas.

 They could get better if I spent more time thinking them out but for now I think I'll dedicate more time to a different topic.

With that being said, here's the true intro to this article:

If you read my previous articles, you read about how I sold most of my old video game college to help pay for college loans when I couldn't find a job. 
In addition to the games I sold, I also hunted for merchandise like books, board games and other assorted things.

I've stumbled across various items that I bought, hoping to sell for a good amount online only to find out the item has a problem or there's a poor market for the item.

When I had begun to go merchandising at the various thrift stores and rummage sales, I took a "Grab what you can as long as it isn't too expensive and hope it's worth something" approach and wound up with quite a few things I couldn't sell for a number of reasons.

This line of business is a little like gambling. You go out, buy some items and see what you have. Some might be broken in the box, some might be worth a buck or two and then sometimes you hit the mother lode.

This article is dedicated to the various building toys I've found out there and got stuck with.

For starters, I love building things. Always have, always will.

You can't see into it but this box is almost a foot deep and 4 ft. square.

I've had my lego collection since childhood and thought I lost it in the tornado that hit our house back in 2009. When I found it in the back corner of the shed with some other stuff in a pile, I cried tears of joy that it had survived.

This is what I wanted to pass down to my kids and was happy to see that I still had it.

I've also got a decent K'nex collection but I'm a lot more fond of legos.
When I got into the collectibles business, I sort of had a second childhood, seeing things that I had been interested in as a kid but now had money to buy them. Primarily to resell online. So here's the lineup of stuff to build with that I've found but can't do much with. And to keep things interesting, a write up on the "mini figures" that come with the sets.

# 1- Tinkertoy

This tinkertoy set was from the 70s. I can't remember the exact age because sadly, I tossed the entire set away after opening the box. "Why?" you may ask...

Because these are basically untreated pieces of wood that have been stored someplace since the 70s. Some of them were broken when I found them. Others broke as I was messing around trying to assemble them. In short, Un-sellable.

Although I did get to make a stupid looking flower garden. Hooray?

This is the "figurine" that came with the set. Just a simple piece of yellow molded plastic with a simple face, 3 buttons and freckles. I would make a joke about it being sinister, but a figurine with no legs and stubs for arms isn't worth the time.

#2 Fisher-price Construx

This was a neat find. I got this at a yard sale that was closing up and the guy was like "You want it, I'll take a dollar for it" I handed him a buck and took it out to the car. I noticed it had a 10.00 tag on the back. I asked him if he wanted more. he said "It's one less thing I gotta pack up. Don't worry about it."

Construx came out in 1983, 5 years before I came into existence, so I had never seen one as a kid. I think my older cousin had a set but I don't remember well.
I didn't do much with this when I first got it, for the reason that I couldn't sell it online for a decent profit. It weighs around 5 lbs and is pretty bulky, so shipping it would have been a pain in the neck.

I finally got around to opening it...

The box was so full of parts, I had a hard time of re-closing it.
Much like everything else I've sold online, it needs to be inspected or playtested. At first this might sound like fun but in this case, not so much.

Construx have a strange wheel setup. The entire set is plastic except for the axel which is an aluminum bar that the wheels can attach to. I struggled to get the wheels on and built one of the models on the instructions.

Behold! The Tank thing... I wasn't thoroughly impressed. The plastic felt pretty frail and one of the braces that holds the rocket pylon was broken, so I threw it into the donation pile. 2 kits down, 1 to go.

#3 Tente

Tente has a pretty neat history. I found this at a rummage sale for 50 cents. I didn't find anything like it on amazon, so I threw it into storage.

The particular set I got was apparently an unboxed space set. Looks neat enough. I never got into space stuff but I'll take a closer look at it.

Ah, here's our trusty crew of "Astronauts". These actually look pretty neat. They remind me of the starmen from earthbound.

Most of this kit seems to be decently intact. Some of the thinner pieces like the exhaust pipes and antennas have some breaks but for the most part, it seems to be in decent shape.

 Anyways, I see that complete sets do sell for a decent amount on E-bay and maybe etsy, so back into storage they go!

Well, that's it for now. The weather's getting warmer and I'm going to try to clean out a bit more. I've got tons of neat nostalgic junk, so stay tuned!