the1hatman

Jokes on you! My PayPal only works in counterfeit money.

I was able to get a set of Flashback's during the initial release and got them just after that Christmas so I am not eligible. Even so, I wanted to say how nice of you it is to offer this to people who missed out or never received their's. Despite the occasional bacon-clad pics of some members (shudder!) there is a very nice spirit around this community

I admit I was already thinking "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!" on this from the beginning. But having seen the screenshots I find myself actually wanting to play the game just for playing's sake. It really looks amazing!

What has been seen cannot be unseen!

Oh not at all. I agree with you. Repro gear either needs to be fully marked and listed as such so there is no confusion or it shouldn't be produced to begin with. Even the stuff I have made for my own loose carts has a repro stamp just on the off chance any of it ever winds up out in the wild. For me they serve only as a placeholder until I can find (or afford really) the real thing for my collection.

Definitely not one of mine as I cannot make gatefold sized boxes since I am limited by 11x17 inch stock. I really like the idea of someone producing gatefolds for all the post Mattel games though. I have made reproduction boxes for myself and have sold one so far on eBay, a Thunder Castle with original cart. I have no problem selling them since I believe every cart should have proper storage and nothing is better than a matching box. Carts will always outnumber boxes and manuals since they are made of stronger materials so I see reproductions as a necessity. I strongly agree that these should always be marked and listed as such so that no one can confuse them for the real thing. Even the ones I have made for myself have the LCC logo you see as my avatar here with REPRODUCTION BOX in the center. Mine are made from thinner stock than the original product and don't have the same cart retention setup so even the novice collector will know just from holding one that its not the real thing. I also use a lengthy listing description explaining what each reproduction part is and why/how it was made. I believe if you can't collect/trade/sell with integrity than you shouldn't be involved with the hobby at all.

I signed up as a Dust Level member of the 125 Club (106 CIB games, lol). In all seriousness, I did add my gear to the Serial Number Database so I hope that helps

That was extremely kind of you!

You laugh but if I ever get to print a box for this game I may very well create a Dum Dum retention system inside. BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

I ordered only 1 set and received it within 2 months but was also missing an overlay. Was one Sub Hunt short. Luckily it wasn't one of the rare or orphan games. If they ever put these out again I will still chance it once more but I would be afraid of ordering more than 1 additional set after reading about all the trouble with this first release. Still was very pleased with the set I received though.

Wait, wait.... WAIT!!!! So are the bacon Dum Dums still available though? THIS IS IMPORTANT!!!

This begs the question though... If someone eats the bacon Dum Dum does that mean their copy is no longer factory complete?

And this whole time I thought the bacon Dum Dums were fake!

Is this what I think it is?!?

Yeah that isn't something I would mess with. It would take the kind of damage seen on this football box or worse to get me to try a repair on something that rare. Putting in a Coleco cart retainer would be easy enough but the missing top flap would require too much alteration to the original box. This kind of restoration only works when the balance is tipped towards doing more good than harm. The only possible thing I can suggest you try is maybe taking the cart retaining piece out of an easy to find box like Donkey Kong or Carnival and gluing it into the Turbo box in the correct spot. That way it's more of an original replacement part and no tape or laminate will affect any part of the box and artwork. I wouldn't mess with the missing flap though. My Donkey Kong Junior box is missing that piece too. Thank you for your kind words!

Good question. The lighting is making it look worse than it is but the seam exists mostly due to lack of skill on my part. I thought about cutting the patch to be flush but the cardstock I have to print to is not as thick as the original. Also, it would have made the already difficult task of lining up the patch to the original front pieces even harder and would have made it tough to keep the original tab at the top of the left side. I wanted to keep as much of the original as possible and use the least amount of tape and laminate as I could get away with As well. A cleaner splice with fewer seams and more level application is possible but would have meant more cutting and taping. It's something I might try on a future repair but I wanted to keep this first attempt as simple as I could.

I don't think I would try this on something so rare unless the box was just that far gone like this SP FB one was. If you'd like to post some pics here I can take a look and see what could possibly be done though. But I wouldn't try cutting and taping on it unless you were sure it was no longer viable enough to hold collectible value. Strangely enough my own copy of Turbo (US) is also an oddball find. I was able to get an inexpensive cart since the label was torn apart. So I recreated the US Turbo box using images from online, downloaded the manual and reprinted the label for the cart. mix in some extra Coleco documentation and you get a nice faux competed set!