+JasonlikesINTV Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 (edited) French people, what's the direct translation of the title? Fun with the Math Animals? Edited May 18, 2015 by JasonlikesINTV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freewheel Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 (edited) French people, what's the direct translation of the title? Fun with the Math Animals? My french is TERRIBLE, but Google thinks it's "Play With The Maths" or "Play With The Statistics". I suspect in Quebec French it's a bit looser. The French immersion student next to me says "Playing With Numbers". Edited May 19, 2015 by freeweed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rev Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 If you want to get rid of that let me know! :-) Just when we think the variations have all been found....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freewheel Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 (edited) If you want to get rid of that let me know! :-) Just when we think the variations have all been found....... Welp... I'll let out the secret - I saw a lot of French variants in Tarzilla's stomping ground(ish). They were all Mattel releases but of course this one was just too good to pass up. I skipped on a Buzz Bombers as the box was absolutely shit condition, but now I wish I had looked closer to see if it was French or not. I suspect that that's not a common variant... If anyone knows of any other "missing" French-Canadian Mattel variants, let's figure it out and either he or I can check (might be a while for me although I can also check locally). I don't believe I saw any more sleeved variants but I'll be honest, I didn't even really realize what I had until after I was away from the store. I'm not (yet) a variant collector but I'll definitely keep my eyes open if there are still a few yet "undiscovered". Unfortunately non-Mattel/Imagic/Donkey Kong boxed games are nearly impossible to find around here and I pretty much buy any I find, so I think we only need to focus on the Mattel stuff. So - who's best qualified to put together a list? INTV Funhouse mentions them but there doesn't seem to be a "French only" list (unless I'm stupid). Edited May 19, 2015 by freeweed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JasonlikesINTV Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 I own zero sleeve games Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+intvsteve Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 There's a stalled project for the funhouse to have a filtered "search" of game parts, but the database is not ready for it. I.e. the queries should assemble correctly for the most part, but as the fields of interest were added long after the original data, they're not up-to-date. Hmmm…. Something to do while "waiting for the compiler" at work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+intvsteve Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 Oh, also: Are there any part numbers on the sleeve itself? Part number on the box within the sleeve? Are there two separate manuals (one English, one French), or one dual-language manual? I can't recall now if Mattel did any 'flip the manual over' for the other language things. Scary… forgetting the important stuff! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+intvsteve Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 Huh.. who knew… I do have a list of the sleeved variations here: http://www.intvfunhouse.com/mattel/ and Math Fun is listed. Not exactly easy to find, though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freewheel Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 (edited) Oh, also: Are there any part numbers on the sleeve itself? Part number on the box within the sleeve? Are there two separate manuals (one English, one French), or one dual-language manual? I can't recall now if Mattel did any 'flip the manual over' for the other language things. Scary… forgetting the important stuff! There are no part numbers beyond what you can see from the scans. The back is entirely blank, the other spine is just the same thing in English, and of course the top and bottom are hollow. The box is a standard Mattel box that refers to the Keyboard Component. There's a number on top but it's some weird coding, not the 2613 like I expect. It came with 2 separate manuals. Mattel DID do a lot of flip-over manuals for the French-Canadian releases (I just checked, and almost half of my spare manuals are of this type). My suspicion (entirely unfounded at this point) is that the sleeved releases were the very first wave of Canadian releases, just re-packaging US releases. After a short period of time Mattel started printing French-English boxes and the flip-over manuals. Including such gems as the sticker on the back of one of my NFL Footballs. This is the first sleeved box I've ever seen and I have a couple dozen French-Canadian boxes downstairs. Which makes me think these sleeves are pretty rare indeed - Canada is barely 10% of the US market, and the sleeves were probably the first 10% of Canadian releases at most. And I'm willing to bet that most games sold in Canada were just the US version anyway - in the 80s, you often didn't see the French versions of things in much of the country. I certainly have found plenty of English-only releases in the wild in Canada. So maybe 1:1000 came sleeved. Given that none of you have ever seen this Math Fun before, I'm pretty impressed. I was really hoping to find some French overlays or cart stickers - the language laws these days would insist upon it - but no such luck. I doubt they were ever produced. It was pretty much just box and manual required until rather recently. Edited May 19, 2015 by freeweed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freewheel Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 Huh.. who knew… I do have a list of the sleeved variations here: http://www.intvfunhouse.com/mattel/ and Math Fun is listed. Not exactly easy to find, though. Ah, neat. I'm sticking with my guess that the sleeves came first - because for most of those releases, I have dual-language boxes of. ESPECIALLY because (at least on my sleeve) it references the Keyboard Component. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+intvsteve Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 Ah, neat. I'm sticking with my guess that the sleeves came first - because for most of those releases, I have dual-language boxes of. ESPECIALLY because (at least on my sleeve) it references the Keyboard Component. Yeah, I agree that the sleeves came first. The speculation I wrote all those years ago posited early or late, but with the selection of titles, the 'early market entry' makes most sense as the quick market entry at low cost, with the later dual-language box titles coming later as the full localization process came online. As to overlays and cart labels… I think Coleco may have done some French labels and included them in some French-Canadian releases. The only localized overlays I recall seeing are the Brazilian Portuguese ones in the Digiplay games. Jumping back to your post about part numbers… I think inside the box itself when you open the cover you'll find a part number printed on the box, and on the bottom usually where the box itself was made. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freewheel Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 (edited) Jumping back to your post about part numbers… I think inside the box itself when you open the cover you'll find a part number printed on the box, and on the bottom usually where the box itself was made. OK, so I learn something today. On the top of the Math Fun box is R6349> P643>2613. Not in a white box (that only seems to occur on my most beat-up, ie: old boxes). Inside the box is 2613-0910. And it references the Keyboard Component. So it's the original USA box variant inside. On the bottom, it says "cart made in HK, overlays printed in USA, balance made and printed in HK". Also I think you already had the French manual listed on the Math Fun page - with "need confirmation of part #". Well, you now have it Edited May 19, 2015 by freeweed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+intvsteve Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 OK, so I learn something today. On the top of the Math Fun box is R6349> P643>2613. Not in a white box (that only seems to occur on my most beat-up, ie: old boxes). Inside the box is 2613-0910. And it references the Keyboard Component. So it's the original USA box variant inside. On the bottom, it says "cart made in HK, overlays printed in USA, balance made and printed in HK". Also I think you already had the French manual listed on the Math Fun page - with "need confirmation of part #". Well, you now have it Hehe… well, the French release in France almost certainly has a different part number. I suspect it ends with -0111 like other European French releases. So in addition to getting the sleeve, you also found another box variant… The box is made in Hong Kong, but has part number 2613-0910, rather than 2613-0910-G1 (was my guess). Nice find! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freewheel Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 (edited) Hehe… well, the French release in France almost certainly has a different part number. I suspect it ends with -0111 like other European French releases. So in addition to getting the sleeve, you also found another box variant… The box is made in Hong Kong, but has part number 2613-0910, rather than 2613-0910-G1 (was my guess). Nice find! Huh. I didn't even know there WERE France releases. Heh. On the box - Hmm. It really didn't seem anything unusual to me. Now I want to go through the rest of my boxes and see what the deal is. I always assumed anything with the Keyboard Component reference was a "USA" release. But I'd swear that most if not all of my boxes say Hong Kong. Do the USA releases actually say Printed in the USA? Yay, more variants! I have nowhere near the collection that some of you have, but because of how I've acquired my stuff I suspect I have a more than mixed bag compared to most. I've bought games in damned near every state and province in North America at this point, so I've seen a lot of everything. Edited May 19, 2015 by freeweed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+intvsteve Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 It's slippery slope! Watch out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JasonlikesINTV Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 Oh, boy... Thanks to the influence of numerous crazies on the forums, I now have virtually all of the Network games in USA boxes with Keyboard Component references. I also have a growing Hong Kong collection including many of the older boxes referencing the Keyboard Component. I also have most of the Action Network in factory sealed USA boxes (can't find a sealed red Space Battle to save my life. Also, my sealed Triple Action is the multilingual version, not USA). Slippery. Slope. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JasonlikesINTV Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 So in addition to getting the sleeve, you also found another box variant… The box is made in Hong Kong, but has part number 2613-0910, rather than 2613-0910-G1 (was my guess). Nice find! Oh, you mean like this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cmart604 Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 Awesome find. I love these sleeve variants and still need lots. Therein lies the fun of the variants search, it keeps me collecting. That's rather attractive trade bait you have there. What games did you still need again? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freewheel Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 Awesome find. I love these sleeve variants and still need lots. Therein lies the fun of the variants search, it keeps me collecting. That's rather attractive trade bait you have there. What games did you still need again? I'd gladly trade this for a Spiker or SMB I'm kinda weird about stuff like this. I know full well that my chances of ever getting the 125 are very remote, because I simply refuse to pay hundreds of dollars for a video game. There are several that are always going to be out of reach, barring a series of miraculous finds. And let's say I found a Spiker for 50 cents at a yard sale - I'm not sure I could sit on a $1000+ game. But these sleeves? Methinks it's maybe possible to collect them all, relatively cheaply, by nature of living in Canada. I've been doing the same with the Zellers Atari games and have nearly a complete set (mind you I've still never even SEEN one of those in a box...). It's pretty rare stuff that just isn't in that high demand, so it's attainable. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if the sleeved Fun games were produced in quantities similar to Spiker (low thousands). But they'll never be all that valuable because they're more of a curiosity than anything else. I didn't even know these existed before Sunday, and I pass on literally hundreds of boxed INTV games every year without even looking closely at the spine. Now that I know what to look for, I may make this a personal quest item - and I'll start sharing the spares with our unlucky southern neighbours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+intvsteve Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 You say "sleeved Fun games"... Word Fun sleeved would be quite the feat, as I don't think there's even been a rumor of that one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freewheel Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 You say "sleeved Fun games"... Word Fun sleeved would be quite the feat, as I don't think there's even been a rumor of that one! Good point. I guess by the time Word Fun came out, the sleeves were long since done with. Man, what I wouldn't give for actual production numbers on stuff like this. If only to see how good my estimating skills are. I'm willing to bet that the sleeved Math Fun is actually rarer than Spiker (I think Spiker saw 10-20,000 copies?). And yes, I AM trying to drive up the asking price. Actually no. This guy's staying with me for the time being. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JasonlikesINTV Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 I thought Keith said that Spiker was closer to 5,000 to 10,000, but who knows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+intvsteve Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 I thought Keith said that Spiker was closer to 5,000 to 10,000, but who knows. Well, I'm not asking for much here. Just one box - original, but empty is fine. Even scruffy! Surely there's one out there looking for a good home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JasonlikesINTV Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 I'd settle for a loose cart Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freewheel Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 I thought Keith said that Spiker was closer to 5,000 to 10,000, but who knows. Fair enough. I still doubt they printed even 5,000 copies of a French-Canadian math game when test-marketing a system though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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