Seeking opinions about defective Coleco cart casings

[Pixelboy]

Recently, Moldex (the company I do business with for producing new Coleco cart casings) manufactured some black and transparent (colorless) Coleco cartridge casings for me, and the large majority of them are defective. I am at work right now so I cannot take pictures, but in a nutshell, some kind of problem happened with the metal mold which made all the casings have sharp pointy extrusions on the front side of the cart, and the "grip points" on the upper sides are slightly warped and scratchy.

 

When I told this to my contact at Moldex, she said she would be willing to take back the casings and "fix" them, by trimming away or grinding the defective areas. That might work in terms of "finger safety", so to speak, but I doubt the casings will look nice once these fixes have been applied.

 

With this said, you all know how I like to produce high-quality products so I'm certainly not going to use casings that have visible cosmetic alterations, but on the other hand, I'm wondering if anyone else would like to have them for their own projects. We're talking about 1200 black casings (in opaque polycarbonate plastic, which has a slightly shinier surface finish than regular ABS plastic) and roughly 600 transparent colorless casings like those used for GhostBlaster.

 

I'm also wondering how people in general would tend to react to less-than-perfect casings. Of course, most people (especially collectors) would prefer to have their games in cosmetically perfect cartridges, this is an obvious fact. But given that I have large boxes full of casings sitting at home which are technically quite usable, I'd like to know if they should just be discarded.

 

The exact same problem happened a year ago with transparent blue casings, but only 250 of them had the defects and I worked out an agreement with Moldex for redoing them from scratch. This time around, I don't think Moldex will agree to redo that many cartridges, there are just too many.

 

Anyway, while I'm discussing possible solutions with Moldex, I'd like to have people's opinions posted in this thread.

 

Thanks in advance.

[retroillucid]

PM sent

[+5-11under]

Are they any worse than the casings that were made in Brazil a number of years ago?

[AtariBrian]

I sure would hope no homebrewers would try to use them . I wouldnt want to be surprised if I bought a game with a less than perfect casing .

[retroillucid]

I sure would hope no homebrewers would try to use them . I wouldnt want to be surprised if I bought a game with a less than perfect casing .

It already happened actually and nobody noticed anything

At least, it was less visiblle

 

But let's wait until we see an actual picture of the casing

[retroillucid]

On another note, i will just like to add that we are pretty lucky to have BRAND NEW ColecoVision cartridge shells

Even with if some would have imperfection, I think it's A WAY BETTER than using used cartridge shells

Well, as long as you don't cut yourself everytime you put a cartridge in! Or at least make a SAW game using those shells

 

My two cents

Edited October 2, 2013 by retroillucid

[AtariBrian]

It already happened actually and nobody noticed anything

At least, it was less visiblle

 

But let's wait until we see an actual picture of the casing

Or perhaps people noticed but didnt say anything .

[retroillucid]

Or perhaps people noticed but didnt say anything .

Well, that's quite impossible if you wonder

[Manoau2002]

On another note, i will just like to add that we are pretty lucky to have BRAND NEW ColecoVision cartridge shells

Even with if some would have imperfection, I think it's A WAY BETTER than using used cartridge shells

 

My two cents

Thats a really good point. I have recently had to purchase two different vectrex multicarts neither of which came with a shell due to the lack of shells available. Its a shame to wreak original carts for parts.

 

 

 

[128Kgames]

Recently, Moldex (the company I do business with for producing new Coleco cart casings) manufactured some black and transparent (colorless) Coleco cartridge casings for me, and the large majority of them are defective. I am at work right now so I cannot take pictures, but in a nutshell, some kind of problem happened with the metal mold which made all the casings have sharp pointy extrusions on the front side of the cart, and the "grip points" on the upper sides are slightly warped and scratchy.

 

When I told this to my contact at Moldex, she said she would be willing to take back the casings and "fix" them, by trimming away or grinding the defective areas. That might work in terms of "finger safety", so to speak, but I doubt the casings will look nice once these fixes have been applied.

 

With this said, you all know how I like to produce high-quality products so I'm certainly not going to use casings that have visible cosmetic alterations, but on the other hand, I'm wondering if anyone else would like to have them for their own projects. We're talking about 1200 black casings (in opaque polycarbonate plastic, which has a slightly shinier surface finish than regular ABS plastic) and roughly 600 transparent colorless casings like those used for GhostBlaster.

 

I'm also wondering how people in general would tend to react to less-than-perfect casings. Of course, most people (especially collectors) would prefer to have their games in cosmetically perfect cartridges, this is an obvious fact. But given that I have large boxes full of casings sitting at home which are technically quite usable, I'd like to know if they should just be discarded.

 

The exact same problem happened a year ago with transparent blue casings, but only 250 of them had the defects and I worked out an agreement with Moldex for redoing them from scratch. This time around, I don't think Moldex will agree to redo that many cartridges, there are just too many.

 

Anyway, while I'm discussing possible solutions with Moldex, I'd like to have people's opinions posted in this thread.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

I'm surprised Modlex doesn't guarantee their work, shouldn't they take these back and re-do them period? Don't they inspect these things as they are producing them? Seems like somebody in Quality Control wasn't doing their job...

[retroillucid]

I'm surprised Modlex doesn't guarantee their work, shouldn't they take these back and re-do them period? Don't they inspect these things as they are producing them? Seems like somebody in Quality Control wasn't doing their job...

Yeah, but at the same time, Pixelboy's order is a grainy sand in the ocean compared to what Moldex usually do

Maybe I'm wrong here, but I think that's what Luc once told me

 

As long as they are usable, just ask Moldex to give you a nice discount and be more concious about next time

Edited October 3, 2013 by retroillucid

[+grips03]

Thats a really good point. I have recently had to purchase two different vectrex multicarts neither of which came with a shell due to the lack of shells available. Its a shame to wreak original carts for parts.

John D sells new Vectrex shells - or I should say he use too, might still be worth asking him if you need them

 

http://www.classicgamecreations.com/

Edited October 3, 2013 by grips03

[Pixelboy]

Sorry for being away for several hours, but I had stuff to do. I tried taking a few pictures of the defects on one of the casings, but my digital camera is malfunctionning. Great timing, eh? It probably needs fresh batteries.

 

Anyway, coleco_master came to my house the other day and I showed him the defective casings so he knows exactly what I'm talking about. He and retroillucid have offered to take them off my hands, and we'll be discussing the finer details of the deal shortly.

 

Are they any worse than the casings that were made in Brazil a number of years ago?

Not sure what you're referring to, but I vaguely remember something about Eduardo having problems some years ago...

 

 

I'm surprised Moldex doesn't guarantee their work, shouldn't they take these back and re-do them period? Don't they inspect these things as they are producing them? Seems like somebody in Quality Control wasn't doing their job...

Very true. But considering I'm a very small client (heck, you can even say that they accept doing such small runs for me out of "kindness", if such a word can apply here) their offer to trim/grind the defective casings at no extra charge is probably the best I can hope for. And I don't want to rock the boat more than required, because I want to have a new mold done by them early next year.

[Jordiway]

I want to buy 5 yellow cases

[+5-11under]

About 7-8 years ago I bought 100 casings from Eduardo. He had them made in Brazil. They were okay, but needed a sharp knife to be run along the sides (after assembly), and sometimes along the bottom edge. You might be able to see this on the first run of Squares! (without box), the Fireman release, and probably other homebrews from 6-8 years ago.

 

Being a relatively small customer is no excuse for Moldex. Higher costs, sure, but inferior service, no.

[jblenkle]

I don't know what's involved in manufacturing them, but geez...couldn't they just melt them down and use the plastic to remake them correctly...

 

Sorry for being away for several hours, but I had stuff to do. I tried taking a few pictures of the defects on one of the casings, but my digital camera is malfunctionning. Great timing, eh? It probably needs fresh batteries.

Anyway, coleco_master came to my house the other day and I showed him the defective casings so he knows exactly what I'm talking about. He and retroillucid have offered to take them off my hands, and we'll be discussing the finer details of the deal shortly.


Not sure what you're referring to, but I vaguely remember something about Eduardo having problems some years ago...



Very true. But considering I'm a very small client (heck, you can even say that they accept doing such small runs for me out of "kindness", if such a word can apply here) their offer to trim/grind the defective casings at no extra charge is probably the best I can hope for. And I don't want to rock the boat more than required, because I want to have a new mold done by them early next year.

[Pixelboy]

I don't know what's involved in manufacturing them, but geez...couldn't they just melt them down and use the plastic to remake them correctly...

This is not the kind of plastic that can be melted and recycled easely, so that's not really an option here.

 

Below is a picture I drew quickly this morning to illustrate the "corner defects". These can be mecanically sanded away, and it will look okay if done carefully, but it's not going to look like the normal casings. I wanted to do another drawing to show the defect on the grip zones, but I don't have time to do that this morning.

[Tony Cruise]

I might be able to use some of them for doing SG-1000/SC-3000 releases. Bit low on funds at the moment though (school holidays) but if they are still available in few weeks would be interested in at least 100.

[+nanochess]

This is not the kind of plastic that can be melted and recycled easely, so that's not really an option here.

 

Below is a picture I drew quickly this morning to illustrate the "corner defects". These can be mecanically sanded away, and it will look okay if done carefully, but it's not going to look like the normal casings. I wanted to do another drawing to show the defect on the grip zones, but I don't have time to do that this morning.

I'm surprised no employee noted HUNDREDS of badly formed cases...

 

If this is a small order for that company I don't see why the company cannot bite the bullet and redo all in return for his bad work. Just my 2 cents.

[Pixelboy]

I'm surprised no employee noted HUNDREDS of badly formed cases...

 

If this is a small order for that company I don't see why the company cannot bite the bullet and redo all in return for his bad work. Just my 2 cents.

Ultimately, it's a question of production costs, Oscar. I am a very small and occasional client and Moldex can easely decide to give me back my metal mold and tell me to take my (small) business elsewhere, regardless of what happens with these defective casings. Plastics companies are not found on every street corner, and given how heavy and cumbersome the metal mold is (and the fact that I don't have a car) my options are limited. So I have to remain as diplomatic as possible with Moldex so everything can move forward with minimal delays. Such are the difficulties of cartridge-based video game homebrewing, as a hobby.

 

Besides, these defective casings are indicative that the metal mold is currently damaged and is in need of minor repairs. I want to have a completely new mold done early next year, so it seems pointless to repair the current mold just to produce a new run of replacement casings on short notice. I have enough casings in stock to cover my own upcoming Team Pixelboy releases (for Christmas) and I can wait until the new mold is ready before ordering more. And theoretically, even if I needed new casings urgently, I can just put everything on hold until those new casings are manufactured, no matter how long it takes. That's the nice thing about homebrewing being a hobby, I can change my plans anytime I want, although I always prefer and strive to stick to my release plans of course.

[128Kgames]

Thats a really good point. I have recently had to purchase two different vectrex multicarts neither of which came with a shell due to the lack of shells available. Its a shame to wreak original carts for parts.

Side note: somebody is making Vectrex shells, I picked up two of these:

 

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?ff3=4&pub=5574883395&toolid=10001&campid=5336500554&customid=&mpre=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fitm%2F251285239887%3Fru%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.ebay.com%252Fsch%252Fi.html%253F_sacat%253D0%2526_from%253DR40%2526_nkw%253D251285239887%2526_rdc%253D1

[50TBRD]

Those red cart cases are from a run over 2 years ago that are almost completely gone. As of a week ago, John Donzilla of CGC was completely out of cart shells. George Pelonis of Fury Unlimited and Kristoff Tuts are probably the only ones who currently have any and who knows if they're willing to spare any. George and John's successor will keep ordering more but not sure what's available for the person who only needs a couple of cart cases.

[128Kgames]

Those red cart cases are from a run over 2 years ago that are almost completely gone. As of a week ago, John Donzilla of CGC was completely out of cart shells. George Pelonis of Fury Unlimited and Kristoff Tuts are probably the only ones who currently have any and who knows if they're willing to spare any. George and John's successor will keep ordering more but not sure what's available for the person who only needs a couple of cart cases.

 

Two years ago? Wow, first time I saw them was that auction, what were they used for? I haven't seen any homebrews in red cases so I'm curious. Its too bad the price of injection molds is so high, otherwise more people might be able to afford them and make their own cases.

[50TBRD]

5 Royal 21 Christmas Editions, 1 Sectis Master Edition 1 3D Lord of the Robots #000 and 1 Vectrexians Deluxe Edition came in red cart cases plus 1 Royal 21 Boston Edition, and the first 100 or Limited Edition Sectis games came in clear cart cases made at the same time. They used to be inexpensive but now the price has gone up on them.