Intellivision Box Question!

[theanalogkid17]

Hello everyone,

 

Super forum you have here. The knowledge is incredible, and the collections are fantastic. Intellivision was the first console I ever played - lot of nostalgia here. Fun!

 

Question for the savvy Intellivision vets. Is there a page or something I can refer to when looking at factory seals? I know there are many variants and such, but there seems to be a variety of ways Intellivision games were wrapped before they hit store shelves.

 

For instance - I see some games that are sealed along each side of the box, the spine, while most others have the thick, defined strip along the back middle. I understand some titles did not come in shrink at all. Is there a general guide somewhere?

 

 

 

 

[+intvsteve]

That would be a good thing. There are a few collectors around these parts who are into the sealed scene who could answer that. But it would be a good bit of info to collect into one place. I wonder… did different "generations" of production runs result in different seals? I know that most of the Intellivision, Inc. and later Mattel games had the horizontal seal on the back. I tend to open whatever I get, though, and not pay a lot of attention to the plastic wrapping it.

[theanalogkid17]

You're right, it sure appears the seal changed over the years with the different starts and stops. On top of the releases that were never wrapped to begin with. Curious, indeed!

[+intvsteve]

I bet BBWW could give a truly accurate presentation on this. I bet cmart could, too.

[+BBWW]

I have a pretty complete set of sealed games. I'm waiting on Blockade Runner. It's nice to have at least two games from a company about the same time to get a good idea. I have not sat down with the boxes to see how the seal has changed say from US Mattel Games to Hong Kong or other facilities. This is a project that I really want to nail down. To the best of my knowledge the only games that never came sealed (Shrink-Wrapped) in any country at any time were some of the INTV games. But some of those 22 games were shrink-wrapped. Pac-Man for sure was one. I have to get into my sealed boxes.

 

US Coleco Game were sealed with GLUE not shrink-wrapped but all of them were released shrink wrapped overseas.

 

I have 105 or so of the 125 shrink-wrapped and I know two more exist. Blockade Runner and Turbo that I don't have. No one seems to have a list of games that came shrink wrapped. Some were both, like the Activision Games. Later ones were not shrink-wrapped. Some were shrink-wrapped at stores and will have a KB Toys or Toys R Us sticker on them. I have Pole Position like that, but don't know if it was a retail wrap or factory wrap and don't remember if it matched Pac-Man seams.

 

Some games from INTV were never wrapped, Learning Fun I, Learning Fun II, Spiker. These are known. I know I have more than one INTV title shrink-wrapped and the Pac-Man is fairly common and on E-Bay today. So there must be a date when INTV stopped shrink wrapping.

 

Any help with which INTV titles got shrink wrapped would be great.

[theanalogkid17]

Were some US Intel games wrapped with the seals going down both spines? While others have the thicker heat sealed vertically along the back?

 

I understand INTV has the horizontal band across the back typically. But the most common seals are the tighter seal with the seal strip down the sides of the box, and then vertical heat seal on back (the thick band down the middle of the box back).

 

Is that consistent with your understanding BBWW? Those are the two most prevalent seals you see out there. Does your collection have both?

[+JasonlikesINTV]

I've personally noticed the following:

 

Intellivision Inc titles typically have a horizontal overlapping back seam. There may be other types, but I'll have to check my collection.

 

USA gatefolds typically have a vertical overlapping back seam.

 

Hong Kong gatefolds typically have spine seams with no seams on the back/front faces.

 

Activision: I've seen all kinds, but the ones I deem most likely factory originals are the ones with a vertical seam overlapping on the back. These also have a seam on the top and bottom. The Dreadnaught Factor is probably the most prevalent example of this. The 'fake' ones lack the vertical back seam and top/bottom seams, but instead have seams on the spines. I have copies of Happy Trails and Stampede like this. I doubt they're 'authentic'.

 

Atarisoft and Coleco were typically glued.

 

I doubt any of the INTV Corp games were ever sealed, except for Pacman (was that one INTV Corp era?)

 

Parker Brothers and Imagic were all sealed, but I don't know the seals well. I have a few and can check later.

 

The short answer is that over the years through many changes of ownership, overseas production/distribution, and the existence of third party entities, they probably didn't put much thought into the uniformity of 'factory seals' beyond the original Mattel days. Collectively we've gathered some decent data, but there are still unknowns and always exceptions to the rules. Few attempt collecting these...most go mad in the process

Edited February 27, 2016 by JasonlikesINTV

[+BBWW]

Sealed AtariSoft game I've seen are sealed with center seams and had a plastic hang tag on the outside. It is the same for PacMan, Defender and Centipede all from different sources.

[+JasonlikesINTV]

Sealed AtariSoft game I've seen are sealed with center seams and had a plastic hang tag on the outside. It is the same for PacMan, Defender and Centipede all from different sources.

Ah, thanks for the correction. I was going from memory and technically I don't actually own any sealed Atarisoft games

[theanalogkid17]

You guys are awesome. I really respect the know-how and knowledge! So glad to have found this little section of the net. Thanks again to all of you guys.

 

Fascinating how some markets decided not to shrink vs those that did. Would be neat to know the reasons for and why. Cost etc. Really interesting.