This collection of consoles arrived in the post today. A member of the racketboy forums by the name of GrittyKitty sold me this whole lot for just $20 (about £10 in my money).
But no, I didn't just get the console bundle bargain of the century, as these are not the real consoles. Rather, they are miniature toys of them, about one 50th of the original size! Did I fool you? Nah, you probably already looked at the other photos and know I mainly post about stuff like toys at this blog. If I did get a stash of real consoles like this, though, you would probably hear about it anyway! More photos after the jump.
These are, much like the 'Sega Gals' I showed you all a while ago, toys that were sold in capsule machines in Japan, so when you bought one you would never know which one you're getting until you open it, and you have to build them up from many, many pieces. They were produced by a company called Yujin and 200 yen each. Because these were pre-owned, I did not have to do any fiddly sticker work as it was already done for me! Here is each system all set up in backwards order of their release.
First off, here is Sega's last console the Dreamcast, showed cased here by my Ulala toy.The little console, no bigger than a 2p coin, has a opening disc drive and all four controller ports, of which you can actually plug the tiny little controller into any of these just like the real thing! The set also comes with two VMUs, which even have their lids that can be taken off so you can plug the VMUs into the controller or into each other. If that isn't an insane attention to detail for something so small, I don't know what is. Each little system also comes with a replica game or two. Lucky for Ulala, in the case of the Dreamcast you get a tiny copy of Space Channel 5; both the box and the disc, which can be placed in the console if you wish!
Next up is the Sega Saturn in it's model 1 grey glory (I liked the white 2nd model more, but you can't have it all), shown off here by Fighting Viper's Honey. This console miniature comes with a controller, and a box and disc of Virtua Fighter 2. Like the others, you can plug in the controller and insert the disc. This one seems to come with the least pieces. A mini 4MB RAM cart would of been nice. It's still neat none the less, and a great likeness to the chunky old box of joy.
Now for the biggest behemoth of the collection when plugged together, the Mega Drive with both of it's add ons, the 32X and Mega CD. The Mega Drive, the first design with it's iconic gold '16-BIT' lovenly recreated, came with a Master System converter (see further below), a controller, and two game carts: Sonic 1 and Alien Solider. The 32X and Mega CD (Under the system design) were bundled together along with a six button controller, some Mega-CD game I have never heard of and a Virtua Fighter 32X cart. Above is all of these little toys when you plug them together. The disc drive of the Mega CD can slide out to slip a disc in, and the Mega Drive has it's flap of plastic at the bottom so it can plug into the Mega CD, again just like you would with the real deal. Good thing you don't have to sort out all the plugs for this miniature!
Here is where Sega started for many of us: the Master System (I started to get lazy with the photos here, so no character toy showing it off). This the first design of the 8-bit system we got, but the last in Japan. It came with two joypads, a Phantasy Star cart, and Teddy Boy on a 'Sega My Card'. Now if only I could plug it in and play a built in Alex Kidd game. =)
Now this system won't be familiar to everyone unless you lived in japan in the 80's or are a major console collector, as this is a Japanese equivalent of the Master System, the Sega Mark III. Released a couple years earlier, it is a smaller cuter design much like the Famicom compared to our NES. This system comes with two Joypads, a Fantasy Zone cart, some Ninja 'My Card' game and the FM sound unit which you attach to the top of the system (The FM Sound was built into the Master System, which maybe explains why that console was bulkier). This was the third design of the SG-1000, Sega's 2nd console in Japan after the SC-3000. I really dig the design of it.
GrittyKitty also threw in a spare Mega Drive set, which I have with it's Master system converter sitting on top here. The master system games can plug into that too! They have really thought of everything with these toys!
The obsessive attention to detail is quite amazing. Just look at all the games that come with each of the systems. To the untrained eye this photo below makes it look like I own an actual cartridge of Alien Solider! Even the Master System card games have fully detailed artwork on them despite being the size of a pin.
To get the best gist of the scale of these things, here are some comparisons with the real things. For example, see how the Saturn controller is the size of the real controllers start button, and the Dreamcast controller is smaller than the real VMU's screen! Crazy.
Next time: I just bought a Sonic 15th Anniversary statue from Ebay today, so when that arrives in a week or so I will be posting some photos for that! =)
