Jupiter Crystal Power... Maaaaaaaaaaaake UP!

After many, many, many... many, many years. My Sailor Moon site, Sailor Senshi Sanctuary, is back. It was a long time coming but it's finally back how it was when it disappeared over eight years ago. So now, just in time for its ten year anniversary, the site can be browsed just as it would have been back in 2001. A restoration rather than a remake, SSS sports a retro look and feel. Check it out!

Damn Mountain Dew

Okay, just a bit of a rant this time. Most who know me know I have a Klax arcade cabinet in my kitchen, across from the refrigerator. Beautiful shape (could use a new control panel overlay, cigarette burns from its past), works great, tons of fun, was one of the machines I had been wanting for a long time. Anyway, when I take a soda from the refrigerator I usually open it in the kitchen before exiting or doing whatever else needs to be done. The last, maybe, five cans of Mountain Dew I've opened have been so overfilled they've shot everywhere. They're not shaken up or frozen or anything, just under too much pressure in the can from being overfilled. I would go ahead and say the whole case has been like that but the first ones out didn't have the same problem. Of course the couple streaks of soda usually end up on the Klax cabinet. I just clean it up and no damage occurs or anything like that but still - technically I've been spilling soda all over the cabinet this week. ...And that pisses me off.

Stupid perhaps, still annoying just the same. In other news - big announcement coming up soon about a new addition to classicplastic.net!

The Cel Market

Anime cel collecting just isn't what it used to be. Then again, I suppose it was never huge and along those lines I never amassed a large or exceedingly valuable collection. But damn, it was a lot of fun. In fact anime cels really were my last big connection to anime. Most people that know me know I really don't watch much these days. I have what I like, and most of what I like is the anime of the 1980's and 1990's. Particularly Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon, Super Dimension Century Orguss, and one off things like Robot Carnival and Project A-ko. Yeah, I'm stuck in the past.

However one used to be able to find hundreds of great cels at really decent prices. But that's really not the case anymore. And honestly there are only about four or five dealers that have what I want and put it out for sale on a regular basis - and even with them there's not much there anymore and what is there is very expensive. I mean, decent non main character Sailor Moon cels used to drop in the $20-$30 range on a weekly basis. EVERY WEEK. For YEARS. And there was frenzied interest too! But people simply knew they could wait and eventually something else would come along. Hell, I let the eBay auction for my prized Mome cel (from Orguss) drop off and be relisted three times before finally bidding - and it was only $30.00 each and every time, unchallenged. Robot Carnival was the same way, hundreds of cels out there all the time, no more than $25 for most of them, many as low as $8 flat. Not anymore.

People are just simply out. The huge stacks of acetate that were all over the place are finally starting to sell down and most of the dealers just don't have them anymore. The collectors that had tons from the days of bargain prices have also sold off their excesses at this point. It's a strange spot to be in for people such as myself that still want Sailor Moon MOTD (Monster of the Day) cels for $20, or to have a large choice of scenes from a Robot Carnival short.

The last time I really got into one of those old bidding wars over a cel was for a particular Sailormoon SuperS cel of Makoto Kino and Tiger's Eye dancing together. This is a well known episode due to Makoto's rose dress. Most of the other bidders were collectors / occasional dealers I had done business with before. It was cool to see some old familiar names come out of the woodwork (back when eBay actually let you see stuff like that, really made the community). And still, bidding didn't get much over the $30 mark.

The last cel I sold was of Sailor Moon from an early season 1 episode that was unaired in the USA. Not many bids and it sold for around $20 - I still kick myself for letting it go. It actually was part of a three cel lot that I purchased (actually, from someone that would be bidding against me for that previously mentioned SuperS cel) for one specific cel. I kept that one, sold the Sailor Moon one, and have the other sitting in the closet. That three cel auction ended at something like $25 shipped. We're talking like $35 after framing and for some reason I felt compelled to sell the Sailor Moon early episode one to "make my money back." Pure stupidity! But then again, that's just the era of cel collecting that I came up with - and really, really miss. I can also understand that people really don't care as much about Sailor Moon these days as they did then. Part of that is due to the limited availably of the whole franchise these days. However with the show returning to Japanese networks, hopefully some interest will return.

Granted I guess I'm not a true collector. I buy cels to hang on the wall, out in the open, fully exposed to the harshness of the world. My displaying is killing them, slowly. No cel books in darkened closets for me, I buy cels to display as what they are - unique art. Regardless of how I protect them, being out on display will cause them to continue to fade - much like the memories of the era of collecting I wish I could go back to.

What really gets me down is that I was never able to obtain a cel of my all time favorite Sailor Moon MOTD, Toden. She was a Daimon created from a streetcar, in one of my favorite episodes of my favorite Sailor Moon series, Sailormoon S. I would pay near anything for a good cel of Toden. I post this here at the end in hopes that one day, someone reminiscing about cel collecting, Sailor Moon, or both (as in my case) will come upon this post, have a Toden cel they'd like to sell and get into contact with me. To that person, I await your e-mail.

The current cel collection can be found at my anime page here.

You Have A Call On Line 1...

Electronics, this is David, how can I help you today?

No, we sold out of Uncharted 2 about two hours after we opened yesterday, and I was limiting it to one copy per person. No, we sold out of Brutal Legend on the '360 yesterday as well. I have two copies of it for the PS3. No, I won't hold any of the new release games. No, we haven't received Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition yet, it'll probably be either Friday afternoon or the top of next week. No, we haven't received Demon Souls, we're probably not going to carry it since we haven't gotten in any display cards. No, we've been out of NBA 2K10 on both platforms since last week. I have no idea when a reorder will occur since the company had no idea it would sell as fast as it did. No, there are no rainchecks. No, you cannot buy one game here and another game elsewhere to take advantage of the buy 2 get the 3rd free promotion. Sure, you can attempt to buy random titles right now and then return them next week in exchange for the games we're out of, but understand that you may have to return all three games you purchased for the return to work. I honestly wouldn't try it at this store, technically your free game has no value so all that will more than likely be done is an even exchange in the case of a defective copy.

No problem, thanks for calling.

You people really need to take a long, hard look at yourselves and how you go about carrying yourselves when it comes to doing business. Especially concerning how you feel so wholly entitled to special treatment when acting like total morons. Thanks, bye. =]

Sammy Davis City

Guitar Slinger was Brian Setzer's best album with the Orchestra... seriously. No, seriously, go listen to it sometime, it was the perfect balance between old rock / country, modern rockabilly, and big band. Uh.. anyway...

I'm hoping to bring a new era to David's Video Game Insanity today. I actually beat a game over this past week. Then today I sat down and wrote a review of it. And, well, it was pretty damn smooth. I actually enjoyed doing it. This is a pretty big change over how it's been over the past two years, especially this past year. I don't know when it began but playing games started to take a back seat to writing about them, and then I got to the point where I really didn't want to do either. That's pretty damn sad. I also wrote an editorial over at DVGI today that explains how I think this came to be. The important thing is that I think it's no longer an issue. I also got in touch with Retrogaming Times Monthly and let them know what was up, that once again I'd be missing an issue but in November I should be back full force. That was a nice feeling as well. If you're super interested I suggest reading the editorial, it puts it better than I can put it down again.

In other news, I'll have a Vectrex home arcade system heading my way next week. A great little piece of early 1980's technology. Once it's in my hands (or on my table I should say) I'd love to do some solid reviews, since there really aren't a lot out there.

I Begin Video Game Development Once Again Today

After many, many, many false starts over the past ten or so years, I'm finally getting back into game design. This time I'm going to do most of it myself and the outsource a little talent here and there for the things I know I flat out can't do (illustration for example). Originally I planned on having a team of at least five people work on the project but after sitting down and looking over how it all works, I think I can do most all of it on my own. Which is great, because with the history I've had on projects like this, even one other person not totally committed tends to kill the whole smash.

As Pedro Cerrano said in Major League:

I stick it up for you Jobu. You no help me now...I say fuck you Jobu. I do it myself.

I don't want to release too many details but the game is a visual novel. It will not be hentai based nor a dating sim, just a straight visual novel with branching aspects. Actually, I think it'll be something that a lot of people can relate to, especially those that play these type of games. I hope to have something of a proof of concept internal demo wrapped up in about three weeks. I said internal, that's because it will not be released to the public, instead it will be used to possibly bring a couple other select individuals on board. I know I can do all but the character graphics on my own, as well as most of the writing, scenario design, game design, character design, and all of the Foley work. Character design and music are the only places I really need look elsewhere and I have my music person in mind already. A lot of the basic framework will be set up this weekend and into next week. Although most say to start small, I'm aiming for this to be at least a 2-3 hour game when it's all said and done.

Wish me luck.