Boxed Intellivision find

I was perhaps a latecomer to Craigslist, but today my CraigsNotification app for my phone finally paid off! Now, I've seen some items come and go before, but typically they were priced beyond what I was willing to pay. This purchase, however, has made up for a lot of those.

It was a very brief listing about a working Intellivision and "a bunch of games" for $25 featuring a photo of the Master Component sitting on its box! Although I responded within an hour saying I was interested and asking if the games were also boxed, apparently I was the second to respond. He said yes, the games were boxed, but he might already have a buyer and would get back to me.

Three days later, he sent me an e-mail saying he'd given up on the other person. He said he had about 12-15 games, all in the boxes with overlays. We made arrangements and met this morning. What he had far exceeded my expectations! Here's the list, which has 24 games. Nothing overly rare, but almost everything seems to be boxed and complete!

• Intellivision (I) Master Component with packing materials (styrofoam & bags) & docs
  
• Intellivoice in bubble wrap with docs
  
• Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Cartridge
• Armor Battle
• Astrosmash
• B-17 Bomber
• Blockade Runner (the only one I didn't already have)
• Bomb Squad
• BurgerTime
• Donkey Kong
• Football (INTV)
• Football (INTV), SHRINKWRAPPED!
• Frogger
• Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack (of course)
• Major League Baseball
• Night Stalker
• PBA Bowling
• PGA Golf
• Sea Battle
• Snafu (Sears)
• Space Armada
• Space Battle
• Tennis
• U.S. Ski Team Skiing
• Tron Maze-A-Tron
• World Challenge Baseball (the only one not boxed; also missing instructions)

In addition to the hardware and games, there were also catalogs and a newsletter, none of which I already had:

• Intellivision Game Club News #2
• Triton catalog, Fall 1985
• Triton catalog, Spring 1986
• Triton catalog, Fall 1986 (x2)

There's also the original receipt, showing his (or probably his dad's) purchase of the console ($257.87) and Space Battle ($27.87) from Service Merchandise on August 24, 1981. With tax, the grand total was $305.74. I even found the original price tag inside the console's box.

The serial number on the box is handwritten (316663). Anyone know if that was common? And it doesn't match the typed serial number on the console (722341). However, the console also has a "TRW Rescue" sticker on the bottom dated 12-02-82 and another bright orange stickers saying "For service call TRW" with a phone number, so I'm wondering if the console had to be repaired and was swapped with another.

The price tags on the IntelliVoice box (serial no. 256826) are also interesting. They're all from Kmart. The oldest one visible is marked 5-84 and is for $19.97. There's then a series of labels ending in one from 6-86 for $4.00. He expressed dissatisfaction with the IntelliVoice when I was looking through everything and from the contacts, it appears to have been used very little.

One oddity I noticed as I went through is that most of the boxes were missing a long flap across the top or bottom. I thought maybe they were sent in for some sort of rebate and asked the seller about it via e-mail. Unfortunately, he could not recall why they were removed and, in fact, the games hadn't even been pulled out for who knows how long until I looked at them when we met.

He's apparently a well organized person who doesn't throw things away. I asked if it'd been sitting in his attic all this time and he said no, it'd been sitting on a shelf in his house. All in all, the condition of this stuff is amazing. I'm happy to have it. Now, how to let my wife know?

A pair of Rom mentions in blog posts

Today I came across two mentions of Rom on the blogosphere. First, Jim Shooter spoke of Steve Ditko, noting "Giving Steve work is easier said than done. He’s very particular about what he will and won’t do. [. . . ] He refused to work on any books with 'flawed' heroes. [. . .] Fortunately, we had ROM, Spaceknight. ROM fit Steve’s criteria well enough."

Next, Marvel Comics of the 1980s today features some of Bill Sienkiewicz's original art from Rom. Enjoy!

JLA/Avengers dueling editorials

On his blog, former Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter is currently writing about the DC/Marvel crossover specials from his tenure and why the original JLA/Avengers crossover never happened. In Part 4 of "The Secret Origin and Gooey Death of the Marvel/DC Crossovers", he mentioned the editorial he wrote in Marvel Age#19 and the rebuttal written by his DC counterpart, Dick Giordano, but said he couldn't find them quickly on the Internet. So I figured I'd help out.

This took place somewhat early in my comic book collecting days, when I was just beginning to branch out to publishers other than Marvel. But I remembered reading Giordano's editorial, so figured I could probably help out if I scoured my collection. Little did I know!

Marvel Age#19 was easy. It was right in the box where I left it. (Click images to view larger versions.)

The first part of Giordano's response is available at the Last of the Famous International Fanboys blog, but he was unable to find the second part. Even though I wasn't buying a lot of DC comics at the time, I figured I must have it somewhere. I checked a couple of DC comics cover dated January 1985, but it wasn't in them. I went to the Grand Comic Book Database and did an advanced search to find all the January 1985 DC comics. It turns out I have very few. Finally, as I'm almost out of options, I find it. It's in a comic in my "to sell" box that has yet to find a new home: Robotech Defenders #1.

Now to post comments on those blogs to direct people here. I highly recommend you check them both out.

What if it's an elaborate joke?

Perhaps you've heard that J.K. Rowling, creator of Harry Potter, has a mysterious new web site called pottermore.com? It would seem to offer more Harry Potter, but so far the only official word is, "it's not another book". What if it's all a big, elaborate hoax?

I don't just mean PotterMore. Or rather not just that. What if there is no J.K. Rowling? Today, J.K. is an abbreviation for "just kidding", giving a hint of her non-existence. The person you know is just an actress fronting for the group behind the prank. Yes, prank.

Have you wondered why "Rowling" is pronounced like "rolling"? Perhaps it's the clue to what it's all about. Imagine there's a group that studied worldwide trends and determined a young wizard in a magical setting would be the next big thing. They went on to write seven books that only increased in popularity with each one, leading to a movie deal that only grew the Potter auidence more.

Now, as the audience reaches it's peak with the final movie about to be released, we get to pottermore.com and it's attention-getting "coming soon". Well, what if millions go to pottermore.com at the appointed time and find out why it's pronounced "rolling" as they get rickrolled, the largest rickroll in history!

Or maybe not.

Shooter on Rom

If you're a Rom fan, you'll want to read Jim Shooter telling the tale of how he made the jump from toy to comics. And that's all I have to say on it right now.