Toy Fair 2013 - I was at Toy Fair 2013 today held at the Javit's Center here in New York City previewing the latest toys that are coming out this year. I figured I'd write a few things I saw at the show but none really grabbed my attention (NECA was a disappointment. They didn't even have the Half Life gravity gun for display! I also wondered why they decided to display their old line as well) except the tiny booth tucked in the middle of the bottom floor for K'Nex.

I first wrote about the Mario Kart Wii K'Nex sets back in spring of 2011 and was quite excited that finally, a big toy company is picking up the Mario Kart license and doing it justice (Carrera, you don't count!). I wrote a review about it after getting a sample from K'Nex and even went to the Nintendo World Store launch (that was an AMAZING experience!). I specifically went looking for K'Nex at the main show floor but found them later downstairs which was packed! I wanted to see what Mario Kart Wii toys are coming out this year and to my surprise, they are adding a few more Super Mario licenses to their roster. They had just one prototype to show to me of New Super Mario Bros. 2 set which featured Mario on a catapult-like device. I spoke to one of the reps who explained all the sets to me and was told that all the new Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario sets are due this June (just in time for summer). When asked how their Nintendo license is doing, I was told that it's doing rather well and hopefully they'll continue to produce more in the future. Expect a review of these sets soon!

The Nuremberg toy fair is the worlds largest international trade fair for toys and games held annually since 1949. Only trade visitors associated with the toy business, journalists and invited guests are admitted. It takes place for six days each year with about 2,700 exhibitors from about 60 countries, plus thousands of attendees.

This year, Activision made this exclusive Skylanders character available.

So far, this rare limited edition has been selling for $600+.

SKYLANDERS PEARL HEX EXTREMELY RARE NEW SEALED TOY FAIR 2012 NUREMBERG $51.00 (8 Bids)

SKYLANDERS PEARL HEX EXTREMELY RARE NEW SEALED TOY FAIR 2012 NUREMBERG $289.86

SKYLANDERS PEARL HEX EXTREMELY RARE NEW SEALED TOY FAIR 2012 NUREMBERG $299.95 Buy It Now for only: $299.95

SKYLANDERS PEARL HEX EXTREMELY RARE NEW SEALED TOY FAIR 2012 NUREMBERG $11.27 (2 Bids)

SKYLANDERS HEX PEARL TOY FAIR 2012 NUREMBERG RARE EXCLUSIVE GIANTS FIGURES MINT $102.50 (8 Bids)

SKYLANDERS HEX PEARL TOY FAIR 2012 NUREMBERG RARE EXCLUSIVE GIANTS FIGURES MINT $102.50 (28 Bids)

SKYLANDERS HEX PEARL TOY FAIR 2012 NUREMBERG RARE EXCLUSIVE GIANTS FIGURES MINT $100.00 (7 Bids)

SKYLANDERS EXCLUSIVE PEARL HEX FIGURE LIMITED EDITION ULTRA RARE NEW $363.32 Buy It Now for only: $363.32

SKYLANDERS HEX PEARL TOY FAIR 2012 NUREMBERG EXCLUSIVE EDTION EXTREMELY RARE $349.99 Buy It Now for only: $349.99

Skylanders Spyros Adventure Rare Toy Fair Hex Pearl White $599.00 Buy It Now for only: $599.00

SKYLANDERS PEARL HEX FIGURE LIMITED EDITION ULTRA RARE NEW $379.99 Buy It Now for only: $379.99

SKYLANDERS PEARL HEX EXTREMELY RARE NEW SEALED TOY FAIR 2012 NUREMBERG $429.99 Buy It Now for only: $429.99

Unboxing

There's not very many pieces at all for these K'Nex sets. The motorcycle set has 31 pieces and the kart has 65. Although there's an instruction on how to put together the Mario and Yoshi figure, they came in a separate plastic bag built already. Also, the blocks are slightly bigger than your typical Lego block so they're easier to put together. The pullback motor for the car is probably the biggest piece (for the car). One of my favorite feature is the fact that you can use the box as a ramp. How often do you buy toys for yourself or for your kids and have to get rid of the box after? You can either use the box as a ramp itself, or download a few tracks on the K'Nex website and stick them in the ramp. I also want to point out that the figures are a lot bigger than your typical Lego minifig which is a really great thing. The kart sets also came with a banana peel for Mario, and a mushroom for the Yoshi set.

Contruction

Since there weren't a lot of pieces, constructing these things were quick and easy. For the 7 year old, it took him about 8 minutes to build the motorcycle and around 11 minutes to build the car (not including putting the stickers on, I did that for him). Like I mentioned before, the blocks are slightly bigger so they're a little easier to handle. It's really not hard to put it together. If your child or you get a little intimidated by the fact that there's a lot of little pieces, don't! They're easier than the usual K'Nex toys believe me!

Cons

When you read a review, you normally get either a pros and cons so why not with this one.

One of my main concern with the kart is the fact that the exhaust part comes off so easily. People who played with Lego's before know this before hand as the building sets are extremely fragile once built. As for the motorcycle, Mario barely goes down enough so his feet are touching the pegs at the bottom. The other half of the figures, the leg part, are not very consistent with each set. The legs we got from the car was slightly open while the one that came with the actual motorcycle set was a little bit squeezed thats why it was harder to push it down on the seat.

Another issue I had with the set is the fact that you have to separate the figure to place it onto the car. I had to constantly remind my 7 year old to make sure he attaches the legs either on the top of the pullback motor or just put it away in a safe place where he can remember it easy. And that's another thing, the leg part of the figure also has these huge holes at the bottom so i'm not sure if it's meant to be like that or if its also meant to stand on a K'Nex board/surface. As for Yoshi's legs, you can't really place it on top of the motor since it comes off very easily.

Final Thoughts

For $7 and $12, these are an absolute must for kids ages 6 and up. Especially if they're huge fans of the Mario Kart series. There have been a few Mario Kart related toys in the market in the past and today as well and my son and I have went through every single one of them from the pathetic wired-RC's to the recent pullback cars made by Spin Master - which broke on the second day. These sets are much better than those junks and you can tell once you build them.

These sets are really nice and despite the problems we had, my son had a blast building and playing them and we look forward to the other sets they have coming out in the future. I was told by a rep from K'Nex that they will be releasing the bigger sets (seen on my Nintendo World post a few weeks ago) later in the summer time. A Bowser set is planned for a fall release (can't wait). At the moment, you can buy these sets at the K'Nex store online or at your local Toys R Us stores (or online as well). It's a little tricky to find them everywhere at the moment, but I was told that soon all the major department stores in the U.S. will carry them as well.

Build Mario and his Standard Kart from Mario Kart Wii! Includes a buildable Mario figure, a banana peel item, plus a pull-back motor and K'NEX pieces to build his standard kart, exactly like in the game. Collect them all and race your friends! The package can be re-used as a ramp for even more after-building fun. For ages 6+

Features…
•   Build Mario and his Standard Kart from Mario Kart Wii
•   Pull back motorized action!
•   66 pieces, including banana peel item
•   Re-usable ramp package
•   Ages 6+

Mario and Standard Kart Building Set - $19.99

Mario and Standard Bike Set - $9.99

Luigi and Standard Kart set - $19.99

Luigi and Standard Bike set - $9.99

Yoshi and Standard Kart Building Set - $19.99

Many of today's finds have been suggested by a friend.
The main auction: Commavid Magicard Atari 2600 COMPLETE

And all the others:
EPHEMERA 1984 ATARI VIDEO GAME REPAIR INVOICES
Atari 2600 Data Age Vinyl Record
Codemasters Dizzy trading cards
Q*Bert Belt
Odyssey 2 KC's Crazy Chase,Pick Axe Pete samples
Wal-Mart promo buttons
Original press photos of Death Race, Moonwalker, Air War, Game Gear
Metroid E3 Pin
Atari vintage Lunchbox
Q*Bert Lunchbox
Bionic Commando lunchbox
Sealed Q*Bert board game from 1983
Q*Bert plush
Q*bert Iron-on Transfer
StarFox shirt from competition
NIB Xbox debugger cheap
Sonic Adventure 2 Battle NR disc
Sega Mega CD DEV board
Final Fantasy IX Promotional Video VHS
NES Test Station cheap
NINTENDO DISPLAY STORE LASER VIDEODISCS 3M

My Little Pony? Yup, that's right. On the off chance you've never heard of them, they're a brand of toy ponies marketed primarily to young girls. It was massively popular in the 80's and again when they were relaunched in the early 2000's.

Turns out that there's a rather large community committed to creating Custom My Little Pony toys. One customizer in particular caught my eye recently with their Team Fortress 2 The Spy Pony (Sold for $76.00).

That seller has done a ton of other characters as showcased in their Deviantart Portfolio. It's rather large, so I'm showcasing the best below.

Highlights include Sonic and Tails, Master Chief, Link (and Navi), Squall Leonhart, ViVi, Red XII, Shiva (Summon from Final Fantasy X), Cloud Strife, Sephiroth, Vincent Valentine, a Moogle, Ifrit (Summon from FFVIII)and last, but definitely not least, the Final Fantasy VII Bahamut - which is hard to believe is based on a MLP.

Oh, and if you want to pick one up? I found this live BIN from another seller for a Custom Bowser My Little Pony. It is simultaneously hideous and awesome. Agreed?

One of them is Super Mario Kart where players of upto 2 control a little ball/marble and go through a series of obstacles throughout the board. Mario Kart sound effects are probably optional.. The New Super Mario Bros. game lets you control the board using a joystick. It's sort of like a tilt and tumble game but you control the ball through a maze and get to the castle where you'll move onto the next stage or maze. Eventually you'll reach the top and rescue Princess Peach.

I could see these two board games being imported here in the U.S. and maybe in Europe as well since these are not very complex games. The other Mario board games in the past involves cards but reading the text could be problematic since all of them are in Kanji. Hit the link below to see both games in action.

via Akihabara News

These don't show up stateside too often, and unsurprisingly, this one comes from Germany (with international shipping). Forget the Crossbow training on the Wii - this is how to shoot like Link.

Low starting bid too, which is great as every other one I remember seeing recently comes with some massive BIN.

Auction Here

Also:

Nintendo 1970s Zapper and Roulette Set - Thanks Greenhough!

ColecoVision Exerion Prototype
In other to help me fund my upcoming Super Game Module for the ColecoVision I have decided to auction some of my unreleased prototypes, games I have been porting over the years but have no interest in releasing commercially. First game is Exerion, port of the SG-1000 game, which happens to be a port of an arcade game by Jaleco.
Auction is for the cartridge only, and only 5 copies of the game will be produced. Cartridge comes with standard Opcode prototype label, numbered and signed.
This is the last one up for grabs. The other four have some for between $294.99 and $491.00.

4 Sega Master System Game Manuals
The manuals are for GHOST HOUSE, HANG-ON/SAFARI HUNT, TRANSBOT and WORLD GRAND PRIX. I won these in an eBay auction over 10 years ago and if I recall they were somewhat rare. I'm not an expert on such things, but I seem to recall them being different than the actual manuals that were released for the games, but don't quote me on it. Any SMS expert will know if they are different.
Any ideas? Also, I think someone sent this to me, but I can`t find the email. Thanks unknown person.

Sega Saturn Promo VHS

Street Fighter II Turbo VHS

TurboGrafx VHS Promo

Link

Pre-NES toy (text on box is "ultracope," although this item is usually known as "ultra scope") designed by Gunpei Yokoi, who created the Game & Watch games and produced many later Nintendo video game titles. This thing is sweet, check out the video below to see it in use.

Seller also has a bunch of other pre NES Nintendo stuff, like this Light Gun, Challenge Ball Game, Chess & Checkers and more.

Also:

Lot Of 94 Dreamcast Games

Apple II ULTIMA II Revenge Enchantress

The Legend of Dragoon Action Figures Lot - Lloyd, Dart, Kongol, Rose

37 Game Atlus Collection - GameGavel

Intellivision Basic Cart - GameGavel (for keyboard component).This was only sold in test markets and by direct mail in 1982.

-Zelda Ocarina of Time Kite: I remember seeing these for sale at Toys R Us when I worked there. (Sold: $47)

-I was depressed that noone has placed a Diddy Kong Service Magnet up for sale in so long that I decided to start one. Now there is one of all three magnets currently available on ebay at the moment--complete your set today! (Sold: 10.59)

-Super Mario World 2 - Yoshi's Island VHSÂ (Sold: $10)

-This seller has a ton of Nintendo Character Wall Displays that are used in stores like GameStop, FYE and Toys R Us. They look to be unused as well!

Card number 110 – Fandango – Space Channel 5

Card number 111 – Phaeton – House of the Dead

Card number 112 –Lotus Esprit – Shinobi

Card number 113 – GT Racer – Monkey Ball

Card number 114 – Custom Cougar – Jet Set Radio Future (JSRF)

Despite their inherent awesomeness, none seem to fetch much of a premium. Individually, the Monkey Ball GT Racer, Shinobi Lotus Esprit, Space Channel 5 Fandango, Jet Set Radio Future Custom Cougar and the House of the Dead Phaeton can all be had for under $2.00.

Seller tynstar19 has all five up for grabs in one auction, and has some other nice gaming related toys as well.

Link