I Did Stuff This Weekend

This weekend was a holiday weekend. Well, the holiday was on Saturday. So I had Friday off in observance. It was nice to get some rest after such a hectic and busy month. Between cooking out Saturday on our back patio and enjoying stretching out on our new living room set, we also got some stuff done around the house. We made a visit to At Home and Joann's to see what Halloween stock they had. Joann's just had some cloth (which some was purchased), but At Home had really added much more since last weekend. My Instagram has pics if you're so inclined to check them out.

Saturday night I began work on my new toy room, which mainly meant repairing my old shelves and doing some organizing. Next weekend I'll start working which toys will go on said shelves and rearranging the mass of storage totes I have in our garage. There's a few thousand Transformers in those totes and it's a considerable effort to try and keep some semblance of organization. That's not including kaiju, keshi, mini figures and other toys. So I've got a bit of work ahead of me.

I did get together my little micro console set up. I plan to spend a good bit of time parked in front of that set up, so considerable effort was made to get it just right. I'll probably readjust it a billion times, but I've got a start. Various pictures were hung with help of the wife for second opinions on placement. I'm trying to keep it reasonably nice looking in there and not just a pile of toys and video games. So taking some extra time and getting second opinions are definitely appreciated.

Over the course of the weekend I got a few toys. I picked up Destroyah from Playmates Godzilla and Kong line. A Treasure X Alien Egg from Five Below, and a Scout Class Cyberverse Ratchet while waiting for my order at a Rose's near Little Caesars. I eyed a Netflix Sideswipe and Megatron at Walmart and I most assuredly need to pick those guys up soon. I just like Sideswipe, always have, always will. So a new toy of him is something I'll eventually pick up. I like Siege Megatron, but really it's the Battlemasters that's pulling the trigger there. I kinda want the new Seeker for the same reasons, but Megatron's included are just much more interesting.

Turbografx-16 Mini And Auto-Correct Is Being Gross

It took a few days later than I had wanted for Amazon to fulfill my pre-order (auto-correct suggested pee-order) for the Turbografx-16 Mini (not counting the initial covid-19 related delays) as they lost the freaking thing. The replacement for here on Friday and man it was a breathe of pure happiness finally holding it in my hands.

Of course, like I've said here a few times already, I'm moving. Which probably sounds like I'm making a much too big deal of, but in reality, it's been a pretty hard move so far. Preparations and packing have all been affected by covid-19 and a bunch of other things popping up making everything harder than it should. We physically move next week, so here's hoping that goes smoothly after the headache of the pre-game (auto-correct suggested pee-game) has been. So I didn't get to play my new console until Sunday evening after my wife and I stopped packing for the night.

The first game I played was Splatterhouse. Despite having multiple copies and versions of the game, playing it on an actual TG-16 was pure joy. I flew threw the first stage before switching games. Since I was just spending a little time with my new console, I just wanted to give it a test (auto-correct suggested tryst.. what the crap?) run for a while. After I move and get things (it just suggested thighs, what?) set up, I'll spend some more time with individual games. I've got a plan to attempt streaming on Instagram and games is probably going to be a common subject. I plan overall to do more video work there as well. Once a million things stop running opposition to my plans. It's been a weird year.

I really love the simulation the micro provides. As the game selection features both American and Japanese releases, it has them separated (it just suggested perpetrated) between regions. Each menu has an onscreen representation of the console and games are in their jewel boxes. When you select the game, you get a great animation of the HuCard going into it's slot or the CD-ROM loading up a game. I'm sure you can skip it if you're just wanting to get to the game, but for right now it's a little extra that I'm loving.

The Grafx Are Turbo, All 16 Of Them

The TurboGrafx 16 Mini will FINALLY be released on May 22nd. That's tomorrow or today depending on when you're reading this. Or last year. Either way after Covid 19 moved the release back (and it changed a few times) it's finally getting released and I'm happy. Mine has been pre-ordered and will probably get here sometime next week. Which being exclusive to Amazon is just how it was going to go. Kinda a bummer seeing how I'll get it after the Memorial Day weekend.

I'm moving in a few weeks, the holiday weekend will be spent packing anyway. So I guess it's fine. After all this time, what's a few more days right? I'm pretty excited, this is a pretty big deal for me. I know it was possible to order one from Amazon's Japanese site early. When the US date wasn't too far off, whats the point? If I would have done that, I would have gotten a PC Engine Mini instead. The difference is mainly cosmetic, but it's a good cosmetic. There's also the slightly different game selection to consider. I could be here all day.

I've always wanted one of these, so the mini will suffice just nice. It was a console I could never get my parents to buy me back in the day. For some reason getting one into adulthood was always just out of reach. Thanks to emulation and the games getting put on other systems, I was able to enjoy it kinda. It wasn't that unchecked box of actually owning one though. Not to mention, I've become a fan of micro consoles over the years as they've become a thing. So this is just perfect.

Mega Mini

Earlier this morning (yesterday for you) I got my SEGA Genesis Mini. In case you've missed it before, I work over night. As in from around 6:30pm to 7am normally, that's why my today and your today may differ some (I also schedule posts in advance). What that means in this case is, I was off work right as stores were opening. Near my work is both a Walmart and Target. I went to the Walmart first as they're 24 hours.

Now, I could have went around midnight which is usually when I take my lunch, but as I've learned in the past, it's impossible to buy anything at midnight release at this Walmart. They will never have it ready for sale until the morning for any reason. It's not even worth trying and complaints to customer service go nowhere. So, I got there around 7:30am. I walked around the electronics department for a few minutes and couldn't see any Mini's. As I was leaving, I spotted the boxes behind the sections registers. I quickly go over to the nearby worker who's stocking DVD's and ask if I could buy it, and they said sure. Then it wasn't it in the system and I was told it was a recall dammit to hell.

Here's the Walmart curse, somehow when the employees stock, they don't always do whatever it is in the computer that they've done it or something. What then happens is it's not available for sale. You will be able to fly directly from your feet to Mars without any rocket propulsion before the cashier will not assume it's a recall and get mad at you for trying to buy a product on their shelves. I then politely said 'Today's the release date, it's just probably not in there yet, is there a manager?' The cashier then told me that today, the 19th was not the 19th, and that meant it was not to be sold until tonight at midnight. And then got mad when I said that would then be the 20th. Then they told me things don't come out on Thursdays and at that point I told them to never mind and left for Target.

I got to the Target just as they were opening. Went right to the electronics section. They neither had any on shelf, but hey, it was probably behind a counter or something. They did just open after all. After a moment I saw an employee, asked, and they called the electronics employee who was in fact getting them from the back room. I got my Mini, a Mtn Dew, and some cool Halloween cat treats and went home. They call it Target because they're on point, you see.

I got home and unfortunately didn't really have time to play my new console. I ate something and laid down for some sleep. Don't worry, I'm going to play the hell out of it. I did take time to open up the box and admire the console and controllers. It comes with two 3 button controllers made from the original molds. The original Genesis 3 button controller is my all time favorite controller and boy it's awesome to open a brand new set of them. This weekend I plan to buy one of the 6 button controllers available. Hopefully I'll be able to score one of those cool translucent blue ones, it looks awesome. I've seen some wireless ones already that look like Saturn controllers, and that's very tempting.

I really want a Mega Tower Mini set to go with this so bad. I've been looking around and have a pretty good feeling it will end up on that Christmas list my wife wants me to make for her. Sure, it's just a silly toy, but damn it's cool. It's funny, no matter how many newer consoles I buy, I can never leave behind the 8 and 16 bit eras. I honestly never get tired of playing those games and get excited for every new way to play them. Holding a brand new SEGA made Genesis in my hands is pure joy for me.

16 Bit tears

I've had a rough time lately. Nothing major, normal stuff. Crazy week or two at work. I look at the upcoming weeks and the impending release of the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive Mini and I see a beacon of hope. A light shining bright telling me everything will be alright, soon I'll have my Genesis Mini and my tears will be swept away by the sweet release of 16 bit glory. Now I just got to find a way to score the Mini Tower.

Super Star Soldier

I'm going to be an emotional mess when I get my TurboGrafx-16 Mini.

It's just so wonderful.

TurboGrafx 16 Mini!

I am officially in mini retro console heaven.

PS Classic

Well, I need to get this as well. I had a thought after I saw this. I'm going to take my SNES and NES classic, that tiny Genesis mini, and this... and just stick them all in my backpack.. and still have plenty of room. Teen-aged me's mind would explode.

Wait... what if I cram this and the SNES mini together... would I make an SNES CD mini?

I think I really like the mini retro game system concept.