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Edge Issue 078 (November 1999)

Scanned by the Great and Wonderful J of Oz If you don't love at least a couple of the games in this mag, we grew up playing very different games from one another. The first feature article is about point-and-click adventures for crying out loud. I still have a flaming Max-head cap to this day... And would you believe I bought this mag right here in Japan?

Computer Gaming World Issue 164 (March 1998)

SuperGame Issue 005 (December 1991)

Does anyone remember wax lips? You know, from back before kids had smartphones and had to entertain themselves with gags sold in the backs of comic books, like joy buzzers, fake vomit, and whoopee cushions? You'd put these things on and walk around hoping to get a laugh, till you got bored and just ate them. Dunno why I was thinking of those just now... ... ... ... Oh dear, I've poked the bear known as Horseface Croft, and Silver Edition @Areala is not amused...

On the one hand, that Lara Croft toy... On the other hand, it isn't THAT far off from the first game's CG model. Luckily more attractive Lara toys would be made later on.

There was a brief time period in the late 90s where I got back into buying toys (as opposed to when I was a kid). I remember being excited by the G.I.JOEs featured in this issue. The JOE toyline had gone down the crapper and disappeared a few years earlier (one of their final waves of figures was a true jump-the-shark crossover with Street Fighter), but it was the older figures from the 80s I collected as a kid that interested me. And this new line of Toys R Us exclusives were all repaints of the old 80s characters and vehicles using the original molds. Pretty cool, I thought, and I bought them all. Unfortunately, the production quality wasn't quite up to snuff and they didn't look as good as the prototypes. The Cobra Rage in particular was a total disaster - it's pictured in this issue in a respectable dark blue and black color scheme, but the actual product that shipped was molded in aqua blue and light gray plastic. It was so ugly I actually repainted the entire thing before assembling it, like it was a model or something. I've never gone to such lengths before or since, but I suppose it's nice to have a one-of-a-kind collectible that looks nice (probably with zero resell value, but I swore off eBay for good decades ago, anyway.)

Scanning English-language gaming mags is getting dangerous around here. No matter how good your scan is, it might get refused if someone else already made plans to release it later. Luckily, I don't think anyone else has plans to release Japanese mags, so I can stick to those I guess. And non-gaming mags like ToyFare here. Video games are the base entry level on the pyramid of nerd-dom. Common as. One level up and in much fewer numbers are the comic book fans, represented by Wizard Magazine, which will be coming, eventually. At the top of the pyramid and in the smallest numbers are the action figure collectors - the nerds who play games, read comics, AND aren't ashamed to play with toys. What level of nerd are you?

1st monthly issue

Merry Christmas! Hope Santa brought you lots of toys and goodies. Speaking of which... This issue precedes the monthly publication.