I bought the case from eBay, I paid $149.99 for the case only without the console FWIW. The seller relisted the case as a BIN after multiple offers. Not sure of the value, but I really wanted the generic TravelMaster Non-Blockbuster rental case in my collection.
My TravelMaster case arrived:
Lets take a look inside shall we?
Oh my stars, what plush intererior. The prototype VB console isn’t too shabby either. 😎
Benjamin Stevens wrote:
I’m not sure if I can say that it is “worth” that much, but I figured that given its extreme rarity, one would probably have to bid $200 or so to win it in an eBay auction.
I paid $150 for the case only, not bundled with the sellers included console. I’m happy with my purchase, but my bad if that’s something you think is a low-ball. I honestly didn’t think the seller would get $150 for the case and also the additional average going rate for a complete working VB.
The prototype console pictured was roughly $900 USD+ Paypal fees, part of KR155E’s personal collection. A good deal on both acquisitions this month, IMO.
Benjamin Stevens wrote:
Well, I can honestly say that I know someone else who owns the Travel Master case. He’s actually been one of my closest friends for over 17 years. He got a Virtual Boy, carrying case, and several games way back when they were still in stores but on clearance and ready to leave stores forever. He tried to get me interested in the Virtual Boy back then, but I was still in high school with not much funds, so I ignored the Virtual Boy and continued to do so for many years until just this past one. It wasn’t until this past year, after I became interested in the Virtual Boy, that I then asked him what all he had in Virtual Boy regard. He then went to his closet and pulled out none other than the Travel Master case with his Virtual Boy and several games. I told him how rare of an item it is, and he thought it was pretty neat that he had a rare item all these years, but he has no desire to sell it. He also doesn’t have much desire in the Virtual Boy at all. I can’t get him to play it, but I’ve been thinking about ordering another FlashBoy and giving it to him as a gift. Then perhaps we can do some “bargaining,” since he wants me to play so many computer games that I could care less about and I want him to play Virtual Boy games which he could care less about. This way, if I give him a FlashBoy and all released ROMs, I can say, “I’ll play this computer game with you sometime if you can give me evidence that you’ve played this Virtual Boy game,” etc. I hope my plan works. 🙂
Holy moly. For starters, I’ve had “those” VB friends. I think no matter how much incentive we may offer, they will never catch the “VB Bug”. With the community at heart, it would be amazing if you can jog his memory as of where he got the case itself. KR155E and I have discussed this topic in deep detail, and yet have no deep knowledge in the Southern Case Co both marketing and production of the specific VB stuff. As buyers, we generally can’t act too eager and ask detailed questions since we don’t want to tee off that it is a special item and ruin the sale.
The Virtual Boy case is a poor mold remake of the TravelMaster, but official. You can find Sega Saturn and Atari Jaguar TravelMaster cases, but the upper foam is different from both them and the Blockbuster VB cases. Luckily no fakes have surfaced, and you can’t simply swap VB foam in a travelmaster case without these differences being apparent to those that care. As a matter of fact, travel master bottom foam even squishes the VB visor on the right side and is not identical to Blockbuster foam in dimensions. There are lots of small differences, mainly the travel master having a nicer looking case shell and the blockbuster having superior VB foam dimensions.
Here are some photos of my friend’s Travel Master case. I asked him about it again last night, and I was apparently mistaken about him getting it at Hills or Ames. He got it at a Toys R Us that used to be in the mall of Indiana, PA.
I’ve been under the strong influence that these were rental cases. Be it VB, Sega Saturn, Atari Jaguar, etc. All usually have the exact same case, with different padding to accommodate each console. Much like the later blockbuster run with the VB Sticker, the Atari Jaguar also had a run with the Jaguar logo embossed in the plastic.
You may ask why I called the blockbuster a later run? It’s because the case loses all the fine mold details shown in the travel master branded case.
Southern-case also used to only deal with “specialized” retail locations as per their own admission. I’m not calling your friend a liar, just wanted to bring to light that most travel master cases (Non-VB) have been reported as purchased from small rental stores. Had I ever spotted one of these hard cases for sale in 1995 for the VB at any Toys R Us location, I would have bought it since the VB was in dire need of a hard case. Once again, I have no reason to call your friend a liar, but if his memory is solid this case was only in a small consumer test market.
A fun fact about the TravelMaster/Blockbuster hardcase:
“Southern designs their cases to withstand temperatures “down to 40 degrees below zero.” They come with a lifetime warranty against “cracking, peeling, and breaking.”
The Sega Saturn case had the same generic lid that the VB does.
Anyway, check out this cool lid for the Jaguar TravelMaster Case (wish the VB got the same custom molded logo treatment):
