I just completed a project that I had been sitting on for awhile. I’m just now starting to think back and I’ve decided it was a couple of years ago that this all started. Benjamin Stevens had mentioned that he would be selling some items from his collection in an effort to raise a bit of cash. At first I thought there would be nothing of interest for me, because I am not a collector. I already had a FB+ and was using it to enjoy ROMs, hacks, translations, and homebrew. Out of curiosity I checked out his list, and wouldn’t you know it, he owned FB #13.
It would take me a few pages of writing to explain to everyone what this number means to me and my family. Let me just say that it has been an incredibly lucky number. Many important events have fallen on the 13th of the month, happened 13 days late, and so forth. I knew that I had to own this FB, I just had no idea how.
I contacted Ben and we discussed it, after a few e-mails we settled on a price. Through the course of discussion I came to find out that at least 2 other people had owned this specific flashkit before Ben. At some point, it was loaned out to a person who managed to scratch the label. I wasn’t entirely concerned about this or the contents of the box. I just wanted the FB cart itself and the box that was numbered 13.
I eventually received it, and it was pre-flashed with the SFII demo. I enjoyed it. Everything was working perfectly. For the first time I had “collected” something related to the VB.
Out of curiosity I contacted KR155E, who had been involved with the early FB releases. I simply asked him if he happened to still have the label template, I wanted to run off a new sticker and replace the old one. Chris responded with something I had not expected, he thought he might have some new-old-stock stickers sitting in a drawer. Luck was on my side, he did, and he mailed them off to me without letting me pay even so much as postage (THANKS SO MUCH!!).
After I received them I sat on the envelope for a while. I had a bunch of crap happen in my life and I forgot about the stickers. A few weeks ago I decided to do some spring cleaning and in a random box, stuffed into a corner (probably something anyone else would have just tossed out), I found the envelope. I can only assume I had set it there wanting to put it some place safer, and eventually forgot about it.
In the envelope was not only a few labels, but a quick reference card and a planetVB advertisement cart. Both of the cards had been missing from the #13 FB box (from what I can recall). After digging this all up again I decided it was long overdue to make the FB whole again.
Getting the old label off was easy. I recalled an e-mail from MineStorm in which he mentioned that he soaks donor carts to get the label off. So I tried this. I dropped the top half of the cart into a container of water and let it sit, for a few days. The label became soft enough that I was able to scrap it off with just the back of my nail. I then washed it with a soft sponge under water with some common dish soap. Then I rinsed it off thoroughly and let it sit and dry.
None of the old labels are perfect. The “glossy” coating on the photo paper is wearing off. Some are worse than others. I picked the best of the bunch and applied it to the front of the cart shell. It has a clear “Virtual Boy” logo print, and the colors are still rather vibrant. The end result is something I am extremely happy with!
My #13 FB now has everything it originally shipped with, minus the mini-USB cable. The best part?? Everything is new/original old-stock.
Thanks Ben, Chris, and Richard!
If there are any FB owners out there who need an original sticker, PM me. I also have an extra PlanetVB advertisement card. Collectors Beware — I’ll require proof. I want these stickers to be used, on actual carts, and not simply put into a collection.
