One of my newest editions to the old Virtual Boy collection is a set of prints made by Hudson Soft, which can be ironed on to a T-shirt. Included in this set is an iron-on print for Vertical Force. It seems that these would have never been made commercially available in stores in Japan, so my guess is that these were handed out at a Hudson Soft booth that was set up at one of the trade shows held in Japan either shortly before or shortly after the commercial release of Vertical Force.
The print for Vertical Force is about 2 and 13/16 inches wide by 2 and 11/16 inches tall. The Hudson Soft print is 2 and 3/4 inches wide by 2 and 3/4 inches tall. The Super Bomberman print, which is oval-shaped, is 3 and 1/4 inches wide through the center horizontally and 2 inches tall through the center vertically.
Below are the Japanese instructions for the prints in digital format, and beneath these are my English translations for them, which I made using translation software programs and an online Japanese to English dictionary. I don’t plan to ever iron these babies onto a T-shirt, though.
Original Japanese Instructions:
ハドソンアイロンプリント[3枚入り]
おとなといっしょ
1. アイロン台にプリントする物(Tシャツ等)を置き、シートの絵の見える方を上にして位置を決めます。
2. アイロンを温度140°C ー 160°Cで約15秒強く押しあてます。
3. アイロンをはずして、そのまま常温まで冷やします。(水や氷を使ってはいけません。)
4. プリントする物からシートをゆっくりはがすとできあがりです。
※使用する布地は綿、混紡で目の詰まった布地ほどきれいに仕上がります。
ご注意
●アイロンの取扱いには十分注意してください
●小学生以下の方は必ず、大人の方にやってもらいましょう。
●綿、混紡以外の布地には使用しないでください。
●発水加工の物には使用しないでください。
●規定の温度、圧着時間を必ず守ってください。
●アイロンのスチームは必ずOFFにしてください。
●プリントする布地、圧着によって、何回か洗濯すると絵柄が落ちる場合があります。ご了承ください。
Ben Stevens’ English translation of original Japanese Instructions:
Hudson Iron Prints (3 pieces)
*Do with an adult
1. Place the T-shirt, etc., on which the picture is to be printed, on an ironing board and set the sheet containing the picture into position, with the side to be seen facing up.
2. Strongly press the iron against the sheet for about 15 seconds at a temperature of 140°C to 160°C.
3. Remove the iron and leave it cool to room temperature. (Do not use water or ice.)
4. Slowly peel the sheet off of the item on which the picture has been printed and you are finished.
※For a clean finish, use cotton, a blended fabric, or one of the finer fabrics.
Caution
●Please be careful when handling the iron
●Children in elementary school or below should always do this with an adult.
●Do not use fabrics other than cotton and blended fabrics.
●Water-repellent materials should NOT be used.
●Always adhere to the specified temperature and press time.
●Be sure to turn off the steam iron when finished.
●Please note that, depending on the fabric on which the picture is printed and the pressure bonding, the picture might fade or fall off after washing several times.
I need some new coffee cups and I think why not with a virtualboy logo?
I create the cups in a online printstore,and the cups arrived my these days.
It looks cool and I’m happy with it.
In my opinion the coffee taste better with these cups 😉
Thank you Candi for the 20th logo!
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Happy new year! As a late Christmas gift or birthday present I got Virtual Lab for a very good price. So here are some of my games… Also have Waterworld and Vertical Force CIB, but not here right now. I’m feeling crazy having all this, when I see it 🙂 But I just couldn’t resist buying the games. Found this great site, decided to join, because now I feel like a Virtual Boy guy…
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White-Box, Pre-Production Virtual Boy System with White-Box, Pre-Production AC Adapter Tap
A very interesting specimen, which has been added recently to the ol’ Virtual Boy collection, is a very early Virtual Boy system – so early, in fact, that it has no serial number, helping to show that it was made before the mass production run of Virtual Boy systems, each of which were given a serial number indicating how far along in the production run it was made. Now, while the exterior of this system’s head unit, eyeshade, controller, and stand look exactly the same as those made in mass production, save for the fact that the head unit has no serial number on it, there are items included with this system which further help to show just how early on it was made.
The first item to note is the pure white box, in which this system was packaged. It has already been known for quite some time that Virtual Boy systems produced very early on in the mass production run, containing serial numbers indicating that they were made within the first 1,000 or so units produced, were packaged in pure white boxes. Some of these systems were shipped to the United States and were intended to be used in stores for Interactive Display purposes only, so they were not intended to be put on store shelves and sold to customers. Such systems had writings placed on the outside of the white boxes, which read as follows:
VUE S RA
VIRTUAL BOY(TM) W/O SOFTWARE
FOR INTERACTIVE DISPLAY
MADE IN JAPAN
The white box used to contain this particular unit having no serial number does not have any writings of any kind on the outside of it. Rather, in the upper left corner of the front of the white box, it simply contains a taped on, cropped image of what would later be used in Japan for the front cover of the Virtual Boy system’s instruction manual. Inside the white box itself, there is no instruction manual for this VB unit. The fact that the Japanese seller who owned this unit before me seems to have kept all packaging originally included with the system and also kept everything in rather pristine condition, along with the other indicators showing that this system was certainly made very early on and even before mass production of Virtual Boy systems with serial numbers, is strong evidence that this system would have never had an instruction manual included with it, which may have been misplaced or lost in the meantime. The instruction manual later included with the mass produced systems may not have even been finalized at the time that this system was made and packaged.
Another interesting item included with this unit, clearly indicating its early manufacture, is a special AC Adapter Tap. Just as certain Virtual Boy systems, whose serial numbers range from about 34000 to 38000, were packaged in “mosaic” pattern boxes and had AC Adapter Taps with matching “mosaic” pattern boxes to go with them, so also does this White-Box, Pre-Production Virtual Boy system have an AC Adapter Tap with matching white box to go with it. Now, the AC Adapter Taps packaged in the “mosaic” pattern boxes – also simply referred to as “demo taps,” since they along with their systems were to be used in Japanese retail stores for demonstration purposes only and were not to be sold to customers – had instruction sheets included in their boxes, explaining how to use them. This “white-box tap” has no instruction sheet included with it, and once again, given all of the other indicators showing its early manufacture, I must conclude that it never had an instruction sheet included with it and that the instruction sheet for the taps later produced may not have even been finalized at the time that this tap was made and packaged in its white box.
Of course, since comparisons have been made in the past between the demo taps and the commercially released taps and differences have been noted, it was necessary for me to compare the white-box tap with the later-made mosaic tap, or demo tap, and see if any differences could be found. As can be seen in two of the photos attached to this post, on the inside of the white-box tap, there is no sticker containing information about the tap, whereas the mosaic-box tap does, in fact, contain an information sticker on the inside. Also, it has been noted on the “Side by Side Mosaic VS Standard Adapter Taps” forum thread on this site (see: http://www.planetvb.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=18007#forumpost18007) that, on the underside of the front cover of the Mosaic-Box AC Adapter Tap itself, a certain mold number should appear, such as “2” or “3.” Well, while my camera might not be good enough to show this area of the white-box tap clearly enough, after very close inspection with my naked eye, while holding it at an angle into the light, I can say with complete certainty that my White-Box, Pre-Production AC Adapter Tap has no mold number at all on the underside of the front cover of the tap itself. Incidentally, the Mosaic-Box, Demo-Only AC Adapter Tap, which appears in the attached photos to the right of the white-box tap, contains a mold number of “1,” as I could clearly see with my naked eye upon close inspection. One should also closely examine the close up shot of the two inner parts of the taps side by side to note the differences in the inner molding structures of the two taps. Moreover, it has been previously noted that on the outer sides of the mosaic taps, which slide into and connect with the Virtual Boy controllers, there are skinny rectangular openings in the spots where the standard, commercially released AC Adapter Taps have fatter, more square-shaped openings. As was to be expected with the white-box tap, which was no doubt made before the mosaic-box tap, the white-box tap also has these skinny, rectangular openings in the same places.
The Japanese seller who owned this Virtual Boy system before me said that this type of VB unit was sent to Japanese developers who were working on Virtual Boy games prior to the launch of the system in Japan. Thus, these systems would have been primarily used by the video game developers for testing purposes during the development phase of the Virtual Boy’s life. Based on my own analysis of the contents included with the whole package, I certainly have no reason to doubt the seller’s statement and conclude that the contents themselves prove the seller’s statement to be true.
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Here are some neat items that I won in an Ebay auction recently. They are collectible caps that were made and distributed via Nintendo Power’s Super Power Club. This collection even includes two official Nintendo Power Super Power Club Caps binders to hold all of the caps in. There are 6 sheets in each binder, and each sheet holds 12 caps, so the first six sheets in the following photos are from the first binder that is completely full, and the 7th sheet is actually the first sheet of the second binder, which only contains the 4 known Virtual Boy Caps.
I don’t know how many caps were ever made and distributed via The Super Power Club, so I have no idea of how complete this cap collection is, but it consists of 76 caps comprising the following video games/characters/systems:
1. Super Metroid
2. Mega Man X
3. Mario Bros.
4. Stunt Race FX
5. Killer Instinct
6. Earthbound
7. Nintendo Mascots
8. Yoshi’s Island
9. Virtual Boy
The 4 Virtual Boy caps, namely those containing images for Galactic Pinball, Mario’s Tennis, Teleroboxer, and the Virtual Boy system itself, are the only caps that are optigraphics caps, where you can see different images on each individual cap, depending on the angle at which you hold the cap in relation to your eye. There are actually 3 images that can be seen in each cap: the image for the game or system, the standard Virtual Boy logo, and then the faint background image showing a different, circular logo for the Virtual Boy. If you look closely at the attached photo of these, you can actually see all 3 images at once because of the angle at which these were positioned when I scanned them. Earlier on this thread, I posted a picture of the 4 Virtual Boy Caps that I used to own but sold in the meantime, and the image for the game or system on each cap can be seen much more clearly in that previous picture posted.
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Benjamin Stevens schrieb:
White-Box, Pre-Production Virtual Boy System with White-Box, Pre-Production AC Adapter Tap
Very interesting version,I dont now this before.
Thanks for sharing!
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RunnerPack wrote:
Cool pogs, Benjamin!Would it be possible to get a high-res photo of that round VB logo? I’ve been wanting one ever since I first saw a tiny version on DogP’s site. Thanks in advance 😀
I realize that it still isn’t too clear, but I think it is the best I can do. Even looking at all 4 caps/pogs with my naked eye, I had to conclude that the circular logo looked the most prominent on the Mario’s Tennis cap and that it also looked most prominent with the Standard Virtual Boy logo showing instead of the Mario’s Tennis logo, and it’s not possible to have neither logo showing over the circular Virtual Boy logo. Thus, this is the cap and angle that I chose as what would be best for highest resolution scanning for the circular Virtual Boy logo to be shown the best.
