February 8th, 2010 | Auctions, MOTHER 1 | 18 Comments

A few months ago an EarthBound Zero prototype cart showed up on eBay (info here). The auction was taken down, but now the item is back on eBay here.

There are only a few known EarthBound Zero prototype carts in the wild, all of which I’ve documented here. I still need to update a few details about a few of the things on there, I keep forgetting to. Anyway, this particular cart is one of the known copies.

So if you’re a collector, this is your chance to score one of the rarest pieces of EarthBound-related merchandise out there!

Thanks to Alex for the tip!

February 8th, 2010 | Audio Stuff, EarthBound | 3 Comments

Miles V. sent this in a while back:

So what if all those Tenda tribes gathered together for a big ceremony? I’m sure it would have its own kind of quirkiness. I was thinking of world music when creating this in my past time. Not only is this my longest track made so far, but it includes over 30 instruments that made it possible. See how much you recognize. I have a reference in there, too. Enjoy!

…Not shy anymore.

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download MP3

This is from his “Moonsidian” album. I posted another song from it here a while back.

February 7th, 2010 | Weekly Round-Up | 18 Comments

This past week was weird, it was like “EarthBound Collectors Week” or something. The EarthBound display card for $305, LucasTizma and the $3000 addition to his collection, and the new mini Mr. Saturn plushes. I don’t have much of a collection, but I really like keeping up with this stuff and seeing other people’s collections.

Anyway, here’s what other EarthBound-related stuff has happened this past week throughout the information super-tubeway.

Community News

• MOTHER 3 For Haiti – happening later this week
• “Sorry, I’m Dead”: 30 Most Memorable Video Game Quotes
• Shigesato Itoi’s No. 1 Bass Fishing
• MOTHER 4?
• 8 Melodies
• Sound Current: ‘Fan-Fueled Retro Game Revival – Tokyo Big Sight’s Comic Market 77′

My face melted, so I can’t possibly keep up with every single thing that happens in the EarthBound community, so if you’ve done something cool or if you know of something cool that belongs here, let me know!

Cool Auctions & Merchandise

The big EarthBound merch news this past week was the EarthBound display card that sold for $305 and the new mini Mr. Saturns that hit Japanese arcades. But here’s some other interesting stuff that showed up this week in case you missed it.

Of course, you can also see all the EarthBound / MOTHER stuff on eBay all gathered in one handy place here!

• EarthBound Display Card! – here’s another one, probably won’t be as expensive
• New mini Mr. Saturn plushes for $50! – potential!
• EarthBound cartridge for $85 – $85 or less is where I personally draw the line for carts
• EarthBound + Strategy Guide
• MOTHER 2 / EarthBound comic: Ness’s Great Adventure – drawn by the game’s character designer and tells the full story of the game, someone was selling this for $165 used just the other day so this is a pretty decent price!
• MOTHER 2 cartridge for only $9.99!
• EarthBound Player’s Guide – strangely, these have been getting rarer and rarer this past month or two
• EarthBound, complete with game, guide, and box
• Shigesato Itoi’s No. 1 Bass Fishing (Super Famicom) complete, for only $5

And here’s some cool stuff on Yahoo! Auctions Japan:

• Mini Mr. Saturns
• Nintendo Official MOTHER 2 Guide Book
• Set of MOTHER 1 guides

And stuff on Amazon:

• EarthBound is at $89.99 this week on Amazon
• MOTHER 1 is available, for $25
• EarthBound Player’s Guide… for $200?! Ouch ouch

What’s Up With Itoi

• Nothing too much of interest this week. For some reason it seemed like it was “unusual headwear week” though.

Final Thought

The Where’s Ness stuff is running low, so this may be one of the last ones unless readers send some more in. This week’s looks pretty interesting, see what you can find!

February 6th, 2010 | Auctions, MOTHER 3, Merchandise | 17 Comments

Those mini-Mr. Saturn plushies hit Japanese arcades yesterday and they’re already on eBay now! Someone is selling a bunch of them here for $50 each.

I’m not sure how often these will show up on eBay, so this is probably a good chance to snag one before they get especially rare as time goes on. Even the normal-sized Mr. Saturn plushes are pretty hard to come by nowadays.

EDIT: These are suddenly all over Yahoo Auctions Japan now. Here’s a pic from one of them!

That’s good eatin’!

February 5th, 2010 | MOTHER 3, Merchandise | 17 Comments

A little while back I posted about how new mini-Mr. Saturn plushes would be hitting Japanese arcades in February. Well, it’s February and I think today (in Japan) marks the first day that they’re available. I see that they’re starting to show up on Yahoo Auctions Japan too.

It’s still too soon to know how high these will sell for, but my guess is that when they’re on eBay they’ll generally go for between $50 and $80. Any higher and it’d be far cheaper to just import some from Japan.

If anyone gets ahold of one of these, please take lots of pics and/or videos for us! If you’re in Japan, you can see a list of arcades that have these guys here.

February 5th, 2010 | EarthBound, Itoi, Uncommon Knowledge | 5 Comments

I covered this topic before in this update debunking a myth about the “demon baby” story in EarthBound, but fellow EarthBound fan and translator Chewy recently posted an article giving some more info about the subject and the book “Let’s Meet in a Dream”.

Check out her article here!

February 5th, 2010 | Auctions, EarthBound, Merchandise | 18 Comments

Remember that EarthBound display card that showed up on eBay the other day? Well, the auction ended, and the final price was $305.01

EarthBound is well-known for its expensive merchandise these days, but even $300 is a surprise to me. Here are some other EarthBound things in the past that have been surprisingly expensive:

• EarthBound Zero prototype sells for $1500
• Someone bought a giant Mr. Saturn plush for $800 (see comments)
• EarthBound BOX sells for $80
• Opportunist tries to sell giant Mr. Saturn plush for $2000
• New copy of EarthBound sells for over $1000!

I’m sure there’s been other stuff, if you remember anything I’ve forgotten let me know. Also, I should give up my day job and become an EarthBound merchandise dealer

February 4th, 2010 | EarthBound, Images, Merchandise | 34 Comments

Many months ago I posted about LucasTizma’s latest additions to his MOTHER collection. But a true collector can never stop, which is why he went and ordered yet another huge batch of MOTHER stuff from Japan. Here are his latest spoils:

When I first saw these pics I thought, “Oh, that’s not a very big collection.” But then I realized that this is just his most recent stuff from this month. Also, it cost $3000 I can’t even begin to imagine what his entire collection cost!

February 3rd, 2010 | EarthBound, Uncommon Knowledge | 19 Comments

This is pretty old by now, but it’s still pretty neat.

For some reason I think it might’ve been the old Starmen.Net/EarthBound.Net staffer Mars who figured that out about 10 years ago. Maybe I’m remembering wrong though.

This wasn’t intentional, though. Tendas are called Gumis/Gummies in MOTHER 2. It’s just a neat coincidence in EarthBound

February 2nd, 2010 | Auctions, EarthBound, Merchandise | 90 Comments

You know how some stores like Walmart or Toys R Us sometimes have (or had) little display things for each video game they have in stock? Well, apparently one for EarthBound just showed up on eBay:

Here are some pics:

In all my time, I’ve never ever seen one of these (for EarthBound) being sold. So if you’re a collector, this is your chance to get something almost no one else can. Also, how I wish EarthBound was still at that price. Stores in the late 90s really wanted to get this game out of their stock.

$30.00 Rare Super Nintendo Earthbound Mario Snes Games Lot RPG	$226.50 RARE CHRONO DRACULA X EARTHBOUND NINJA TRILOGY SNES SYS
$2.99 Mother (cartridge only) Famicom/NES JP IMPORT.

See all 218 auctions here!