Totally Tiny blind bags

I swear I thought I did an actual topic post on these toys. Every so often I've seen toy commercials for a toyline known as "Totally Tiny". I bought a set out of curiosity just to see what the actual size of these things were - they're awesome! They're the perfect doll house size items. They're basically foodstuff items that come with a small bag of slime. I find that idea a bit stupid but it's meant to be a flavour topping for the food items i.e. yellow slime to go inside the burger buns etc. The first set I bought was a pizza set that came with a pizza box, a full pizza with a slice removed that you can join onto the pizza again, a can of drink and something that resembles a baguette. I'm certain there was some more items but I can't remember what else was included, I'm sure that was the majority though.

After that I felt addicted, the only other set that appealed to me was a grill set that included a grill, tongs, burger with separate pieces for the buns and meat, hot dog and I think cutlery? Again all nice stuff. I had no incentive for the other sets, athough they are nice such as the cake set I think I'll pass for the meantime.

Then recently I noticed they do "blind bag" variations - the type of thing you get in a box but you don't know what will come inside it as it's normally sealed. These were really disappointing! They are designed like a small case which you unseal. The really annoying thing is that the slime takes up half of the space! So all you get are 2 small items, in this case it was a can of drink and a muffin. Whilst they are nice it's a complete rip off for what it is. Once the slime bag is removed there's loads of room for the food items to move about and it leaves a lot to be desired with what you really got from it.

So I'll definitely avoid these for next time. I also have a feeling this toyline won't last for long, I never see the commercials all that often and they're quite sparse from looking online. I've yet to see them in any stores either. The other odd thing when I was looking for the grill set is that a few sites list them as assorted or random with the cake set. So how are they selling them in physical stores? I only found 1 place where I knew I was guaranteed to get the grill.

STOP THE PRESS! - I curiously looked on Amazon in regards to the sets and found 2 new additions coming in September! A sushi set and a chocolate fountain set! So I may get these after all.

More house musings

We finally had a planned house viewing since we lowered the price about a week an a half ago. Whilst we were out with everything ready they called 15 minutes before to tell us the viewers had to cancel. Apparently they're still interested in seeing the place but we don't know when.

It's really damning because we're still not getting a lot of visits since this major price drop and I'm beginning to wonder what the hell is going on. I'm also feeling doubtful about the next visit, it's just going to be another waste. I know we'll eventually get there but I don't like the waiting game now. I want to start viewing other houses for sale but I know the good ones will be gone before we know it.

Current house update

Currently as it stands we've been getting house viewings about once a week but I guess it's still stagnant as far as interest has gone. On the plus side we've been getting feedback for each viewing shortly after someone has viewed it.

This past Monday we got feedback in regards to another house being cheaper than ours. The other house has been on the market a few months before us from what I can recall but it's a cheaper 4 bedroom house. The feedback was basically them saying why buy ours when there's a cheaper house further down?

And because of that we've had to drastically reduce our house price to our intended minimum price. It's a shame but we saw it coming, it was something we discussed not long ago when we had the quiet period of no views for those 2 weeks. So in turn when I was walking Alice yesteday I noticed that house had sold! So I'm assuming the person that looked last week went straight for it. That now means we have no other competition around, there's one around the corner from us but it's not in the street itself and it's a lot more money for what it is (personally) and it was more money even before we changed our price.

Now that this has sold though I did wonder whether if we didn't change the price so soon if it were to make a difference. After nearly 5 months though I honestly don't think that woud make any difference. But it's odd how we've yet to get any interest this week now that the price has reduced. I don't know whether that's a paperwork issue or there's no genuine interest as yet. Sofia did say that they've already updated it though so I'm not sure what to currently think.

At the time of doing this post we've had no viewings for this week which hasn't happened since 3 weeks ago. My concern is that the longer we're for sale, the longer we miss out on good houses. I'm sure that's not entirely the case but I'm noticing houses are selling very quickly now almost as soon as they go for sale. Also I want to be in a new place by the end of the year the latest and ideally before we fully go back to work. I think the time travelling is a bigger waste for it once I'm back in the office. I can only hope we don't go back just yet.

Gameboy mod #3 - complete!

Finally did my Gameboy Pocket IPS mod last night, it's looking really great!

Soldering-wise I struggled the night before, I'm not sure why that was. I think I was a bit overconfident and tried doing stuff in low light conditions. My main struggle was adding solder to the touch sensitive panel, I couldn't make a very good blob out of it. When I tried again last night I decided to use the solder fan vent with the light. I think the bright light helped a lot and for doing it in close range. I also didn't finish everything to solder the night before. I also realised that the other modular connector that connects to the ribbon part wasn't in fully either. Again it could had been due to the lighting even though I used a torch, it was tough to connect. I never had that problem with the other IPS screens I've done. Either way last night went well.

Pretty much everything is installed in a similar way, as I mentioned before there's 4 points to solder on this - the touch pad to the ribbon and the other side of the ribbon to a power connection point where the power switch resides. Initially I thought this might be why the screen wasn't turning on but it looked to be that connection I didn't connect properly.

I've ended up with the same problem as with the GB Color screen, the bottom is slightly cut off again making certain angles visible but the screen seems to be at it's highest point. I might need to check again to see what I can do. I may also change this to a USB mod once I research it, from what I've heard a AAA battery GB Pocket does't have too much batter life what with the light and now that I have and Everdrive GB that finally arrived a few days ago.

With that being said though, this is definitely, DEFINITELY my last mod.

Binging on repro carts

With my recent Gameboy binge I started looking at repro carts of Japanese games that never got an english release. I think it started after I was looking for labels for my GB Pocket shell which annoyingly didn't come with anything. I don't understand how I could normally find a nice cheap shell from China which included all the model number labels to stick on yet I get one within the UK and it only comes with the most basic of items.

So whilst I was looking for one from a seller I found some sites that were selling repro carts I was browsing at a while ago. One I realised was Picross 2 which was a sequel to Mario's Picross and got a fan translation done. I thought it would be nice to have it in physical form. I then only realised yesterday that the Pokémon Trading Card Game also got a Japanese only sequel which again got fan translated. So I decided to buy the repro of this as well.

I know I have an Everdrive ordered (whenever that does arrive!) but I like the idea of having certain physical games that can be played on the hardware, especially if I'm making use of modded hardware.

I'd like to do the same for SNES games as well, mainly Starfox 2 and I believe there is a Picross game that got a Japanese SNES release as well.

Never speak too soon

I guess with ideas I think about it eventually becomes an obsession and I quickly go ahead with it. So really with the last post I should has simply said "I'm now making a Gameboy Pocket IPS mod" instead of what I ended up saying when it was still an idea. It was obvious - third time lucky now right?

I ended up finding just a GB Pocket motherboard on Ebay but there was hardly any around. The other one came with half of a shell and screen. By the time the bids got high it wasn't much different than the motherboard I wanted. Plus with this project I'm not looking to replace the one I have, this is a whole new one so ideally I don't want to be left with spare parts.

So with that in mind I wantged a GBP shell that had the design of the original GB model, I know that there were some versions that got released with that design and shells with it are relatively easy to get. The interesting thing was though I couldn't find any cheap variations from China. The cheapest I found was ironically from a company in the UK and I bought some Gameboy screws from them on a few months back.

Then finally I ordered that lovely IPS screen from Funnyplaying. I'm sure places like Aliexpress do have them but I'm not entirely sure if they are the same and from my understanding the screen is still relatively new so I don't know what Chinese resellers currently have.Regardless it seems the prices aren't that much different than what I mentioned before.

The screen I'm expecting to come last for sure but the other 2 should come within the following week as  they're UK items so at least I can start with trimming the shell as with the others. Lessons learnt from last time would be to trim carefully and not try to bend the plastic where I can with flux cutters, I technically should have no need to bend the plastic off. I need to completely avoid adding the front screen too soon especially when I need to smooth off the plastic with a rotary tool. It gets in the way of the screen and the fragments get in the way of the screen and in between it.

Anyway we'll see how this one goes. From what I've seen of the instructions it's relatively the same thing. This has the most soldering of all of them so at least I can make better use of the soldering iron. There's 2 blobs to solder onto the ribbon cable of which one connects to a part on the main board for contrast I believe. The other part gets soldered onto the touch sensor. The touch sensor for this one is for the different colour palettes so it's worthwhile but more essential I'd say. It's not really a brightness thing with this screen this time around.

ANOTHER IPS Project!?

I said I wasn't going to bother, but I think I have another incentive to do an IPS mod on a Gameboy Pocket but not on my original one. I don't know why, I still like to leave my one intact like with my OG Gameboy.

I saw this video recently that I would say convinced me the most:

I can't remember if I blogged about this but about 6 years ago I tried to do a backlit mod on a red Gameboy Color I got really cheap from a charity shop. I botched up the screen badly which was a shame as it was in really good condition. Looking back now I wish I had kept the whole thing rather than selling off the parts. Obviously you can't predict the future.

I think Funnyplaying are the only ones doing this screen too. I was a bit hesitant about buying their screens previously due to the price but this one doesn't seem that expensive. Especially as the other screens I bought from China were around £35 or so. I think there's only a £5 difference give or take with free shipping.

Plus it's quite a unique screen, you can change the palettes on the cuff and change the pixellation which I've never seen before. I really like that style.

This time I want to just buy a motherboard and not bother with additions. It's not a hassle selling off old shells but in this case as I'm doing it from fresh I only want the essentials. I'm keeping a lookout on Ebay to see what I can justify. There's 2 at the moment with motherboards but I'm hesitant on the prices.