Atari Flashback 1 with Clear Case

[MyPawnsEatPpl]

Does anyone know anything about this? Weren't these only available in black?

 

 

[jaybird3rd]

Interesting. As far as I know, the FB1 was indeed sold only in black. My best guess is that these are preproduction samples, made of clear plastic as a way of testing the molds, but of course that's only a guess.

 

Where did these come from?

[MyPawnsEatPpl]

I'm afraid that this could set off a bidding war but it's up for sale on ShopGoodwill right now:

https://www.shopgoodwill.com/Item/56029627

 

It's at a Goodwill store in Santa Rosa, CA.

 

I messaged Curt Vendel about it but he has yet to reply. So bid at your own risk. We aren't really sure where this thing came from.

Edited August 11, 2018 by MyPawnsEatPpl

[Flojomojo]

Don't be afraid ... that's how the market decides what it is worth.

 

I put a bid on it because it looks neat. Problem is, inside it's the same Nintendo on a chip as the original. It has some passable imitations of Asteroids, Food Fight, and Solaris on it though.

[Curt Vendel]

Does anyone know anything about this? Weren't these only available in black?

 

 

Those were a special run of Cystal units, I had 5 made. I kept one, the Factory owner kept one. One went to Bruno Bonnell and another went to Wim Stocks - both Atari CEO and an Atari exec. The 5th was placed into a deep wall hanging display case that was supposed to have been hung on the Executive area of Atari inc at the time when they were at 417 5th avenue, the old GT Interactive offices. Not long after the Flashback 2 came out, Atari sold off the old Tonka/Habro building in Mass. and then began consolidating everyone together while new floors were being built at 5th avenue. Then Atari started its rapid downward spiral, the new floors became 1 floor, the others were sold off, then the 1 floor was cut in 1/2, then into 1/4 and eventually closed all together. I still have my original Crystal Flashback and I know the Factory owner still has his. So that is one of the other three and most likely it was the one that was in the display box meant for the wall. Whomever got that, congrats, its a super rare oddity.

[CatPix]

That reminded me of something else...

 

 

I STILL HAVENT GOT MINE

[Shawn]

Those were a special run of Cystal units, I had 5 made.

 

Pretty brutal that they just ditched it at goodwill.

[CatPix]

Either they forgot it on the wall, or dropped it in a box with other stuff, and with the massive moving and layoff, they forgot it, and the new owners clearly had no idea of what it was and at least saved it instead of throwing it in the bin.

It was probably still on the wall IMO, because the only reason it would have been salvaged was if the unit was in a display case, rather that boxed, in which case most people would probably think it was some old promotional item (heh, it was the Atari building, there were probably thousand of Atari labelled boxes everywhere)

Bruno Bonnell is living in France again now, so unless he ditched it when he was pushed out of Atari 8 years ago and that unit slept in a box somewhere until now, he probably still have his own model.

Although with his massive ego he might have thrown it at this time or left it in the Atari headquarters when he was fired. But that seems unlikely.

Edited February 10, 2019 by CatPix

[ToddL]

Sold for only $16? Anyone here the winner?

[CatPix]

Dang, I didn't even looked at it, I though It would sell for more than that. Even if I don't think they would have shipped it overseas.

Edited February 14, 2019 by CatPix

[Rob M]

On 2/13/2019 at 10:10 PM, ToddL said:

Sold for only $16? Anyone here the winner?

I am the one who ended up with this!! While I was going through my entire video game collection, and looking up information for various items, I came across this post. 

[Rob M]

And now I am curious at what this might actually be worth. It has been sitting in a closet with the rest of my atari flashback collection. 

[CatPix]

Given it's an unique iteration of a system with "little" value... it's probably worth "how much the next guy will want to pay for it".

 

About this item, we have a message here saying

Quote

Those were a special run of Cystal units, I had 5 made. I kept one, the Factory owner kept one. One went to Bruno Bonnell and another went to Wim Stocks - both Atari CEO and an Atari exec. The 5th was placed into a deep wall hanging display case that was supposed to have been hung on the Executive area of Atari inc at the time when they were at 417 5th avenue, the old GT Interactive offices.

So we know it's NOT Curt Vendel 's one since he say he still have his own. It might be the factory's owner's one, Bonnel's one, Wim Stock's one or the "decorative model".

We can't even link this model to any of those persons, bu even if it was, how much would you pay for an item that belonged to Bruno Bonnell or Win Stocks?

What about paying big money for the "deep wall hanging display case" one?

It's a very interesting piece of talk and I regret not tryign to bid on it, but ultimately I'm afraid it has, for now, little value.

[Rob M]

My thoughts exactly,  it's a really cool piece to have in my collection, It would be interesting to find out which one this really is. If it was the one that was in the display, it would be neat to recreate that display. But you are right, the value really would only be what someone would be willing to pay. Truthfully, I have no intentions of selling it at the moment anyways, I'm a collector, and rarely sell items.

[Shawn]

2 hours ago, Rob M said:

And now I am curious at what this might actually be worth. It has been sitting in a closet with the rest of my atari flashback collection. 

 

A heck of a lot more than the $16 you paid for it, that is for sure!