WTB: Elemental Gearbolt Assassin's Case

[Sammelhammel]

I know it's really hard (or impossible) to get one, but it's christmas-time and I give it a try :D
And where else can I search one...???

I'm looking for an "Elemental Gearbolt Assassin's Case" in new or mint condition.

Otherwise I don't know what this one cost...I think the price on the online-rarity-guide (200 Dollar) is kind of low, isn't it?

Let me know or write me a PM :)

Thanks

[Vectorman0]

Expect to pay over $500 if you can find one. Good luck with your search, you will need it.

[Sammelhammel]

thanks vector :)

I hope somebody is going to offer me one...I think I also have a lot of stuff to trade.

We'll see.... :)

[Fighter17]

Good luck.

I think around 20 were made.

[Vectorman0]

It's closer to 40, but it's still impossible to find because most never got a chance to get into the hands of collectors: http://www.game-rave.com/psx/playstation_perfect_guide/features/assassin_case/index.html

[Sammelhammel]

Yes....I have my informations also from this side.

Think I'm going to give Working Designs' CEO Victor Ireland a ring later on :D

[norkusa]

I used to have one. Bought it off Ebay in '00 from a guy that won it in a contest at E3 (I think that was the story). Traded it off to a Japanese collector for some rare Virtual Boy stuff a while ago though. It was a fair trade but I kinda wish I didn't do it now since that case was so cool looking and I miss it.

The info about the memory card is wrong on that site. The case I had came with a gold memory card and not a red one (got pics to back it up). Maybe they painted gold ones special for the contest winners but red definitely wasn't the only color.

[Sammelhammel]

Thanks for the info about the memory-card.
Can you tell me the approx. value of the virtual-boy stuff which you got for the case??

[Fighter17]

Thanks for the info about the memory-card.
Can you tell me the approx. value of the virtual-boy stuff which you got for the case??


He might had gotten that rare SD Gundam game for the VB.

[norkusa]

I actually got a new copy of Virtual Lab for the case, which at the time was worth around $200-$300 (my Gundam cart came from another trade). I also got a few more common NIB games like Jack Bros and a couple others as well as some Jap accessories like the official VB headphones, visor, and adapter tap. I originally paid $150 after shipping for the Assassins Case on Ebay...which is to this day the most I ever paid for a non-new game related item.

About the memory card though, it was just a normal PS1 memory card that was painted the same way that the guns were. I remember the sticker on the underside of it was peeling off, so it looks like they just took regular PS1 memory cards and peeled off those stickers for the paint-job, and stuck them on again when they were finished.

[Sammelhammel]

up to the top

[Dangerboy]

The web-site is mine, and mine came from someone who bought it off of one of the GamePro editors. I never got replies from Vic on if there were non-Gold Memory cards or not, but I have 3 the have admitted theirs do have it.

However, the seller swears that's how it came from the GP editor, so either he's lying, or the Editor lost / kept the original card, if there was a gold card in all of them to begin with.

Though now that I have the process / card brand confirmed from an outside source, I can see if I can have a proper card made to replace the red one.

Hopefully there's no variant for this thing.

And no, mine's not for sale. ^_^;;

Jason

[norkusa]

Dangerboy, I'm pretty sure you got the right card with yours. About 2 or 3 years after I bought mine off Ebay, I saw another listing for one that had the red memory card. I remember the auction ended real low but it didn't meet the reserve.

At the time, I thought it the seller lost it and replaced it with a random red card. But after seeing a couple other cases with red cards, it looks like there was a mix of both.

[Vectorman0]

I think they must have ran out of gold spray paint!

[TurboGenesis]

What is your reason for wanting the assassins case? I am in "search" of one for my self as it is the only thing I lack in a complete Working Designs collection.

Nice site Dangerboy!

I imagine that this artifact will reach astroniomical status should it appear on ebay again - likely NWC (gray) prices!

[Dangerboy]

Great.

So there IS a variant to the Assassin's Case.

Shoot me.

Seriously.

[PapaStu]

Can I take the gun out of the case and finish you off?


From what I remember of Zach Meston telling me about these, he said somewhere in the 40 range were made, and almost all of them were given away to the people in Japan who did the game or to those that had a huge investment in getting the game done and dealt with for the American release (he said he didn't even get one and he did a ton of testing and other work on it). He along with a few other people (He being Zach) were the ones that painted the guns and cards with the gold paint. My guess is that they probably just ran out since they were using cans of spraypaint and this was being done right before the E3 that year. One was given away in a contest that year to the high scorer for the weekend. The guy who won it immedately tossed it up on ebay afterwords and maybe 5 have changed hands since.

@ TurboGenesis, This won't hit a price like a NWC (just too specialized), but I can garantee that the next one that goes up will have some good competition for it. Me included, and i'm not afraid to make some loony bids, i've done it before for other PlayStation stuff and i'm sure i'll do it again.

@ Sammalhammel, Don't waste your time asking Vic about it. He keeps quiet about that kinda stuff, and if he did, he's just got his and isn't selling it. Some of us have already been down that road.

[TurboGenesis]

@ TurboGenesis, This won't hit a price like a NWC (just too specialized), but I can garantee that the next one that goes up will have some good competition for it. Me included, and i'm not afraid to make some loony bids, i've done it before for other PlayStation stuff and i'm sure i'll do it again.


Ahh PapaStu it may get some high bids as we could end up competing for this treasure :D just kidding I don't know if the wife would aprove of my astronomical spending on such a item.

I may have to live with the fact that I may never have a truly complete collection but I will try!

[WanganRunner]

I think I'd probably pay $500 for one of these.

[vireland]

...(He being Zach) were the ones that painted the guns and cards with the gold paint. My guess is that they probably just ran out since they were using cans of spraypaint and this was being done right before the E3 that year.

This is a really old thread, but I guess it's a good place to stop the nonsense that the guns and memory cards were painted with gold spray paint. Apologize for the necrobump, but fixing this for posterity.

Zach can be very nice, but he can also be a habitual liar. I learned this the hard way, and we had to threaten a lawsuit if he didn't stop spreading lies about WD and its staff. He didn't even show up at the lawyer's office, just called (? Or the lawyer called him, I don't remember) and said he would stop if we didn't sue him (because he would have 100% certainly lost in court, some of his lies were ridiculous and he signed an NDA, to boot). I guess he didn't abide by his word. Surprise.

If he actually told you that he spray painted the Elemental Gearbolt gold guns before E3, that is a complete lie. Period. ALL the plastic parts that are gold were sent out to an electroplate company WAY before E3. You can't get the shiny metallic finish we had on those guns with spray paint. Period. Vacuum Metallizing is the process where plastic is given a shiny metal-looking finish by adhering a real metal coating to plastic. The electroplating company vacuum metallized all the gun parts we sent, but it took a LONG time to get them all back and send out the completed prizes.

So, there you have it. The EGB guns are NOT "spray painted by Zach Meston", they were professionally vacuum metallized, which Zach had zero to do with, though he did assemble some of them with other WD employees pre-E3 for the contest.

The electroplater didn't get all the pieces done on time, but sent enough for us to use at E3. We DID have to assemble the guns at E3, since they were coated in separate pieces, but Zach didn't do that alone. I seem to remember at least 3 of us doing it pre-show after helping set up the WD booth.

Regarding the red cards....there were also some late cases that had red memory cards (to match the red button on the Gold Guncons) when some of the gold memory cards came back from the factory not looking as crisp as I would like. The edges looked a little fat from pooling or something. The red cards were just a substitution. I still do have the reject gold memory cards, though. :)

The last private EGB Assassin's Case sale I heard completed a few years ago was $4000. I wish I had made more than 50ish!

[youruglyclone]

Glad I clicked on this. A question, I heard this rumor throughout the years, care to comment on it? The rumor is you tried to localized Metal Wolf Chaos, care to comment on this?

Thanks

[Bratwurst]

Zach can be very nice, but he can also be a habitual liar.

Around these parts at least, and Atari Age, Mr. Meston soured his reputation a few years back ripping off several people by taking their money and never sending the game stuff they paid for. So that's not too surprising to learn.

[vireland]

Glad I clicked on this. A question, I heard this rumor throughout the years, care to comment on it? The rumor is you tried to localized Metal Wolf Chaos, care to comment on this?

Thanks

Don't want to take this thread off topic, but yes, that's true. I've tried multiple times. From thinks it's too offensive for Americans (at least that's one of their many reasons for not licensing it). I think the game scenario is hilarious.

[Mayhem]

Hi Victor, nice to see you around here to clear that up :)

[youruglyclone]

Don't want to take this thread off topic, but yes, that's true. I've tried multiple times. From thinks it's too offensive for Americans (at least that's one of their many reasons for not licensing it). I think the game scenario is hilarious.

Thank for finally clearing it and for attempting to bring this to the states. I hope one of these days we'll be able legitimately play this game.

[Dangerboy]

Indeed - The red card mystery has been a thorn in my side for over a decade. I just recently re-did the A. Case page at my site, I added / re-edited all the corrections mentioned here.

[Dangerboy]

Indeed - The red card mystery has been a thorn in my side for over a decade. I just recently re-did the A. Case page at my site, I added / re-edited all the corrections mentioned here.

[vireland]

Indeed - The red card mystery has been a thorn in my side for over a decade. I just recently re-did the A. Case page at my site, I added / re-edited all the corrections mentioned here.

Glad I could clear that up (as a side effect of clearing up the gold paintmaster Zach nonsense). If you want to fix the text on your Assassin's Case page to take off the incorrect references to (gold paint) and replace that with the correct "vacuum metallized gold finish" (the technical term for the process) or "gold plated" that would be great, and go a long way to fixing the erroneous idea that we (or anyone) could achieve that kind of mirror finish with gold paint. Scanning that page, there were 4 references to paint I saw. You talk about the letter saying the paint would wear off because of acidic sweat, but actually the letter says the gold plating could wear off, not paint.

[Dangerboy]

Glad I could clear that up (as a side effect of clearing up the gold paintmaster Zach nonsense). If you want to fix the text on your Assassin's Case page to take off the incorrect references to (gold paint) and replace that with the correct "vacuum metallized gold finish" (the technical term for the process) or "gold plated" that would be great, and go a long way to fixing the erroneous idea that we (or anyone) could achieve that kind of mirror finish with gold paint. Scanning that page, there were 4 references to paint I saw. You talk about the letter saying the paint would wear off because of acidic sweat, but actually the letter says the gold plating could wear off, not paint.

Ack! Good catch - I forgot to edit the actual photo captions (2 of the 4 culprits), and also found the other two. I edited them out, also retouched a few other sentences. Thanks for the page check!

Also, I doubt you remember me, but we talked via eBay years ago (decade?! <_<), when you helped me with the Alundra variants and other WD things. I sill have the Lunar 2 you autographed for me displayed on my shelf with all the other variants. I really appreciate all the help and corrections to make sure G-R's info is right. :D