LEGO Ideas user SpacySmoke has launched a new campaign seeking support for a line of miniature Sega arcade machines.
Update: I reached out to SpacySmoke hoping to learn more about him and his Ideas campaign. Responding to my inquiries, he revealed that his real name is Garett Yoshimura and his Sega arcade builds were originally inspired by a never-released line of replicas that a Japanese toy maker had intended to produce. He began work on his own LEGO versions in the middle of 2014 and completed them over the course of several months, working “off and on” as time allowed. He estimated that the Space Harrier and Out Run builds both used about 140 pieces while the Thunder Blade only needed about 90.
Original Story: Back in the early 1990s you would have been hard-pressed to find a place more fascinating to me than an a video arcade. In those days, when the bulk of my gaming took place on an outdated NES, arcades seemed like the pinnacle of gaming. Visiting one with a bag of quarters was like dropping into a different world where everything was louder, better looking and more intense. My parents should consider themselves lucky that we didn’t have a local one in our part of Quebec because I probably would have played us into bankruptcy. All of this mind, you can perhaps understand why I was so delighted by a recently launched LEGO Ideas campaign aimed at bringing brick renditions of Sega arcade classics to the masses.
Launched by Ideas-user SpacySmoke, the campaign includes three LEGO-fied arcade machines based on the real world versions of Space Harrier, Out Run and Thunder Blade. In addition to the machines themselves, SpacySmoke has also created a trio of custom mini-figures representing male and female Sega fans as well as one based on Sega game designer Yu Suzuki. The model’s themselves will use a variety of custom made stickers/decals and even include moving sections based on the game’s they’re recreating. The Space Harrier build, for instance, can move left, right, up, down and even tilt just like its real world counterpart. The Out Run and Thunder Blade models include similar features.
SpacySmoke also indicated that they originally “intended to build the Hang-On and After Burner deluxe cabinets,” but stopped because they wanted to see what LEGO’s in-house designers might come up with if the Ideas campaign was successful. The campaign itself currently has about 500 supporters and 360 days left before it expires. If it can reach 10,000 before then it will be put up for review and have a chance to be made into an official LEGO product. It will, of course, also need to get approval from Sega for licensing purposes. I’m still keeping my fingers crossed these models make it through all the necessary hoops so I can eventually buy one to put on my desk.
Source: LEGO Ideas
