Unboxing: Arcade Block October 2016

It's time for my twelfth monthly Arcade Block!

As I've previously explained; for a fee of $20 CANADIAN per month, Arcade Block will send you a lovely box of gaming merchandise, including a T-shirt. Shipping costs vary, depending on where you live, and larger T-shirt sizes cost a few $ extra - overall, my boxes including shipping, work out at about £24.

This one was shipped on the 25th of October and arrived on the 8th of November.




And let's take a closer look at the contents:

Five Nights At Freddy's 8-Bit Balloon Boy model

Dropzone beta code

Starfox socks

Nightwing action figure

NES Zapper pin

Gears Of War 4 T-shirt

Super Mario Kart poster

1990s Nostalgia: Super Mario Kart Ride

I'm a child of the 1990s - born in 1991 I was brought up with the Mega Drive during the early 90s and the PlayStation in the last few years of the 90s. Back then, arcades and amusements on the seafronts of practically every British seaside town was packed to the brim with great arcade game machines and lots of little rides for younger kids that usually cost around 20p per ride. As I kid I loved these; in Scarborough there was even a miniature Ferris wheel that lifted you up about 6 foot in the air sitting in a little metal seat.

Looking through some old photographs (you know, REAL photographs that were developed in a proper camera shop which took like a WEEK), I found this gem:

I'm guessing this photo was taken around 1995-1996, so it's likely that this ride was made around the same time as Super Mario Kart on the SNES. I didn't have a SNES as a child; but my big brother Ian did. (I actually didn't own my own SNES until I was 21.) How much do you suppose one of these rides would sell for online now? It's an official Nintendo one too - look at the massive seal on the front!

Children nowadays are so deprived of life's simple pleasures that we were all brought up with. I know these sort of rides still exist, but they take the piss - most of them cost upwards of 50p or even £1! Some of the rides I used to go on, you could get SEVERAL goes on it for 20p!