More Gundam Wing goodies ^o^

Seriously.. I am more excited and eager to take photos and write a post on retro merchandises as compared to the most recent merchandises or figurines. I wonder why.. Lol.. I guess I am staying true to where I began which is just to share pictures and information of rare/retro/ancient merchandises which are not readily available even in google.

This time it will be the following 3 great items:

Gundam Wing Digital Memorials, Digital Memorials II, and Portrait Collection

Gundam Wing Digital Memorials and Digital Memorials II are CD-ROMs containing resources such as character data, illustrations, BGM, voice data, and omake (containing wallpapers, screensavers, icons, etc). The first Digital Memorials was released in 1997 and thus contains the things from the anime while Digital Memorials II was released in 1998 after the Endless Waltz. The original retail price for each is 5800 Yen and inclusive of shipping and proxy fees I got them for $38.86 and $40.90 respectively. I am glad that everything is still in top condition, except for a few bumps for the box of the Digital Memorials. Even the postcard inserts for lucky draw or something are still inside.

The front and the back

 The other illustration inserts.. I am quite impressed that the text is in English!

Full content of Gundam Wing Digital Memorials

The BGM section is cute as as the music is playing, the characters (in chibi form) are animated above a podium. Weirdly, Heero is animated as a conductor while the other pilots and Relena are animated wearing their pajamas. The cells and illustrations contain many original artwork from the artbooks and they are available in .bmp format that I can copy to my computer. That is very cool!

 The front and the back

 The other illustration inserts

Full content of Gundam Wing Digital Memorials II

The animation for BGM section is even cuter here with the characters in chibi forms being animated against a music box. Sadly the cells only contain screenshot from the Endless Waltz OVA/movie instead of new artwork. And with the latest technology at that time, the cells and illustrations are no longer available in .bmp. They are put together as .cxt format and thus I am unable to get the illustrations to keep in my desktop T_T Darn it!

However, one surprise in the omake section is dentaku or calculator. Basically there are 6 calculators featuring the 5 pilots and Milliardo Peacecraft. Other than having their picture as the background of the calculators, the calculators feature their voices with each button being pressed. Before getting this, I have Heero and Duo's from a website many years back. I thought someone made an effort to make these on their own. Now I know that the source and I am happy to see that there are more characters. I think that website is a 2x1 (Gundam Wing yaoi fans will know what it means) so no wonder it only features Heero and Duo's calculators. Don't ask my why I venture into a yaoi webpages many years ago, k? Lol.. 

Gundam Wing Portrait Collection

I am a sucker for artbook. Even if this is not an artbook, since it contains artwork, I am also eager to get this. The first time I saw this was on eBay for USD 60 not including shipping. So glad that I waited patiently and got this from Yahoo! Auction Japan for $56.52 including proxy fees and shipping. The item basically is like a folder with the 10 sheets of artwork inside. I don't measure the exact size of the sheets but they are at least larger than A4. I have seen the coloured artwork before but not for those sketches. I am so glad to see them.. Hehe.. Of course, the photos of individual pilots below.

Chang Wufei

Quatre Raberba Winner

Trowa Barton

Duo Maxwell

Last but my favourite pilot: Heero Yuy :)

Just to show the caption above the coloured sheets

Initially I thought these are expensive things but now I am a very happy owner of these things. Happiness is expensive indeed. Haha..

Oh by the way, I think there is something wrong with the character data in both Digital Memorials. In Digital Memorials II character data, the ages for the boys are 2 years old than in Digital Memorials (as expected as Endless Waltz takes place in later year after the end of anime). However, their heights and weights are exactly identical. Come on! 15-17 years are puberty times for boys so definitely they will grow taller and heavier right? Perhaps the mangaka forgot about this fact. Lol..