Tec Toy Exclusives and Hacks

Exclusives




Tec Toy is the official Sega distributor for Brazil and one of my favorite areas of Master System collecting. During the life of the Master System Tec Toy actually released some Brazilian exclusive games. These are now much sort after by collectors and can command fairly high prices on ebay. There were 22 released in total, the last being Mickey's Ultimate Challenge released in December 1998. (There are also later exclusive Master System games released by Tec Toy on their multi built in game consoles but that's another story altogether).




It took me around 2 years to complete my exclusives set (shown above). The average price was around £20 each (some being less and some being much more). It is easy for bidding wars to start with these games as they don't appear too often on ebay and this tends to over inflate the prices. To be fair it's quite difficult to give each one a value, all I can suggest is don't get too carried away. Please note that 20 em 1 was never released in a box as it was a pack in game with the system, this makes the manual tough to find.




As for the actually quality of the games, well that ranges a lot also. My favorites are Baku Baku, Dynamite Headdy and Ren and Stimpy. Some of the worst are Sitio do Picapau Amarelo, Castelo Ra-Tim-Bum and 20 em 1.


Hacks



As well as these 'exclusives' Tec Toy also released 8 'hacks' of existing Master System games (shown above), where the characters and title screens etc have been swapped for well known Brazilian characters. These hacks are also popular with collectors.

These hacks include the following:
Turma da Monica em: O Resgate (Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap)
Monica no Castelo do Dragao (Wonder Boy in Monster Land)
Geraldinho (Teddy Boy)
Chapolim x Dracula - Um Duelo Assustador (Ghost House)
Sapo Xule O Mestre do Kung Fu (Kung Fu Kid)
Sapo Xule S.O.S. Lagoa Poluida (Astro Warrior)
Sapo Xule vs Os Invasores do Brejo (Psycho Fox)
As Aventuras da TV Colosso (Astérix)





Some collecting notes

Collecting Tec Toy games is not an easy task (unless you live in Brazil). Even Tec Toy branded common Master System games are fairly hard to come by on ebay. The main reason for this is that Brazil have their own version of ebay called Mercado Livre, anyone is able to register to this site and try their luck at finding a seller who is willing to ship overseas or accept paypal. I have tried myself and have never actually bought anything. Having said that some collectors I know have successfully bought Tec Toy items from Mercado Livre for a great price so it can be done. There are the odd few Brazilian sellers on ebay, but not enough to bring the prices down much.

Other things to note with Tec Toy games is that they are often in very poor condition. This is probably because the manufacturing standards are not as high, for example the glue and paper used on the cartridge stickers is very poor and you often find the labels are peeling off even on new sealed games. Also the box plastic is thin and glossy which shows up evey little scratch and wrinkle. Some of the first released Tec Toy games actually came in cardboard packets and these are particularly difficult to find in a non-destroyed state, even shrink wrapped ones often have evidence of the glue failing.

My best advice if you want to start collecting Tec toy Master System games is to be prepared that it's going to be a slow and comparatively expensive process. It's best not to jump right in and pay over the odds, maybe asking for advice on a forum first. Just enjoy it and don't try to get too bogged down with condition (as it will drive you insane!). Have a dabble with Mercado if you have the time and Patience or just wait for another collector to spill his load on ebay.