Mattel Case Study Questions And Answers

[Herodoto Tenk]

Myhope in creating this post is to establish a single "go-to" thread here on AtariAge dedicated to the Mattel HyperScan console, warts and all. The HyperScan was released on October 23, 2006 and discontinued in Q1 2007. As a member of the seventh generation of video game consoles, its "competition" was the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3.

But seriously I am interested to hear perspectives on it. It's not a bad idea, and anticipates by ten years many more "real" gaming experiences using collectibles from Amiibos to Skylanders to Disney Infinity to Starlink. It also kind of follows on from Tiger's forgotten NetJet system, although at least theoretically HyperScan games should stay playable in a way NetJet games are not without significant effort.

But seriously I am interested to hear perspectives on it. It's not a bad idea, and anticipates by ten years many more "real" gaming experiences using collectibles from Amiibos to Skylanders to Disney Infinity to Starlink.

The really interesting story with this and the game.com and the NetJet was that there WERE visionary engineers who accomplished amazing things with very limited resources and no corporate support. Imagine if real resources and decent hardware had been invested into these things at pivotal moments of the growth of the industry, when there WAS an opportunity for a disruptor.

Funny enough, I just bought one of these. Based on the prices of CIB console bundles on eBay, I was basically like, "It's now or never." I probably should have chosen "never", but I like adding to my hardware collection.

The games are kind of awful, the controller is questionable at best, but the console looks kind of neat. Unfortunately, its video cables are hardwired to the system. It's also unfortunate that the cards are pretty much required to play the games. While the console can play CDr media, the cards are special, have not been replicated and some sets are getting pretty expensive. As such it's difficult to justify the cost of one of these things. It would have been different when they were being liquidated back in the day. Would have made for a fun night's worth of dumb entertainment.

It's interesting that homebrew can be a thing on this, but I don't foresee anyone putting the time into it. There's got to be a ridiculously tiny audience. I would be curious to see "what it can really do" though. The games on it feel rushed and lack polish.

Welcome to the club, @Austin! What did a CIB system set you back, out of curiosity? And was it the standard retail set or the 2-player value pack? I am new to the HyperScan scene, too (is there even a scene?). Collecting complete sets of cards might be fun, but will probably take a while. I agree that we won't likely seen any additional homebrew given the audience but I suppose you never know! Yes, the games are "meh" for certain. I feel as though Mattel spent all of its energy - and dollars - on flashy licenses for the games and didn't take the time to make quality games.

When I collect consoles I want them specifically with the box and it seems they don't pop up very often like that on eBay. So, when I saw this "NIB" one on Amazon, I went ahead and took a chance on it. Despite the stock photos, public questions to the seller had asked if these were actually new. The seller confirmed they were, so I felt confident in ordering it. It did arrive NIB, still sealed.

@sixersfan105 - I do wish more R&D was put into the hardware itself. Hardwired A/V cables is always a bad idea, but the controller in particular is just abysmal, and I'm usually pretty forgiving when it comes to lackluster controller designs. There's what feels like an analog stick in replacement of a d-pad that would have been ideal given there are only 2D games on the system. The face buttons are super mushy and lack any sort of quality, tactile feel. The front triggers are extremely uncomfortable for my hands, and the rear triggers are ridiculously tiny. It's like no thought went into the design of it. The plastic also just feels cheap. It lacks the sort of quality feel you would get with a major first-party console of the day, and feels more like a bottom-of-the-barrel third-party controller.

That's not bad at all for NIB! Nice pickup. Just took a peek at the listing and, ironically, I just bought a Ben 10 Game Pack from that same seller yesterday for $19.99 + $10 shipping. I originally purchased a HyperScan bundle off Facebook Marketplace but when I contacted the seller a week after purchase asking when they anticipated getting it shipped out, they said something came up and they won't be able to ship it anytime soon and they canceled the order. That led me to the eBay hunt and I found what was essentially the original retail bundle with X-Men, X-Men manual, six X-Men IntelliCards, console manual, console, controller, and power supply just without the original packaging, plus a second boxed controller that had never been used (was still affixed with twist ties to the inner box with a bag around it). Set me back $53 all-in which I thought was reasonable.

Yes, the hardwiring of the AV cables was a strange decision. My only thought is that they sort of marketed these systems as portable and being able to bring them to your friend's house, etc., so I wonder if that played into the decision, thinking kids would forget to bring the AV cables or they would get lost, etc. Just a thought. I hear you on the controllers and given how cheap the system was to begin with ($69.99), they likely weren't willing to go the extra mile on quality materials. Another strange decision, which I'm sure was money-driven (because what isn't?), was the choice to use a 4x CD-ROM drive, when 40-50x speed units were commonplace in 2006. That's why load times are so long and why sometimes there's a loading screen just to get to another loading screen.

Yeah, the portability thing makes sense. I was actually just looking on eBay after my last post (bought a NIB spare controller even, haha) and I did see carrying bags available for it. I assume they are official anyway.

If there are other Ben 10 packs available like that, I might pick one up. I do legitimately want to play this thing--well, at least stream it and try. But like I said earlier, the cards are required, so if I can get some of the packs for about $30, I'll just consider it a cost of doing business, heh.

That's funny you should mention that about the carrying cases, as I stumbled across them on Amazon yesterday and snagged one just to have. I'll be very curious to see if it was an official Mattel product or not - will report back. As I mentioned in my original post, there is, indeed a reference to a carrying case in some of the HyperScan marketing materials, so I suppose this could be it! The case on Amazon is called "[Hyper Scan] Multi-Purposes Fanny Pack" and the description is hilarious:

"Aesthetics and Functionality Combined. This pack is originally designed for game devices with large interior space, several card / ID / CD slots and interior pockets. Aesthetics and Functionality Combined. This Multi-Purposes fanny waist pack provides all of the functions of a bag pack, delivering hands-free, lightweight storage for all your gadgets. It is a fashionable bag to keep your passports, credit cards, key chain, bluetooth headset, and other necessities within sight and reach. Fits up to your waist size with an adjustable matching belt. You can wear it along with you during outdoor activities, and enjoy security and organization. Hang out longer and go farther whether hiking, cycling or strolling with the Multi-Purposes Waist Pack." ? I attached a couple of pictures of the carrying case for those who haven't seen it yet and may be curious about it.

Circling back as promised on the console carrying case. It's definitely OEM! As per the tag, it is designed to hold a console, AC adapter, two controllers, two game discs and 12 IntelliCards. Here are a few pics of my case...

Yeah, I think they saw the accessories and Booster Packs as the way to make some serious cash, which obviously didn't happen. In theory, Ben 10 should be one of the more functional games (along with Marvel Heroes) as there are no known unreleased cards, so no game content should be unlockable, if you manage to get all of the cards, of course...I had to look up the Omnitrix and looks like something my 10-year-old self would enjoy, too!

I just recently acquired a few Mattel cases full of sealed X-Men Booster Packs (12 Booster Packs per case). Will be interesting to see how close to the 57 "full set" I'm able to get with the 48 Booster Packs! Will be a case study of sorts. I'll report back.

Reporting back as promised on my X-Men Booster Pack Case Study. I purchased 48 Booster Packs for a total of 288 game cards (plus the original six that came with X-Men). While 294 cards got me CLOSE to the full set, I'm still missing four, so I've got 53 unique cards out of the 57 that exist. Remember, these Booster Packs retailed for $9.99. So in 2006, 48 Booster Packs would have cost me approx. $480 and I STILL wouldn't have had a full set. That's insane. I spent about $80, including shipping, on the 48 Booster Packs here in 2021/22. This process has definitely discouraged me from trying to attempt a full set of any of the other four games but I'm still glad I carried out this exercise on X-Men.

Thanks for the reminder! I just did a quick eBay search and found the Marvel Heroes and Ben 10 booster packs cheap enough, $27 or so after shipping for the two together, both new/sealed. So at least I'll be able to try those games when the time comes.

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