Another new Starblade owner

[HHaase]

After about 12 hours of driving round trip yesterday, I've added a Starblade to my own collection.
Right now it's sitting in storage, as we aren't moved into our new house just yet, so I won't get a chance to really dig into it for about a month.





I wonder how many Starblades were made, the serial number on this one seems a bit on the low side. S/N 117.

Mostly in good shape though the mirror does have a cracked corner on it.  It's perfectly usable but I would like to find a way to repair or replace it.  I did shoot Namco an e-mail just to see if there's some oddball chance there might be some floating around still.  I'm not holding out out any hope that they do.... Still, worth a try.

-Hans

[ataritoobin]

Nice pickup!     Looks to be in nice shape!

[Muerto]

Great pickup! - and welcome here!!

[HHaase]

It looks like the biggest issue with Starblade in general is the dome.  Mine is cracked but usable, as I mentioned above, but I would like to replace it. 

Once I have more direct access to mine I'm going to get the measurements together for the dome.  Then I can start contacting some places to see if they would be able to do replacements in singles or small runs.  Some of the quickie estimate charts I'm seeing for deep hemisphere domes in the 40"-45" range are around $200+ if you order one at a time.   I wonder if going more shallow is easy enough to do, and if that would cause the prices to be higher or lower. 

No promises other than I'm going to try.

-Hans

[DarthNuno]

Welcome to you Hans, welcome to the very select club of Starblade owner! 

I may have a dome for you, but I can't imagine the shipping cost to sent that beast in USA (If you are in USA?) from Europe, the crazy job to package it, and the risk for a such item to travel so far without any damage... 

How important is the 'crack' on your dome, can you put a picture of it?

[HHaase]

I may be able to repair this dome,  all the material is there it just has a crack along one corner of the viewing area.  I believe it is made of lexan, and I think Weld-On #4 can glue it back together nicely. The material should also respond very nicely if you use Plexus as a cleaner.  I've used Plexus in the past for various plastic lenses and such and It's a fantastic plastic cleaner for lenses and such. I also have found a few places that may be able to make them brand new,  but with the Christmas holiday this week it will take some time until I hear back from them.  I will take a photo of the crack tomorrow after I retrieve the game from my Uncles garage. 

I appreciate the offer on the mirror, but for the time being I'm going to try out some of the more local options.  I shipped a pair of door panels for my Land Rover from the UK to the US last year, and the shipping was $150. A starblade mirror will probably be the same amount. 

-Hans

[HHaase]

We had to drop it off in the garage of my Uncle the other night,  a 25mph crosswind was kicking my butt with the open trailer.  Then I still had to shovel a 3ft high by 15ft wide snowdrift to get access into the garage where we are staying.   It was too cold, too windy, and too late at night to do that much shovelling.  But I spent a couple hours yesterday clearing the snow, and towed the trailer the last 30 miles home tonight.

Now it's in the garage at the place we are staying for now.  No way I'll be able to assemble it or turn it on until late January, maybe early February.... but It's just on the other side of the driveway now, so I can get at it anytime I want.  Once I have time I'll be measuring the mirror for the plastic dome companies to give me an estimate.

-Hans

[HHaase]

I finally found a supplier that does the work needed for the mirror dome.  It's a company that makes solar collector mirrors, plus domes for playgrounds and various other similar items.  They have the equipment to do both the dome, plus the mirroring too, and they can handle the dark tinted material too. It's deceptive, from the outside I was expecting a strange shape to the dome, but it's just a plain circle once I got the back panel off.

I'm just waiting on hearing back on a price quote before committing to it.

-Hans

[level42]

I bet it won't be cheap....

[HHaase]

First place responded, they don't do mirroring or reflective materials.

Second place responded, they can easily do it,  but I'd need to order 10,000 or so minimum.

Found another place that I think can both do the dome, and in the small numbers, waiting on a response. 

Just as an educated guess, I'd say a new dome would run around $300 + shipping.

[ataritoobin]

According to one of the game's developers they tested the mirror's power by taking it out back to condense the sunlight and succeeded in making yakinikku (grilled meat).  Guess you could use that as a feature request  !

[HHaase]

According to one of the game's developers they tested the mirror's power by taking it out back to condense the sunlight and succeeded in making yakinikku (grilled meat).  Guess you could use that as a feature request  !

I believe it, with a reflective concave mirror like this.   My cabinet has a big label on the back saying to keep the mirror out of direct sunlight, to avoid starting fires, and to destroy the mirror when done with the game. 

And this is just with gloss black acrylic, not an actual mirrored surface. Can you imagine if it was a proper mirror? 

-Hans

[level42]

Mmmm, maybe borrow one or two from here.....they won't miss one or two

http://news.discovery.com/tech/scaling-up-saharan-solar.html

[HHaase]

Got a price quote back from a shop that can make an exact duplicate of the dome, better than I expected.
Not getting much interest from anybody else, so I'll just be doing a single piece for myself, but I have no problem sharing my source at all.

The company name is California Quality Plastics, and the website is www.custom-division.com
Contact I had was mholguin@calplastics.com


-Hans

[ataritoobin]

Got a price quote back from a shop that can make an exact duplicate of the dome, better than I expected.
Not getting much interest from anybody else, so I'll just be doing a single piece for myself, but I have no problem sharing my source at all.

The company name is California Quality Plastics, and the website is www.custom-division.com
Contact I had was mholguin@calplastics.com


-Hans

Nice work !  Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.