Mr. Do!
Follow up with Rob Carroll
I sent Rob a follow up email today, and how exciting, he had time to get back with me. I didn’t fall into spam, so he had got my other message and said he had no problem sending me photos of the game for me to do some tracing on. Maybe even as early as tonight. Thanks Rob, hopefully I can help him out in some way, I have noticed he does a fair amount of posting so he must be fairly involved in the hobby yet.
He even helped me with a small bit of what little I know about the history of the game, so I rewrote the above section a little bit.
I may get Rob’s information who owns the Mr. Do!
Just when I thought I was going to have to start over, my trail has picked up again. I emailed Gary one more time to see if he had found Rob’s information (Another guy in MA who owned this Mr. Do) and let him know about Walt and how things didn’t work out. He was nice enough to email me back last night with Rob’s information, and to let me know that he had already told him that I was going to email. So, back at it, and hopefully he has time to get back with me.
Still hoping I can get photos from Walt
I called Walt today and left another message. I just let him know that I would call him one more time before I left him alone. I may have put him on the spot, asking him to take those photos, but that is why I told him I would barter with him time. I could give him web services for his website if needed, so he was getting something in return for his time. But either way, he hasn’t gotten back to me, and neither did Gary the last time I emailed, so I am at a dead end with this piece of art. I am just really glad that the Jr. Pac-man stuff has gone so well with Richard, otherwise I might be really discouraged.
Following up with Walt
I called Walt in MA today to follow up to see if he had time to snap some of those photos of the Mr. Do white sideart. I had emailed him on the 2nd and hadn’t heard anything back, so I hope that I don’t have to start from scratch in finding another source, and that he can pull through for me.
Hoping Walt can send some Mr. Do! photos
Spoke with Walt again today. He was so nice, and even though I indicated that I probably couldn’t drive out to Lynn, MA to get the Mr. Do, he said he would take photos of the side of the game for me so that I could trace the artwork. I offered to barter some web work with him, and I sent him some links so he knew that I am good at what I do, so hopefully that will be of value to him. He said it will probably be another couple of days, but I am psyched. If this pans out, I didn’t have to wait too long to find someone who had this game and who could help me in my quest to reproduce the artwork.
Gary knows a guy that is possibly selling the rare white Mr. Do!
Tonight I got an email from someone I had contacted earlier on, Gary, about his Mr. Do machine. He had sold his a long time ago, but out of the blue he emails me and says he found someone who has one, and mentions that he doesn’t want to part with it, but would for $400. I think that is a great price, but funny because I just found someone else myself who is selling one for the same price. So, I emailed Gary back for more information, I hope he is able to get back to me.
Gary emailed me back, it is a different guy and he is located in Pembroke MA, which is pretty much the same distance as the other one.
I also got photos today of the Mr. Do machine that is in Lynn, MA, and I was surprised that the sideart seemed to be rubbing off. It was a weird kind of wear I hadn’t seen before, so I asked Gary about this since he owned one of these Mr. Do’s previously. He says this was really common, that the Mr. Do white cabinet dedicated version would just rub off in your hands.
The other owner’s name is Rob Carroll in Pembroke, MA, who bought the game from the owner that Gary sold it to, so hopefully Gary will be able to find his email address for me.
Digging deeper on old ebay auction for rare Mr. Do!
I haven’t heard back anything from the people I emailed this week, but I found out something pretty damn cool today.
I was going through my auctions, and one of the auctions for a Dig Dug, was based out of Lynn, Massachusetts. I remembered that is where the Mr. Do that I first saw, that sparked this whole section, was sold on ebay. I saw that there was some feedback on the day that the auction was supposed to end (Nov. 6), so I emailed the guy. His name is Walt, and he got right back to me and was really nice. He did confirm that he sold that machine, and that he actually had another one. He sent me a phone number so I gave him a call.
Not only is it a dedicated one, but it is the same version, working and everything! I was pretty surprised, he said he got it in a bulk deal. Although exciting, there is always the consideration of the cost of the trip to get a game. Walt does have a basic website that I may try to do some bartering for him in design for him to take some photos of the sideart for me. I can never seem to separate actual value vs. what something is worth to me. I know if I resold the game, I would get about what he is asking for it, but with the travel (15 hours one way), the game would cost probably around 800, which I know I couldn’t resell it for that much.
Other information to note; I think there are two versions of the sideart, as you can tell from the photos. The one version is a conversion, a version of the dedicated, which spans the whole height of the cabinet. Walt has the one that spans the whole height, which is better anyway. It is a really long ways, and a lot to think about especially in this weather. He would have to hold onto it probably until early spring before I would even think about going out there to get it.
We have also thought about taking a St. Johns Lutheran related trip to Providence, RI in May. Lynn is only just over an hour away, so that may
be worth it to travel down and take the photos myself if he still has it at that point.
