Hawty McBloggy Invites You to Play

Do you think you have an awesome collection of various video game related memorabilia? Unless your name happens to be J.B. then you may be mistaken.

I was first introduced to J.B. by Laird, the gamer who put his Xbox 360 faceplate signed by Bungie and Red vs. Blue up for auction on eBay to raise money for Child’s Play. J.B. was interested in that faceplate and not just because it reeked of awesomeness. When asked why he wanted to purchase this faceplate, his response was :

I collect 360 faceplates for fun. I was browsing eBay one night and saw Laird’s auction. After a couple minutes of searching the web and gathering the story behind the plate, I was completely sold on it. Laird got the idea for all of this after a stay in the hospital where his only distraction was his trusty Nintendo DS. He wanted to do something for people, specifically kids, who were in the same situation – sick or injured and in the hospital. So he decided to donate the proceeds from the auction to Child’s Play.

This particular charity really stands out to me because for one, it was founded by gamers and is mainly (if not entirely) supported by gamers. Secondly, my grandfather passed away almost a month ago after a long bout with cancer. He had appointments several times a week to undergo treatment for it. I spent a lot of time in hospitals with him and really saw first hand how depressing they can be. My grandfather lived a long and truly amazing life – Child’s Play brings joy to children who may not be so lucky.

I can’t imagine a more worthy person for that faceplate to go to. The story behind the sale of the faceplate is amazing, and the story behind the purchasing is equally amazing. Turns out J.B. has an awesome collection of gaming stuff in general. As someone who claims that he “came out of the womb clutching a NES controller”, I actually find that believable after looking at some of his pictures. His response when asked about his collection :

I have every game and system I’ve ever bought, all the way back to my first NES and Sega systems (I was born after the days of Atari). I’m convinced that some day there will be a gaming museum and many of the items displayed there will be on loan from the James Fearns collection.

Here are some pictures and stories behind some of the particulars of his collection. All images can be enlarged by clicking on them. All stories are in his words.

A bunch of Halo 3 stuff signed by the three guys that were at the L.A. Halo 3 Launch on Monday night - Bungie head of production Jonty Barnes, producer Allen Murray and environment artist Vic DeLeon.

I also have one of the really rare MS Employee launch 360s – with the green plastic on the hard drive, top, and bottom of the system. It cost me a small fortune on eBay, but when I put the Bill Gates signed plate on it (like in the pictures) it’s like having a piece of gaming history.

Here is a picture of my girlfriend Chelsea and me at the Zero Hour Launch event for the Xbox 360. There’s also one of me standing with Jay Allard – shortly before he and I dove headlong into a pile of beanbags.

Cliffy B. was at the Game Stop in L.A. meeting fans and signing autographs the day Gears of War came out. I went by and met him. He signed my copy and said I was a bitch if I didn’t play the game on Hardcore right out of the box… You really can’t back down when you get called out by the guy that made the freaking game.

The guitar is signed by a band called Dream Theater. I’ve gotten a chance to meet them a couple of times in the past few years and one of those times I brought the guitar. Let me tell you, it’s really tough being in the front row and trying to keep a fully signed guitar safe. They’re also holding a series of charity auctions throughout the rest of the year on eBay benefiting Camp Good Days & Special Times – a np organization that also helps children in need.

Now for the faceplates – I’ve got quite a few of them so I’ll list them one by one from the top right going down according to the picture of them all.

• Bioshock Launch Party Faceplate – #2705/5100
• Custom Burger King “Where is your God Now” faceplate
• Zero Hour Faceplate – 1 of 3000 (at the very most - probably less since not everyone there got one)
• European MS Launch Team “Thanks for playing with Us” faceplate
• U.S. Launch Team “I Made This” faceplate
• Gold Swedish Launch Faceplate – #31/100
• Bill Gates signed faceplate

• Toy2r Qee faceplate and toys – I really have no idea what’s up with these things, I think it was part of a marketing campaign in Asia
• E305 sealed faceplate – #2134/5000
• E305 opened faceplate
• Austria Xbox Experience “Tags” faceplate – 1 of 250
• Austria Xbox Experience “You’re Next” faceplate – 1 of 250
• Austria Xbox Experience “Urban” faceplate – 1 of 250
• MS E3 2006 Display Faceplate – #8 of the 11 – I actually have #4 on the way as well

• Madcatz Halo 3 Bungie signed faceplate
• MS Halo Bungie signed faceplate
• Halo 3 system faceplate signed by Bungie
• Bungie/RvB signed Charity faceplate
• UK Launch party faceplate – Gorillaz tag wall – 1 of 600
• UK Launch party faceplate – Gorillaz tag wall – 1 of 600

• Adidas +10 faceplate – I think you had to win some kind of contest to get one of these, but I honestly don’t know.
• Blue Dragon Japanese Pre-Order faceplate
• MS X06 Canada faceplate signed by Major Nelson from Xbox Live
• My original plain white faceplate
• Gears of War E3 2006 limited edition faceplate
• Custom faceplate with my Gamertag “Gameking28” and Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII

His gamertag is “Gameking28” on both XBL and the PS3 network. He was at the Halo 3 “Unite to Fight” west coast Halo 3 launch event at the L.A. Game Stop and I don’t even have the stories to go along with that event. If they are anything as awesome as all his other stories and pictures, I can only imagine.