It’s been an uphill voyage, but now I can announce that just about all of ER’s pre-existing XStreetSL listings are back online!

Today’s efforts resurrected:

1. ER Corner Bar
2. ER Euro Couch Set
3. ER ComMUTEicator
4. ER Movie Projector
5. ER Deluxe Penis
6. ER Portable Toilet
7. ER Saber Boots
8. ER Spaceship RC Toy

Scrubbing the ads of trademark issues hasn’t been easy.. and to be honest, there’s still some work to be done. But the active listings are all now, as far as I can tell, mostly compliant with the new rules. Or at least compliant enough to work for now. I’ve had to rename a few items, including the ER Spaceship RC Toy (formerly the ER Eagle RC Toy), the ER Euro Couch Set (formerly the ER Eurostyle Series), and the ER Portable Toilet (I had no idea “Porta-Potty” was a brand name!).

Removing direct references to Cartoons, Movies, TV Shows, etc hasn’t been easy.. and it’s been heart wrenching for me.

Among the unfinished, remains the ER Pocket Game AO and the V.I.N.CENT MkII Avatar.

Of these two, genericizing Vincent will be easier. When I made him, there were no sculpties, and many of the shapes were simply improvised and approximated. That’s why I gave him the designation MkII. Thankfully, he’s also been in need of a minor retooling and repackaging for some time (thanks to the ER Flight Assist HUD).. and he is one of the 6 remaining items at ER that doesn’t use the vendor template. So, pull him ut of the box, true up the model, look for any glaring issues, then bang him into compliance with the new flight assist, and rebox him. That’ll be easy enough. Renaming him may be complex.

The ER Pocket Game is already about HALF genericised.. but to be fair, it needs an overhaul to comply with the spirit of the new rules. I’ve strongly considered taking it back to pieces and redoing the model more or less from scratch.. removing the blatant Nintendo Game Boy styling. A new set of colours, a slightly different form factor.. and maybe then I’d be 10% done. The big problem, really.. is the games. The whole idea behind it is that instead of typing, you play a game. The Pocket Game AO comes with music and graphics from 3 well known Nintendo Game Boy titles.. Super Mario Land, Tetris, and Kirby’s Dreamland II. While use of it is probably perfectly acceptable to the IP owners of “??? – ?????” aka “Where’s an Egg?” by Matt and Mike Chapman (creators of Homestar Runner).. the fact remains that even though the cartridge art and music’s inclusion in the product probably qualifies as “fan stuff”, If I’m really going to “do the right thing” I should remove it’s instance as well. Replacing the game art is simple enough, as is replacing the screen graphics. But selecting some decent royalty-free game-music loops may be a challenge (I may end up having to track down a Casio keyboard and make my own)… and making the final genericized product appealing to the same customer base may be nigh-on impossible. Frustrating, because the Pocket Game AO has been one of ER’s most popular items.

These items remain on sale at our main shop and at the annex, as well as being available from many fine ER affiliate locations as well. But for now, they’re not available on XStreetSL.. and because of that, there’s no “buy as gift” option currently for those items.

For now, I’ll be moving my focus to listing those items that have never been available on XStreetSL.

Thursday October 01, 2009 - 4:00am | Filed under: Blog