Fun fact: When cleaning up, it's amazing the things you can stumble across. Today's Space Channel 5 tin case is a case in point. I'd totally forgotten it existed until I went rooting around the depths of a cupboard looking for some stuff that I never did actually find. What I got instead was a blast of nostalgia from the Dreamcast days and a strange feeling that maybe the gaming industry moves a bit too fast if it's possible to feel nostalgia for four years ago. Things were so much better back in those days . . .

If you'll excuse me for a second I need to stomp some rose-colored glasses into a pile of shards and scrap metal.

Anyway, the Space Channel 5 tin box. This lovely item was released to retailers to promote the game's original release on the Dreamcast, and if I remember right it originally came with a promotional video inside in addition to some sell sheets. All I have available is the tin at this point, but I'm pretty sure it was the only item worth keeping of the lot anyway. It's almost but not quite a lunch box, being not quite thick enough to hold a thermos (although I will say I'd love a Space Channel 5 thermos to go with it) and missing a handle to carry it by. The metal tabs are classic lunch box style, and it does have a general lunch box-y feel to it, but it's just not quite there. Instead, it's a useful container for holding stuff you want contained in the most stylish way possible, guarded by Ulala on the front and a ring of deadly dancing Morollians around the edge.

Standing up, the box itself is 10.75" across, a bit over 7.5" tall, and 2.75" deep. It'll happily hold whatever you need to store, but I would recommend not moving it around much. The paint job, although nice and vivid with a great sense of garish style, is also prone to scratching fairly easily, relegating the case to "pretty but almost useless" status. No denying it, though, when I stumbled across it I really began missing the Sega of the Dreamcast days. (sigh)

· · · James Cunningham