Thunderblade...Rare?

GameyMcGame

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 14, 2007
Messages
12,552
Reaction score
790
Location
CRAZYTOWN, Massachusetts
I went to the arcade at Amesbury beach (MA) this weekend and saw a thunderblade sitdown...REALLY beat up but was pretty cool.

Anyone have one? How rare are they?
 
never seen a sit down. I once got an upright in a buy of 5 games or so. The day after I bought these games I went to auction where they had one that they could not sell. Not even for $5. Within a month of that arcadejunkie sold a board on ebay for like $150. I got rid of the one I had. My guess is the game is not very desirable but I'm not sure there were a lot made or how many are left out there. The upright has a some what unique cab design that looks like it would be hard to convert so that may have saved some of them from an early demise. I suspect the board selling for $150 was the one person who really needed one and the fact that the boards probably don't pop up for sale every day. I'd still say a complete working upright would be a $100-200 game max IMO.
 
My local arcade had a sit down thunderblade way back. But to be honest, I don't ever remember seeing another one since then. Never really thought about it. If you have the chance to pick up one, go for it. I remember enjoying it back then. Maybe they will give it to you cheap since it's beat up. :)
 
few weeks back at a local building/warehouse(were a couple threads about it), there was about 3 or 4 thunderblade sitdowns. outta the three, i think only one was complete. the rest were parts machines.
 
ive never seen the ur cab bring in more than 100$
i paid 40 for mine working but it had swell. i parted it got 150$ for the board as dan said and got a burn free beautiful k7000 out of it. the game gets really boring really fast
 
also the boards are the rarest part since it was also stated they fit afterburner so no problem ever moving the boards. i passed one up at auction for 20$ and im kicking myself still
 
thats because they are huge and heavy with limited replay value they are worth more in parts doesnt mean its rare its just a game no one cares about so you dont hear people selling them just parting them

It actually does mean its rare...Which is what I figured since I've never seen one available locally.

But rarity is not necessarily an indication of value. In this case, I'd tend to agree...Doesnt seem like many people like this one!
 
Hey,
I consider Thunderblades to be pretty rare. Its not becuase they didn't make a crap load of them(cause they did). But sega used a lot of custom chips on those boards and over the years with few parts and fewer people repairing them, they have dwindled to nothing. The sit down is more rare because they made fewer of them, but proportionaly speaking, a higher percentage of the sit downs most likely survived than the percentage of the uprights(mainly because those that had them wanted to keep them working due to the novelty). I have seen both in the last year and would like to add a nice upright to the collection where it not for the lack of space problem we all seem to have. And a very limited supply of nice cabinets have made it a less than desirable piece in most collections. The cabs you run across need more parts than you will ever locate rendering them pretty useless even as for parts machines. I'm sure parts of the country(like california) have no such shortage. I don't mean to make it sound like a california condor but its pretty extinct in my neck of the woods.. And considering what a fun cool game it was for its time, its a shame that they are so few around. The same can be said for most of the Sega games from that era. But hey, that's just my 2 bits
 
Auction I went to last year couldn't get any bids, they grouped it with another game just to get rid of it.
 
Key is finding one in good condition. I have never seen a nice one local to me. I have a pretty trashy one myself I got for $150 back 5-7 years ago. The bezel artwork on the uprights are exposed to the outside. So it is all scratched up with names etc. MadocOwain got me a silkscreen glass bezel from the cockpit I believe, that appears would fit.

I would like to know what car or machine shift boot was used on the flightstick, so I can replace mine.

I would also say if you have a Afterburner, having a Thunderblade completes the circle.

Kinda like having a Timber, Bank Panic, Zwackery and Tapper side by side, but attainable.
 
Back
Top Bottom