50 Games Plug’N Play

50 Games Plug’N Play
Photos: Jon Ralston

Origin: China
# of Games: 50
Type: Multi-Game System

Jon spotted a new pirate system being sold at Family Dollar stores for ten bucks (SKU 1009014). It’s called 50 Games Plug’N Play, and includes some hacks of licensed NES games like Super C, Ice Hockey, and Mario Brothers.

Family Dollar: Our prices (and products) are cr-cr-criminal!

A shocker, this is. I hope I never live to see the day when Red China invades. While we’re sleeping on the wings of Lunesta, they’ll sneak up and beat us with the cords of our plug and plays and all the other senseless junk we import. You know it’s only a matter of time.

The company’s address is as follows:

Manley

818 Cheung Sha Wan Road,

Hong Kong

I put the location into Google Earth to see what the place looks like, but a double-decker bus is blocking the view.

That cake sure looks moist and scrumptious, though.

Upon further research, I found the company’s only online presence under the Manley name is Manley Fashion Direct (http://www.manleyfashion.com), a subsidiary that sells footwear, handbags, and belts.

On the About Us page there, it says that the Manley Group “has extensive interests in consumer manufacturing.”

Translation: We shovel gobs and gobs of Chinese shit into American warehouse stores every year.

Indeed, they go on to boast about their “suppliers in China [that] includes over 12 factories, all under constant scrutiny by the company’s team of highly-trained engineers who’s (sic) main concern is to ensure that both the quality and competitiveness of our products is maintained.”

Translation: The rats in our factories don’t bite the workers. Much.

Let’s take a gander at some of the “quality products” those “highly-trained engineers” maintain in their fashion collection. After all, it’s not too early to think about Mother’s Day.

That is, if you really, really hate the woman who bore all the labor pains to bring you into this world.

The reason why I couldn’t dig up any info on Manley initially is because they operate under many other monikers. Their toy division, for example, Manley Toy Direct, is divided into a number of separate subsidiaries such as Toy Network LLC (http://toynetworkllc.com) and SBA Toys USA, Inc., which goes by the name Toy Quest Inc. (http://www.toyquest.com). If that all sounds complicated and unnecessarily confusing, then you’ve obviously never sold illegal game systems before.

The former subsidiary, Toy Network, sells incredibly gaudy-looking toys like whoopee cushions and midget phones shaped like ducks. There are a few plug and plays among the plastic and rubber mess, as well.