Abstract
Problem: Fans had long requested a tour of Tim Cain's glass display cabinets containing 44 years' worth of game industry memorabilia.
Approach: Tim photographed every item (after failed attempts at filming the cabinets directly) and walked through each shelf, explaining the origin and significance of each piece.
Findings: The collection spans his entire career — from a hand-painted D&D wizard miniature from high school to Outer Worlds awards — revealing a deeply personal archive of industry history, fan connections, and creative milestones.
Key insight: The memorabilia isn't about monetary value but personal meaning — each item anchors a story about a collaboration, a fan interaction, or a career milestone, making the cabinets a physical timeline of Tim's life in games.
The Setup
Tim has two glass cabinets side by side. The left cabinet is dedicated entirely to Fallout, while the right holds everything else — Outer Worlds, Star Trek, Interplay, and miscellaneous career items. He originally had one cabinet split between Fallout and other games, but accumulated enough Fallout items to fill an entire cabinet. He notes that roughly half his collection is still boxed up in a closet.
He also explains why the video uses photographs rather than live footage: multiple attempts at filming the cabinets failed due to camera refocusing issues, bad lighting, poor audio from repositioned microphones, and general awkwardness of standing and presenting objects he's unused to doing.
The Fallout Cabinet
Top and First Shelf
The cabinet is topped with a Fallout helmet gifted by a 3D artist who worked on Fallout 3, 4, and 76 — someone Tim initially only knew online before they met for dinner in late 2023. Next to it sits an oversized Fallout box likely used for E3 or Interplay marketing.
The first shelf includes a drawing of Tim by "Tay" (which has its own dedicated video), a Fallout manual, an invite to the Fallout TV show premiere, bobbleheads, Funko Pops, and a Fallout New Vegas patch given to him by Josh Sawyer. A Fallout 2 Gecko-and-a-can sits there too — though Tim has the can but never got the gecko figure.
At the front of the shelf: a Wasteland button given to him at Interplay before he even started on Fallout, a stim-pack-styled Fallout pen, Nuka-Cola caps (some collected, some from TV show promotional bottles via the "How To Drink" YouTube channel), and an original Fallout postcard that every team member received — Tim kept his rather than mailing it.
Second Shelf
The centerpiece is the mini nuke container that held Fallout 1, 2, Tactics, 3, and New Vegas. Behind it, a Sugar Bombs box from the Fallout 4 ship party (the t-shirt inside appeared in Tim's early videos) and a Sugar Bombs cereal bowl bought on eBay or Amazon. A Fallout tin cup — one of the original marketing items — sits alongside a Nuka-Cola bottle and a Jones Soda Nuka-Cola Quantum.
A pair of Nuka-Cola Quantum cufflinks Tim bought on eBay for the Fallout TV show premiere went unworn when the glue failed. Various Nuka-Cola caps from fans and two Tim 3D-printed himself round out the shelf, plus a Fallout watch from Amazon.
Third and Fourth Shelves
The third shelf holds a Dogmeat plushie, a Vault-Tec lunchbox (from Fallout 3), a large thumbs-up Bobblehead, a Vault 13 flask from a fan, a Fallout water bottle, and a Nuka-Cola tumbler.
The bottom shelf features a genuine fallout shelter metal sign taken from an actual shelter in Southern California and given to Tim by a Fallout team member. In front: Nuka-Cola Disney Mouse ears from a fan, a Funko Ghoul, a Power Armor helmet coin bank, and the Fallout 4 Collector's Edition Pip-Boy in its container.
The Everything Else Cabinet
Top Display
The cabinet top holds Tim's "Bartl Construction Set" poster board sign, a Peril on Gorgon DLC bucket, his Funko selfie Pop (covered in a separate video), a floating lit planet ornament (a Christmas gift from his husband, frequently asked about by viewers), and a Google Assistant for weather and music.
First Shelf — Outer Worlds
The back displays the Outer Worlds original soundtrack on vinyl and Tim's leather-bound handmade paper notebook where he took all his design notes throughout development. He always carried it to meetings and referenced it when making his Outer Worlds video series, noting he preferred physical notes over digital for this project.
Three awards sit on this shelf:
- New York Video Game Awards 2020 — Big Apple Award for Best Video Game (accepted by Leonard Boyarsky)
- GLAAD Media Awards 2020 — Outstanding Video Game, for the character Parvati
- Unreal E3 Award — Most Engaging Game in the Unreal Engine
A premium Xbox controller with metal buttons and an Outer Worlds vinyl skin (applied by UI designer Glenn Lautier) sits in front, along with Obsidian pins, an Obsidian keychain, an Outer Worlds coaster, and various Outer Worlds pins.
Second Shelf — More Outer Worlds
A team-signed copy of The Outer Worlds for Xbox One takes pride of place. Unopened Rizzo's Purpleberry Punch, a four-pack of in-universe beverages (Rocky Mountain Pale Ale, Zero G Brew, and others — all opened and consumed), and an empty Spectrum Brown bottle ("If it's brown, drink it down" — it contained rum, all drunk).
Two toss ball cards featuring Tim and Leonard, two items Tim 3D-printed during development (a Cystypig and a flying Automechanical), a Raptidon plushie, Spacer's Choice coasters, a Peril on Gorgon Compound X chocolate tin (chocolates eaten), a Spacer's Choice ribbon, and an Outer Worlds glass sitting atop a container of Saltuna from Emerald Vale.
Third Shelf — Star Trek
Some items Tim has owned for decades, others bought recently. The highlights: a Bluetooth-enabled Star Trek Communicator (connects to a cell phone), original series toys (tricorder, phaser, communicator), a separate communicator that makes the classic sounds, a TNG communicator pin with magnetic clasp, a die-cast Enterprise miniature, and a Tiberius cologne container (James T. Kirk cologne, which Tim describes as "surprisingly good, kind of woody" and actually wears occasionally — the bottle lives in a separate cologne cabinet in his bedroom).
Bottom Shelf — Career Miscellany
An Interplay tumbler, a Troika mug, and what Tim believes is his five-year statuette from Carbine Studios, sitting atop a cloth Arcanum map with pins. An Interplay watch, an Interplay five-year medallion, a Troika keychain from a Temple of Elemental Evil programmer, another Interplay mug, a brass dollar-sign paperweight from his game Rags to Riches, and a rare Interplay leather coaster (not many were made; Tim wasn't given one directly but acquired one).
The shelf's final item: a miniature wizard figurine hand-painted during Tim's original high school D&D campaign by one of his players named William. Tim likens it to the wizard from Monty Python and the Holy Grail — "Some call me... Tim."
References
- Tim Cain. YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knsk2Pt9nvQ