what is the most obscure nintendo promo stuff that you have?

[MiamiSlice | 3,089]

21 hours ago, FenrirZero said:

My pencil boards, or shitajiki, is the most obscure Nintendo related promotional item I own.

I have a pencil board too!

 

[MiamiSlice | 3,089]

OK here are some items I have: 

Earlier this year I bought some employee only items, like this promotional Mario Pinball Land shirt: 

And this Nintendo branded golf tool which probably tied in with some Mario Golf game: 

I also spent a pretty penny to get this Animal Crossing pioneer disc: 

And the calendar to go with it: 

1 of only 250 made, and apparently at least one calendar was chewed by a dog or something

Then I have this NFR promo copy of Children of Mana for Nintendo DS that was mailed to stores, the game was published by Nintendo and I guess they promoted it by giving out free copies to stores with a letter describing the game. It comes with a "For Display Only" cover art, a manual, no other booklets, a cart with an NFR sticker on the back, and this letter: 

More info about it here

I also have this flyer for a Pokemon themed train that was operating in Japan in 2018: 

But my most obscure item is this Burger King toy from their "The Search for the Golden Toy" sweepstakes. Each Kids Meal toy for this promotion came in a blind bag, and if you found a gold toy, you could win a GBA game. I actually won this contest when I found a golden Wario toy, on the left is what a standard toy looked like, and on the right, the winning gold toy I pulled. I ate a lot of fast food growing up, so considering all the long term damage that did to my body and life expectancy, this was a nice consolation prize: 

[Super Nintendo Chalmers | 53]

A Donkey Kong Country Funky Kong water bottle would be one of the most oddball items I own, bit strange having a side character front and centre for one:

A particular Australian design company was comissioned by Nintendo Aus to create a handful of merch in the mid to late 90s. They distributed a couple of Mario and Donkey Kong themed lunchboxes and cooler bags, along with a Mario beanbag cover too. Think they also did a few N64 and Game Boy Pocket sticker albums with Banjo & Kazooie and Mario included.

[trj22487 | 350]

I've always regretted not keeping a box of the Mario 64 Rice Krispies Treats Cereal from 1996. I remember it had the 3D Boos on the front of the box. I tried for weeks to win a Nintendo 64 through that contest in Summer '96. I've never seen an image of the box pop up online.

[croagunk | 798]

21 hours ago, trj22487 said:

I've always regretted not keeping a box of the Mario 64 Rice Krispies Treats Cereal from 1996. I remember it had the 3D Boos on the front of the box. I tried for weeks to win a Nintendo 64 through that contest in Summer '96. I've never seen an image of the box pop up online.

Is this the one? 

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Kelloggs-Rice-Krispies-Treats-1997-Flat-Cereal-Box-Super-Mario-Brothers-N64-/304071463639?_trksid=p2349624.m43663.l10137&nordt=true&rt=nc#vi__app-cvip-panel

[captmorgandrinker | 1,649]

21 hours ago, trj22487 said:

I've always regretted not keeping a box of the Mario 64 Rice Krispies Treats Cereal from 1996. I remember it had the 3D Boos on the front of the box. I tried for weeks to win a Nintendo 64 through that contest in Summer '96. I've never seen an image of the box pop up online.

Well now you have!

 

6 minutes ago, croagunk said:

Is this the one? 

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Kelloggs-Rice-Krispies-Treats-1997-Flat-Cereal-Box-Super-Mario-Brothers-N64-/304071463639?_trksid=p2349624.m43663.l10137&nordt=true&rt=nc#vi__app-cvip-panel

[trj22487 | 350]

Haha wow that is it! Definitely wasn't 1997 though, 100% 1996. I got my N64 for Christmas '96 and wouldn't have cared about the contest after that.

[captmorgandrinker | 1,649]

18 minutes ago, trj22487 said:

Haha wow that is it! Definitely wasn't 1997 though, 100% 1996. I got my N64 for Christmas '96 and wouldn't have cared about the contest after that.

That cereal would have been sold in 1996.   Oct 1997 was just the expiration date, and back then cereal probably had a 12-18 month shelf life.

[killerkobra | 268]

Well if we are talking OBSCURE it would have to be these Nintendo Pepsi signs. I have had these for a while now. I traded 2 of the big signs away and 1 of the smaller boxes. I still have 1 spare big sign and a few smaller boxes stashed away. 

Sign is 6’10-1/2” x 5’ 3”  made of fluted polypropylene ALMOST 7 FEET TALL!!!! I was shocked at the massiveness of these lol
The Mario measures 14”
The Mario on Yoshi measures 16”
There are 2 different versions of the sign A and B with the Mario’s and Pepsi cans flipped
Both Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Canada are printed on the bottom
Dated 1992

 

As you can see from the pictures, I had to get creative and mount these on the ceiling since they are so huge.  I didn't have any wall space large enough for them. I think they are gorgeous with their beautiful bright popping colors.

 

Sign is 28” x 17”
These fold into a box 
double sided with the same image on both sides
Both Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Canada are printed on the bottom
Dated 1995

[phart010 | 1,707]

On 8/13/2021 at 1:01 AM, Preservation Quest said:

Pirated Famicoms sold in Venezuela that came with a "Certificate of Authenticity" issued by a fake Nintendo subsidiary called "Nintendo C.A." which had been incorporated in the country.



I’m not so sure Nintendo CA was 100% fake. They may have had some legitimacy as far as being a Licensed Nintendo partner in Venezuela. But it is apparent that things went sour between them and Nintendo at some point.

They also had an American style version of the NES, again with Venezuelan regional labelling. They had their own Venezuelan NES controllers, the parts on the controllers look pretty legit if you ask me.

Remember, Venezuelan was a booming oil country back in those years. Wealthiest country in South America 

 

[Preservation Quest | 21]

20 minutes ago, phart010 said:

I’m not so sure Nintendo CA was 100% fake. They may have had some legitimacy as far as being a Licensed Nintendo partner in Venezuela. But it is apparent that things went sour between them and Nintendo at some point.

They also had an American style version of the NES, again with Venezuelan regional labelling. They had their own Venezuelan NES controllers, the parts on the controllers look pretty legit if you ask me.

Remember, Venezuelan was a booming oil country back in those years. Wealthiest country in South America 

 

You're correct in that we just do not know the history nor circumstances surrounding Nintendo C.A. What we do know is that their "certificate of authenticity" was included in obviously pirated consoles from Singapore and Hong Kong, they published unlicensed games along with multicarts en masse, and appear to have utilized the same supply chain for their North American style NES as the pirated consoles did.

The hearsay comes into play with stories I've heard from the country that Nintendo proper sued Nintendo C.A. over their name and masquerading as the company itself. This was supposedly because there was a production plant in Venezuela making those NES clones, multi-carts with their label made it out of Venezuela into Chile, Brazil, and Columbia when Nintendo took notice, or because Nintendo was trying to make an example out of the brisk market for pirated systems in Latin America.

Venezuela was "rich" by LA standards but computers were still considered luxury items and licensed imports were well beyond the income of the majority of households even during the oil boom. Add in that the country was stupidly protectionist of local industry and signs point to Nintendo C.A. not being all that kosher.

Once again none of this information is falsifiable (yet) and I'll tease that we've begun to uncover bits and pieces of the actual story....

 

Edited January 13, 2022 by Preservation Quest

[phart010 | 1,707]

31 minutes ago, Preservation Quest said:

You're correct in that we just do not know the history nor circumstances surrounding Nintendo C.A. What we do know is that their "certificate of authenticity" was included in obviously pirated consoles from Singapore and Hong Kong, they published unlicensed games along with multicarts en masse, and appear to have utilized the same supply chain for their North American style NES as the pirated consoles did.

The hearsay comes into play with stories I've heard from the country that Nintendo proper sued Nintendo C.A. over their name and masquerading as the company itself. This was supposedly because there was a production plant in Venezuela making those NES clones, multi-carts with their label made it out of Venezuela into Chile, Brazil, and Columbia when Nintendo took notice, or because Nintendo was trying to make an example out of the brisk market for pirated systems in Latin America.

Venezuela was "rich" by LA standards but computers were still considered luxury items and licensed imports were well beyond the income of the majority of households even during the oil boom. Add in that the country was stupidly protectionist of local industry and signs point to Nintendo C.A. not being all that kosher.

Once again none of this information is falsifiable (yet) and I'll tease that we've begun to uncover bits and pieces of the actual story....

 

Are you saying the NA style NES in the photo is actually a pirated console? Looks pretty authentic to me. How can you tell?

[Preservation Quest | 21]

A few indicators with the packaging / hardware itself were that it had a Famicom edge connector and internals as opposed to a NA NES style version. The other being they rebadged aka putting a Spanish language sticker on pirate Famicoms produced in Hong Kong and Singapore: this included using the same Certificate of Authenticity pictured.

As noted earlier the actual history is unknown although Preservation Quest has been piecing together information from credible sources.

Edited January 13, 2022 by Preservation Quest

[bowser | 598]

8 hours ago, phart010 said:

Are you saying the NA style NES in the photo is actually a pirated console? Looks pretty authentic to me. How can you tell?

Only the zapper looks legit from the angles in the photos (could turn out to be fake too on closer inspection). Everything else doesn't. The controller shells have only 5 screws on the back instead of 6, the console bottom shell has textured feet instead of smooth, etc

[RH | 4,903]

46 minutes ago, bowser said:

Only the zapper looks legit from the angles in the photos (could turn out to be fake too on closer inspection). Everything else doesn't. The controller shells have only 5 screws on the back instead of 6, the console bottom shell has textured feet instead of smooth, etc

It looks mostly legit, but the handle appears to have a built in speaker?  There's at least holes for one.

@Preservation Quest You have a web site for your organization? Who are you?

[phart010 | 1,707]

12 hours ago, Preservation Quest said:

A few indicators with the packaging / hardware itself were that it had a Famicom edge connector and internals as opposed to a NA NES style version. The other being they rebadged aka putting a Spanish language sticker on pirate Famicoms produced in Hong Kong and Singapore: this included using the same Certificate of Authenticity pictured.

As noted earlier the actual history is unknown although Preservation Quest has been piecing together information from credible sources.

The system you are looking at in the picture above uses the NA style cartridges. This is why the system comes with that lime green colored 60 to 72 pin converter. 
 

The carts distributed by Nintendo CA are Famicom style carts, but the Venezuelan NES market also had what appears to be “licensed” cart converters.

My personal theory is that they were an official distributor for Nintendo. They started off with imported Famicoms. Then they switched to manufacturing/assembling NA style units in Venezuela, which was probably preferred since the controllers/light guns used sturdy connectors. Which is also why they have so many of the cart Famicom to NES cart adaptors in Venezuelan market.

South American countries have high imported goods taxes making imports prohibitively expensive. The solution to this problem is to build a plant in the South American country and manufacture locally. “Manufacturing locally” can be as simple as imported all parts and assembling them in the local plant, or even importing finished carts and repackaging them in the local plant.

They probably started off somewhat legit but then started imported pirated games from Taiwan and repackaging them into Venezuelan packaging domestically which pissed off Nintendo and ended the relationship 

Edited January 13, 2022 by phart010

[phart010 | 1,707]

The prevalence of Nintendo logos on every item as well as the care taken to have everything appear to be somewhat official and even the boldness of incorporating a business entity carrying the name of Nintendo tells me that this may have been an official operation that just rotted really quickly. 
 

I mean they even offer a 3 year warranty on the system. That’s too much work for a bootlegger to get involved with

Edited January 13, 2022 by phart010

[Preservation Quest | 21]

13 minutes ago, phart010 said:

The system you are looking at in the picture above uses the NA style cartridges. This is why the system comes with that lime green colored 60 to 72 pin converter. 

You're correct! That was my mistake.

A bit on our philosophy: we keep the door open to us being wrong partly because the truth is always stranger than even our educated guesses. Which means there is always something new and wacky to discover even around the mundane.

[Preservation Quest | 21]

If you look around on Etsy, retro gear websites, etc. there isn't too much hesitancy in using copyrighted logos, trademarks, and franchises on unlicensed gear. This was triply so from the 80s' up until the aughts because it was that much harder to discover the paper trail of these entities producing pirated systems.

(Don't get me started on the MAGICOM.)

[PII | 1,884]

On 8/12/2021 at 11:00 AM, Aguy said:

During the DS launch Nintendo had a "touching is good" contest where you signed up and they sent you a white mannequin hand to take pictures with. It didn't have any specific Nintendo branding but I thought it was one of the weirder Nintendo promo ideas. I originally signed up and got one but never entered the contest. I did seem to lose it sometime over the years. Not mine but here's one...

Edited August 12, 2021 by Aguy

This is SO weird.

...even by Japanese standards...

...which I typically enjoy...   however...

Touching IS good, but I get the feeling they were trying to convince people to feel otherwise, in spite of having stated as much... .... ..... .......

[Code Monkey | 2,006]

On 8/12/2021 at 11:03 PM, Preservation Quest said:

May I send you a private message about this?

We purchased a collection of Wisdom Tree, Color Dreams source code, Floppy Mastering Disks (retail,) VHS promo tapes, transparencies, and a few other things early last year.

Where did you purchase it? I tried to purchase that from Brenda Huff at some point a few years ago and have been trying to track it down since.

[killerkobra | 268]

On 8/12/2021 at 11:03 PM, Preservation Quest said:

May I send you a private message about this?

We purchased a collection of Wisdom Tree, Color Dreams source code, Floppy Mastering Disks (retail,) VHS promo tapes, transparencies, and a few other things early last year.

Curious which source code discs you got. I purchased a few directly from Brenda like 10 years ago. Along with numerous other Wisdom Trees items. 

[phart010 | 1,707]

Since I had been posting the Venezuela NES stuff in this thread, I thought I’d also post images of the Venezuelan Famicom since theirs one on eBay right now with pretty good photos.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/155316414577?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D777008%26algo%3DPERSONAL.TOPIC%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20220705100511%26meid%3D078745107e014f45b897add563b0e411%26pid%3D101524%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26itm%3D155316414577%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380057%26algv%3DRecentlyViewedItemsV2%26brand%3DNintendo&_trksid=p2380057.c101524.m146925&_trkparms=pageci%3A6d3dab05-9555-11ed-80a2-4eabf5989625|parentrq%3Ab8d0bbf61850a9f736b57567fff8610c|iid%3A1
 

 

“El Gran Genio” on the console inside the box. I wonder if this is the original one that came in this packaging? The model doesn’t match with the one pictured on the box.

 

Venezuelan Nintendo Seal of approval as always..

 

Includes cartridges for 4 games: F1 Race, Bomberman, Circus Charlie, Star Force

 

As with all Venezuela Nintendo stuff, it is labeled as “Ensemblado En Venezuela pot: Nintendo C.A.”

 

The pictures image shows the regular Famicom controller. But in the box is the 4 button controller with turbo buttons, as they always do in Venezuela. They must love those turbo buttons there.

 

Controller 2 has no microphone..

AV inputs on this system.

 

 

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

4 minutes ago, phart010 said:

“El Gran Genio” on the console inside the box. I wonder if this is the original one that came in this packaging? The model doesn’t match with the one pictured on the box.

I would wager heavily that no, what's in the box is absolutely, 100% not what originally came in it.  It clearly doesn't match what's on the box at all, appears to be a clone system (zero Nintendo branding, no controller 2 mic, adding inputs that Nintendo didn't put into their Famicom-shelled systems), and contains 1 game that's not even on the list of the 4 that were originally included.  Seems more likely that somebody came across the box and styrofoam somewhere, then grabbed what they could to fill it up and flip it, perhaps hoping that nobody would noticed the multiple huge discrepancies.

[phart010 | 1,707]

11 hours ago, darkchylde28 said:

I would wager heavily that no, what's in the box is absolutely, 100% not what originally came in it.  It clearly doesn't match what's on the box at all, appears to be a clone system (zero Nintendo branding, no controller 2 mic, adding inputs that Nintendo didn't put into their Famicom-shelled systems), and contains 1 game that's not even on the list of the 4 that were originally included.  Seems more likely that somebody came across the box and styrofoam somewhere, then grabbed what they could to fill it up and flip it, perhaps hoping that nobody would noticed the multiple huge discrepancies.

I’m around 50/50. Nintendo in Venezuela may or may not have been legit. It seems that the NES is the most official looking product they have. Also the NES controllers look official in terms of build quality, but the controllers have extra buttons.

There is a ton of Nintendo C.A. merch in circulation in Venezuela. The packaging always looks somewhat legit, but sometimes the product looks sketchy. My personal theory is that Nintendo C.A. was an authorized distributor in the beginning but they started distributing pirated stuff due to the lower costs and “Mother Nintendo” severed the relationship with them after finding out. Nintendo C.A. continued to operate selling pirated stuff but also continued using the Nintendo branding and official seal of quality for the stuff they distributed.

Again, just my theory.