Thread by @cabel

💴 Inspired by @kobunheat I'll try to post the occasional interesting Japanese video game auction in this thread. Why not!!

This one has three days left and is already up to $200, people want this! The Mario is totally amazing, as is very exhausted Peach, but I'm mostly fascinated by the bonus… Arthur? From Ghosts 'n Goblins??? Maybe?

This is a Hudson Soft "Shooting Watch" — a toy that lets you measure how fast you can mash buttons, Takahashi Meijin-style — but weirdly, this one features Mickey & Minnie?!? Why?!

Starting bid $374.52

Really digging the goofy box art for this "Joy Radar MK2" — from Hal Laboratory, no less!! It's a wireless RF adapter fo the Famicom.

(Buy Now price, $18.76.)

Super cute.

(No bids, $11.21)

Various cool stickers — have we ever seen Mario as a cop before?

(~$10 each)

Hmm, I'm almost tempted to bid on this Nintendo "Candy Machine". That's right, in 1970 Nintendo made a cotton candy maker!! For some reason

(No bids, ~$44.64)

Here's an auction for a single (empty) shipping case for Solomon's Key. The art is great.

(No bids yet, ¥1000) cc @kobunheat

Cool shirt

(No bids, ¥1000)

This Mario keychain warns you not to cross the street in the middle. "Even if you're fabulous Mario, do not cross the road." (Nagatanien is a food company so this is just a weird thing.)

(Sold for ¥500)

Wow here's a thing I've never heard of! The FAM-NET network system for the Famicom. From, of all companies… Bridgestone!?!

(No bids, ¥49,000 starting price, yow. I can't even find a screenshot of what this thing looked like when powered up…)

Cool arcade cocktail, but I've never seen a "NINTENDO LEISURE SYSTEM Co." logo before!! Put that on a shirt please

(I love how wonderfully hand-drawn that logo is. And how is Namco connected to this? No bids, ¥240,000 starting price, yipes)

A simple and nice looking Super Mario Bros. camera.

A sign and membership card for a Vectrex rental service (!!) in Japan.

I love the mustache funkiness of this Super Mario World Dodge Disc. I also love the drawing on the back of the boy who failed to dodge the disc

Absolutely awesome Kirby shirt. Sadly, for kids — 100cm size.

* ¥1,800 yen opening bid

This Nintendo display case (¥15,000). And a Nintendo Entertainment whiteboard (¥1,000). Basically any time Nintendo used their old-school kanji logo, I love it.

This extremely good Kirby carrying case has the most charming art! (I might have to bid on this. ¥980 opening) cc @Kekeflipnote

A master carton, containing 4 cases, containing 100 units (!!) of Super Chinese 3 by Culture Brain for the Famicom. (¥3433 so far.)

Bad photo, but I really love the box art on "Mr. Bomb" for the Compact Vision TV Boy. Turns out they only made six games (!) for this system so they're rare — buyout price is ¥34,800 ($333).

(Sidebar: the TV Boy has quite a wild design! That joystick! That thing that looks like a telephone handset!)

Sometimes I buy the things! I couldn’t resist this case of beautiful Famicom Disk Head Cleaners!

I also got this copy of Clu Clu Land. But, the story goes, this was a Clu Clu Land used by the NES production line in Hong Kong, to test the consoles during manufacturing. Part of me wonders if it's legit. But I love the way it looks!

And I bought this lovely little brochure for the Nintendo People House, which I think is one of their coolest toys. Gotta scan that history!

(Originals: cabel.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/nds/People%20H… and cabel.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/nds/People%20H…)

I came very close to bidding on these briefcases — I had this vision of showing up for an important business meeting with that yellow briefcase, setting it on the boardroom table, and dramatically opening it up to reveal 18 copies of Super Mario Bros

(They went for ¥17,500.)

Enix's "Newtron" for the FM-7 computer — here for that cute character and super cool katakana. cc: @CoolBoxArt (12 bids, ¥3800 so far)

@CoolBoxArt What a cool Namco toy: the WAGANIZER! It's a sound gun — the only gun I'll allow — you suck in/sample a sound and play it back with the trigger. This was part of the "Emotional Toys" Namco made between 1985 and 1987, tied into their games. This one was Wagan Land. ¥29800, no bids

I bought this one for ¥3500 ($33). It’s a “Family Computer Network System” — modem! — with this intriguing “Super Mario Club” service cartridge. (It’s a PCMCIA card.) I love the controller! I wish I could dial into this service still!

“Super Mario Club was produced for toy shops in Japan to deliver Famicom-title game reviews to customers. When it connected to the Famicom Network System, all toy stores would have had access to the same database; customers could add their own feedback.”

niwanetwork.org/wiki/Super_Mar…

"Money Wars". ¥6,000 (no bids).

Won't someone please buy this very large Margo for ¥238,000

Incredibly funky Mario-on-a-scooter toy from 1985. And it only took 32 years for Mario to actually ride a scooter in Odyssey, right? ¥1,000 no bids

Another Mario… but this time he's holding a bazooka!? Ok ok, it's a Super Scope. I had no idea they made Yoshi's Safari toys. I love the rolled-up paper laser. (¥2,000 no bids)

A wild prototype Nintendo Wii. The Wii Remote isn't wireless, but connects via coax!? Neat. It sold for ¥61,000 ($590)

A tiny handheld Bemani (Beat Mania) Pocket game, but branded with Georgia Signature coffee???? I'm not sure what's going here, except it was probably a contest prize? 8 bids, ¥4300 ($45.65)

And here's a Nintendo DSi development kit, just in case you ever wondered what that looks like! Going for ¥41,000 ($390), 6 hours left.

I like this little panda, they are a Famicom Champion (¥50,000?!)

So, I am extremely freaked and/or delighted by the realistic human bodies in this Disney Baseball Game from the 60's. (Listing says it's from Nintendo, but I'm not sure it is. ¥1,000 so far.)

And, you can't win 'em all: I tried to bid on what looks to be a Famicom Disk System Development Kit (I've never seen this before???), but it got way too rich for my blood and I had to bow out. Why that third hard-wired NES controller?!? Fascinating. (cc @frankcifaldi)

@frankcifaldi Funny: this deck of Nintendo playing cards — "Clean Guard Trump" (not that one) — uses a virus from Dr. Mario to illustrate that the cards have an antibacterial coating!

@frankcifaldi This is, by far, the most bizarre deck of Nintendo playing cards I have ever seen!!!!

(Seems to be from a 1979 Toei movie called 'Devil's Flute' or 悪魔が来りて笛を吹く. Now I gotta find it)

Real into the disk sleeve for “peeping scandal” (?), love this Super Software Team (!) borg cube built out of various companies like Falcom and Square. ¥13,000, no bids.

Opening bid on this Casio PV-2000 being ¥20,000 feels a little optimistic to me

Real solid box design for JOY RADAR (from HAL!) ¥1,000

More great boxes for EPOCH's TV BLOCK and TV VADER. ¥1,000 each

Here's a "Mario Roulette" cabinet from Konami (!!) that I had no idea was rare — my posting of it scrambled the preservation community and I was on the brink of asking @noby829 if I could ship this to his house, but, phew, it sounds like it was very recently dumped for MAME. ¥21.

@noby829 Speaking of Nintendo arcade games, "Sheriff" is pre-Donkey Kong, with art by Miyamoto, and must be quite rare, because this one has 4 hours left and is going for ¥226,000 ($2,124.00).

@noby829 ➡️ This thread continues in a new thread! Head on over!

https://twitter.com/cabel/status/1218821462317916160