Original Post

Included in this first post are extremely high resolution (2400 dpi) scans of the following Virtual Boy products from the “1995 Nintendo Merchandising: Retail Display Program” brochure:

Virtual Boy Poster (NES M93P – Part No. 32280) – I am designating this as the rarest known Virtual Boy poster, as in I have never seen any actual one online or even heard of someone who owns an actual poster of this variety. Note “COSMIC PINBALL” near the bottom. It appears that Nintendo, for a very short time, was planning to rename “Space Pinball” as “Cosmic Pinball,” before finally deciding on “Galactic Pinball.” “COSMIC PINBALL” also appears on the next two Virtual Boy products listed below.

Virtual Boy Banner (NES M93B – Part No. 31681)

Virtual Boy Counter Card (NES M93C – Part No. 32191)

Virtual Boy Interactive Counter Display (NES M93I – Part No. 32193)

Virtual Boy Pedestal Display Base (NES M93L – Part No. 32194)

Virtual Boy Lighted Sign (NES M93S – Part No. 32192)

Spin-Page Paddles (NES M98VS – Part No. 32282)

Flip-Page Paddles (NES M98VF – Part No. 32281)

Virtual Boy Hard Empak Clamshell Security Box (NES M90EM – Part No. 30430)

Virtual Boy Hard Alpha Clamshell Security Box (NES M90AL – Part No. 29209)

*I also plan to make and post 300 dpi scans of all 20 pages of the brochure soon.

16 Replies

Wow! So awesome!

Look at those Browser System Paddles, these are most definitely the ULTIMATE way to display Virtual Boy game paks!

Amazing score, Ben!

Anything in there showing the VidPro Pocket Plak Systems, with Virtual Boy VidPro cards anywhere?

Looking forward to seeing more scans from this Brochure!

Ha, that is too cool. Thanks for sharing, Ben!

vuefinder83 wrote:
Wow! So awesome!

Look at those Browser System Paddles, these are most definitely the ULTIMATE way to display Virtual Boy game paks!

Amazing score, Ben!

Anything in there showing the VidPro Pocket Plak Systems, with Virtual Boy VidPro cards anywhere?

Looking forward to seeing more scans from this Brochure!

I believe everything of which I made extremely high resolution scans is all the Virtual Boy products in this brochure, but here are all the pages to be sure.

Attachments:

These are so awesome Ben! Thanks for sharing!
I’ve always loved those prototype game boxes. I’ve thought about making versions of all of them and doing a run with Tusk. 😛

Very cool!

Wow, do you have any idea how much one of those display cases went for back then? I don’t, I’d like to know… especially the “environment” one lol.

And there was a job at this time where 150 people were servicing all the display stuff in the US? Imagine that job, driving all over, staying at hotels, and just talking to people about Nintendo merch at stores.. fixing and re-boxing stuff.. I wonder how much they got paid for that. Those days are over. I don’t see merchandise displayed like this anymore.

I remember walking into SEARS or what have you and seeing cases like this and being excited and wanting it all. Just waiting all year for Christmas, hoping to get one or two games. What a victim of marketing I was. That’s probably why I keep a small collection; to remember the excitement which is not present in adult life anymore.

I have heard stories of a few people finding old Nintendo displays at flea-markets, on craigslist, etc… someday maybe I’ll make my own repro display to keep all my treasures, I mean @!#% in it.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think this catalog is also the first time we’ve seen any boxart/promo materials for the unreleased Kid Kirby on SNES?

KoNeko wrote:
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think this catalog is also the first time we’ve seen any boxart/promo materials for the unreleased Kid Kirby on SNES?

A Google image search doesn’t bring up very many results. It looks like Unseen64.net has had a lower quality image of it up for about ten years, and there are a couple other sites with a similar image:

Kid Kirby [SNES – Cancelled]

In any case, Planet Virtual Boy very likely has the highest quality image of it on the net now. 😀

Wow, there’s some great stuff in those scans!! Even mention of comanche!

mips5000 wrote:
Wow, do you have any idea how much one of those display cases went for back then? I don’t, I’d like to know… especially the “environment” one lol.

Good question… The “environment” is comprised of a bunch of various display items. From what I can see on it, I can say this “environment” display would have cost a retail store THOUSANDS of dollars.

Below, are the display order forms that were used by store managers to order these displays for their locations. If you’re curious to know just how much something from this Brochure is worth, just look up the model number of the item you’re looking for in the order form.

(the order forms look much clearer if you click on them)

Thank you for the scans!

Here’s a comparison of the VB pre-production Counter Card vs. the actual Counter Card that was made available for retail stores.

Just thought to toss it in here.

(might be a little blurry, sorry for that 😝)

Dude… Even the kid’s hairdo was altered, of all things.

“No, this just doesn’t look good enough because his hair is way to unkept and that couldn’t possibly represent us; change it.”

It does just look a little too messy in the proto, whereas the final the hair is the perfect amount of on purpose 90’s messy.

They even altered his forehead wrinkles, they’re less crinkled in the final version XD

 

Write a reply

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.