Nintendo Toys

[Japan-Games.com]

Someone sent me an email about Nintendo toys, so I thought I'd start a thread since a lot of people don't know much about them and maybe others who do can contribute. 

Nintendo made hundreds and hundreds of toys before they started making video games.  They made playing cards as well, so trying to collect everything Nintendo before 1977 is nearly impossible. 

From my experience, the ones in the most demand are the games that have the word "Ultra" in them.  The Ultra Hand, Ultra Scope, Ultra Machine, etc.  Some of the rarest items are the Ultra items, but some of them like the Ultra Hand and Ultra scope aren't all that rare.  But if you're looking for a place to start, then the Ultra items would be a good source of information to check out.

The next group of toys are the Kousenjyu light gun items.  They have the light gun, shotgun, rifle, etc.  Those were made to play with battery-powered Nintendo toys like the Poker Player, Roulette Wheel, Picture Shooter, Wine Bottle, Custom Lion, and Custom Gunman, etc.  These were usually made from 1969 to 1977, just before they made the switch to video games.  They're kind of hard to find, but finding ones in good working order can be difficult.  They're older plastic toys that depend on a camera flash type system and often the flash is too weak to work or doesn't work at all. 

Other battery items include the racing car sets called 'Lefty RX" and "Mach Rider."  I think there are 3 colors for both the Lefty RX and Mach Rider cars (red, white, blue), and I think there's also one package that has all 3 Lefty cars, or maybe just 2.  I also think there's another type of car but the name escapes me, so there might be 3 different car types with each having 3 different colors.   There's also the Love Tester which is another battery powered game and you also have the Ultraman clock sets and the Space Ball which is a battery powered top spinning machine.  One that's really hard to find is the Light Telephone which is a battery powered toy.  These last few toys I mentioned are in much greater demand than the cars.

So if you're making a list I'd put Ultra items on top, kousenjyu items next, then anything that's battery powered 3rd.

Moving down the list I'd probably but the plastic toys next, these are items like Challenge Ball, Hip Flip, or Shot Racer.  These are just plastic toys that don't use a battery.  Other items I'd include in this category are Beehive or Time Shock.

They made a ton of board games, some of them as a partner with foreign makers, so there's a Nintendo Twister and a Nintendo-Disney games, but there's usually not much demand for these.  There are some exceptions, tho, such as the Punch Race, Bowling (very rare and sought after, two types), Ultra Coaster, My Car Race, etc.  If it's a more than just a regular board game then there is a stronger demand.  But if it's a regular board game there's little demand.

At the bottom you have the block sets which are like Legos, paper model games, cards, etc.  They have quite a few different styles of block games. 

In the end that's how I'd rank them, but in reality there are some toys that break through the ranking system.  Like I said the regular toys aren't in very high demand but a bowling set is really, really hard to find and it probably worth a decent amount.  The Ultra games usually carry the highest prices but there are a couple of Ultra Items that aren't all that rare.  It's all relative.

One last area might be the plug in items like the Copilas or the Cotton Candy Machine.  The Copilas is extremely rare whereas the Cotton Candy machine is just rare.  I'd put them above the battery powered items but below the Ultra items, except for the Copilas.

I have pictures of most of these items and I'm thinking about making a website devoted to older Nintendo toys, but I just don't have the time to do it.  Maybe I will in the future, who knows....

[satoshi_matrix]

This all sounds great. I'd love to see some pics if anyone's got any.

[L___E___T]

you can see many pictures on the actual Japan-Games.com website:

...except I see there is a site migration going on.  Dang it!  New site looks good though

[LocalToast]

I want to at least get that Ultra Hand at some point... it's so funny.

[mobiusclimber]

Yeah, I'm really curious as to what exactly all this stuff is/does/looks like. Is the Love Tester the same as what we have in the states (you push a button/hold a joystick and it lights up showing how good of a lover you are) or something else? What is an Ultra Hand, or do I not want to know? Etc etc.