The 20 Weirdest Nintendo Toys Ever Made (And The 10 Best)

Nintendo has made lots of toys over the years, but a lot of them kind of missed the mark.

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Nintendo’s history with toys goes back even further than its history with video games—beginning in the 1960s, the Japanese company began to dip its toes into toy manufacturing after spending a few decades trying various other dead-end endeavors. Toys ended up being the most successful thing Nintendo had done up to that point since its late-1800s heyday as a playing card maker, and it would eventually embolden the company to try its hand at the strange new world of video games in the late-1970s.

After a few less-than-noteworthy video game attempts, Nintendo released Donkey Kong and solidified its place as one of the top game makers in the world—a title it has mostly held for nearly 40 years and counting. And not surprisingly, once the company found success in video games, things doubled back to toys as Nintendo’s growing list of iconic game characters and franchises were soon turned into physical toys.

There have certainly been some great toys based on Donkey Kong, Mario, Link, Samus, and the other pantheon Nintendo characters—but there has also been a lot of really weird ones, too. This list will examine a little of the former and a whole lot of the latter, and also cover some of the quirky toys that Nintendo released before becoming a game company. We’re also going to take a look at Nintendo’s occasional attempts at trying to merge physical toys with video games—from robots that play video games to robots made out of cardboard—and the decidedly mixed results that have come from those attempts.

30 Best: Splatoon Gun

The Wii U console was objectively a commercial failure, not even managing to move 20 million units in its entire lifespan. But that isn’t to say that it didn’t still have not only great games, but games that were successful—one of the biggest of which was the debut of brand-new Nintendo franchise Splatoon.

Splatoon is also the inspiration for one of the best Nintendo-related toys in recent years.

The Splatoon Splattershot Blaster looks kind of like a 1990s Super Soaker, only it shoots “ink” instead of water. A very creative and well-made little toy gun.

29 Weirdest: Ultra Hand

One of Nintendo’s biggest successes during its years as a toy maker was the Ultra Hand, which was an extendable and retractable grabber toy. It was only released in Japan, but if it seems oddly familiar, that’s because it has made several appearances in video games—including a Club Nintendo-exclusive Wii game called Grill-Off with Ultra Hand!

The toy itself isn’t that weird, to be honest—what is weird is the way it was marketed. The picture above seems to encourage kids to…steal their dads’ wallets? Uh, okay…

28 Weirdest: Wind-Up Link

Seriously, has any kid in the history of the world truly enjoyed playing with a wind-up toy? Maybe for about the first six months after the first wind-up toy was invented it was still a novelty—but since then, wind-up toys have served no real purpose other than to be noisy, annoying, and stop working after a month anyway.

It’s hard to think of a more pitiful representation of mighty Hylian hero Link than to watch him slowly hobble across the floor making that awful humming sound that wind-up toys make. Well, other than those terrible CD-i Zelda games…

27 Weirdest: Kewpie Mario And Luigi

Even if you love Kewpie dolls, there are just some characters that shouldn’t be given the “Kewpie treatment.” And Mario and Luigi fall into that category.

Why anyone would want Mario toys that are literally the size of a coin is a mystery.

We can only assume that the majority of these things that were produced—however small that number must have been—have long since been completely lost and/or swallowed by dogs given their diminutive size. And that’s for the best, really.

26 Best: Pikachu Electronic Bank

While we haven’t actually done the research to be able to definitively make this statement, it’s easy to assume that there are more Pokémon-based toys than any other Nintendo franchise. And because of that volume, a lot of Pokémon toys are awful and/or just generic and forgettable.

So when something truly unique comes along based on Pokémon, you can’t help but take notice—as with this charming Tomy electronic bank that has Pikachu peek out and put his little yellow paw onto whatever coin you put onto the tray and pull it down into the reservoir. Completely adorable.

25 Weirdest: Nintendo Labo

The Switch has really put Nintendo back on the map and is clearly giving the company the confidence to take bigger creative risks than they might have in more recent, leaner sales years.

But confidence doesn’t always yield the best results.

Labo is definitely an intriguing idea, and a lot of people have been having fun with it—but there’s no getting around the fact that it’s Nintendo literally selling people cardboard toys. That most store shelves are still stuffed with Labo kits seems to suggest that the toy hasn’t been a huge hit.

24 Weirdest: “Dino And Martin”

There are a lot of off-brand Mario knock-off toys out there, way too many to possibly cover in this list. In fact, we largely tried to avoid unlicensed merchandise as making fun of copycat toys is pretty low-hanging fruit.

That said, this toy was just too good not to discuss. The toy itself is fine, nothing remarkable about it one way or another. What makes it strange is what they decided to call the toy in the absence of being able to use Mario’s and Yoshi’s actual names. Sounds like the title of a cheesy buddy comedy.

23 Best: Monopoly Gamer

There have been licensed versions of Monopoly for a long time, and several have featured various Nintendo properties. But for the most part, it was always just regular ol’ Monopoly, except that you could be Mario instead of a top hat, or buy Zelda’s Castle instead of Boardwalk.

That all changed with the release of Monopoly Gamer, a new version of Monopoly with Mario characters and items that actually remixes the basic game of Monopoly significantly with power-ups, boss battles, and unique stats and bonuses for each character. Here’s hoping they branch out into other Nintendo franchises for future installments.

22 Weirdest: Light Telephone

For as basic as a lot of Nintendo’s pre-video game toys were—and some outright copied other toys, which we’ll get to later—some were actually quite innovative and unlike anything that any other toy companies were doing.

The Light Telephone utilized some impressive tech for its time, though it was still quite bizarre.

It’s a bit complex to fully explain here, but basically, the device transmitted sound waves via the light emitted from the front, turning it into a radio-free walkie-talkie. Pretty neat, but also way too expensive for the average consumer at nearly $100 in 1970 money.

21 Weirdest: Mario Kicking Koopa Trophy Figure

In the 1980s, there was a line of “Nintendo Trophy” figures that were mini dioramas featuring some sort of action moment from a classic Nintendo game. A lot of them were really cool—and some were quite strange.

While it is generally accepted that Mario commits a lot of violence on the enemies in his games, it is usually depicted in a lighthearted, Saturday morning cartoon kind of way. Which makes this particular figure so jarring, seeing Mario kick a Koopa square in the face while wearing an uncharacteristically menacing expression.

20 Best: Zelda Treasure Chest Toy Box

The fanfare that accompanies Link opening a treasure chest in a Zelda game is among the most iconic musical cues in video game history. And while that tune doesn’t actually play when you open this amazing Zelda toy chest, we promise that it was hummed every time by any kid was lucky enough to have one.

These things have since highly sought-after collectibles—and rightly so.

It’s impossible to know just how many of these were made, but one thing is certain—there aren’t enough to go around to all the Nintendoheads who want one (which is all of them).

19 Weirdest: Mr. Game & Watch Amiibo

While Amiibos in general are a bit divisive among Nintendo fans—especially after Nintendo didn’t initially stock enough and made them hard to find and highly expensive in the resell market—there’s no denying that most of them look pretty cool.

And then there is Mr. Game & Watch.

Look, we would never deny this character’s place in Nintendo history, or his novelty as a Smash Bros. character—but $10+ for a flat, 2D, detail-free plastic character on a stand—that has a tendency to break off of said stand, no less—is silly no matter how you slice it.

18 Weirdest: Mario Bow Biters

It’s hard to pinpoint why, but the concept of kids learning to tie their shoes seems to be a relic of a bygone era. Is it that most kids shoes these days are Velcro? Or maybe kids now have too much other stuff to worry about to have shoe-tying be a major learning event in their lives.

Whatever the case, there doesn’t seem to be the market for shoelace-related accessories today as there once was—it used to be a big enough thing that there were even official Nintendo-licensed “Bow Biters” to help kids keep their laces tied.

17 Best: Vintage Donkey Kong Plushie

When Donkey Kong Country was released, it permanently changed Donkey Kong’s official look across all media. But prior to that, an entire generation (or two) of gamers experienced a DK with a completely different visual style—and in few places is that better-immortalized than in this classic plushie from the 80s.

Unlike game-related plushies now, this DK plushie was actually designed to be cuddled and slept with.

And many gamers who are now well into their 30s and beyond have fond memories of playing Donkey Kong at the arcades by day and snuggling this plushie at night.

16 Weirdest: NB Blocks

Much of the reason why Nintendo had success as a toy maker is that it had a lot of unique ideas that set it apart from many of its peers. But that isn’t to say that Nintendo was above trying to cash in on an existing trend—as it did in the late-1960s with this blatant Lego rip-off.

While it’s disappointing to see Nintendo go the copycat route, one thing to note is that NB Blocks introduced circular pieces which, at that time, Lego hadn’t made yet. So Nintendo at least did something interesting with an otherwise lazy bandwagon jump.

15 Weirdest: Metroid Figure

While this hopefully changes with the eventual release of Metroid Prime 4, Samus Aran’s sci-fi franchise is currently one of Nintendo’s most undeservedly underutilized IPs. That also extends to Metroid toys which, beyond the predictable glut of Zero Suit Samus statuettes, has also been an under-served market.

Among the relatively small amount of Metroid toys comes this World of Nintendo release of the titular alien creature, which is fairly accurate from an aesthetic standpoint but also just makes for a boring, weird-looking toy that is hard to play with or properly display. Maybe fewer Metroid toys isn’t such a bad thing.

14 Best: Mario Magnets

Sure, you can fill your fridge with all kinds of predictable magnets bragging about where you’ve traveled, advertising the local pizza joints, and displaying the number for the poison control hotline—or you can have the front of your refrigerator be a customizable scene from Super Mario Bros.

This magnet set is hours of fun for Nintendo fans of all ages.

Okay, admittedly, they aren’t the best at actually holding things up—but your kid’s B+ geography homework and that shopping list from five years ago belong on the side of the fridge anyway.

13 Weirdest: 20″ Link Figure

This Link figure looks fine in and of itself—but what exactly does a kid do with a 20″ action figure? The actor in that picture is even struggling to figure out how to feel about the thing.

Unless there is a whole line of 20″ Nintendo figures—and there isn’t—this 20″ Link is destined to only be played with on its own, which makes it kind of pointless. There are much cheaper things to buy your kid that’ll end up in the corner of his room collecting dust an hour after he opens it than this superfluous toy.

12 Weirdest: Famibots

Not surprisingly, Japan has a lot of bizarre Mario toys. But most of them are bizarre in that delightfully wacky Japanese kind of way, and we would never want Japan to stop being Japan in that way.

We decided to call out this particular Japanese toy, however, because of WHAT it is.

Of all the directions to take a transformable Mario toy, having him turn into a replica game cartridge is among the least-imaginative. It’s only a half-step more creative than if he had just transformed back into the box the toy came in.

11 Best: RC Mario Kart

There is only one thing more fun than playing Mario Kart—riding actual go karts. But after that, the only thing more fun is playing with remote-controlled cars based on Mario Kart.

There are a lot of great Mario Kart RC cars out there, and this entry could easily be taken as standing in for all of them. But if pressed to pick one, we’d have to go with the World of Nintendo line of cars based on Mario Kart 8. They strike the best balance of playability, affordability, and aesthetic quality.

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Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/weird-good-nintendo-toys/