Name of Merch: Super Mario & Link Collectable figures
Purchased From: Unknown small gaming store in Paris (France)
Price: 15 Euros each
Without harping on about it too much, as anyone who's read some of my last blog posts will know I went to Paris for a few days last week. Even though most of the trip was full of all things Disney, I still found time to have a look around a gaming shop - and a retro-orientated gaming shop at that! Result. There were a load of items in there which took my fancy from SNES and N64 bibles (all in French though, sadly) to low cost Amibos, with some going for the equivalent of around £8.00! I allowed myself a 15 Euro limit though and my girlfriend very kindly said she'd give me a gift up to 15 Euros too. I did buy her some Minnie Mouse ears before though! So in the end I went for these two NES themed collectors figures.
The figures I spotted were actually outside of their packaging in a glass display case. There were three which I spotted and all NES themed: the two you see here from Super Mario Bros. and Legend Of Zelda respectively, and also a Tanooki suited Mario from the amazingly popular game Super Mario Bros. 3. As you can see I went with the 'Super Mario' one and the Link figure. It was bloody hard to choose though! Seriously, we must have been in that shop for at least 45 minutes trying to choose what to buy! I was very close to buying an Amibo and figure, but in the end I figured I would never be able to collect every single Amibo and these figures did look amazing in addition to being something I had never seen before.
It's obvious due to its packaging that the figures were originally from, or at least manufactured in Japan. On the Link figure it even says 'Hyrule Fantasy' which was the Japanese name for the original Zelda game for the NES. (Not sure if that's still the case now or did Nintendo change it to Legend of Zelda for later games in the series like the rest of the world? I wonder.) It would of been nice to get them out of their packaging and to show their detail a bit more, but sadly as most people know tearing the box open greatly decreases the value in the product so I had to leave them in their boxes for the pics I uploaded. What you can see from the photos though is that the detail very much captures the look of both characters as they were depicted in their NES days; right down to Mario's inverted red overalls to Link's very, um.. Christian shield. Not sure if the figures were made during the NES era or whether they were made later, but regardless of this particular fact the figures still very much show off the vintage detail of both characters. Both characters are mounted on stands too, so you would be able to stand them up without them getting toppled over. Whoever designed these figures did an amazing job in my opinion. It's just a shame there weren't more characters to choose from! Although, if there were, that might of presented me with a greater problem and thus I would have never left the shop to see Notre Dame...
One more thing before I sign off. Whilst in the shop trying to make a choice, I saw a boy of about 8 to 10 years old. The boy put my faith back in humanity that day when he bought a Game Boy Colour for himself along with a copy of Pokemon Silver. Just goes to show the appeal that the Game Boy still has many years later with a different generation of kids bought up with tablets and smart phones. Man, I feel old! But it did put a smile on my face. Hope that kid manages to catch 'em all and feels what I felt playing that game for the first time.
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