Recently, on ebay, there was a listing for a Virtual Boy double sided display sign…
http://m.ebay.com/itm/192160428969
I ending up making the purchase and would now like to share my thoughts on it…
Well, according to the 2nd Half 1995 Retail Rental Program Display Order Forms, it looks like we found the Virtual Boy Counter Card/Mobile!
Model # – NES M93C Part # – 32191.
This item would have been used primarily as a hanging mobile in retail stores, but if the ceiling was too high, then it can also be used as a counter card when attached to its plastic stand. When used as a mobile, this display would hang and slowly rotate making the signs 3-D features visible from a standing point of view.
The display is 17 inches high and 12.5 inches at its widest point.
Benjamin Stevens wrote:
Do we have examples of the Virtual Boy Banner and Virtual Boy Poster shown on that order form? I can’t imagine that banner being the “Demo Here” Banner, but maybe it was, or maybe it’s the vinyl one.
I would say it’s most likely the vinyl one. Only because it seems to share a lot of the same advertising content as the counter card/mobile. To me, it looks like the counter card/mobile in banner form, with the only added text being “IS HERE” next to the Virtual Boy logo on the banner. I wish that picture of the banner was just a little bit clearer, this way we would’ve been able to make out the model and part number to confirm it.
Benjamin Stevens wrote:
I also can’t think of what the poster would have been, and it looks like they were simply handing them to stores for free.
Actually, it seems as though a lot of store advertising banners and posters were of no charge to the retailers. Check out these GameBoy and SNES order forms in the first picture, a lot of cool stuff was free to these stores!
As for the Virtual Boy Poster itself, I’ve never seen or found photos of one online, but I have a picture from an old ebay auction for a 1995 Nintendo museum tour book. It shows what seems to be the VB counter card/mobile on top of one of the display cases. It also seems to show a dedicated Display case for the Virtual Boy, but it’s too blurry to make out if there’s a VB Poster in one of them…
Well, at least I see that you haven’t spent the 2 grand being asked for the Virtual Boy Must See 3-D Sweepstakes sign… at least, you haven’t yet anyway…
Attachments:
Benjamin Stevens wrote:
Well, at least I see that you haven’t spent the 2 grand being asked for the Virtual Boy Must See 3-D Sweepstakes sign… at least, you haven’t yet anyway…
I keep an eye on that thing. A long story short…
When it first ever appeared on ebay, about a year or so ago, I made him an offer I was most certainly sure he would accept. But he turned me down man, he turned me down 😳
But that’s okay because I snatched the last entry form off the display then took-off runnin’!! 😁
Attachments:
vuefinder83 wrote:
what did vuefinder83 just find in one of his white-boxed USA demo units that might cause him to bump an old thread!?…
I decided not to bump/make a new thread, instead, I’m gonna make this one a twofer just because…
Are you ready for what I found!?
I
Found…
*drum roll*
Some AA batteries!!
*the sound of crickets*
No wait, don’t leave!! These are no ordinary batteries I tell ya.
These are Maxell Super Power Ace batteries, the same exact batteries that Nintendo packed in the box of brand-new GameBoy originals back in the day.
These were found in my “New” USA demo unit, wich has been in my collection for nearly 9 years. Every now and again, I like to check the contents of items that have been just sitting around on the shelves for years. But every single time I’ve checked the contents of this box it was always me just sliding it out, looking at it, then simply sliding the contents back in to the box. So this past weekend, I decided to check out its contents, but this time, I just so happened to pick up the controller and felt that it was very heavy…
My immediate thought was…”f***, the batteries must be corroded to death being in there for so long”. But to my surprise, when I opened the battery compartment there was what looked like a piece of rice paper in the shape of the opening to the VB’s battery compartment placed over the top of the batteries. So I then removed the piece of paper to get the batteries out, and it crumbled to dust (literally). After removing the batteries, wich happened to be in good shape, I had to blow out all the fragments of that crumbled paper, but everything in the battery compartment is still in new condition with no corrosion on the terminals whatsoever.
The batteries all have a manufacturing date that reads “07-95” on the bottom of them as seen in the 3rd picture, one month before the Virtual Boy’s US initial launch date.
This makes me wonder, if maybe these white-boxed USA demo units were used in tradeshows or maybe even used during the Virtual Boy Mall Tour promotion, where the VB would’ve been set up on tables, taken out of the box and after being set up all they had to do was remove that piece of paper from the battery compartment and stick a game in, and they were good to go…
The 4th picture is of an ebay auction for a “New” Game Boy original, many examples of these batteries being included with new game boys can be found all over the net.
So, thoughts!?
Benjamin Stevens wrote:
Heh… I wonder if he realizes that if your offer wasn’t good enough, then probably no one else’s offer in the world will ever be better.
vuefinder83 wrote:
…I might give it another shot in the very near future, I’ll let you know how that goes…
Dude, I finally scored this thing!! And for far less than his asking price, and my first offer I ever made.
This is cooler than I thought, because it’s actually not made from cardboard as advertised on the seller’s ebay post. The only part of this display made out of cardboard is the stand for the display itself. The display is actually two thin pieces of vinyl with a spongy black material between them.
Let’s now reunite the entry form with the display it was meant to be attached to!! (3rd pic)
