I’m in Japan on vacation at the moment, and I stumbled across something pretty special that I wanted to share with you all.

As a lot of you probably already know, Gunpei Yokoi, the designer of the Virtual Boy and the Game Boy, had a long career at Nintendo before he started getting involved with video games. In the 1960s, he designed a bunch of non-video-game toys for Nintendo, and those products were responsible for pulling the company out of a financial tailspin. The success of Yokoi’s early toy designs are what transformed Nintendo into a toy manufacturer—and, eventually, into a video game manufacturer.

According to every history of Nintendo I’ve ever read, the very first toy that Yokoi designed for the company was something called the Ultra Hand, an extendable grabber arm that was wildly successful when it was first released in Japan at some point in the mid-1960s. I had never seen one for sale—until yesterday, that is, at a flea market in Shinagawa.

This is what I got for 2,000 yen.

The box is pretty beat up. The corners are damaged and it has an overall dirty appearance, as though it was sitting in a basement for decades. Still, you’ve gotta love that box art, which greatly exaggerates the amount of fun to be had with this thing. Imagine being a kid, ripping through some wrapping paper and seeing this:

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Nintendo hadn’t yet settled on its current logo:

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The instruction manual has a more realistic take on the product’s appearance and capabilities:

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And here’s the Ultra Hand. The one I got is in used, but functional, condition. The plastic objects on top are balls with cylindrical stands. You’re supposed to use the Ultra Hand to grab the balls from afar:

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It works like a scissor lift. When you move the handles inward, the arm extends. When you move the handles outward, the arm retracts:

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The genius thing about the toy is the pinchers, which have been designed not to reopen once they close around something. So you can grab a ball from a distance and then use the arm to bring it back to you. The way to get the pinchers to open is by tugging on the red string, which disengages a spring-loaded gear on the top of pinchers and causes them to release their grip. It’s a classic Yokoi bit of ingenuity:

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There’s supposed to be a weighted medallion that keeps the string taut during use. My Ultra Hand was missing the medallion, so I substituted a five yen coin:

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That’s interesting, Ive seen that design before. It seems like everyone and their brother have made something simular. I’m sure Nintendo was first.

Nice find! I found a picture of the actual medallion:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-3zqBIpY5oGA/TXvwOIDw2tI/AAAAAAAAATE/y_NxM3JP634/s1600/beforemario_dot_com_ultrahand_12.JPG

It would probably be kinda pricey, but you could get it 3D-printed (in metal!) from a place like Shapeways (assuming you had a 3D model of it).

Can you estimate its diameter and thickness from the photo and your actual unit?

[litephiter]

I probably could estimate the size of the medallion, but I’m not sure it would be worth the price. To me, it’s pretty amazing that this thing is as complete as it already is.

Nice new profile pic, by the way!

• This reply was modified 7 years, 6 months ago by litephiter.

[RunnerPack]

litephiter wrote:
I probably could estimate the size of the medallion, but I’m not sure it would be worth the price. To me, it’s pretty amazing that this thing is as complete as it already is.

You’re probably right. However, if you have access to a regular 3D printer, you could print two halves of a hollow one in plastic, then stick a lead or steel weight inside to make it heavy enough. It might be small enough I could print it on my printer (no heated bed (yet) so larger items warp pretty badly).

Or, you could make a silicone mold from a printed part, then cast it directly in lead (and paint it) or lead-free pewter. Still more than you probably want to spend, though.

Nice new profile pic, by the way!

Thanks! I couldn’t have done it without your (nice, in-focus) photo. It’s more impressive at full resolution (I’m lookin’ at you, KR155E ;-))

• This reply was modified 7 years, 6 months ago by RunnerPack.

Wow, that’s a great deal! I paid much more for mine years ago. In case anyone’s interested, the dimensions of the medallion are 2 cm wide and 2.5 mm thick.

One of the good things about collecting stuff from Nintendo’s toy era is even though they’re rare and sought-after, they’re not as ‘mainstream’ as collecting their early video games- meaning that you can still get great deals on them if you shop around. (That probably won’t last forever though, so get ’em while you can!) The Love Tester is an exception (which always goes for a fortune), as well as some of their later, lesser-produced toys.

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I paid much more for mine years ago.

I had a feeling that these normally sell for a bit more, but it’s been so long since one has shown up on eBay that I can’t get an accurate read on value. Anyhow, it’s hard to go wrong for $20.

When I saw it lying on the ground it was like seeing a legend come to life. As soon as I noticed the illustration, I knew exactly what it was.

Thanks for those measurements, by the way. I’ll save them to my laptop in case I ever do decide to print up a replacement.