FRIDAY FLASHBACK: Nintendo Products and Crafts

Now is a great time to be nostalgic. I don’t mean right this second or even today, but just “now” as a general term for the years surrounding this moment in time. Many kids who grew up in the ’80s (like me) now in the twenty-something age range are now taking ’80s memories and turning them into must-own items. Of particular interest to me are…
Nintendo Products and Crafts
Even though there are plenty of great “next-gen” console games out there, I still regularly sit down to enjoy old school Nintendo gaming. Watching a pixelated Mario jump around the screen simply never gets old. That enjoyment easily carries over into collectibles, apparel, and other merchandise, so here are a few fun items I’ve recently come across online:
80stees.com
If you’re looking for a Nintendo shirt or hoodie, you need not look any further than 80stees.com.
Most Nintendo fans remember playing Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out and beating the pants off of King Hippo, getting frustrated with Soda Popinski, and entering in the magic code (007-373-5963) to skip all the nonsense and go after Tyson himself. With the shirt above, you can embrace your inner Little Mac and proudly run through the streets of New York as the champ that you know you are.
80stees.com has plenty of other great Nintendo shirts as well. In fact, half of my wardrobe came from this site.
Pricey Products
If you’re looking for something a little less ordinary than a t-shirt, how about decking out your home’s decor with some Nintendo style? Here are a few options:
These Super Mario Bros. wall decals allow you to turn any room into something straight out of the Mushroom Kingdom. They’re moveable and reusable but come with a hefty price tag of $75. Also available are New Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong decals. They’re all officially-licensed Nintendo products so by purchasing them you’ll not only be showing how big of a fan you are but also supporting the company that started it all.
This snazzy classic Nintendo controller pillow case is not an officially-licensed product but is still pretty darn cool. They are made-to-order and thus can be made in any size you need. A standard pillow size is $35, but that can vary depending on what you’re looking for. If I had one of these, I’d make sure to enter up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Start before going going to sleep every night, hoping to wake up with 30 lives in the morning.
Unique Items
Not all Nintendo-inspired items are created with mass-production in mind. Here are a couple of incredibl and one-of-a-kind home crafts:
This scarf would be a perfect companion piece to the above-linked Punch-Out t-shirt. The likenesses of Little Mac and Mike Tyson (at least his 8-bit version) are incredibly accurate and even in the daily heat of Florida, I’d be proud to wear this as a fashion accessory. Unfortunately, only one was made and it was sold last year for $175.
Practically every kid who grew up in the ’80s has at least one original Game Boy lying around. I personally have three of them (two were mine and one was my wife’s). One crafty fan turned his dead Game Boy into a shadow box for a Super Mario Bros. papercraft project. This one isn’t for sale but anyone can download the papercraft project and make it. If you happen to have an old Game Boy that you’re willing to gut, you can replicate this fairly easily.
I obviously couldn’t list all Nintendo-inspired products and crafts that are out there, as there are thousands of them. If you have a favorite or have made one yourself, post in the comments!
Many of the items seen here came from this fantastic Nintendo product round-up.
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I love the old school T-shirts, but if you’re like me and would rather buy things in the store instead of off the Internet, there are a few places in Orlando to find some old school Nintendo shirts, Hot Topic in the Florida Mall, the Virgin store at Downtown Disney and the store in the Japan pavilion at Epcot (as seen in the recent Epcot photo update in the Attractions Magazine blog: http://www.attractionsmagazine.com/blog/?p=1265 )
Very true. Shirts from Hot Topic make up the other half of my wardrobe. ;)
I should pick up that Super Mario Bros. wall decals because I still have the original game, and the system.
And I also have the B&W GameBoy
Why is it always Nintendo…where’s the Magnavox Odyssey 2 love?