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Vintage Nintendo Storage Chest!

Two of our friends hooked up, got engaged and are now living in sin till the wedding nearby, and during the process of ma-ma-merging, some of their shit had to go. So, thanks to Justin for passing this one along -- a beat-up old Nintendo chest from the rarely mentioned "crate craze" of the 80s, where we plowed on with silent obsession for milkcrates, storage chests and just boxes in general. There was a huge line of similar chests available for virtually every childhood franchsie you can think of. I'm pretty sure they're officially licensed...

I'm not going to tell you what caused the damage shown above; I've heard the story and it's disgusting. Our new Nintendo chest will never double as a plate. Each side features a different NES scene, alternating between Mario, Zelda and BOTH AT ONCE. Looks like a lot of the art was inspired by the old instruction manuals, meaning we get to see that old hag who told Link about glowy triangles and underground ghouls all over again. Here's the pics, click to enlarge.

Posted by Matt on 08/23/2004. E-mail me!



Discussion Thread: 83 comments

Her name is not Peach Toadstool; Nintendo shot that rumor down. For some weird reason though in Super Mario 64 her name was Toadstool AND Peach.

Chestnuts roasted by Mars @ 08/25/2004 2:10 AM

Is there a single picture of Link where he looks like a badass? In every drawing I’ve ever seen of him, he either looks like a little girl or some guy who is going to remodel my house.

Chestnuts roasted by SuperStar @ 08/25/2004 2:15 AM

Link didn’t look so bad in Soul Calibur…

And the Peach vs. Princess Toadstool thing is a personal preference. No big deal or anything. It’s just like changing your child’s name. No one does that, and it’s awkward and uncomfortable and hard to adjust to.

Now I’m comparing Nintendo characters to my children…

Chestnuts roasted by Meg @ 08/25/2004 3:01 AM

How is it that Dave http://www.cutitout.net/">"Cut It Out!" Coulier looks better than http://www.jordanknight.com/">Jordan Knight in the commercials for the new http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/the_surreal_life/82680/episode.jhtml">Surreal Life? Did Coulier have the http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Arc/9959/pod.gif">Living Essence extracted from those unfortunate Olsen twins, so that he may regain his youth?

Chestnuts roasted by ME @ 08/25/2004 3:30 AM

Mountain Dew Pitch Black tastes like crap. Just passing it along.

Chestnuts roasted by Mr King @ 08/25/2004 10:03 AM

IMHO, Mountain Dew tastes like Crap, too! :)

Chestnuts roasted by Cameron T. @ 08/25/2004 11:29 AM

That Pitch Black is one of the most rancid soda’s I’ve ever tasted!

Chestnuts roasted by Bizzar @ 08/25/2004 11:55 AM

has anyone tasted this greenish/bluish mountain dew? somebody at my work went to taco bell and brought me back some from there but I haven’t seen it myself. Mountain Dew pitch black does suck, I knew it would, but I have to taste every new soda that comes out anyway.

Chestnuts roasted by sailor moon @ 08/25/2004 11:12 PM

Read ‘em and weep, folks… I still have everything from my boyhood PAC-MAN bedroom. Sheets, comforter, pac-shaped satin throw pillows, curtains, trash can, and this cheap cardboard mobile featuring pac and the ghosts. Of course, any day now I fully expect my son to realize what a dork his dad is, and run away from home carrying only a rusty lunchbox, and repeating the word "California" over and over again.

Seems like a fair price to pay, though.

Chestnuts roasted by JC da King @ 08/26/2004 12:56 PM

Pitch Black is awesome.

And it’s Toadstool.

Chestnuts roasted by Jim Brody @ 08/26/2004 2:12 AM

Thats so cool!!! its funny that you say your friends are getting married and getting rid of it, b/c I just got married and I told my husband its gotta be in our room where I can see it all the time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chestnuts roasted by Loozer @ 08/26/2004 12:04 PM

yeah that box had to go…
And the box damage has to do with a sickly animal .. mreowwwww

Chestnuts roasted by The Fiance @ 08/26/2004 12:53 PM

My friends… Back in the 80s, this whole game thing was still new and America was seemingly afraid of the bizzar Japanese culture unless they happened to be rich or just plain geeky (early Anime fans, you know this all too well). American companies did not have the internet to grab some of the brilliant stock art from Japan, nor the inclination to have someone get it for them. So that is why the early Nintendo memorbilia looks nothing like the good old Japanese stock art we love today. … So that is why some of the stuff, while utterly awesome, is inaccurate like this utterly awesome box Matt has inherited.

This lack of communication with Japan/crappy localization guys also plays in the case of names… She was called Princess Toadstool here because she was the Princess of Mushrooms, ha ha ha. That and Princess Peach seemed too /girly/ for what was considered a boy’s market. The much vaulted Mario movie used the name of the Game Boy princess because face it, Daisy sounds more normal than ‘Toadstool’. And hell, in all of the cartoons they just called her ‘Princess’ unless it was a formal situation. In Mario 64 they left it as ‘Princess Toadstool, Peach’. So we can consider Toadstool her last/family name, like Tudor. The spin is that she is from the Toadstool royal line, current rulers of the Mushroom Kingdom. Peach is her first name, and people generaly address royals by their first name… you see where this is coming from? It’s not just a bridge between markets, it’s an attempt to make sense.

Now mind you, Peach was first Peach in English for Mario’s Safari, a Super Scope game. That is during the period when Nintendo became more aware that the US audience wanted more things the Japanese audience had (art was first, nuiances such as names later). That is when anime started to become cooler in the ‘underground’ (ha ha ha) and the first truly die hard otaku were born.

Sooooooo all of my rambling concludes that with a more welcoming culture came a more positive change in translated video games and memorbilia amoungst other Japanese-related things. And Dr. Robotnik is still Robotnik here, but they made the English dialouge reflect that Eggman is a rude nickname for his shape to which he shruged and adopted to his fleet of stupendously incompitent robots. Since you know, back in the early 90s ‘Robotnik’ sounded cooler than ‘Eggman’.

Chestnuts roasted by Kou Hotaru @ 08/26/2004 7:12 PM

SuperStar: Have you seen the footage from the new Zelda game unvieled at E3? Not only does Link LOOK cool, but he ACTS it, too. Just him an Epona versus a two-dozen strong army of vile beasts on the horizon, backed by the flames of the setting sun… those beasties don’t stand a chance. ;)

Chestnuts roasted by Freezair @ 08/26/2004 7:41 PM

That is… the coolest thing i have ever seen in my entire life.

Chestnuts roasted by 1983boy @ 08/31/2004 5:03 AM

I saw one of those crates going for 30 bucks on eBay once…I envy you and your ability to recieve a free Nintendo chest.

Chestnuts roasted by Drew @ 08/31/2004 2:10 PM

I have that exact same box… except instead of the Nintendo logo surrounded by Link and Mario, it has a collage of the characters from Super Mario Bros. 3

Chestnuts roasted by J-Fry @ 08/31/2004 4:40 PM

i had a metal zelda garbage can in my room. it was the coolest thing ever. except it was sticky and sharp. and lockjaw-ey.

Chestnuts roasted by Zac @ 09/02/2004 10:33 PM

Excellent piece. You should do a more in depth and general piece about the box craze.

Chestnuts roasted by Crimson @ 09/03/2004 12:13 PM

wow.. I have that chest too.. it’s sitting next to me and I’ve had that bitch for a long time. It’s in perfect shape though and it currently houses 13 fetus’ that I use for stem cell research, what a small world we live in!

Chestnuts roasted by Kroger @ 09/03/2004 8:35 PM

Haven’t seen Pitch Black in stores yet but have tried the Mountain Dew at Taco Bell (Baja Blast). It is pretty good as far as sodas go. (They say it’s mountain dew with tropical lime flavor.) Try it out. Oh I remember those chests too.

Chestnuts roasted by Paul @ 09/05/2004 10:58 AM

Heh, I had me one of the TMNT ones.

Now is it just me or does Mario
look downright evil there?

It looks like he just waltzed in there and buggered off with the princess (who looks 8 years old in that picture)
of course those mushroom retainers seem awfully happy to see mario escaping with their princess…maybe she was a royal bitch.

Chestnuts roasted by Dante Wyrmfoe @ 09/05/2004 10:12 PM

MATT! Please write the story of why the box got damaged!!! Come on everyone, petition, we all want to know what damaged the box! :)

Chestnuts roasted by Johnark @ 09/08/2004 7:19 PM

some one probably said this already but isnt peaches hair blond?

Chestnuts roasted by da man @ 09/09/2004 4:46 PM

All of you bastards are stupid, you branch off into subjects not even related to the main subject….Ex. The thing about taco bell mountain dew and other little dork comments. Who cares if mario has a mean face, if you had to fight all the time against a oversized turtle you’d get mad to if he stole your girl. I have the box myself in great condition…if anyone wants to buy it contact me at rajones19@hotmail.com

Chestnuts roasted by Ron Jones @ 09/10/2004 8:57 PM

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 23rd, 2004 at 9:32 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.