Buying video game store displays in Australia.

I’m wanting to buy video game displays that came from Australian retail shops. If you found this post and have any you may consider selling or know of any around. Please send me an email on kelamyaus@hotmail.com

If you’re not parting with any, I’m still interested in discovering new Australian variants and kiosk insert art I haven’t seen, etc.

An example of the shop displays I’m looking for is any display used in Australian retail stores to promote systems and games.
-Kiosks (interactive demonstration units, IDU, demo stands)
-Signs
-Standees (cardboard stands)
-Banners
-Branded shelving/cabinets
-Shelf stripping/talkers
-Statues
(Pretty much any merchandiser/rep promotional material supplied by game companies to retail stores) Nintendo Australia, Sega Ozisoft, Sony Playstation, Mircosoft Xbox, Atari, Futuretronics, commodore, etc. Preferably older ones.

Blog now inactive…

I started this blog a long time ago because there wasn’t much information online about collecting in Australia and about Australian videogame history. I wrote up most of the posts long before Australian Facebook collecting groups and when forums such as Nintendoage had little to no Australian information on it. I wrote many of  these posts years before even creating this WordPress and I still have heaps of posts I never got around to posting (30+). Years after I created this WordPress, Australian Facebook groups started to take off and I started putting up information there instead. Nintendoage finally started to get more Aussies talking on there, too.

Now in 2020, I feel this blog really isn’t needed, most of the information is out there now  and readily available. I have considered deleting this blog but have decided to keep it up as apparently there is info here that can’t be found elsewhere (Super A’can, etc).

I just wanted to thank everyone for all the nice messages over the years.

Diamaru – Defunct Stores.

In 1991, the huge Japanese department store Daimaru opened in Melbourne Central.

It was estimated that around 2 million customers poured through its door in the first three weeks of its opening.

In 1992, Sega Ozisoft opened up the first Serious Fun Store (store within a store concept) in Diamaru.

Daimaru offered almost everything you would need from a store. It took up several floors of the building.

Sadly, Diamaru closed their department store in 2002, paying five years rent ($30 million) in return for abandoning their lease commitment which ended in 2016.

World 4 Kids – Defunct Stores.

In 1993, the childrens toy market was worth $2.2 billion a year but had an expected potential market of $10 billion. American giant Toys R Us announced they were opening stores in Australia. Coles Myer hastily decided to enter the ring and open World 4 Kids (W4K). There was major hype leading up to the opening of both chains. It was going to be a changing point in the Australian toy market.

The general manager at W4K admitted there wouldn’t be enough room for both giants in the marketplace. He said “ultimately I don’t think both of us can survive. I expect that within the 12 to 15 months, one group will have established a clear majority of market share and the other group will have to decide whether it closes some stores. But we are absolutely determined to win this one.”

A Melbourne child psychologist was hired to train staff in the psychology of children wanting and parents buying. The general manager denied claims that it was a ploy to sell more toys and said it was a genuine attempt to help staff assist parents and children in purchasing decisions.

The W4K stores were nothing but items for kids. These stores were massive. Large aisles and walls full of toys, video games, kids videos, kids books, etc.

Unfortunately, over the next 9 years, W4K started to hemorrhage money ($30 million a year). In 2002 W4K closed their doors while Toys R Us is still in operate today in the Australian market.

The pictures below are thanks to Steve who was the chief designer for World 4 Kids. He was kind enough to go through his archives and sent me these pictures.

 

The Legend of Zelda Ocarina Of Time Exin Castillos building set

A piece of licensed Nintendo merchandise released in 2002. From toy manufactuer Popular de’juguettes SL, sold in spain.

The set is based around the Zelda Ocarina of Time Nintendo 64 game, in terms of characters and perhaps the story line. Being all in Spanish, I do not know what the exact story line is.

It consisting of 1546 pieces, for ages 6+. It is the second largest building set in the exin castillos line. Nothing compared to Lego’s 5922 piece Taj Mahal set!

It comes with cardboard cut out figures from the game, a back story and clues to traps inside the castle.

Some of the novelties in the set include:
Oil boiler and balls
drawbridge with chains
Door with large hinges and arch lintel
Swinging axle trap
Spring trap with knives
Carpet trap
Blue and red trap tiles
Fireplace with secret passageway
Secret folding wall
Spiral staircase with 90 degree swivel

The Exin Castillos line was first introduced back in 1968 by the Exin Lines Brothers of Spain.
The building blocks are comparable to lego, with a similar type of block. A standard size block with the addition of extra pieces for things like tower tops, wall mounted items, windows, arches etc.The blocks were specifically designed for the range of castle sets they produced. The Exin Lines Brothers stayed in production until 1993.

In 1996, Popular De’ Juguettes SL were founded. A toy manufacturer of Spain. They brought back some of the old toys from the 60’s to the 80’s such as the Rubik’s cube and then in 1998, the Exin Castillos line and manufactured the Legend of Zelda set a few years later.

Popular De’ Juguettes SL shut down operations and I believe were bankrupt in 2005. They were inventive and diverse, yet their quality was much inferior to the original line by the Exin Castillos Brothers. The increased competition with Lego would also have played a part in their downfall.

Mattel’s The Ultimate Gameboy Promotion – 1992.

Throughout Mattel’s distribution of Nintendo in Australia, they did many competitions. Some were promotional, while others were playoff competitions. I will include other events in future posts but this one is focused on The Ultimate Gameboy promotion.

Anyone buying a Gameboy from the 2nd of April to the 30th of June in 1992 were eligible to enter The Ultimate Gameboy promotion.

The prizes included a:

Surfboard

Rollerblades

Bike helmet

Rip Curl shorts

Shark watch

Sunglasses

Ultimate Gameboy shirt

Gameboy battery pack

2,000 Game paks

They mustn’t have had watches available during the photo shoot as the guy’s watch is drawn on.

A Gameboy receipt needed to be added to the form. South Australian residents did not need a receipt to enter and could fax a hand drawn Gameboy logo instead (only one entry per person).

Promotion form.

Gameboy receipt example (1991)

If your entry was one of the first 100 drawn, you won an Ultimate Gameboy set of gear to the value of $1360 ($2,476 with todays inflation). It included all the items listed earlier: rollerblades, surfboard, Bell bike helmet, sunglasses, Ultimate Gameboy t-shirt, Rip Curl boardshorts, Gameboy battery pack and a Shark watch.

The next 2,000 entries drawn received a Gameboy pak.

The total value of prizes offered was over $250,000 ($455,323 today)

Entries were drawn randomly in the foyer at the Mattel building in Melbourne.

If you have stumbled across this and you were one of the winners of this promotion or know the whereabouts of an Ultimate Gameboy shirt. Please don’t hesitate to send me an email.

Various Videogame Displays Part 3

Euro/Australian Acclaim Mortal Kombat banner.

Commodore 64 Power Play bundle display.

Donkey Kong Country 2 counter display.

World of Nintendo M41W sign.

Nintendo Super Mario Bros 2 M40B display.

Super Nintendo Mario/Yoshi M80Y display.

Nintendo Australia Treasure Hunt competition poster.

SNES Alien VS Predator competition poster  and Super Mario 3 and Sonic VHS poster.

Activision Radical Rex Competition Skateboard.

Ah, the 90’s, where dinosaurs were either radical or extreme. They had attitudes, guns and outrageous attire. There was a Dinosaur invasion: Extreme Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs (TV), Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, Adventures In Dinosaur City, Theodore Rex, We’re back and Jurassic Park. That’s just naming a few. What would be more fitting for this time than a skateboarding Tyrannosaurus-Rex named Radical Rex. Developed by Australia’s very own Beam Software and published by Activision. Released on the Super Nintendo, Sega Mega Drive and Mega-CD.
To promote the game, Activision gave three Radical Rex skateboards to the Nintendo Magazine System to give away in a competition in November 1994, just prior to the game’s release the following month. Not only was the prize a cool Radical Rex Skateboard, but also a copy of the game on SNES! All you had to do to win was write in with a short poem about “Why dinosaurs are too hip to be extinct (especially skateboarding ones)”.

 

 

 

Various Videogame Displays Part 2

 

Australian Star Wars Racer cash back offer and bonus storage tower offer – A4 standee counter displays

Japanese Sega light up sign.

Australian N64 Airbrushed display. It’s made of layered foam, giving it a 3D effect. The display pictured was used in a few Electronic expos in Melbourne and Sydney.

Australian Nintendo 64 light up sign.

Nintendo and Sega light up signs. The Nintendo sign is 131cms long but also came in a smaller version. The Sega sign also had the larger sized version. These signs were used in Brashs stores.

Australian Sonic plastic display. There were several characters done in this style. Below is the display being used in the Sega Hotline office (right top corner).

PS1 light up sign. It’s a European sign but used an Australian travel adapter for usage in Australian stores.

PS1 sign.

Gameboy Kiosk BGB-001

The BGB-001 Gameboy kiosks were used in Japan to promote the newly released Gameboy. The kiosk could be set up to only display the game on the TV (with the Gameboy hidden) or have the Gameboy accessible to play with video and audio linked up to the TV.

 

They used their own unique version of the US/EUR Demo Vision.

There is even a nod to the kiosk in the game Tomodachi life and Animal Crossing.