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A somewhat special edition of Nintendojo Toy Box has arrived, as this time around we will be covering the Video Game Superstars Mario Kart 64 series of figures! These toys are amongst the coolest Nintendo memorabilia ever made. There are a total of seven that I know of: the six pictured here, and a seventh, which is a variation of the Mario racer with a clear body and a Boo in tow (I always assumed it was the “ghost” version of Mario).
The toys are incredibly intricate. Each toy has an individual, posable figurine, with movable limbs and highly detailed, accurate representations of the respective characters. The karts, meanwhile, are equally well-made, properly proportioned to the racers themselves (much like in the game; look at how Wario is squeezed into his kart!) and filled with smart details like the texturing of the faux metal under the racers’ feet. I didn’t include them in the pictures, but each racer came with items that could be shot from the front or back of its kart. A banana trail, blue shell, red shell, green shell, etc. Seriously, folks, these things are awesome.
As a kid in the nineties, there were hardly any true “action figures” of Nintendo’s characters. There were figurines here and there, like the Super Mario Bros. 3 toys sold at McDonald’s, but a person couldn’t just roll into Target and find Mario stuff like today. When I got my hands on these, it was a revelation. I finally had a Mario toy that was as close to the games as it could get! Needless to say, these guys spent as much time driving around racing as they did acting out the menagerie of adventures and scenarios my brain conjured up. That’s one of the reasons I always have trouble with the assertion that video games dull a person’s mind; video games always got my creative gears turning like nothing else! The games were never enough, so I made my own stories based off of them.
Nowadays, most of the Mario Kart toys on the market have the characters and karts molded into one. There was no such skimping when Toy Biz released these figures in 1999. These feel like they were ripped straight from the game itself! There’s still a dash of old-school deformity to some of the characters though, most notably Donkey Kong and Bowser, but overall, these are some of the most handsome Nintendo toys ever released. Anyone looking to assemble these for their own collection, be forewarned: expect some sticker shock. Any time I’ve ever seen these pop up online, they’re going for a pretty penny, especially if they’re still in their packaging. If ever there were toys worth the premium, though, these are them. Until next time, folks!
