Nintendojo Toy Box: Mario Kart 64 Die Cast Cars

Welcome to Nintendojo’s newest feature, where we highlight video game toys and memorabilia!

By Robert Marrujo. Posted 08/06/2014 09:00 2 Comments     ShareThis

For a lot of players, their joy of video games goes beyond what’s on the screen. Whether it’s a lunchbox or lanyard, the world of video game merchandise is irresistible to so many gamers. With that in mind, we here at Nintendojo have decided it’s time to venture into the world of video game toys, figurines, and memorabilia! Video games are an interesting pastime, in that despite all of the controllers, systems, wires, cartridges, discs, and endless peripherals, there’s a level of intangibility to gaming because of the digital nature of the games themselves. With baseball, for instance, a person can go snag a ball and toss it around in his hands as he listens to a game on the radio. Video games, on the other hand, are confined to memory when they’re not actively being played. Toys and memorabilia serve as a way of breaking that barrier down.

I can vividly remember being a kid sitting in my grandma’s front room playing with the Super Mario Bros. 3 McDonald’s toys. The thrill for me, regardless of the characters looking a little deformed, was how cool it was to finally have Mario in my hands. Video games create a world with very defined limits and rules, whereas toys, well, they can be whatever you want them to be. With my Goomba and spring-loaded Mario duking it out, the limitations of the game world were gone and I could live out all the adventures and stories I wanted with Mario truly under my control. Toys and figures created a tangible connection to video games that the games alone can’t provide.

With Toy Box, we’ll be highlighting a wide array of toys and collectibles that touch on all the different games and series that have graced Nintendo’s various systems over the years. For some, it will be a heady trip back to childhood, for others it will be a spur to action (or eBay) to hunt down a new trinket for their collection! With that said, our first batch of toy goodness is going to focus on some excellent die cast cars based off of Mario Kart 64!


Racing Champions Mario Kart 64 Five-pack.

I stumbled across this nifty pack of die cast cars in Old Sacramento last summer. The cars are a mixture of Chevies and Dodge builds. The set consists of cars featuring Mario, Peach, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, and Bowser. Racing Champions has done other video game cars in the past, including ones based on Mega Man X4.


Matchbox Mario Kart 64 individual packs.

These particular die casts I’ve had since I was in my teens. They were available at a number of retailers, including Walmart. The cars came out later than the Racing Champions set, but are equally cool. Matchbox, too, has done cars based off of other videogame properties, including Sonic!

With that, our first installment of Toy Box has come to a close! Are there any video game toys or collectibles that you love? Any super rare finds you’d like to tell us about? Open up in the comments!

2 Responses to “Nintendojo Toy Box: Mario Kart 64 Die Cast Cars”

  • 819 points
    Toadlord says...

    I like this idea for a new feature. Kind of a video games Show and Tell.

    Just spit-balling here, but this could be an good way to feature guest articles from users who have collectibles of their own.

  • 1291 points
    Robert Marrujo says...

    Thanks, Toadlord! We’re trying our best to give you all some cool content to read; feedback like this is always welcome =) I’ll pass your thoughts along to our EiC. I’ve got a ton of stuff lined up for this, so please look forward to more.

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