Nintendo Copilas (コピラス, 1971)

Regular readers of this blog will be familiar with Nintendo's explosion of ideas in the early 1970s. Besides an array of toys and games (like the Light Telephone and Ultra Scope), there were attempt to make it in the world of kitchen appliances (Candy Machine candy floss maker), baby products (Mamaberica stroller and Twins seesaw) and musical instruments (Ele-conga electronic bongo).

Yet another product category which Nintendo entered during this period (and soon would leave again) was that of office machines.

Like many of Nintendo's other endeavours from around this time, it only led to a single product. In this case it was a photo copier (複写機), called the Nintendo Copilas (コピラス), which was released in 1971.

Still, it seems that Nintendo had great plans for this market, or at least wanted to give the impression that they meant serious business, as the product was provided by the Nintendo Office Equipement Division (任天堂 事務機事業部).

Nintendo Mamaberica magazine picture

While Googling I found a picture that I hadn't seen before. It is from a 1970 magazine and shows the Nintendo baby stroller called Mamaberica.

Nintendo Mamaberica (1970)

The full story about this interesting Nintendo product can be found here.

Nintendo N&B Block Universe Set (任天堂 N&B ブロック 宇宙セット, 1968)

The Nintendo N&B Block sets were a successful attempt by Nintendo to step into the block-building market-segment created by LEGO. Thanks to good product design and clever marketing, Nintendo even managed to upstage the Danish company for a while in Japan in the late 1960s.

Nintendo N&B Block Universe Set(1968)

The N&B Block Universe Set is the largest, most luxurious set in the Nintendo N&B Block series.

It was released in 1968 and cost ¥2,800, which also makes it the most expensive of all N&B Block sets.

Ever heard of the Nippon Game company?

Some time ago, I posted a story about the various logos used by Nintendo over its long history.

I forgot to mentioned one interesting piece of information, though. When Nintendo branched out from playing cards to board games, they decided to do this under the name Nippon Game. This name was only used for a brief time, but if it had stuck we would be waiting for the Nippon Game Wii U right now!

In the early 1960s, Nintendo released games under the name Nippon Game