Nintendo Home Race (ホームレース, ca 1966)

A Long-Wanted Rarity, Finally Found

Some of Nintendo’s past toys and games are much rarer than others. There are the big hits from the 1960s (Ultra Hand, Ultra Machine) that were produced in the millions, plenty of which survive to this day. Then there are the solid sellers, which are also not that hard to find for a collector who knows where to look.

On the other end of the spectrum are games so rare you start doubting if they actually exist. The game that is the subject of this post is an example of this. It took me more than twenty years of searching before I could finally add it to the collection recently. Based on its absence from the display of games at the Nintendo Museum in Kyoto, it seems Nintendo does not even own a copy themselves anymore.

The three copies that appeared on Yahoo! Auctions Japan over the last 25 years

To my knowledge, only three copies of this game have appeared on Yahoo! Auctions Japan since 2000. I failed to grab one of the first two, but the third time, in December 2025, I was lucky.

Introducing Home Race

The game is called Home Race (ホームレース), and it dates from the mid-1960s. The front shows a series of tanks based on the American M4 Sherman. US military equipment was a popular theme for toys in Japan during and after the American occupation following World War II.

The game sold for 500 yen at the time.

The box has a hexagon outline that is not the most practical shape, but it does help make it stand out a little more on the toy shop shelf.

It shares this box type with a series of board games released by Nintendo around the second half of the 1960s.

Inside the box we find an instruction manual, a playfield, and game accessories.

The playfield measures 39 by 16 centimeters and is about 3 centimeters high.

Plastic poker chips are included for keeping score.

Nintendo Playing Cards catalogue from 2001

I regularly encounter people who are surprised to hear that Nintendo is still in the playing cards business today, although mainly in its home market of Japan. They know that the company started by making cards long ago, but assume this stopped after Nintendo joined the video game boom.

The Nintendo product catalogue from August 2001 shown here, which is fully dedicated to playing cards, illustrates how the company’s involvement in this area continued into the 21st century.

Nintendo Playing Cards brochure (2001) back and front

The booklet is called the Nintendo Trump Collection, where “trump” refers to the Japanese term for Western-style playing cards.

Inside the catalogue are ten pages, roughly A4 in size, printed in full colour on heavy paper stock.

The introduction text acknowledges that the cards are a “traditional” product:

As we move from the analog to the digital age, in a time when many good old things are being lost, playing cards continue to be loved by people even today.

Their appeal lies in the fact that, with a bit of ingenuity, they allow for countless different games, and every time you play, they offer new discoveries and fresh surprises.

[...] Playing cards are an eternal tool for communication, loved across generations.

The catalogue presents the full Nintendo range of card designs available at the time.