In the previous blog post we looked at Nintendo's business line of promotional playing cards, and zoomed in on a particular set from the 1960s as an example, for Japanese company Kanebo.
And although playing cards were the main promotional item Nintendo produced, they created other types as well, based on a number of their existing toys.
In today's post we will take a closer look at one of those promotional toys, made for that same company Kanebo. This promotion is from the 1970s, and was targeted at boys and men.
It promoted a product line of male grooming items, called Dandy Mark III.
At the time Kanebo was already sponsoring a racing team, so it made sense to look in that direction for this promotional item as well.
Kanebo commissioned Nintendo to produce a special variant of its recent Mach Rider (マッハライダー) racing toy, introduced by Nintendo in 1972 under license from American company Hasbro.
This Kanebo version was called Dash Rider (ダッシュライダー). It was likely given away in a prize draw or competition for the Kanebo Foods division, in some sort of cross-division promotion, whereby the Foods division contributed to the marketing of the (men's) cosmetics products.
The box art for Dash Rider was completely redrawn from the original, although it retained most of the general layout design of Mach Rider, except for the picture on the front.
