Nintendo Promotional Toys: Kanebo's Dash Rider (ダッシュライダー) from the 1970s

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.

The front picture shows a drag race scene with various references to the Kanebo and Dandy Mark III brands. In the top left and bottom right corners, the Kanebo Foods Division is mentioned (カネボウ食品) as well as a slogan for it: "Enjoy Life - Kanebo Fine Foods!".

The box does not contain any clear references to Nintendo.

The Kanebo Foods logo and slogan are also shown on the side art.

The actual Dash Rider toy is identical to the original Mach Rider.

The only exception is the stickers.

In this variant, the sticker on the side of the launching pad says "Dash Rider" instead of "Mach Rider".

The sticker sheet that came with the Mach Rider is also included in the Kanebo promotion.

Mach Rider version with (unused) sticker sheet

Unfortunately, the Dash Rider in my collection came with an empty sticker sheet.

Dash Rider version with (used) sticker sheet

A previous owner had already applied all stickers to the car and launching pad.

Just like with the Mach Rider, the instructions for the Dash Rider are included on the inside of the top half of the box. Also here, there is no mention of Nintendo.

The bottom half of the box does give away the Nintendo connection though, for a sharp observer.

This part of the box is printed with a pattern of Nintendo Games logos.

And if we flip the included jumping ramp over, we see a clear message: "Manufactured by Nintendo Co Ltd, made in Japan".

This promotional item is pretty hard to come by, so I was happy to add one to the collection. If you happen to have a Dash Rider with the sticker sheet intact, or have any information about the related promotional activities (sweepstake or competition), I would love to hear from you!

For a description of how this toy works, check out this post about the Mach Rider.

For more information about the Kanebo promotional playing cards, see here.