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 Mini Game Series number 52

As mentioned on this blog before, the Nintendo Mini Game Series from the 1970s is one of my favorites from Nintendo's past. It consists of a wide range of colorful, fun toys and games. And the range is getting wider still! Not that new ones are released, but entries in the series are still discovered to this day. I mean, literally today.

For many years I thought there were fifty different ones in total. Of those fifty, I managed to track down copies of forty-eight games. The two remaining ones eluded me for the longest time: Diving Shot (ダイビングショット) and Space Ball (スペースボール).

In 2019, I managed to get the search list down to one, by finding a copy of Diving Shot. Well, actually, I found four copies at once. More about that here.

Copies of Nintendo Mini Game Diving Shot, found in 2019

Then three years ago, I discovered a game I had not heard of before: a unknown variant of Picture Puzzle (ピクチュアパズル). This brought the the total list of known games to fifty-one, of which I owned fifty.

Nintendo Mini Game Picture Puzzle, found in 2020

And today, that happened again! I stumbled upon yet another version of Picture Puzzle! One that includes, as one of the three puzzles in the pack, a scene from Disney's Sleeping Beauty.

Old, but new to me. Nintendo Mini Game Picture Puzzle.

The copy is unused and complete. It is not in perfect shape, but pretty good, considering it is fifty years old. And I could not be happier, to have found it.

Nintendo Mini Game Series leaflet (ca 1975)

The Mini Game Series (ミニゲームシリーズ) was a collection of around fifty simple plastic toys, brought to market by Nintendo in the first half of the 1970s (roughly 1971 to 1976). The series covered a wide variety of play options, with prices for each toy ranging between ¥300 and ¥900.

A selection of Nintendo Mini Games (1970s)

In today's blog post we will take a look at this piece of marketing material targeted at toy dealers and distributors.

Nintendo Mini Game Series leaflet
(ca 1975, front)

It's a single page leaflet, printed on both sides in colour. It measures 18 by 25.5 centimeters, slightly smaller than A4.

Nintendo Mini Game Series leaflet
(ca 1975, back)

The leaflet dates from around 1975. The 'new release' (新発売) claimed in the top left corner of the front is a bit of a stretch, as most of the series was already a few years old at the time, although it may refer to some of the individual new(er) games.

Added Nintendo mini game # 50 to my collection

This being the first post of 2020, let me start by wishing you the best for this year. Granted, a quarter of it is already over. And with the global virus pandemic in full effect, it probably will not go down as one of the best years ever. But still, I hope you can make the most of it.

The last months I have been able to add some missing items to my collection, and I plan to show these in a few blog posts over the coming weeks, and included some things I have not covered before as well.

Today we start with a game from Nintendo's Mini Game series. The game is called Picture Puzzle (ピクチュアパズル). Like all of theseMini Games, it dates from the first half of the 1970s.

As reported a few month ago, I was chasing the last one of the 50 known Mini Games that I needed to complete the collection of these fun little toys. To my surprise I discovered another one, that I was not yet aware of.

Mini Game Picture Puzzle, the 50th mini game in my collection

This particular Mini Game is very simliar in style to two other Mini Games already in my collection, shown here in the middle and right in the picture below.

These two other games, although appearing to be different, both contain an identical set of three cardboard puzzles. It is just a different one of the three that is shown on top in the blister pack.

Nintendo mini game found after 20-year search

They say patience is a virtue, and that's certainly true when trying to complete the Nintendo Mini Game Series (ミニゲームシリーズ) from the early 1970s. It is one of my favorite series from Nintendo's history. These are fun, colorful, simple games, with a lot of variety. I guess they also remind me of toys from my own childhood, so nostalgia probably plays a role in their desirability.

From a collecting point of view, there is a lot to collect; fifty games in total. [Update 2023: actually 52!] But not so many that completing a set feels unachievable. A nice goal.

I started collecting twenty years ago, and although they were released around thirty years earlier, within a few years I managed to find most. Many I picked up as so-called 'new old stock' in liquidation sales of old toy stores. In the years that followed, I filled in most of the few remaining holes in the collection. This was a period when vintage Nintendo toys from the 60s and 70s were a bit more easy to find than today, if you knew were to look. It also helped that interest in these was quite low at the time. Looking back, it turned out to be a good moment to start a collection.

After about ten years of searching, I had found 48 of the known games.

Since then I have been on the lookout constantly, but fruitlessly, for the remaining two games. Ten years of searching, without any result.

Nintendo Mini Games series (1971-1976)

No result, that is, until today!

Perseverance pays off, and twenty years after starting the quest to find all Nintendo Mini Games, I added one more to my collection: Diving Shot (ダイビングショット).

Nintendo Mini Game Diving Shot

This was the first time since I started collecting that I found this game for sale, in an online auction, and I managed to grab it. The cool 1970s art-style of the blister pack alone is enough to make me smile from ear to ear.

Nintendo Mini Game Block Puzzle (ブロックパズル, ca 1972)

The Nintendo Mini Game series from the 1970s is one of the favorite parts of my Nintendo collection.

It's a combination of the colorful designs and simple but fun game play that I like a lot. The packaging and overall game design also oozes 1970s style, which is the time period in which I grew up, so nostalgia probably is part of the appeal.

From a collector's point of view, it is also great that there so many different games to collect in this series.

Nintendo Mini Game Block Puzzle (ca 1972)

For many years, I believed that the series consisted of 48 different games in total. Until a few months ago, when a 49th game was discovered.

Just recently, I discovered yet another Mini Game. It is called Block Puzzle (ブロックパズル) and dates from around 1972.

Although the two versions shown here appear to be different games, they are actually completely identical. The only difference is the sides of the blocks that are exposed on the front.

Nintendo Mini Game update - Space Ball

For a long time, I believed there were 48 different games in Nintendo's 1970s Mini Game Series. Over time I managed to add 47 of these to my collection, only missing Diving Shot (ダイビングショット).

But this week one popped-up that I had not heard about before: a Mini Game version of Space Ball (スペースボール). Bringing the total for the series to 49, and increasing my wanted list to two.

Mini Game Space Ball
(Image from auction by Yahoo user szbh_suki)

Nintendo Bee Hive Game (ハチの巣ゲーム, 1971)

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Nintendo licensed many games from various Western toy companies.

Nintendo's Bee Hive Game is a typical example of this.

It was released in Japan in 1971, in a box adorned with two (rather freckly) Western kids and a Japanese boy.

Nintendo Mini Game Series leaflet (ミニゲーム シリーズ リーフレット, 1972)

The Nintendo Mini Games (ミニゲームシリーズ) were a series of lovely colorful miniature toys, released in the first half of the 1970s.

Read all about these toys in the following posts:

• Nintendo Mini Games Series introduction
• Nintendo Mini Games Series overview of all toys

Nintendo Hopping Game (ホッピングゲーム, 1971)

Following the previous post covering the Nintendo Hockey Game, today we take a look at another game in the category "simple but fun".

Nintendo Hopping Game (1971)

The game is called 「ホッピングゲーム」.

Which is katakana, meaning "Hopping Game".

Nintendo Hockey Game (ホッケーゲーム, 1974)

Nintendo Hockey Game (ホッケーゲーム) is a simple but fun sports game.

Nintendo Hockey Game (1974)

The image on the front of the box shows a frantic dad, hell-bend on beating one of his sons.

Nintendo Mini Game Series - Remakes by Nichiten

The Nintendo Mini Game Series was very popular in the 70s. But Nintendo stopped selling them in the later half of the 70s, when they abandoned the production of more traditional toys, so they could focus fully on video games for the arcade and home.

This was not the end of the Mini Games though, as Japanese company Nichiten Co. Ltd. (ニチテン) acquired a license from Nintendo to produce these games. (In more recent years Nichiten also acquired a license to produce a remake of the Nintendo Ultra Machine DX).

Remakes of Nintendo Mini Games by Nichiten

The Mini Game versions by Nichiten are very close to the Nintendo originals. Some colors differ, as did some of the artwork. The names of the games were sometimes also changed. For instance, the Bee Hive Game (ハチの巣ゲーム) became Block Dropping Game (ブロックおとしゲーム).

Nichiten remake of Badminton Game

Instead of blister packs, the games were sold by Nichiten in plastic bags. The tagline was appropriately changed to "fun bags" (楽しさバッグン).

The Kangaroo, which had been Nintendo's brand logo for the Mini Games, was replaced by a cute baby elephant, holding a sign with the word "mini" (ミニ).

The elephant took the place of the kangaroo as brand logo

The instructions are integrated in the back of the games.

The back of the Nichiten games show the Nintendo copyright

The leaflets below shows the range of games included in the Nichiten Mini Game Series.

Nichiten Mini Game Series leaflet

According to these leaflet, the range included at least thirteen games licensed from Nintendo, as well as some other games added by Nichiten.

Another Nichiten Mini Games Series leaflet

Judging on their rarity these days, the Nichiten range was sold in much lower qualities than the Nintendo originals.

Nintendo Mini Game Series - Introduction (ミニゲームシリーズ, 1971-76)

In the years following the second World War, lack of raw materials and a general struggle for survival meant that toys were a luxury which few could afford, and even then mostly at special occasions only.

Twenty years on, things were looking quite different. The post-war economic miracle was raising the standard of living for most in Japan. The country was on a trajectory that would lift it to second largest economy in the world (a position only recently lost to China). People had increasing funds for non-essentials, and children - of which there were many as a result of a baby boom - had more pocket money to spend.

Because of this, from the mid 1960s onwards, toys were being bought much more frequently; getting a new toy had become part of regular leisure time. The Nintendo Mini Game Series (ミニゲームシリーズ) was a range of toys that catered for this fast expanding market of simple, not so expensive, plastic toys.

Two of Nintendo's Mini Games: Puzzle Ball and Gun Game (1972)

The first games in the Mini Game Series were introduced around 1971-72, and new toys were added to the series until 1976.

The games were priced between ¥300 and ¥900, depending on their size and complexity. Although not cheap, they were affordable and the high manufacturing quality of the games also warranted these prices.

The Mini Game Series had a recognizable kangaroo icon as it's brand logo, with the word "Mini" (ミニ) on its pouch. The tag line for the range was "packed fun" (楽しさをパックした).

The kangaroo was the brand logo of the Nintendo Mini Game Series

Nintendo wasn't the only company producing these kind of games, and they also weren't the first. Their main competitor was Japanese toy giant Epoch, who had started their own Mini Game series around five years earlier. Nintendo followed suit and copied the packaging and some of the themes of the games (as did many others), but also added a lot of original ideas. In terms of sales, Nintendo and Epoch were both very successful with these toys, as the market was big enough for multiple players.

Two examples from Epoch's Mini Game series

All Mini Games were sold in blister packs with a plastic transparent front and a cardboard back. The Nintendo Mini Games came with a white plastic hook, by which they could be hung for display at points of sale.

Nintendo Mini Games were sold in blister packs with a hanging hook

The Mini Games were sold at various types of locations, including toy shops, news stands and petrol stations.

You could also find these Mini Games in the so-called Dagashi-ya (駄菓子屋), the small candy stores of which there were many all around Japan. Not many are left these days, but every neighborhood used to have at least one, which functioned as the local hangout for children.

Nintendo Mini Game Series flyer - front (1972)

In the 60s and 70s, travel in Japan was booming and these games also provided ideal diversion on the go (on trains, planes and automobiles), as illustrated on this 1972 flyer. "Yes! All play together" (さあ みんなで 遊ぼう) shouts the little boy below.

Nintendo Mini Game Series flyer - back (1972)

The Nintendo Mini Games came in two distinct sizes: the large packs were around 22 by 30 centimeters and the smaller packs around 19 by 26 centimeters.

The cardboard back of the blister pack was brightly colored and featured busy, almost psychedelic scenes (very much 70s style); all aimed at standing out in the shops and catching the eye of the little customers.

Nintendo Mini Game sizes: large and small

Instructions on how to play the game were always provided on the back.

The back of the Mini Game contained the instructions

A couple of years after the launch of the Mini Game Series, the packaging was redesigned. Gone were the busy drawings, replaced by a less exciting but more standardized look.

Redesigned Mini Game packaging (around 1974)

The packaging of all games now had the same design: a pattern of the familiar kangaroo against a red, green, yellow or blue background. This new design may have saved some design cost over the previous packaging (which required unique drawings for every game), but, more importantly, it made the games much more recognizable as part of the Nintendo Mini Game series, by now an established brand.

The back of the Nintendo Mini Game blister pack

As part of the redesign, the kangaroo logo was also slightly modified: a baby kangaroo peeping out of its mother's pouch was added, and the kangaroos were given eyes.

The Nintendo Mini Game logo was slightly changed around 1974

A number of the games that had been available in the original package design were released again in the new design, while a set of new games was also added around this time.

Bee Hive Game is one of the games that
was available in both package versions

To further boost sales, from 1974 onwards most of the Mini Games came with a mini brochure.

Mini Games Series mini brochure (around 1974)

This brochure showed the range of Mini Games for sale at the time.

The games in the Nintendo Mini Game Series can roughly be divided in four categories.

The first category consists of miniature versions of traditional games like chess, roulette and billiards.

Chess, Roulette, Billiards and Shogi (Japanese chess)

The second category contains all sorts of dexterity games that involve metal ball bearings.

Miracle Ball, Operation Bomber, Car License and Pitfall Game

The third group are portable versions of Nintendo games previously released in full size; like Time Shock, Hockey Game, Hopping Game and Rabbit Coaster.

Time Shock, Bee Hive Game, Hopping Game and Rabbit Coaster

The fourth category we will simply call "other". It consists of a wide variety of original games that do not fall in any of the previous three categories.

Gear Drive, Gun Game, Kurukurubanban and Bulldozer Game

A Nintendo logo and copyright notice can be found on most Mini Games, usually on the back.

The picture below shows the copyright notice (1976) of one of the last entries in the Nintendo Mini Game Series: a game called Sky Ring.

To respond to fierce competition and keep customers interested in buying Mini Games, it was necessary to regularly introduce new games. Over the lifespan of the Nintendo Mini Game Series, at least fifty-two different games were released (not counting color or package variants of the same game).

For a list of all games go to the Nintendo Mini Game Series overview.

A marketing leaflet for the Mini Game Series can be found here.

After Nintendo stopped selling the Mini Games, fellow Japanese toy maker Nichiten acquired a license to produce remakes of a number of these games.