Nintendo My Car Race (マイカーレース, ca 1965)

There is no shortage of racing games in Nintendo's history. And I am not talking about Mario Kart, or other virtual speedsters, but of real racing experiences, be it on toy scale.

Nintendo My Car Race (ca 1965)

The two oldest in Nintendo's catalogue are Drive Game and the set shown here: My Car Race (マイカーレース).

The year of release of My Car Race is not shown on the box or manual, but it is believed to date from around 1965, possibly slightly earlier. Retail price was ¥2,500.

The sports car on the front of the box (which I believe is a Mazda) promises an exciting, fast paced game. It also somewhat over-promises the level of detail of the model cars included, as we will see shortly.

Nintendo Lefty RX G.T. Sport and Proto-Type (レフティRX G.T. スポーツ, レフティRX プロトタイプ, 1972)

In a previous post on this blog, Nintendo's remote controlled racing car Lefty RX was introduced. These toy cars have the surprising feature that they can only steer to the left (hence the name). Unlikely as that may sound, it was actually a good tradeoff between play fun and affordability - and still allowed for great races to be staged between multiple cars.

All four Lefty RX car types

The original Lefty RX series, introduced in 1972, featured a slick sports coupe car (in two slightly different body versions). When this became a commercial success, Nintendo quickly released a follow-up later that same year.

Lefty RX, Lefty RX G.T. Sport and Lefty RX Proto-Type

Two new Lefty RX models were introduced, which replaced the original series: Lefty RX G.T. Sport and Lefty RX Proto-Type.

Nintendo Lefty RX (レフティ ＲＸ, 1972)

An important attribute of the Nintendo design philosophy - established in large part by chairman Hiroshi Yamauchi and engineer Gunpei Yokoi - is to ride the waves of new technology in a way that creates new play opportunities that are affordable (for the customer) and profitable (for the company).

The orginal Gameboy and the Wii are prime examples of this: not the most advanced in their time in terms of technology, but great fun nonetheless. And because of their relatively friendly price point, well positioned to achieve mass success.

Nintendo's racing car series Lefty RX (レフティ ＲＸ) is an early example of this approach.

In the 70's, wireless remote controlled cars were still in the early stages of their development, very much cutting edge and highly desirable toys. And usually also very expensive, because of the advanced electronics and mechanical parts involved.

Coming soon... The Lefty RX Story

I am currently compiling an overview of the Nintendo Lefty RX (レフティRX) racing cars series.

Nintendo Lefty RX series (1972)

Read all about it in this post.