Nintendo Copilas - part 2 (コピラス, 1971)

The Nintendo Copilas (コピラス) was a revolutionary budget-price photocopy machine, released by Nintendo in 1971. After the introduction in a previous post, it is now time to take a look at how this wonderful machine actually works.

Nintendo Copilas (1971)

The Copilas runs on mains power, which is 100 volts in Japan.

top view

But before we watch it in action, let's first take a closer look.

Nintendo N&B Block Leisure House (レジャーハウス, 1968)

I just completed my collection of Nintendo N&B Block sets. The first one I got - many years ago - was a Leisure House set. Fittingly, the last one was the other Leisure House set.

Nintendo N&B Block Leisure House (1968)

Nintendo Copilas (コピラス, 1971)

Regular readers of this blog will be familiar with Nintendo's explosion of ideas in the early 1970s. Besides an array of toys and games (like the Light Telephone and Ultra Scope), there were attempt to make it in the world of kitchen appliances (Candy Machine candy floss maker), baby products (Mamaberica stroller and Twins seesaw) and musical instruments (Ele-conga electronic bongo).

Yet another product category which Nintendo entered during this period (and soon would leave again) was that of office machines.

Like many of Nintendo's other endeavours from around this time, it only led to a single product. In this case it was a photo copier (複写機), called the Nintendo Copilas (コピラス), which was released in 1971.

Still, it seems that Nintendo had great plans for this market, or at least wanted to give the impression that they meant serious business, as the product was provided by the Nintendo Office Equipement Division (任天堂 事務機事業部).

Nintendo Mamaberica magazine picture

While Googling I found a picture that I hadn't seen before. It is from a 1970 magazine and shows the Nintendo baby stroller called Mamaberica.

Nintendo Mamaberica (1970)

The full story about this interesting Nintendo product can be found here.