Interest

Giant Game Boy Demo Station Sells for 2.2 Million Yen

ANN's Japan-based staff confirmed the secondhand store Hard Off in Seki, Gifu Prefecture sold the legendary Japanese Game Boy demo station this past month. The demo station went for 2.2 million yen (about US$14,400).

Unlike the demo stations in many other countries, the Japanese one (nicknamed the "Big Game Boy") is shaped like a giant, not-so-portable replica of the handheld system. They were a familiar sight in the game sections of Japanese stores in the early 1990s, but faded away after Nintendo gradually revamped the hardware.

An X (formerly Twitter) user named "Yūyu" first noticed the Game Boy demo station on sale before Hard Off Seki's formal September 26 grand opening. The post showed off the Game Boy demo station and its 2.2-million-yen price point with the caption, “Damn! I'm going to get some cash.”

As another posted named "Awaji Ichigō-sen" noted, one person in Kagawa Prefecture in southwestern Japan famously transformed another demo station in a remote bamboo forest into an objet d'art (that doubles as a mailbox):

Hard Off is a second-hand electronics and hardware store chain that is part of the Book Off group. Book Off is one of Japan's largest used bookstore and second-hand store chains with branches that sell manga, CDs, DVDs, video games, game consoles, mobile phones, sports equipment, toys, used trading cards, and in some locations vinyl records, photography equipment, and even liquor (at Liquor Off, of course).

Sources: Hard Off Seki's website, Hard Off Seki's X/Twitter account, @lovelypubbry's X/Twitter account via Hachima Kikō