Famicom Color GBA SP with an Australian Label?

NewSpecies

Hello!



Last year I bought a mint condition Famicom Color Game Boy Advance SP - fully boxed with manual and charger. For some bizarre reason, rather than finding a Japanese sticker on the base of the console, it was an Australian one instead. 

I opened it up to replace the guts with a 101, and all the internals were legit. I'm also 98% sure the shell is real as I've bought knock-off GBA SP shells off the internet before and they always have tell tale signs of being fake:

• Plasticky feeling shell.
• The moulding of the shell is never flush when pieced together.
• The sticker on the base is always patchy, badly printed and badly cut.
• The Nintendo and Game Boy branding is never 'crisp'.

However, this Famicom SP shows none of these symptoms. It defintely feels like the real deal. I've uploaded some images of it here: http://imgur.com/a/T4OjM

I'm just curious if anyone knows why it would have an Australian sticker, or if it's just a really really good fake? I'd really appreciate your input. Thanks for your time!

 

dav3yb

The fact that the battery cover says Gameboy on it makes me think it's an after market shell for the system. If you look at a lot of the replacement shells, they only come with a mock serial sticker, and they'll forego the sticker that is usually on the battery compartment and just have that Gameboy logo molded into it.

Also if you look up the stickers on the back of the real sp's, it's different from what images I've seen. I'd say it's probably 100% a new shell for the system.

The 8 Bit Redux

The battery compartment always has "Gameboy" molded into it on real SP's. Only some of the special edition will have specific stickers over that part, such as the Pokemon Center ones.

The sticker on the back is pretty much perfect to a actual Australian one as far as I ca ntell. However does it have the clear plastic covering on it? All of these stickers have a layer of plastic over them. I don't know if the repro ones have it too though I'm afraid.

Here is a link to my Aus GBA SP (tribal edition) and my Famicom GBA SP for a comparison: http://i.imgur.com/xKTNfHP.jpg

dav3yb

i didn't know the austalian ones had gameboy molded onto them, ive always seen the little warning labels on all the battery compartments of all the gameboys ive had/seen.

NewSpecies

Thanks for your replies.

The sticker has the usual soft satin coating the same as my real SP. It's strange though, because the after market shells usually come with shoddily printed Japanese stickers, and I've never seen them come with AUS/EU/US ones.

If it is a fake, then it's definitely one of the better ones I've seen, almost indistinguishable (apart from the sticker of course...).

SwiftFrost

Looks similar to this one here:



http://www.videogameobsession.com/videogame/gba_famicom.htm



That said, labels are easily replicated. I've purchased plenty of kits that have them included (US version, mainly) and they are almost identical to the real thing.

NewSpecies

Nice find, thanks! You're right, the one in the image has an AUS sticker too.

This one also has a different serial number. If there were to be a batch of fake Famicom shells with AUS labels, then surely all the stickers would have the same serial on them?

Of course, I know its not just one factory making fakes, but what are the odds they'd both be creating Famicom shells with AUS labels?

NewSpecies

So I did some hunting and apparently there was a variant of the Famicom SP produced for sale in Asian territories outside of Japan - Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Phillipines and Thailand.



I'm guessing that the AUS label was used as the Asian countries listed above all fall into the same PAL region as Australia.



See here for anyone interested: 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Gameboy-Advance-SP-Famicom-Edition-Asian-Boxed-/221825739261?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item33a5d829fd

and:

http://www.bordersdown.net/archive/index.php/t-65882.html