Peach and Luigi featured too, but one series regular is left off the postage.
Nintendo recently unveiled the long-awaited Super NES Classic Edition, which bundles over 20 16-bit games into one mini console. It turns out though that this blast of ‘90s gaming nostalgia isn’t the only salute to the old-school way of doing things the company has planned, though.
Starting June 28, Japan Post Holdings will begin selling stamps, the things people used to use to mail in their subscription forms to Nintendo Power, featuring Nintendo star Mario and his pals.
Perhaps realizing that video gamers generally don’t have an aversion to technology, and thus have largely embraced email and other forms of digital correspondence, the stamps are designed and packaged with collectors in mind. It’s available only as a sheet of 10 82-yen (US$0.74) stamps, with the artwork arrayed in two columns and additional non-stamp illustrations gracing the non-stamp space as well.
▼ Technically, shouldn’t there be 82 coins for Mario to pick up?
In addition to Mario himself, lanky brother Luigi, Princess Peach, and stalwart ally Toad, dressed in the uniform of a Japanese mailman, no less, are featured.
Oddly enough, while Mario and constant adversary Bowser have been able to push their animosity aside long enough to go go-karting together on numerous occasions, the king of the Koopas is relegated to background art, as he appears on none of the stamps.
The 820-yen sheet of Super Mario stamps goes on sale June 28 at Japanese post offices and here through Japan Post’s online shop. With plans to print two million sheets, these aren’t likely to become rare or valuable anytime soon, but they should make for a cool decoration or gift.
Source: Nintendo via Hachima Kiko
Images: Nintendo
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