Everything makes sense to me regarding it being a prototype. I used to design railway equipment in the UK. Every couple of weeks we'd have a meeting and decide on some ideas/different variations of existing products and I would then go into my workshop and build something ready for the next meeting. It's much easier to use old parts laying around to build these as asking for new official part means filling in paperwork, then getting it approved from higher management. Because I worked in R&D (Research and Development) and the nice new parts were in Production all the parts used had to come off that individual departments finances and stock lists. Obviously you want to keep costs down so it just made overall sense to use older parts laying around. Nothing else is important about this GB apart from the front. Directors and Higher management only want to see the changes to the product while everything else can be a cheap illusion. The only part that was probably made especially for this prototype was the front and even then its highly likely it was cheaply done. The back casing was probably just spayed with primer near the fire exit so it looked white. The screws will have been used in 50+ prototypes. The buttons coloured in with white marker. No game shield because it wasn't needed and they didn't have any spare. This has to be a 100% real prototype because if someone went out of their way to customise their own GB surely they would have done it better.

Wow, that is a good combo. Prototype & Limited Edition in one.

Replace the d-pad on a Gameboy with a circle-pad for no reason

I think likelyhood, this is probably a misprint or a throw away that someone might have taken home or something.

The clear shell really makes the artwork pop and look amazing! Amazing find and great vid as always!❤

Considering that there's a Tezuka Productions themed Columns GBC game that was released only in Japan back in 1999, and they actually released those Game Boy Lights the year prior, I'm willing to bet that you're correct with it being a legitimate prototype shell that never went to production. I'd even being willing to bet that Tezuka Productions, Idea Factory (the company that made the game), and Nintendo were planning on releasing limited edition GBCs with that game packed in. Hopefully you'll be able to get a hold of them to find out one way or another.

It is very common in printing to include a complete white layer below the color when printing on dark or transparent materials. This helps the color ink sit on top and be more visible and vibrant. It is definitely an extra step that you need to take with the printer to get that white flat layer down and dry before taking another pass with the color.

The white is an under-base for the color printing. On a clear surface you need to print a white layer first, otherwise the colors can look weird.

Wow, That's truly intriguing find. Definitely looks like a prototype to me. Whatever it is and wherever it came from, It needs to be preserved. Thanks for sharing!

I swear, Kimba is everywhere since that YMS review

I am a big fan of Tezuka. Eliott, you should read and start with "Black Jack". I promise you will be blown away not only for his cartoony looks, but for its storyline especially.

Black Jack is one of my favorite manga of all time, I'd love to have something like this in my collection!

Some kid in the late 90's: **slaps together a FrankenBoy** Elliot, the Archeologist: "Professor of Archaeology, expert on the occult, and how does one say it… obtainer of rare antiquities.”

I think the reason why the print is white on the back is just because most printing technics can't print white and are actually printing low opacity color for light colors, without it the picture would probably be see-trough on some parts

The white behind the print just an under base super common in silkscreen printing. Also I think the off centered-ness of the type at the bottom might be due to the gbc being slightly curved near the bottom where a light/pocket is flatter. Awesome Find.

I love this it’s so enjoyable to watch!

White on the back is so the colors stay correct. In screen printing you put a base color down on any shirt that is a dark color so the shirt color does not impact the final print. In this case it is so the image would not look ghostly.

That moment when you was about to buy the same console set lot, that Eliot bought on 05.25. And wanted it because he told abut Japanese auctions in the first place. Thanks to you i've got new hobby. Thank you and keep going. You are breathtaking! P.S. Sorry for my english its not my main language.

CSI: GBC. *elliot turns around with his glasses*

This was cool to watch. Thank you Elliot. Looking forward to the follow up video!!

Someone UV printed that onto there most likely, the white acts as a base for the colors. Also that's pretty neat... It has kimba and Astro Boy on it. 😐

Imagine if that’s actually a prototype

Great content. Only just found this channel but I'm hooked.

6:53 *In Phoebe's voice* OH! MY EYES! MY EYES! You always find interesting items to show us thank you! New series: legit or not? 😁

It's white on the back because it's a multi layer print and the first layer is a white background then the other layers are printed on top. That mean it would need to be lined up perfectly for all layers to print properly and line up

I'd say there are a few of possibilities 1. A Chinese knock-off using the same design and printing techniques (they have a long history of this, look at all the knock-off 3DS and DS shells of real limited editions). That artwork probably exists somewhere in full high-res form. If this were the case you'd expect to see a lot of them around though, which obviously isn't the case. 2. A legit front-shell only aftermarket replacement piece (though the lack of screw holes makes this unlikely I think?). 3. Some kind of one-off prototype that somehow made it into the wild. Whatever it is, it's a cool thing to have!

The white back means that it was printed on a consumer printer, likely vinyl heat transfer with a UV coating on top. That is UV cured as it comes out to prevent yellowing. They applied these white backed things as heat appliques, like a car magnet, not screened or decopauged like these tend to end up being. It doesn't necessarily mean that it's illegimate, but it just implies that it was done by pretty available machinery. I know it seems like these would have been rare for businesses, but frankly, they had all of this available in the early 90s at trashy t-shirt shops at the Jersey Shore.

In order to print like that you have to make at least two prints, one pass (the first one) needs to be either black or white in order to have the actual print in full bright colors since most ink is not that opaque.... Im a graphic designer btw

So what I kind of think is that someone got ahold of a gameboy color front shell prototype. Probably a cheap thrift store find. They ended up trying to make their yellow gbc match and spray painted the back shell white and tried to put it all together before the paint properly dried. They probably stripped out the screws because they didnt have the right bit and got mad that they weren't screwing in.

Thank you I was getting tired of seeing those chop shop Gameboys :D Great return to form.

The backing of the print is white because white is laid down first, and then printed on top of to ensure the print stands out. Same reason office paper is white.

It's so relaxing to hear you talk about this game boy shell

0:48 “gamebopy” “gameboyt” lmao

Dear lord, thanks so much for talking about Sendico. I didnt know that page existed and ive already seen amazing deals.

Thank you for this video and also thank you Sendico, finally found a site where an Aussie like me can import stuff easily from Japan!

Imagine my surprise yet another gameboy video.

All of your GameBoy’s are limited edition. I don’t think that someone will have a dual screen long Gamboys. You are a legend!

I reckon the front part of the shell is just a prototype and for what ever reason it wasn’t put into production, someone’s got their hands on it and then bunged it on their yellow gameboy which they then painted white to kinda match the clear front?

That's a really good tezuka gameboy. I really do like how his artwork shines here.

I have used Sendico, can confirm it’s awesome.

I think what you have is a "pitch prototype" where they knock up a "mock" item for the management to say yay or nay to and they can be quite rough to the trained eye but just the design team have worked up say the new design top shell and nailed it to an existing old clanker so the knowlessmen in the head office have something tangible they can see and get a working idea about and also any advertising campaign can start working up presentations for media etc. Def worth as a keeper, sometimes I come across design prototypes in watches esp from the big corporations and they can be worth a heck of a lot more than the standard piece.

I haven't a clue whether it's real or not, but I am pretty fascinated by the artwork, especially since in the lower left corner there's a little Unico! So cool!

Kind of feel you answered your own question around 7:40 a non engineer as you stated maybe a repair and replace person within Nintendo got a hold of the Front shell or art (knew what they had) placed it on a piece of garbage gameboy no one cared about (maybe a useless shop dummy) and took it home I used to repair arcade games and I spray painted my spare parts different colors as a over bored way cleaning things up as I waited for things to break Don’t doubt how far some one will go when bored

I hate being working at the exact moment you post some videos. I just can't miss it. (silently stops working and starts watching)

Seen them had one and they are actually third party. The original print didn't come out as a clear. So someone created a clear version to follow the crystle gameboy Color. I still love the crystle design and wish it made a comeback.

A friend of mine who works in printing said that the white is used as a base coat so the colours are consistent, and that it's unlikely a fake would have that, as fake prints often cut corners

Re: that crooked logo print - I wonder if the whole graphic is crooked. if you superimpose a picture of this gameboy over the official Tezuka Productions one, cut it to ~0.5 opacity, then scale/rotate it so both graphics are lined up, are the edges of the gameboys paralell?

Until the wii era, you could buy complete dmg gameboy shells with buttons from the north america nintendo refurbishment site. they even included the tri-wings. screens costed extra. Color choices were the original grey or teeth white

The white on the back of the graphic is the base cover. This would have been printed in layers.

Fascinating. I hope the mystery unravels!

this detective work is awesome

You really love your fans 💟💟👍👍

12:02 Nintendo ABSOLUTELY gets the printed words and logos on their products a little messed up from time to time. The Switch logo on my pro controller is slightly askew and it bothers the heck out of me every time I pick it up.

I work in injection molding and you absolutely can injection mold screw holes.

Could be great to contact the seller to have maybe some more information about how it was put together

The poor paint job and assembly could actually be legit. As a product designer I always build physical prototypes and various frankenmodels and when you do build these prototypes you do it quick. So that back shell could have been painted multiple times just to find the right combination. It is something that I do when working on projects. Since it is a prototype, you don't care about how well it is painted or assembled

OMG Elliot always makes my day bright he’s a cool KZfaq 😎 and I also like how he doesn’t get a 5 minute sponsor every video XD also I really like old tech too! Like game boys, DS’s, and NES’s so I just hope that Elliot sees this and it would be awesome to hear a comment from my favorite KZfaqr and it would make me so happy 😀

Looks like the decal was placed on the with a sort of hydrodip method

the clear shell looks way better than the red one, in my opinion

Saw this on reddit this morning looks interesting

Dude, that this has Kimba The While Lion, the character Simba was stolen from. Nice.

thats a sick ass panel

dude, i saw that and hecking died, dude that takes me back! that artwork omg ;-;

Nice little speculation Game Boy.

Using a tri wing on a phillips destroys them like that! Thank you as always for the great content

Just had to include ALL the cursors on those screenshots of the other guy's game boy collection, eh? :P

Hey trf I love your vids. Keep the vids going aswell

This is insane, great find!

Is there a possibility that it was set aside because the wonky printing at the bottom didn’t meet quality control. Perhaps at the closing of a printers/factory it was hurriedly thrown together with other parts to make a whole and be taken away as a gift...

Maybe they run a few blank shells through the printing machine to make sure all is well before they print a whole batch and you have one of those?

Didnt need the original artwork very easy to make or find the light and copy it adding a few things

Nice video elliot

now you have to buy one of the red tezuka productions gameboys to compare the decals

Looks cool to have I would of had that if they actually released it anyways nice find Eliot!

Even Elliot's a more convincing detective than Sherlock

Looks amazing, really cool artwork.

vary interesting video for sure. Love seeing things like this

There is a Astro boy on around too

I think it's highly likely it's legit, a misprint/prototype that one of the company employees took home for his kid, who then took apart their GBC to install it, rounding out the screws because y'know, kids aren't typically good with tools lol.

I legit thought the front was a sticker

I’m guessing it’s a prototype front cover that was sent in as a idea for a gameboy color special edition and since the first one didn’t sell well they didn’t want to make another.

I love the detective work!!!

oh my God that's so cool.. I'd KILL for that

Love your vids man, Keep it up!

Banging! Tezuka GBC looks lovely

the tone of the printing color... ;)

Just prior to this video, I snatched the tranparent astro boy gameboy light !

I need the Tezuka Gameboy so much!!! I'm such a big Tezuka fan, I grew up off my dad's Kimba dvds! Real or not, I'd totally buy it if I had the money... or maybe customize my Gameboy Advance with Tezuka stuff! I still need to find/watch Black Jack, but still Osamu Tezuka is my favorite animator and such a big inspiration to me.

had to use one to swap my steam deck ssd cause the threadlocker had it quite fastened to the point where my screwdriver stripped it pretty good

Awesome little collectors piece, i can't see there being many of these around at all! (if it is legit) I hope you get somewhere with Tezuka Productions and they can shed some light on it

You're winning me over with this sendico shtick mate haha

this things gotta be legit, if you can get the red version (even borrow one) and compare the details like print quality and texture then id say it’s most likely real.

I was waiting from you to talk a little bit about Osamu Tezuka and his works :(

Gonna name the characters so everyone knows where they are from: Astro boy Kimba the white lion Princess Sapphire (I'm pretty sure) in the yellow hat Black Jack A patchgourd Unico The phoenix (think its just that) Dr Occhanomizu (probably spelt that wrong, he shows up in every series by Tezuka) And the detective who's name I can't remember

Elliot I have a question about the 3ds. When the DS battery is dead, or in need of a charge. When you hold the power button, should there be any lights that light up or anything. Or not until you plug a charger in. I would very much appreciate if you could help me with this.

This is well cool

I don't know if this is a knockoff, but I can guess. I know that bootlegs of the Tezuka GBL shell were available from Shenzhen around 2010. And that means they had the method to print on gameboy shells, so why not into a GBC one? The shells at that time were really decent quality, were available as individual shell parts, they didn't come with screen lenses. Also, done with a UV printing method. That leads me to believe this was a chinese bootleg shell put together by an early handheld case modder.

Was Tezuka World still open when the GBC was released?

Aliexpress has the same one but on a red shell for the GBC

Very intriguing indeed nice detective work you did here Elliot. I live in Japan so im gonna do some digging to see if this is legit. I hope it is my man.