Imagineer's Glow-In-The-Dark Game Boy
Image: Before Mario

There have been a lot of strange limited-edition Game Boys released over the years. This includes the CoroCoro Pokémon Game Boy Color, manufactured for the 250th issue of the Japanese manga publication of the same name, and the Game Boy Color Doraemon made to commemorate the character's 30th anniversary.

Recently, however, while scrolling Twitter we came across the Nintendo collector Before Mario showing off something we hadn't actually seen before, the Imagineer Glow-In-The-Dark Game Boy Pocket. Only 2000 copies of this handheld were apparently manufactured, with the handhelds being given away in two sweepstakes competitions.

According to BeforeMario in a separate tweet, the first competition took place between July and September 1997 and was intended to promote MRC: Multi-Racing Championship, which Imagineer published in Japan. The second competition, meanwhile, occurred between December 1997 and April 1998 and was a tie-in for the Japan-exclusive Game Boy Medabot title Medarot. One belief, according to BeforeMario, is that not enough people participated in the first competition, leading to the second one being organized.

Rather hilariously, the screen didn't come with any backlighting, meaning that if you want to play Medarot after hours, the Game Boy will actually be much brighter than the screen itself. Nevertheless, it's definitely a looker and we can see why folks want it in their collections to display alongside their other handhelds!

What's the dream limited-edition handheld you'd want in your collection? Let us know in the comments!

[source twitter.com]