Game Boy in Disguise, Part 2: On the Desk and Around the House

Marcel Pflug
15 hours ago
4 min read

Somewhere between the sock drawer and the coffee machine, the Game Boy quietly took over the house. Not the console you played on the school bus, but its silhouette: that chunky grey rectangle with the round green window, stamped onto mugs, clocks, coasters and, yes, a bottle of shower foam. This is the corner of the collection we love best. The Game Boy in disguise, hiding in plain sight on desks and shelves where you least expect it. Grab a coffee, ideally in the right mug, and let us take a walk around the house.

Morning shift: the alarm clock and the watch

Every good day starts with being gently shouted at by Mario. The Game Boy Alarm Clock is an officially licensed Paladone piece from 2018, moulded into the shape of the original Game Boy and wired to wake its owner with the original alarm sounds from Super Mario Land. Two AA batteries, one very nostalgic sunrise. It arrived as part of a whole range of Paladone Game Boy lifestyle items, and you will meet most of its cousins before we reach the bathroom.

Game Boy Alarm Clock by Paladone
Game Boy Watch by Paladone

If the clock rules the nightstand, the Game Boy Watch wants a spot on your wrist, or, honestly, on the shelf. Also by Paladone and also licensed, it is styled like the Game Boy and plays those familiar Super Mario Land alarm sounds. Best of all, it ships inside a neat crystal case that turns it into a little display piece before you have even fastened the strap. A watch you can wear, or one you can simply admire like a tiny trophy.

Desk duty: coasters, keychain and the money box

Now to the desk, where the collection really settles in. The Game Boy Classic Coaster Collection is a 2018 twin-pack by Pyramid International, printed with the cover designs of popular Game Boy Classic titles: exactly the sort of artwork you once spent whole afternoons staring at on the shop shelf. Even decades after launch, new tribute items like this keep appearing, which is precisely why the museum keeps finding room for them.

Game Boy Coaster (CiB)
Game Boy Key Chain (CiB)

Pyramid also made the Game Boy Key Chain, a simple 2017 accessory for fans who want a little grey console jingling in their pocket. No screen, no games, just the shape you would know anywhere. And when the spare change starts to pile up, the Game Boy Money Box is ready for it: another officially licensed Paladone item shaped like the original console, sitting comfortably in the same family as the clock, mug, watch and bottle opener.

Coffee break: the mug and the bottle opener

The Game Boy Heat Change Mug might be the cleverest trick in the whole house. This Nintendo-licensed Paladone mug brings the 90s feeling straight back: pour in hot water and the printed Game Boy screen comes to life, revealing the start screen and end sequence of Super Mario Land. Cold, it is a blank grey handheld. Hot, it is a tiny playthrough you can sip your coffee to. It is the rare piece of merchandise that actually does something, and it never gets old watching it happen.

The mug that only wakes up once the coffee does.
Game Boy Bottle Opener (CiB)

For the other end of the day, the Game Boy Bottle Opener does exactly what it promises. It is a Nintendo-licensed Paladone keychain shaped like the Game Boy with a built-in opener, the novelty item that quietly earns its keep every time someone brings the good drinks. Console in your pocket, opener at the ready.

On the wall and in the bath: the sign and the shower foam

Some pieces just want to be looked at. The Game Boy Metal Sign is a decorative wall piece built around the artwork of the Game Boy Tetris bundle, the kind of thing made to hang in a gaming room and set the mood. It is one of the unlicensed decorative items in the collection, and it wears its Tetris colours proudly.

Game Boy Shower Foam
Game Boy Metal Sign

And then there is the piece that always makes visitors laugh. The Game Boy Bath and Shower Foam is an officially licensed novelty by Takara from 1997, styled as a Game Boy right down to the details, and it even includes a skill game where the goal is to guide Yoshi's eggs into his belly. Bubbles and mini-games, together at last. It is one of the more unusual licensed items we look after, and easily the only one that belongs on the edge of the bathtub.

The oldest guest at the party: the notebook

We saved the elder statesman for last. The Game Boy Notebook is a 1990 Japanese item by Mori Toys, and it is two things at once: a notebook and a Game Boy cartridge storage case. From the outside it is shaped like a Game Boy, complete with a Super Mario Land card insert. While most of the desk squad are modern reproductions of the Game Boy look, this one was there almost from the very beginning, an early Japanese novelty that has quietly aged into a genuine collectible.

Game Boy Notebook by Mori (1990) — Proof that the Game Boy silhouette works on absolutely anything.

Put them all together and you get a strangely complete little household: an alarm to wake you, a mug for the morning, coasters and a money box for the desk, a keychain for the door, a sign for the wall, an opener for the evening and foam for the tub. None of them play a single game, and somehow every one of them is unmistakably Game Boy. That is the quiet magic of a great design: it does not need a screen to be recognised.

Want to meet the rest of the family, cartridges, consoles and oddities included? Wander through the Game Boy Museum and see what else the little grey handheld has been hiding as.