New Arrival: The See-Through Play It Loud Game Boy

Of all the coloured Game Boys Nintendo made, the ones you can see straight through have always held a special fascination. This arrival is the pick of them: the transparent version of the Game Boy from Nintendo's US Play It Loud series, its clear shell turning the console's own guts into the decoration.

The Game Boy that turns its own circuit board into the decoration.

What It Is

This is the see-through model from the US Play It Loud line, whose clear housing reveals the circuit board and components inside, and that visible interior is a large part of why the transparent models are among the most sought-after of all the coloured DMG-01 variants. The Play It Loud range also came in red, green, black, yellow, white and blue, and the collection holds further examples from that colourful family. The clear one, though, is the showpiece: the variant that made a virtue of the very hardware every other Game Boy hid away.

Nintendo's mid-90s pitch: the DMG-01 as a fashion object, and a transparent one at that.

Why It Joined the Collection

The Play It Loud series is a story the collection tells in colour, and it is not complete without its most coveted member. The transparent console is the one collectors chase hardest, both for its rarity and for the simple visual thrill of seeing the machine's insides. Adding it alongside the other Play It Loud shades turns a scattering of coloured Game Boys into a proper set, and lets the collection show the full spread of Nintendo's mid-90s attempt to sell the DMG-01 as a fashion object rather than just a games machine.

The transparent Play It Loud Game Boy is documented, with photographs, on its own page in the collection.

More on this in the Play It Loud colours.