In the 80's, Bandai tormented the world with the "Gobots", their take on the "transforming robot" craze that never captured the imagination like Transformers did. Maybe they would have had better luck pimping these transformable NES cartridges instead.
Released in the 80's by the Japanese toy company, these "Kasetto Sentai" (Cartridge Corps) figures were small replicas of actual Famicom (the Japanese NES) cartridges, which were able to transform into the characters of the games they were representing. So the Mario cart became Mario, and the Gradius one became a freakin' Vic Viper. So great.
Just ran across this article on another forum I frequent (video game related) and had a great laugh at the whole idea and presentation. I personally have never seen or heard of these things, but I'd like to come across some really cheap, just for the oddness of it all.
Interesting concept none the less, and something I'm surprised was never attempted by Takara at some point. given their odd facination with transforming shoes and such.
I would kill to have something like that to use for my Bento lunches. I doubt this one is big enough, but as soon as I saw it the first thing I thought was "That would make a fabulous lunch box."
This is my signature. My wasted space. My little corner. You can't have it. It's mine. I can write whatever I want. And I have!
*resists urge to point out that Bandai didn't really have a lot to do with Gobots, which was largely confined to North America anyway, and that Bandai were making transforming robots before Transformers was a glint in a global corporation's eye*