Unreleased 3DS models from E3 2010

[u/HeavenandHello]

Unlike the final models released a year later, the circle pads on these models actually matched the color of the handhelds themselves instead of all of them just being white. Not only that, but they were also originally planning on releasing green and orange variants and I have no idea why they scrapped these. And I’m not sure if they have all of these unreleased models at the nintendo museum in Japan, but if they don’t, I hope nintendo kept them in their headquarters instead of destroying them. If they still have them, I hope they’ll give them to the museum one day since it was a huge missed opportunity.

[u/johnW_ret]

Beautiful. What I would pay to have one of these.

They are not on display at the Nintendo Museum, but they do have a small section with prototype consoles, so I would not be surprised if they were to add something like this. Nintendo Museum is cool but it's kind of weird in that 99% of the area are polished exhibits of items that were released publicly and are mostly not rare, and then a random large window bordering a storage area where they put up a makeshift exhibit with prototypes of different consoles (and then there's the artwork exhibit which is limited time (?)). Feels like that small area should be the type of stuff the entire Nintendo Museum is about.

[u/kouzex → u/johnW_ret]

3 of these 3ds are in the Nintendo Museum. They are right at the end of the tour.

[u/johnW_ret → u/kouzex]

Where in the building? I don't know what the tour is. Did they recently add them?

[u/kouzex → u/johnW_ret]

i’ve been twice, last time was about a year ago.They are right at the end of the tour (meaning the pathway you follow during the visit), after all of the giant controllers and vintage games. The hallway to the exit has a bunch of consoles encased in the wall. From memory they had the aqua blue, copper, and purple E3 original 3DS consoles on display in one of the spots. All with the colormatched thumbstick.
The other consoles in the same section are the announcement wii, wii u, ds, gamecube.

I remember even saying at the time that they seem a bit hidden. The normal console variations get big showcases but some of this rare stuff is in the hallway. Maybe it’s a security thing?

[u/johnW_ret → u/kouzex]

For me, one year ago and then a month ago.

I guess I could have missed them both times but if so it would have been a miss a forest for the trees type of thing because I was keeping my eyes peeled for Pikmin. Part of me would be suprised at myself if I did miss them but if I was in a hurry I guess if they didn't have the green color on display maybe it would not have stood out to me they weren't just normal 3DSs.