The Mysterious Mario Bros. Set: MrTalida Revives Unofficial 1986 Gachapon Mario Toys

Renowned video game archivist and collector MrTalida has brought the gaming community a unique and chilling glimpse into Nintendo's history with the digital preservation of the rare and unofficial 1986 'Mysterious Mario Bros.' toy line by Konno Sangyo.

These peculiar Mario-themed figures, now available for digital download, provide fans and historians with an extraordinary snapshot of Super Mario Bros.' widespread cultural impact in Japan during the 1980s—even beyond Nintendo’s official merchandise.

The Mysterious Mario Bros.

set stands apart from the more familiar Mario collectibles produced by major manufacturers like Amada, Bandai, and Takahashi.

Instead, these figures, originally distributed by the pioneering gachapon company Konno Sangyo, embrace a grotesquely creative approach to the Mario cast.

Konno Sangyo, founded in 1970 by Japanese entrepreneur Akihisa Konno, was among the first to popularize capsule toys (gachapon) in Japan.

Their unofficial Super Mario Bros.

parody set, released just a year after the iconic game's 1985 launch, consisted of ten rubber figures that reimagined beloved Mushroom Kingdom characters in bizarre and unsettling forms. Among the standout figures are a vampiric rendition of Mario with hauntingly vacant eyes, a Toad whose design is especially macabre, featuring the character with a missing eyeball, a Princess Peach unlike any ever officially licensed by Nintendo, and twisted interpretations of fan-favorite adversaries like Bowser and Goomba.

According to MrTalida, these figures embody both a playful parody and an unfiltered experimentation with character designs rarely seen outside of niche collectibles. "This set is an impressive glimpse into an era when parodies and unofficial merchandise were part of the medium’s growing pains," MrTalida commented in his preservation notes.

"Not only do these toys highlight Nintendo’s enormous cultural reach just one year after Super Mario Bros., but they also showcase the creativity—and sometimes the dark humor—of independent Japanese toy manufacturers in the 1980s." To mark the completion of the preservation project, MrTalida has also produced a short animation, highlighting the ghoulish artistry present across the entire collection.

Fans, collectors, and historians interested in exploring or recreating these figures can now access print-ready files online, allowing for both display and creative adaptation such as decoration and animation. This initiative underscores the importance of digital archiving in video game culture, ensuring that even the oddest corners of Nintendo history—like the Konno Sangyo Mysterious Mario Bros.

set—are preserved for generations to come.

Nintendo fans and memorabilia enthusiasts can find the download links and additional information directly from MrTalida's archival channels.

Mario Mario Bros gachapon MrTalida Konno Sangyo Super Mario Bros Nintendo Amada Bandai Takahashi Akihisa Konno