Video game archivist Mr. Talida of Keshi Corner has been hard at work preserving vintage video game merchandise, particularly “keshi gomu” rubber figures which were released in Japan throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Using 3D printing technology, Mr. Talida creates 3D scans of the figures, which are then uploaded free to the public so that anyone with a 3D printer and the right materials can have recreations of these retro figures for themselves. Previous scans have included Bandai’s keshi figures for 1986’s The Legend of Zelda and 1998’s Ocarina of Time.

Keshi Corner’s latest scans come from a 1987 run of “keshi gomu” figures for Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. The original set of ten figures was produced by the candy company Lotte as part of the “Famicom Choco” series of rubber eraser toys. Originally released in blind boxes, the toy figures were available in three color variants: silver, gold, and painted.

These highly detailed scans use over 31 million polygons to replicate the likeness of all ten of the original figures. Although they were originally packaged with plastic accessories like armor plates and weapons, due to scarcity they were omitted from these scans.

Mr. Talida told Zelda Dungeon that these keshi figures “tell an important story about how the so-called black sheep of the Zelda franchise was marketed and enjoyed by players — both on and off the screen.” They further explained, “This part of gaming history is preserved and uploaded to the Internet Archive so that anyone in the future will be able to access these rare vintage toys.”

That doesn’t just go for Zelda either. Mr. Talida has uploaded to Keshi Corner scans of figures from Super Mario Bros., Pokémon, Final Fantasy, and many more.

To see daily uploads of new keshi figures, you can follow Keshi Corner on X, or check out their page on Internet Archive.

So, tell us what you think. Have you ever seen these Zelda II keshi figures before? Will you be adding these replicas to your collection? What do you think about fan preservation projects like this? Let us know in the comments below.

Source: Keshi Corner

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