There are a number of anecdotes from Nintendo’s early years in the gaming industry that carry an almost Arthurian quality about them, from the naming inspiration to Mario to how the NES was marketed as a toy rather than a video game system to drive up sales. One of the more peculiar and minute anecdotes involves the first company Christmas party of Nintendo of America, which featured as a centerpiece a 50-pound butter sculpture of Donkey Kong covered with coconut. Until now, we could only imagine what such a descriptor looked like.
But now we don’t have to thanks to YouTuber Archon 1981, who found a VHS transfer of the retirement video for original NoA president Minoru Arakawa. While clocking in at well over an hour and a half, you can get a clear shot of the mythic statue around the 10:18 mark, bearing much more of a resemblance to the original King Kong than Rare’s later DKC redesign that is a part of the character to this day.
Purportedly, the statue was “dried out, shellacked, and hung from a rafter in the [Nintendo] warehouse” until it became covered with mold — which is another image that we would love to see out of morbid curiosity. Some things, however, are meant to be left to legend.
Thanks to Kotaku editor Chris Kohler for the tip-off.
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Written by Amelia Fruzzetti
A writer and Nintendo fan based in Seattle, Washington. When not working for NinWire, she can be found eating pasta, writing stories, and wondering about when Mother 3 is finally going to get an official localization.
