LEGO is back with another nostalgic hit, and this one’s built for anyone who grew up with Nintendo’s classic chunky grey handheld. The new LEGO Game Boy set is now available to preorder at retailers like Amazon ahead of its October 1 release, and it’s already shaping up to be a must-have for collectors and retro gamers.

This brick-built Game Boy is a near one-to-one scale replica of the original DMG-01 unit, made up of 421 pieces. It even comes with tiny LEGO versions of two classic cartridges: Super Mario Land and original version of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.

You can slot either Game Pak into the back of the console, just like the real thing, and the set includes a display stand for whichever cartridge you’re not using.

To add a little flair, LEGO’s included lenticular screens for the front display, so you can swap between a classic Nintendo startup screen and in-game scenes from either title. Tilt it just right, and it even looks like the screen is animating.

It sadly doesn’t actually play games, but LEGO’s all about using your imagination after all, so it still makes for a fantastic piece on your mantle.

It’s priced at $59.99 has been put up for preorders at from major retailers like Amazon and the LEGO Store and Best Buy.

At the time of writing, it seems to be stock for now at the latter two — at least until it releases in October, but the LEGO Game Boy can also still be preordered right now at Walmart for the same price if Amazon runs out.

Given the popularity of previous retro Nintendo sets, like the LEGO NES and the Mario & Yoshi SNES-style diorama, this one’s likely to sell fast.

If you’ve been waiting for a reason to clear a spot on your shelf next to your old cartridges or amiibo collection, this is it. Just don’t expect it to boot up Tetris; it’s strictly for the display case.

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The Game Boy Advance SP was forward-thinking in a lot of ways. It featured a frontlit (later changed to be backlit) screen that has since become standard, and a highly portable clamshell design that paved the way for Nintendo DS. But its marketing here in the UK now looks more than a little more dated.

Originally released in Japan 20 years ago today, and then here in Europe on 28th March, there’s no doubting the SP was a sleekly-designed piece of kit. The original Game Boy Advance was compact enough, but could also never escape looking like a toy – something a kid might try and conjure a Digimon out of in a particularly energetic play session.

The SP, on the other hand, was intended to appear a more grown-up device and was therefore marketed as such. Its colours were more muted – its all-silver option made its hinged design look like a small laptop. Its angular shape was more business-like (and its dinky shoulder buttons rather less ergonomic to hold down). But all of this made sense – right? Nintendo already had a successful Game Boy Advance for the younger market. This one was for a different and more narrowly-targeted demographic – something its advertising also reflected.

Like some kind of aftershave, Nintendo marketed the SP here in Europe as a device “for men”, with an advertising campaign that featured widely within the various UK lads mags of the time. The handheld’s most memorable advert featured the boast that playing the GBA SP was “the second best thing to do in the dark”, highlighting the device’s backlit screen – but also that not even Nintendo thought playing Mario was as good as sex.

The advert included a moody monochrome photo of a model-like couple posing topless beneath silken sheets. The man is shown holding the SP and playing whatever is on its backlit screen, while the woman lays next to him. I still can’t tell if she was supposed to be watching the game as well, or had simply fallen asleep.

Nintendo ditched its “for men” branding for the infamous Game Boy Advance SP “Tribal” variant, a design which seemed pitched as an awkward halfway house between the SP’s original advertising – aimed at horny young office workers who had Game Boys as children – and a younger teen demographic who listened to Fall Out Boy. This advert featured another topless model – albeit in a less suggestive pose – and highlighted games such as F-Zero, Max Payne and Splinter Cell, rather than Mario or Zelda: Minish Cap.

All of this isn’t to say the SP was the only time Nintendo was horny on main. The arrival of Nintendo DS and its touch-based screen gave the company a seemingly irrestible oppurtunity to take things up a notch. Here in the UK, Nintendo advertising sponsored Channel 4 comedy shows with short adverts that made it look like a man was about to get a handjob. The slogan “Touch It” was used here, a more adult version of the “Touching is good” phrase seen in other advertising. It is truly, truly cringeworthy now.

This advert at least features the woman in a more active role and ostensibly playing a game – what looks to be Metroid Prime: Hunters – albeit from upside down and while wearing a latex glove. While designed to be viewed after the 9pm watershed, it seems unlikely Nintendo would run a similar ad campaign today.

Anyway, happy 20th birthday Game Boy Advance SP. You’re now finally out of your teenage years – and not a minute too soon.

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