Prototype, One-of-a-kind and rare Mattel games and variations:
Here are a couple of games Mattel produced in clear plastic so you can see the inside of the games. Likely used for displays at conventions (like Toy Fair) and any else they wanted to impress a potential buyer. I have seen this technique used with other games and products over the years. Clear cases stand out and make people 'Oooo' and 'Ahhh' over them. I have seen about 6 Footballs and 3 Auto Race games like this over the years... I'm only aware of Football and Auto Race being made like this.
These two images are of two extremely rare Mattel handheld games. The first game is rumored to be the first Mattel Football ever made (from the assembly line), painted in metallic gold paint. The Basketball is the one-millionth Basketball game made actually plated in 24k gold (inside and out...). These games were awarded to a Mattel executive (Howard Cohen) during a couple of award ceremonies celebrating the incredible success of these games (Howard was the source of the first 4 games listed here, having kept them since his days at Mattel). I have a picture of Howard receiving the Basketball game while still attached to it's wooden plaque (which has, sadly, long been lost) in the Trivia & Stories section. The Basketball game actually feels like it's made of metal, and is significantly heavier than a normal Basketball. The Football game doesn't feel quite the same, I suspect a cheaper gold-plating was done on this game (as mentioned above, it seems like a gold paint rather than a plating process).
This third game is a sample/prototype of Mattel's Soccer in dark forest green. Mattel
originally wanted to use this color for the game, but it was determined that the color pigment was too
costly, so they went with the more common brown color instead. On the back of this game, 'SAMPLE NOT
FOR SALE' is hot melted into the pastic where the instruction sticker goes. Also, if you look at the
second picture next to the game, you will notice that the little soccer ball buttons are actually
painted onto basketball buttons (you can just make out the outline of a basketball). Soccer was released
for sale in this green color overseas (although they have normal soccer buttons). I have seen them
for sale in Germany, Switzerland and a few other countries, so it's really only uncommon in the US.
The Hockey game is an early prototype/sample as well, with the only real unique characteristic being
the hockey buttons are also just painted basketball buttons... It also has the 'SAMPLE' text melted into
the back of the game.
Thanks to Scott Morrison for the pictures of the sample Hockey game!
This is the 1,000,000th Football game, presented to Howard Cohen of Mattel by
Rockwell Microelectronics (the company that made the inards of this game) on
Dec 13th, 1978. It's mounted to a large, clear trophy-style plaque. Picture provided
by Jake Freedman who purchased it off Ebay from Howard
in March, 2000.
The following are several different variations on the Battlestar Galactica game:
Missile Attack and the non-Battlestar Galactica Space Alert.
(Even though it says Battlestar Galactica on the box, notice that the game itself
only says Space Alert). The game does look just like the picture. This is a
transitional piece, few were made just after obtaining rights to the Battlestar
Galactica name.
This is just the label of a special promotional Battlestar Galactica
game obtained via mail order from US Magazine.
I currently know of the existance of two of these (this one, and one I saw on Ebay a couple of years ago).
