September 6, 2014 Retro Gaming Blog Post:

Fashion trends come and go, but the Hilfiger Game Boy Color is forever (briefly in '99)

When is Nintendo's Pikachu-Yellow not a telltale indicator of a custom Pokemon Game Boy release? When It's a Tommy Hilfiger Game Boy release! Wait, what? I'm not very fashion-conscious. My primary goal when it comes to fashion is "don't leave home naked". Yeah, preventing public indecency charges is my style of dress. I do like the styles of Tommy Hilfiger, Lacoste, Ralph Lauren, etc - but I can find similar looking garments at Sears and I'd rather spend my money on video games.In the Summer of 1999, some retailers were running a Tommy Hilfiger promotion with Nintendo's Game Boy Color . It was an interesting promotion in that the Game Boy Color was not free (it was discounted to $57.50) and you were "eligible" for this discount through buying $50.00 (minimum) of Tommy Hilfiger brand items. If you liked the Hilfiger brand and wanted a Gameboy, it was a win-win sort of promo.Interestingly, this model was identical to the Dandelion Yellow model and was simply branded with the Hilfiger name and logo. This limited edition branding was nicely screened onto the faceplate of the Game Boy rather than a sticker. Only 2 months later, Nintendo released another limited edition yellow Game Boy Color with a Pokemon theme. Yellow seems a odd color for the Hilfiger edition, but it's also a good contrasting color against the red, blue, black, and white Hilfiger logo. Stranger still is releasing the Hilfiger edition so close to the similarly colored Pokemon release that Fall.I would have thought that Nintendo would want to reserve the yellow GBC for their IP, not let it coincide so closely with another promotion. It makes me think that there may have been a lot of behind-the-scenes interaction between Nintendo and Tommy.