Have Mario send your mail (via stamps from Japan)
by Dan Choi 
{ Apr 4th 2006 at 8:15AM }
Sure, old Mario has been known to paint, play
professional sports, and even do some actual plumbing work on occasion, but he'll soon be able to power your mail
through the postal service in the Far East.10-stamp sheets of 80 Yen stamps are now available for pre-order in Japan, where gaming otakus will soon be able to adorn their snail mail with the likes of goombas, magic mushrooms, and mustachioed men. The set will be out next month.
Has the government of a country like the US ever done anything this official to honor one of the icons of gaming? Perhaps when we have avid gaming advocates in Congress -- or even, dare we say, in the White House -- things will look a little different with game legislation proposals and the postage of unwanted junk mail.
[Via GameBrink]
See also:
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dave @ Apr 4th 2006 8:54AM
that's so cool
TravistyOJ @ Apr 4th 2006 9:19AM
Dang, the more I think about it the more it makes sense, I belong in Japan.
greg @ Apr 4th 2006 9:24AM
how do I buy these? lik sang? i neeeed them
Sense @ Apr 4th 2006 9:32AM
Very nice.
Mario might be big enough in the US to warrant a stamp.
32_Footsteps @ Apr 4th 2006 9:41AM
Well, there was one from the 1980's portion of the US Postal Service's "Celebrate the Century" series in 2000:
http://www.usps.com/images/stamps/2000/vidgames.htm
But beyond that, it would be neat to see the USPS do a series of stamps about video gaming legends.
Fortyseven @ Apr 4th 2006 9:55AM
These are clearly stamps with pro-terrorism messages. ;)
MetaHuman @ Apr 4th 2006 9:56AM
Superman and Bugs Bunny got their stamps but it took over half a century for each of them. :(
We want a Mario stamp!
Wasn't there a service where we could customize our own legal stamps?
32_Footsteps @ Apr 4th 2006 10:04AM
Well, MetaHuman, you do have many options of buying custom-made stamps. Just Google "custom postage" and you'll find a number of companies that will turn a submitted picture into a legal postage meter stamp.
However, check out their FAQs first. Some of them will not allow you to make stamps out of copyrighted images.
JackkStraw @ Apr 4th 2006 10:08AM
This is gaming news? No need for a Nintendo Fanboy blog. We've already got one.
unreal mccoy @ Apr 4th 2006 10:24AM
Shut up JackkStraw. The original Super Mario Bros. is part of our gaming heritage; it supercedes fanboyism. Embrace history man. Know your roots.
Matt @ Apr 4th 2006 10:28AM
I'm just waiting for JackkStraw to talk more... "omg Nintendo sucks, buy a PS2, play GTA y0!". Sad little man. :)
Use these to pay all postage to.... @ Apr 4th 2006 10:42AM
Use these stamps when snailmailing jack thompson!
-kevin
(p.s. His name doesn't deserve capitols ;))
tomato @ Apr 4th 2006 10:43AM
JackkStraw, is this a gaming news site? No, this is a gaming blog. They can post whatever they feel like posting. Besides, does that mean that they should never post any news unless the game in question is available on every console and the PC? Good luck trying to find any news that is completely independent to the consoles/PC. Besides, they posted about Rockstars Ping Pong which is exclusively for XBox360. What is this, an XBox360 fanboy blog? I mean, they posted it right after an article about relaunching the XBox360 in Japan. I don't need 2 posts about the XBox360, one right after the other. What an obvious XBox360 fanboy blog.
Fan @ Apr 4th 2006 10:51AM
"I'm just waiting for JackkStraw to talk more... "omg Nintendo sucks, buy a PS2, play GTA y0!". Sad little man. :)"
Hey! I love mario and i used to play it but there is no need to rip on GTA. The GTA series is great even if its mainstream.
epobirs @ Apr 4th 2006 10:51AM
Cool. Usually wild postage like this comes from tiny island nations, not major developed countries.
They need a series with all of the Space Invaders sprites. Postage Invaders!
Matt @ Apr 4th 2006 11:36AM
Sarcasm... heard of it? =
JackkStraw @ Apr 4th 2006 1:30PM
I think I saw an ad for some Mario pajamas and pacifiers. You kiddies should be interested in that 'gaming news'.
::chuckles at Joystiq = Gaming news::
Play on, kiddies, play on.
The Beej @ Apr 4th 2006 2:19PM
Am I the only one who is bothered by the fact that there appears to be a small Mario with fire power in the lower right hand corner? I had always heard there was a glitch allowing this, but I can't imagine why it would be immortalized on a stamp.
toygen @ Apr 4th 2006 4:16PM
These are absolutely first class! ;)
BPMΩ @ Apr 4th 2006 4:40PM
The Beej:
"Am I the only one who is bothered by the fact that there appears to be a small Mario with fire power in the lower right hand corner? I had always heard there was a glitch allowing this, but I can't imagine why it would be immortalized on a stamp."
Hehe, good eye! Most likely, they goofed that one (even though there IS a glitch).
Dan Choi @ Apr 5th 2006 3:32AM
"::chuckles at Joystiq = Gaming news::"
Actually, JackkStraw, it depends on how you define "Gaming news." If you haven't noticed already, the largest category on Joystiq is the one concerned with video game culture in all its variations, whether they pertain to game laws, webcomics, research studies, major motion pictures, live-action videos, marketing & PR speak, the nature of distribution, edutainment, exercise, culture shock, parodies & jokes, all things Gizmondo, and even (yes) Japanese stamps with Mario's 8-bit visage emblazoned on them.
http://www.joystiq.com/category/culture/
This gaming blog is concerned with all things games-related, so even if Mario stamps don't mean much to you, they actually signify something pretty important when it comes to the impact of video games on the gaming and non-gaming culture (even if that impact should mean young women are charged for hanging up Mario POW blocks around their small Midwestern town). If the "news" concerns itself with games, then it's certainly a candidate for appearing on this site.
Merus @ Apr 5th 2006 8:25AM
I work at the Australian post office, and I know that Japan has been taking notes on Australia's postal service and its successes. (Which are: Aus Post is profitable, it's one of the most respected brands in Australia, with comparable postage to the US. They regularly do Olympic issues where Australia's gold medal winners are printed on stamps and shipped for purchase while the Games are still running.)
Having established my credentials, I have to burst the bubble here: The coloured strips on the top are the actual stamps. These are special edition stamps, produced for interested collectors, and the Mario images are little tabs attached to the stamps. They're not designed for sending, and the Mario tabs have no value on their own, unlike the stamps.
It's unlikely that an industrialised post office would issue stamps for copyrighted characters without very good reason - I can see Japan doing a 50 Years of the Games Industry stamp issue that would actually be stamps, but it most likely wouldn't just be Mario - you'd probably see games on there of interest to the Japanese people in general, and usually for an important anniversary (like 50 years).
tavro @ Apr 6th 2006 2:57PM
excellent!!!
vapor @ Aug 30th 2006 2:06AM
While it may be a little late, I have a couple sets of these stamps....for sale....!
I live in Japan, and pre-ordered a couple sets from the post office when they came out.
If you are interested drop me a note @
vapor _ 24 _7 @ yahoo . co . jp
(minus the spaces!)