spooie
06-09-2004, 06:34 PM
Back in November of '88, I walked into the local Bradlees store where there was some sort of a contest for Nintendo games using the Power Pad. I believe it was a 3 or 4 day event, open for a couple hours each day where people could come in and stand in line or make an appointment to try their luck with "Track and Field". I was with my aunt at the time and my brother was off looking at some toys and one of the representatives thought I might want to try out for it. I'm sure looking back, it was just a cheesy promotional gimmick, but I was 7 at the time and thought it was the greatest thing imaginable.
Well, the rep asked me if I wanted to give it a try, and of course, I did. No one was there at the time so I didn't have to wait in line. After writing down my name, age and address, I was instructed to do a bunch of different activities on the pad... running, jumping, long jump... stuff like that. And after about 10-15 minutes of that, I was pretty much on my way and didn't think of it.
Then a few days later my aunt got a call from them. Turns out that I had ranked among a top spot for my age group in one of the jumping categories. And they asked that I would come on down to claim my "prize" a few days later. Of course, I didn't know what the prize was, but I could only speculate. When the date came, I went down to Bradlees again and I saw a bunch of youngsters receiving trophies. I believe there were green, blue and red ones if I'm not mistaken. I went up with my aunt, told them my name and other assorted info, and was handed my own red trophy.
After about a week of being completely jazzed over the fact that I had won something, I placed it in my Grandparents' basement with all the assorted trophies and other goodies that my grandfather had collected over the yars. And there it remained for well over a decade, until about a year or so ago when I took home a bunch of toys that were in storage up there, and spotted the trophy again. It went from the grandparents' basement to my basement, and was once again unearthed for the first time in ages a few days ago.
Some of the chrome has become quite tarnished, and the metal plaque is a little roughed up. But the trophy itself remains in tact, and reads...
"TOYS FOR JOY '88
NINTENDO OLYMPICS
1st PLACE"
And on the bottom, a label my grandfather wrote out reading 11/12/88 as the date I participated, and 11/19/88 as the date I received it.
Now... I did some searching on Google, both websites and newsgroups, and came across nothing about this. Then earlier I saw a classic episode of "G4TV.com" where they recommended coming here to find out about old and rare items. And since I haven't really been here much in the last month or two, I thought I would pop back in.
Certainly my Bradlees wasn't the only one doing this "Toys for Joy Nintendo Olympics"... so has anyone ever heard of this, or experienced this before?
Well, the rep asked me if I wanted to give it a try, and of course, I did. No one was there at the time so I didn't have to wait in line. After writing down my name, age and address, I was instructed to do a bunch of different activities on the pad... running, jumping, long jump... stuff like that. And after about 10-15 minutes of that, I was pretty much on my way and didn't think of it.
Then a few days later my aunt got a call from them. Turns out that I had ranked among a top spot for my age group in one of the jumping categories. And they asked that I would come on down to claim my "prize" a few days later. Of course, I didn't know what the prize was, but I could only speculate. When the date came, I went down to Bradlees again and I saw a bunch of youngsters receiving trophies. I believe there were green, blue and red ones if I'm not mistaken. I went up with my aunt, told them my name and other assorted info, and was handed my own red trophy.
After about a week of being completely jazzed over the fact that I had won something, I placed it in my Grandparents' basement with all the assorted trophies and other goodies that my grandfather had collected over the yars. And there it remained for well over a decade, until about a year or so ago when I took home a bunch of toys that were in storage up there, and spotted the trophy again. It went from the grandparents' basement to my basement, and was once again unearthed for the first time in ages a few days ago.
Some of the chrome has become quite tarnished, and the metal plaque is a little roughed up. But the trophy itself remains in tact, and reads...
"TOYS FOR JOY '88
NINTENDO OLYMPICS
1st PLACE"
And on the bottom, a label my grandfather wrote out reading 11/12/88 as the date I participated, and 11/19/88 as the date I received it.
Now... I did some searching on Google, both websites and newsgroups, and came across nothing about this. Then earlier I saw a classic episode of "G4TV.com" where they recommended coming here to find out about old and rare items. And since I haven't really been here much in the last month or two, I thought I would pop back in.
Certainly my Bradlees wasn't the only one doing this "Toys for Joy Nintendo Olympics"... so has anyone ever heard of this, or experienced this before?