An original North American promotional poster used to market the 1981 Donkey Kong arcade cabinet sold for nearly $330,000 at Landry Pop Auctions, more than double the final estimated bid.
Created by illustrator Leslie Carbaga, this original artwork depicts Donkey Kong throwing barrels down from scaffolding, a trapped woman, and a mustachioed character in overalls ready to confront him. The piece is an early visual asset for Donkey Kong and is closely tied to the formation of Mario's initial image. It was subsequently reused for various Donkey Kong merchandise and influenced early portrayals of Mario and Donkey Kong in media, including the animated series Saturday Supercade.
The original artwork comes from the collection of Donna Darbous, former advertising director at Nintendo. She recalls that when Nintendo was clearing out its storage rooms to make office space, these materials were nearly thrown into the trash. Recognizing their value, she took them home for safekeeping and only recently brought them back out.
Other Nintendo materials up for auction include early company Christmas cards featuring Santa Mario, Disney-themed sketches for early licensed Game & Watch titles, promotional boxing gloves signed by Mike Tyson for Punch-Out!!, rare "black box" NES games, other promotional materials, and internal documents. These commercial promotional items, which might otherwise have been discarded, are thus preserved as historical records of Nintendo's early gaming era.