With its latest entry now atmore than 5 million copies sold, theLuigi’s Mansionseries has become another household name in Nintendo’s stable of franchises.Turns out it has also produced one of the company’s rarest pieces of memorabilia.Mario fan blogSupper Mario Brothposted pictures to Twitter late Thursday of a promotionalLuigi’s Mansionflashlight that was given to select attendees at E3 2001. The prop is a real-life model of the one Luigi has in the game, with a Nintendo GameCube graphic printed over the lens so that the console’s insignia casts a shadow when the light is on.The flashlight also mimics its in-game functionality somewhat. The red button on the handle can be held down to keep the light off, just like holding the B button down on the controller does in the GameCube launch title.
It’s promotional merchandise at the end of the day, and not much separates it from any other standard flashlight. But to get an idea of how highly valued this thing is, antique and collectible siteWorthPointhad an auction listing for theLuigi’s Mansion’sE3 flashlight back in Dec. 2013. It sold for $2,499.99.
After lying dormant for nearly 12 years, Luigi’s solo outing finally received a sequel withLuigi’s Mansion: Dark Moonfor the 3DS in 2013. A 3DS remake of the first game followed in 2018 – handled by Grezzo, which had developedOcarina of Time 3DandMajora’s Mask 3Dby that point – andLuigi’s Mansion 3for the Switch came along a year later, doing well bothcriticallyand commercially. The sequels were developed by Next Level Games, the studio which will presumably continue to work on the franchise moving forward, with oversight from Nintendo.
For the sake of comparison,Luigi’s Mansion 3also had a promotional flashlight that was given out at E3. But asking prices for that online come in atmuch more reasonable numbers.
