Creating a Game Boy Color box...

[Sjaaks]

Hi everyone! I hope most of you can read/write English?

I'm Sjaaks from the Netherlands. A while ago i set myself the goal of collecting at least one of every European released Game Boy (from "Classic" to "Advance Micro") and creating my own reproduction boxes, since there are some scans available here on Nintandbox, which is truly awesome and i'm very grateful for all the effort that goes into maintaing the already enormous collection that is to be found here.

All of the Game Boy boxes are pretty straight forward, except for the Game Boy Color box. I did quite some thinking on this one. How will i create a reproduction box of the Game Boy Color, since (some of) the originals have a holographic sidebar on them, that's impossible to print. I found a solution and combined it with some techniques i already applied to my other boxes. I thought this one would be interesting to share, maybe some of you have thought about the Game Boy Color boxes (albeit for the Game Boy itself or for the games) and not figured out a way to do those in authentic fashion. So here goes!

At first of course i printed out my retouch of the Game Boy Color box (i went for the Grape colored one). I print my boxes on heavy 250 gr/m paper for nice and sturdy boxes. Notice how i left the sidebar blank:

gbc-001.jpg (334.83 Kio) Consulté 407851 fois

Ideally i've been looking for self-adhesive holographic vinyl. Hard to find, at least here in the Netherlands. Ultimately i found an eBay seller in the UK who sells this self-adhesive holographic vinyl for car wrapping purposes so i ordered a sheet. Not knowing exactly if it would be suitable, but it only costs 1 euro for a sheet of 10x30cm. When it arrived i was quite happy with the product, exactly what i was looking for:

gbc-002.jpg (353.81 Kio) Consulté 407851 fois

I always laminate my boxes with transparant high gloss vinyl to give it a nice glossy finish, but it also adds to the thickness of the box. More importantly, laminating the paper prevents the print from cracking at the folded edges. The transparant vinyl is also printable, so i printed the Game Boy logo which goes over the holographic on the transparant vinyl:

gbc-003.jpg (222.78 Kio) Consulté 407851 fois

So next was to cut out a piece of holographic vinyl to exactly fit the sidebar and carefully apply it to the cover. Notice how i had to cut away the rather precise part of the corner of the Game Boy Color:

gbc-004.jpg (302.38 Kio) Consulté 407851 fois

Carefully peeling off the transfer foil at the back and applying the vinyl to the paper:

gbc-005.jpg (294.51 Kio) Consulté 407851 fois

[Sjaaks]

And then applying it all the way. If done right, the Game Boy picture is fully visible, but cutting out the holographic vinyl precisely enough is rather tricky to do:

gbc-006.jpg (296.29 Kio) Consulté 407848 fois

Next up is applying the transparent vinyl with the printed Game Boy logo. Needless to say this should be outlined perfectly so the Game Boy logo is placed nicely centered on the holographic sidebar:

gbc-007.jpg (290.67 Kio) Consulté 407848 fois

Also important is applying the vinyl very tightly so no air bubbles are caught between the vinyl and the paper, but luckily that sounds harder than it actually is. The application of the vinyl is done quite easily and quickly:

gbc-008.jpg (265.98 Kio) Consulté 407848 fois

Here the full print has been laminated. Unfortunately i only have A4 transparant vinyl sheets, applying A3 vinyl would be nice, except they are really expensive, the A4 vinyl sheets already cost about € 20,- for 10 sheets:

gbc-009.jpg (306.6 Kio) Consulté 407848 fois

And finally of course, cutting out the box, creasing the folds and glue the box together:

gbc-010.jpg (364.82 Kio) Consulté 407848 fois

[Sjaaks]

And two pictures of the assembled box. I'll try and post a few pictures of the box outside at daylight. The holographic vinyl really shines vividly like the original boxes do, except these pictures are taken in poor light, so it's not visible really well. More pictures to follow:

gbc-011.jpg (334.18 Kio) Consulté 407847 fois

gbc-012.jpg (277.25 Kio) Consulté 407847 fois

I hope you like the results, i was quite surprised with how close it is to the original, so this box will proudly sit on one of my shelves.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate, i'd be glad to answer them.

Kind regards,
Sjaaks

[megazapunk]

Very nice work, you shoulg try to use printed sticker glued on cardboard to look like a true box.

[exocil]

So nice great job!

[will13009]

Génial l'idée de autocollant multi-color, beau travail

[y(oYo)]

Your box looks very very great, thank you for sharing this to us!

[nono7]

very good work !

[Sjaaks]

Thank you all for your nice comments!

@megazapunk
Yeah, i've seen a few people applying printed vinyl to cardboard, that's even better indeed. I'll look into that, thanks for the tip!

[Spiral]

Very impressive !

Nice job !