Donkey Kong Country is 30 years old as of Nov. 18, and one video game archivist is celebrating this milestone by sharing 3D scans for a series of rubber figures previously exclusive to Japan.
The archivist, known online as MrTalida, scanned these figures and uploaded them to the Internet Archive for folks to 3D print on their own. The series includes a bunch of Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong variants as well as series antagonist King K. Rool and enemies like Gnawty, Necky, and a minecart-riding Kremling. MrTalida even produced a cute video promoting his efforts based on the Donkey Kong Country intro.
A common collectible at the time, Bandai produced these “keshi” figures — short for “keshigumo,” or roughly “eraser rubber” — in 1995 for gacha machines, the nominal precursors to video games like Genshin Impact and Arknights. The closest analogue we got here in the States was probably Monster in My Pocket, a media franchise spawned in the 1990s that feels like a fever dream today.
Video game preservation is a popular topic these days, and MrTalida is tackling the mission from a unique (and much appreciated) angle. His work in this area also includes keshi figures based on the Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Final Fantasy, and Mega Man series.
