Nintendo Labo’s cardboard-color Switch really should be sold to the general public

Next month, Nintendo’s latest Labo creation contest will award a really swell first prize, but that’s not the news. The news is that the first prize should instead go on sale to the general public and they should find something else for the winner. Really, it’s the only equitable solution when you show off something this cool, Nintendo.

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This (images via Tiny Cartridge) is the Nintendo Labo-themed Nintendo Switch, and it’s only available (so far) to the winner in one of two categories in the next Nintendo Labo Creators Contest. Nintendo is seeking entries in the “Best Toy-Con Musical Instrument” and “Best Gaming Experience Using Toy-Con Garage” categories. The rules and requirements are here. The contest runs July 19 to Aug. 20 and is open to fans 13 and up in the U.S. and Canada (excluding Quebec).

The grand prize (for winners in both categories) is a cardboard-themed Nintendo Switch, with a color so perfectly matched you’d swear it was corrugated. Runners-up (four in each category) get a jacket and a pair of cardboard-themed Joy-Con controllers, which have to be agonizing to slap on to a regular Switch put in its regular dock. If you want to see what it takes to win one of these contests, here are the creations of past winners.

But, really, Nintendo, you can’t tease something like this and not someday offer it to the rest of us. We know you didn’t go to the Nintendo Switch factory and say “Make us two and only two of this,” so there have to be more laying around. Cough up!