Nintendo has filed for another set of trademarks, this time pertaining to Super Mario, Super Mario Bros., and MarioKart. The Super Mario trademark pertains to jewelry, stationery, luggage, clothing, and food items. Super Mario Bros. relates to videogames, controllers, game cases, game cards, toys, and entertainment. Finally, the MarioKart trademark is tied to jewelry, stationery, luggage, clothing, controllers, toys, food, and entertainment.
MariCAR, the Japanese go-kart service that offers up Nintendo-themed costumes for their rides, recently lost a legal battle with Nintendo. The results of the lawsuit include MariCar dropping Nintendo-themed costumes and paying $90k in damage. While MariCAR has changed their name to MariMobility, they've decided to stick with the costumes.
As recently as this week, MariMobility is still offering users Nintendo costumes for their go-kart rentals. It seems the MariMobility gang thinks they can get the ruling overturned, as they're currently appealing the decision. It's a risky gamble, as MariMobility could find themselves in even more trouble if they lose the appeal.
Just a few days back, the Pokemon Hub in Hong Kong announced it was closing its shop in the K11 Mall in Hong Kong. Good news though, as the Hub is coming back in a new location! You'll be able to check out the new Pokemon Hub at Langham Place, a shopping mall in Hong Kong’s Mongkok district. No details on the opening date have been shared as of this time.
Pokemon Hub was an officially-licensed Pokemon store offering that sold Pokemon Center merchandise in Hong Kong. The Hub was open back in Dec. 2017, but now it's officially shut down. The thing is, management for the Hub have said that they'll be back soon. No specific plans for return were detailed.
Fragment and The Pokemon Company already announced that they're teaming up for various merch, which will be sold via a Thunderbolt Project Pop Up Store in Japan. More details on that collaboration and store will release on October 20, 2018 during a special presentation. The presentation is set to last an hour and a half.
It's extremely rare to see a Pokemon Center open up outside of Japan. That's why this news is such a big deal! The Pokemon Co. has confirmed that a new Pokemon Center location is set to open in the Jewel Changi Airport in Singapore. The store itself will be run by a local Pokemon distributor, as hand-picked by the Pokemon Co. themselves. As you might expect, there will be some exclusive merch and goodies available at this location.
Pokemon Co. is partnering up with apparel manufacturer Uniqlo for the theme of this year's Uniqlo T-shirt Grand Prix competition. The pair are looking for people to submit their ideas for Pokemon-themed clothing by submitting various designs. Submissions open up Oct. 23rd, 2018 and run to Dec. 2nd, 2018. As you might suspect, winning designs will be sold at Uniqlo locations. The winners will also get some sweet prizes.
Grand Prize: $10,000, Special Trophy, Invitation to the Award Ceremony in Tokyo, Invitation to the 2019 Pokemon World Championships
Second Prize: $2,000, Invitation to the Award Ceremony in Tokyo, Invitation to the 2019 Pokemon World Championships
Third Prize: $1,000, Invitation to the Award Ceremony in Tokyo, Invitation to the 2019 Pokemon World Championships
Runner-Ups (multiple): $500
The judges are for this contest are Pokemon Company President Tsunekazu Ishihara, Game Freak designer Ken Sugimori, and UT Creative Director NIGO.
It's giong to be quite some time until Super Nintendo World is up-and-running at Universal Studios Japan, but construction on the park is definitely underway. Cranes can be spotted all around the regular park, and they're toiling away on getting Super Nintendo World ready.
The three highlighted spaces in the image above are all tied to Super Nintendo World in some way, but we don't know what each space is going to be just yet. All we can do is sit back and wait for construction to take shape a bit more. You can check out more pics of the park's construction here.
Scientists at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology have discovered 5 new species of ants. Yes, these are completely new, and have not been discovered/named anywhere else. That's why these scientists are looking for names for the ants, and they've decided to let the public get in on the action. It's clear the scientists are Pokemon fans, as they've opened up an official name poll filled with Pokemon names, and some of those names could end up being used for real-life ants. Go ahead and check out the poll right here!
Telltale said weeks ago that a skeleton crew would be staying with the company to keep things going, as far as their prior obligations were concerned. Narrative designer Rachel Noel was part of that team, but according to a tweet she sent out today, that whole team has been laid off as well. No rhyme or reason for the layoffs were given.
UPDATE - Rachel Noel has updated her statement to say that just her team was laid off, but there are still people at the company. Thanks to PhantomLiger for the heads up!
I think there was some misunderstanding about my earlier message... There are still good people at the company. MY team is done.
— Retchel Necronoelicon (@anameformyself) October 4, 2018
