If you've been following us for a while (especially on YouTube), you will know that we have been working on something very special in the background.
We are building a sub-company dedicated to crafting accessories for gamers made from 100% recycled and eco-friendly materials. This company will go alongside Retro Dodo in an effort to offer our readers and community unique accessories with impact.
This company is called GAMENOOK.
The mission is simple: Build gaming and collectable accessories that help the planet.
I have wanted to do something like this for a while, going back as far as early 2024, when we attempted to build a display stand made from wood and acrylic for handhelds, but that made it very clear that those types of products do more damage than good.
That led me down a manufacturing rabbit hole, revealing very few ways to build products that don't take from the planet. I am not that person to build something that damages the very planet that I call home.
With a lot of research, a lot of travelling, thousands of pounds invested in prototyping, I finally found a way around this by using recycled materials from land and sea to be used as the pillar of our manufacturing process.
I contacted Joseph Tomkins, a well-known designer in the space, to help design our first product. We bumped heads and built The Throne... mainly because we wanted this product ourselves!
The Throne is a display stand for retro handhelds, featuring custom slots for up to five GAME BOY cartridges and up to four AA batteries, allowing handheld enthusiasts to display their prized possessions uniquely.
How does GAMENOOK source plastic waste?
GAMENOOK sources plastic waste in several ways:
- Local business partnerships that intercept plastics before they reach the landfill.
- Community litter-picking and clean-up initiatives that protect parks, forests, wildlife, and public spaces.
- Collaboration with ocean-cleanup organisations such as WaterHaul, which removes fishing lines and marine debris, safeguards wildlife from ingestion and entanglement.
These three sourcing initiatives allow us to create a process that removes unwanted and dangerous plastic from our planet and transforms that into high-quality, long-lasting products that respect your collectables and that respects our planet.
The Throne itself works with a wide range of handhelds, such as:
- Nintendo GAME BOY DMG
- Nintendo GAME BOY Pocket
- Nintendo GAME BOY Color
- Nintendo GAME BOY Advance
- Nintendo GAME BOY Advance SP
- Nintendo GAME BOY Micro
- Nintendo DS
- Sony Playstation Portable
- ModRetro Chromatic
- Analogue Pocket
You can even switch around the stand to show the cartridges upfront, which looks especially good with horizontal handhelds such as the GAME BOY Advance.
When does it launch?
The Throne is available to pre-order, starting at £24.99 for the two current colourways. The Cluster edition used plastic waste sourced from land, such as bottle caps, video game cases, water bottles, and plastic cartons, whereas the Coastal Edition (which is still in production) uses 100% sea-based plastic waste.
Shipping begins in Q4 2025.
The Future?
Right now, we're focusing on getting the business off the ground. The Throne will take priority; however, we are working on a second product called The Barrier.
The Barrier is a protective case for PSA Graded Cards, created in the same eco-friendly way, featuring more extravagant colourways to match Pokémon types. These will make great gifts for collectors, and we are currently in the product development process, with prototypes already in the office.
This will give you a sense of direction for the company, keeping to its nostalgic routes yet dabbling with innovative ways to make an impact.
We hope you can join us on our journey, and we look forward to making products for your collection, all while cleaning up the dangerous plastic that riddles our planet!
