Ultra Hand is a toy that was manufactured by

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

in the late 1960s. It was created in 1966 by

Gunpei Yokoi , sometimes transliterated Gumpei Yokoi, was a Japanese video game designer. He was a long-time Nintendo employee, best known as creator of the Game & Watch handheld system, inventor of the cross-shaped Control Pad, the original designer of th ...

, who would later design the

Love Tester The is a novelty toy made by Nintendo in 1969. Designed "for young ladies and men", the device tries to determine how much two people love each other. To operate the device, both users grab one of the connected spherical metal sensors with one ...

, the

D-pad A D-pad (short for directional pad or digital pad; officially referred to by Nintendo as a +Control Pad) is a flat, usually thumb-operated, often digital, four-way directional control with one button on each point, found on nearly all modern vid ...

, the

Game Boy The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same ...

, and the

WonderSwan The (ワンダースワン) is a handheld game console released in Japan by Bandai. It was developed by Gunpei Yokoi's company Koto Laboratory and Bandai, and was the last piece of hardware Yokoi developed before his death in 1997. Released i ...

. Ultra Hand consists of several criss-cross-connected

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adaptab ...

elements, and operates on the "lazy tongs"

pantograph A pantograph (, from their original use for copying writing) is a mechanical linkage connected in a manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a second pen. If a line dr ...

principle. One end of the Ultra Hand has

scissor Scissors are hand-operated shearing tools. A pair of scissors consists of a pair of metal blades pivoted so that the sharpened edges slide against each other when the handles (bows) opposite to the pivot are closed. Scissors are used for cutti ...

-like handles and is operated like scissors, extending when the handles are pinched together and retracting when they are parted. On the other end of the Ultra Hand are two bowl-shaped grips with which

ball A ball is a round object (usually spherical, but can sometimes be ovoid) with several uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used f ...

-like objects can be gripped when the Ultra Hand is fully extended. Three colored balls were included in the Ultra Hand package, along with stands on which the balls can rest. Ultra Hand was a commercial success, selling more than one million units. It is the first of several toys developed by Yokoi that helped to save the company from serious financial difficulties.

In media

Ultra Hand appears in various ''

WarioWare is a video game series, a Spin-off (media), spin-off of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise. It comprises various video games created by Nintendo, starring the character Wario. The series began with ''Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3'', th ...

'' titles, as well as '' Wario: Master of Disguise''. In '' Mario Power Tennis'', Wario is seen using the Ultra Hand for one of his power shots. It appears as a furniture item in '' Animal Crossing: New Leaf''. Ultra Hand is seen underneath '' Mario Kart: Super Circuit's'' Mario Circuit's hairpin turn, suspending the track in ''

Mario Kart 8 is a 2014 kart racing game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii U. It features the '' Mario Kart'' series' game mechanics, in which players drive go-karts using ''Mario'' franchise characters in various race formats. Items placed ...

'', and as a decoration behind the counter in the Bomb Shop in '' The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D''. A

WiiWare WiiWare was a service that allowed Wii users to download games and applications specifically designed and developed for the Wii video game console made by Nintendo. These games and applications could only be purchased and downloaded from the Wii S ...

game titled ''Grill-Off with Ultra Hand!'' was released in North America on March 31, 2010 exclusive to

Club Nintendo Club Nintendo was a customer loyalty program provided by Nintendo. The loyalty program was free to join and provided rewards in exchange for consumer feedback and loyalty to purchasing official Nintendo products. Members of Club Nintendo earned c ...

members. The game features the Ultra Hand stretching out to grab cooked meats from barbecue grills. In single-player mode, the goal is to last as long as possible. In two-player mode, they compete for the most points in 90 seconds. An Ultra Hand is also featured in

Splatoon 3 is a third-person shooter video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. Like its predecessors in the ''Splatoon'' series, the game consists of online multiplayer ( PvP and PvE) alongside a story-driven single-player ...

. The fill-in shop-keeper of Hotlantis, Harmony, can be seen fiddling with one upon entering the shop.

References

{{Nintendo Company 1960s toys Nintendo toys WiiWare games

In media

See also

References