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Division of Game Boy Advance SP Limited Editions by Regions
When I first wanted to compile a list of limited edition Game Boy Advance SP consoles, I encountered the fact that there is no clear division. For example, consoles for Europe were the same, but the box (and its contents) for the UK and other EU countries were slightly different.
On the left (top) is the English box, and on the right (bottom) is the European box.
The difference between these boxes lies in the inscriptions in the red rectangles.
On the English box, it says: «THIS PRODUCT IS DESIGNED FOR USE IN UK AND IRELAND», which translates to: «this product is designed for use in the UK and Ireland».
On the European box, it says: «THIS PRODUCT IS DESIGNED FOR USE WITHIN THE E.E.A. EXCEPT FOR UK AND IRELAND», which translates to: «this product is designed for use within the European Economic Area (not identical to the EU), except for the UK and Ireland».
Of course, for the most part, all the differences boiled down to two things. First, different countries use different types of sockets, so the charger had to be different. Second, different countries had different requirements for product labels. For example, all products in France must contain descriptions exclusively in French. This resulted in all consoles in the European region (including English ones) having the same label with text in French. At the same time, the main differences were in the boxes for the consoles, where additional inscriptions were placed in accordance with the legislation of the country.
In my opinion, it is simply foolish to divide the two aforementioned consoles into different regions, despite the fact that their boxes and chargers are different. Then the question arises, what should we rely on when dividing consoles by regions?
I suggest relying on the console labels. They are located on the back of each console.
There are a total of 5 types of labels. And no matter how the console packaging changes, no matter whose legislation they try to adapt to, the labels always remain unchanged.
From top to bottom: American, European, Australian, Japanese, and Chinese labels.
Therefore, when dividing consoles by regions, we will proceed from the small inscription on each label. For example, C/AGT-USA will belong to the American region, despite the fact that these consoles were sold in Canada, Mexico, and even in Russia.
By the way, these inscriptions are quite informative. C/ - means that the console was manufactured at a factory in China, AGS/AGT – means the version of the console model (AGS-001 or AGS-101, respectively), and USA/EUR/JPN/AUS is the region for which the console was produced. There is no such inscription on Chinese consoles, but they were produced under license, so they had their own label, which is similar to others but has its own differences.
Read more about labels in the article: «Game Boy Advance SP Labels».
Console Packaging
There is another point with packaging that does not depend on the country where the console was sold. In rare cases, consoles were released in special bundles (Bundle), which could include the console itself and, for example, games for it (usually consoles were sold without games).
For example, such a bundle with the game Super Mario Advance 2 and accessories. In this case, if the console is standard, and the difference is only in the packaging, I will not consider it as a limited edition console. Although it definitely has value for collectors.
Promo Versions of Game Boy Advance SP
There are also promo versions of consoles. Essentially, companies bought a batch of consoles for their own purposes and applied some logo to them. For example, the Swiss company Waldmeier AG did this. They took a standard European red console, stuck a sticker on the box, and applied their design to the console itself. It turned out very cool, as if it was originally intended, but they did it without Nintendo's permission.
If you look closely at the box, you can see that it was a standard Game Boy Advance SP Flame Red console.
I will not consider such consoles either, although I may later create a gallery for them (if I find good photos).
Epilogue
Since there is no clear list of released consoles in this world, and some companies had fun as they pleased, I tried to divide the consoles into regions based on my own vision. In addition, only those consoles that were released exclusively by Nintendo (or iQue) will be included in this catalog, and it must be a limited edition console, not some rare packaging, for example with a bundle.
