Does anyone know exactly what colours the original game-boy pocket without the battery LED came in? Or exactly when the change over occurred? And is there a source for replacement game boy pocket screens without the power LED?
Is this a really strange coincidence or did you read my post over at mk.de today? I just received a GB Pocket yesterday and because it had no battery LED, I attempted to find the exact same information today. The only thing of use I could find so far is this Japanese website with some limited GB Pocket consoles: http://homepage2.nifty.com/matikane/ninten/gb-pocket-limited1.htm The Famitsu Model F GBP (also no battery LED) was released in June 1997, whereas the blue Toys 'R Us-GBP below already had a battery LED and came out only a month later. However, they must have made the change months earlier than that and it might have been a subtle transition. The GBP came out in Europe in early 1997 (I got mine in April 1997 w/LED) and I believe all Western GBP's came with battery LEDs.
I remember my brother getting a silver gameboy pocket on launch day from Toys 'R Us. It did have the red power LED. This was in USA.
I have a transparent GB Pocket, and it does have the power LED. I believe it's a US model. I think the transparent version came out at the same time they released a lot of other colors, and I believe (I could be wrong) that this was a while after launch.
I'm pretty sure the non-LED hardware never left Japan because it was launched there in 1996 and only in 1997 in the rest of the world (when it had already changed in Japan).
I have seen 3-4 no led us models, one of them was boxed too. The only color I know of is silver, and ONLY the early silver border release that came in a plastic display box. http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51qPdarfihL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
The one pictured here in the folding plastic box is looks exactly like the one I have which was bought in Australia late 96. Pretty sure it has no led.
I have the silver border non-LED version and bought it here in the US. I'm not aware of any other color variations for it though.
I have a silver gb pocket (silver border) without led. Looking at the back it appears mine is a Japanese version.
Probably a fuzzy memory - it launched with a silver border with no LED in the US. US launch box (note the Nintendo Seal of Quality, which is not on Japanese boxes)
Mine is definitely a launch GBP, but I no longer have the box to compare to the one pictured. Here's the back, which is similar to Sinrevi's. I find it curious that C/MGB-JPN is stamped on a non-JPN system.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but there wasn't a difference in the US and Japanese GBs, was there? (They sure as heck weren't region locked ;*) It isn't beyond reason they rolled-over Japanese GBs to meet initial US demand.
I assumed mine was Japanese because of the JPN code. I don't own a US gb pocket, but the back of my silver one looks different from my blue EU gb pocket.