The $1000 Wii

Zelda and Wii. Two of our favoritest slices of Nintendo brilliance. So when we found out some talented scamp had managed to combine the two, in a breathtaking piece of technical and artistic wizardry, we almost choked on our sandwich. Ramon Stokes tells us about his rather ingenious and wondrous combination creation, which ended up selling for $1,276 on eBay.

That’s some amazing work you’ve done there. What gave you the idea to create a special Zelda-style Wii?

Stokes: I was really excited when I discovered the sword and shield. I kept trying to think of a cool way to display them knowing there was no way I would have the discipline to keep them sealed up in the box. I’ve never done a Nintendo console mod before, but I’d been trying to think of a really cool Wii mod for some time, so when I found the replicas it seemed like a completely natural combination. The project was entirely centered around having those replicas, so without them you wouldn’t be reading this today.

Did you have any major problems?

Stokes: Once I’d come up with a color scheme and the layout, I then ran into a few snags. The first was locating a tri-wing Nintendo screw driver (to fit Wii’s special screws). After checking in 14 hardware stores without any luck I finally had to import it from Hong Kong. The biggest challenge was finding a way to mount the heavy metal shield to the side, while still allowing for the sword to be removed. It also had to hold the four white LEDs and all the wires to power them. The removable sword was almost scrapped because sliding it in and out placed pressure on the contact points between the shield and mounting. I can’t reveal the secret of how I did it but the end result is as strong as steel.