Ready for a Tuesday morning conspiracy theory? Well, Ive been looking at the new Banjo merch, and ive noticrd something noteworthy on BOTH the Totaku and the First 4 Figure.
At first glance they look to be recreations of N64 designs and artwork, and, well, they are. But, they both added something new to the design: The Rareware logo on the back of Banjos backpack!
Now, at first I thought this was a neat little touch added to the figures, but I think its more than a coincidence that BOTH of them have that. Gamestop (publishing Totaku figures) and F4F wouldn't get together and decide to both add that (they probably wouldn't even know about what each other is making), and they wouldn't stray from the source material, especially with an IP that isn't theres.
And I considered the possibility that maybe the Rare logo was always there, and I forgot about it, but I checked everything- old artwork, ingame models for Kazooie, Tooie, and even Nuts And Bolts, even old merchandise, but the logo was never there.
With multiple pieces of merch from independent companies both adding this tiny detail, I think Microsoft gave them a new (albeit a faithful re-imagining of the original design) design of Banjo Kazooie, and I dont know why they would make a new design for merch when they could just go 1 to 1 with either the OG or Nuts and Bolts design. So I have come to 3 logical conclusions-
A. Microsoft/Rare have gone through the trouble of making this HD/revamped design for merch, but that's literally it.
B. Banjo Kazooie is getting the Crash/Spyro treatment, or a new game altogether, and this is their design.
C. Banjo Kazooie are in Smash Bros, and this is their design, kinda like how Simon got a "makeover" for Smash Bros that is an HD re imagining of the original character design.