Sealed Nintendo 3DS Case Crumbles to Dust in Gamer’s Hands

I stumbled upon this wild tale the other day. Seriously, no idea why it stuck with me, but hey, here we go. Some gamer found out their brand new, totally sealed Nintendo 3DS case turned into dust. Yeah, dust. It’s like… what? The thing’s supposed to be a protector, right? Funny how life gives you these little surprises.

So, Nintendo’s got a solid rep for durable stuff, y’know? And you’d think wrapping a 3DS in a case was the safe bet, like a no-brainer. Keep it safe from falls and all that jazz. Plus, it gives you this chance to jazz up your gadget without wrecking its original look. I guess some folks might wanna peek at their cases now after this nugget of news. Who knew?

Anyway, back to the main story. Some dude, Randolph Co (shoutout to NintendoSoup for the scoop), had this Dragon Quest 8 New Nintendo 3DS case, all boxed up. It sat in storage, safe, untouched, and boom—it’s now crumbs. Like opening a treasure chest to find it’s filled with disappointment. Picture this: the box looks okay on the outside, and inside is just dust. Once it was white with colors—blue, green, brown slimes everywhere. All gone now.

So, what gives, right? While there’s no official word from the owner, it’s probably the material’s doing. TPU, or thermoplastic polyurethane. A fancy term for stuff that breaks down over time, three to five years usually. This case? Released way back in 2015. Time flies, doesn’t it?

It’s all a bit tragic when you think about it. Here’s this piece of gaming history, turned to dust thanks to being biodegradable. Maybe the makers thought no one would hang on to these things for a decade. But oh well. Not every case met this dusty fate, so maybe your collection is safe. But—who knows—might be worth checking, just in case. The 3DS came out in 2011, so, yeah, time does funny things.

Life’s little mysteries, huh? Stay weird, stay curious.