Logan Paul defends viral Game Boy project amid “ridiculous” backlash

Logan Paul has defended his $1000 Game Boy Color project, where the YouTube star turned boxer transformed 15 of them into an epoxy tabletop, after he was slammed on social media for ‘ruining’ the iconic handheld console.

Logan Paul spent three months and $1000 on a Game Boy Color project to commemorate his youth and love for Pokemon. Instead of his work receiving love from fans though, he was met with backlash on social media for ‘ruining’ copies of the iconic handheld console.

However, the older Paul brother hasn’t taken the controversy lying down. He addressed the “ridiculous” backlash on his January 5 Impaulsive podcast, saying there was no malicious reason in doing the project like some speculated ⁠— he just loves Pokemon.

“Throughout quarantine and training for Mayweather I had some free time and I wanted to do something relaxing. I took up art resin, epoxy,” he explained.

“I got into it, took on a couple of little projects, got better and better, and I decided to undergo a Gameboy project where I took Gameboy Colors ⁠— which I love, I’ve been addicted to them my whole life ⁠— so I thought it’d be cool to make a table with some of my favorite things I have.

“A lot of people liked it on Twitter, and they were like ‘Logan Paul f**king blows but this is cool’, but then I started trending. You don’t trend for good sh*t, you trend for bad sh*t.

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“There was a sub-set of retro gamers who were extremely unhappy that I caked 15 Gameboys that cost me about $1000 in resin because they felt like I was wasting the Gameboys and disrespecting the nostalgia.”

Paul explained he loves his own Game Boy Color, booting it up every so often to play one of the original Pokemon games to relive his childhood. Memorializing it in that way felt natural to the YouTube star ⁠— and while there was resounding backlash, there were equal amounts of praise for the project.

The related segment begins at 1:06:56.

He also downplayed the scarcity of the consoles, which some enthusiasts were touting given its 1998 release.

“Go on eBay right now. They’re $60. 90 million plus of them were made, they’re not in short supply, and I love them. These mean something to me.

“I made something I thought was f**king cool, yet how can I still be making mistakes? This is a simulation for sure, because this is the most ridiculous backlash we’ve seen in our lives.”

He reached out to one critic on Twitter following the furor, and claimed he was trying to “kill them with kindness”. It’s part of Logan’s new mantra for 2022 ⁠— he’s trying to be more empathetic to his haters and their reasons for criticism.

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“One thing I outlined as something I’m going to try and exercise in 2022 is kindness.

“You see someone spend so much time on a project, and yet you feel the need to invalidate it because some weird niche beliefs you have, not knowing any of my intentions when I’m making this? You think I stuck them in there so I could be like ‘yeah I own those 15 Gameboys, this cost $1000?’”

Regardless of what happens online, Logan’s epoxy Game Boy Color tabletop now sits proudly in his house, and the star is going to keep it that way.