<P> In 1966 , Yamauchi was observing a hanafuda factory . He noticed an extending arm , which was made by one of their maintenance engineers , Gunpei Yokoi , for his own amusement . Yamauchi ordered Yokoi to develop it as a proper product for the Christmas rush . Released as the `` Ultra Hand '' , it would become one of Nintendo 's earliest toy blockbusters , selling over a million units . Seeing that Yokoi had promise , Yamauchi pulled him off assembly line work . Yokoi was soon moved from maintenance duty to product development . </P>
who designed the first toy released by nintendo
Gunpei Yokoi