As you’ll know, Nintendo has been trying to rectify analog stick drifting issues on the Switch for quite awhile. When customers send in their controllers for repair, they might receive back controllers with new or refurbished analog sticks to solve such drifting issues. Recently, however, one fan has discovered an interesting detail with the refurbished parts that they received.

Apparently, it looks like Nintendo has a special way of differentiating refurbished analog sticks from new ones – by marking them with a stamp of Mario wearing a bow tie! This was first uncovered by Reddit user u/redditinchina, and later relayed by @MarioBrothBlog on Twitter. Check it out below!

Underside of a Nintendo Switch analog stick (extracted from a Joy-Con) received back from Nintendo of America after refurbishing. These are marked with a stamp of Mario wearing a bow tie after being repaired to distinguish them from units that have not been faulty in the past. pic.twitter.com/4g8qU0P8ZO

— Supper Mario Broth (@MarioBrothBlog) September 27, 2019

It’s not exactly clear when Nintendo started using this stamp for refurbished analog sticks, or how many units currently have the same stamp underneath them. Nevertheless, it’s a really cool detail – and it might help Switch enthusiasts in the future to figure out which parts are new or not!

What do you think of this stamp design? Have you seen these Mario stamps before? Feel free to share your thoughts below!