I was ecstatic when I found my limited edition Mountain Dew XBOX at an electronics-based thrift store. At the time, I had a standard XBOX and the Halo edition console. And the Mountain Dew edition was the only other variant that I stood an even fraction of a chance of finding in the U.S.
There were only 5,000 produced. But what makes the story all the more fascinating is what you had to do to obtain one ten years ago.
The Mountain Dew Limited Edition Xbox was only available through a Mountain Dew sweepstakes requiring loyal Dew-drinking Xbox fans to amass 550 points in order to buy the Limited Edition Xbox. That’s right, you had to save up points in order to be given the chance to buy it.
Mountain Dew Points were awarded as follows: 20 oz. 1 pt, 1-liter 1 pt, 2-liter 1 pt, 12-pack 3 pts, 24-pack 6 pts, 32/44 oz. Fountain Cups 1 pt. So in order to be able to purchase the console, you had to spend about $500 just in Mountain Dew products.
The sweepstakes spanned five months from April to August of 2004. Within one day all 5,000 systems were reserved.
As you can see, the Mountain Dew Limited Edition Xbox is neon-green colored and has a special jewel atop the Xbox that has the words “Limited Edition” and the Mountain Dew logo under the Xbox name. Included with the neon green console is one of two games: Project Gotham Racing 2 orAmped 2. Mine didn’t come with either, but I’m not too concerned about that.
I purchased the console for only $70, a little bit less than what it was worth at the time. Since then, the value of the console has climbed up to about $120. But it isn’t likely that this special edition console will be leaving my collection any time soon.