In a weekly update post by Kane Carter, he shared that the model for Blackrabbit was changed for POPGOES Evergreen by basing it on a more accurate Toy Bonnie model that was designed by one of the game's modelers named Alexis. Due to this change, the Blackrabbit model seen in a cutscene in POPGOES Arcade uses the outdated model, and Carter has no plans to re-render the cutscene due to both models appearing very similar despite being different.
The now defunct Jurassic Park Institute website featured what appeared to be an unused 3D model of a Chasmosaurus for Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis. This would line up with the developer's comments about wanting to include more dinosaur species outside of the 25 present in the final game, although curiously, this species is not mentioned within the game's "Constant.ini" file, which mentions dozens of other unused dinosaur species.
Tasha Sounart, Pixar's creative director for the Disney Parks and the consultant for Toy Story elements in Kingdom Hearts III, has claimed that she believes the models for the toys in the game were the best they have ever looked in a licensed product that wasn't made in-house at Pixar:
"Really over all, this is probably the best that our characters have looked outside of our movies, because their attention to detail is really, really great."
Game producer Katsuhiro Harada has stated that a single Alpaca, which appear in the background of the Ortiz Farm stage, is made up of more polygons than any fighter character's model from Tekken 1 through to Tekken Tag Tournament.
An unused enemy named "iwadama" was found in the game files. The creature shares many characteristics with the Beady Long Legs from Pikmin and Pikmin 2. However, instead of the spherical head the boss normally has, it is replaced with a large foot of the boss, possibly implying it would stomp it's head into the ground as well, and may have been a reimagining of the boss. It's unknown why it was cut, but it's possible it was replaced with the Shaggy and Baldy Long Legs in the final game.
Following the Steam Early Access release of Palworld on January 18, the developers faced accusations of copying Pokémon models for the designs of the game's Pals. The allegations were made by a Twitter user named byofrog, who claimed that some of Palworld's creature models were directly copied and edited from 3D models ripped from Pokémon games. These allegations were criticized for scaling the Pokémon and Palworld models to be comparable in size, leading to claims that edited models were not reliable or accurate evidence. byofrog claimed in response that because the models from each game loaded into modeling software at different sizes, scaling them appropriately were the only necessary edits made to compare them, and that the models' meshes, proportions, and other fundamental features were not edited.
Takuro Mizobe, the CEO of Palworld developer Pocket Pair, denied the allegations, calling them "slanderous", and also stated that Pocket Pair has "no intention of infringing upon the intellectual property of other companies". On January 25, The Pokémon Company released an official statement confirming they were aware of a flood of inquiries about "another company’s game released in January 2024", and that they were currently investigating them.
Both Mach Rider's identity and gender are ambiguous. They are portrayed with a muscular build, and the NES and Famicom versions' manuals never use any gendered pronouns to refer to them. The arcade port Vs. Mach Rider's stage clear screens slowly introduce piece-by-piece an image of a skimpily-dressed woman (bearing similarities to Jane Fonda's appearance in the 1968 film Barbarella) holding a dagger, but it is never specified if this character is Mach Rider, or one of the other wasteland survivors. However, Mach Rider's trophy description in Super Smash Bros. Melee years later lists them as a male character with he/him pronouns. Even later on, Captain Rainbow, a game centered around obscure and neglected Nintendo heroes, has an unused model for Mach Rider that, while not having visible breasts due to wearing armor, portrays them with a feminine skinny waist.
In a 1997 interview with Famimaga 64, Satoshi Tajiri said that the Pokémon Porygon was made due to people saying that he should develop a 3D game instead of a sprite-based game on the Game Boy:
"I wanted to add something real into the world of Pokémon, and thought it’d be interesting if the game had an artificial Pokémon. I made that decision specifically because it’s on Game Boy. Everyone kept telling me 'Tajiri, you need to start making polygon games for next generation consoles.' But I was designing Pokémon for Game Boy, where it’s impossible to use polygonal 3D graphics. But people kept hounding me about it, so I thought it would be ironic to include a Pokémon called Porygon."
In Final Egg, two large stasis tubes can be found. One holds Metal Sonic, while the other holds an unknown Sonic-based robot, later referred to as Mecha Sonic Mark III by Ian Flynn. This robot has no importance in the story, however, it seems to be based heavily on the design of Mechagodzilla from the "Godzilla" franchise's Shōwa era, due to many similar parts and possible textures from the robot. This also seems to be a reference to Mecha Sonic Mark I, also known as Silver Sonic from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, whose concept art also shows similarities to Mechagodzilla.
The character Veigar seems to be based on the Black Mages from the Final Fantasy series. This connection is further backed by one of Veigar's skins, called White Mage Veigar, which has the white and red coloring of the White Mages from the Final Fantasy series.
The skin Dark Star Cho'Gath was made in collaboration with a critically ill League of Legends player named Bryan, who met Riot Games through a partnership with the non-profit charity the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Bryan wished to "meet the creators of Riot Games, and make a skin with them." Dark Star Cho'Gath was chosen between three skin designs and inspired by Bryan's love of outer space. The skin's theme music is based on a clarinet performance from Bryan. All profits collected from the skin until July 20, 2018 were donated to various non-profit organizations around the world.
According to leaked development files from The Simpsons: Hit & Run, Sideshow Bob and Poochie were originally planned to appear in the game. There is an unused low-polygon model for Poochie that is pre-posed, meaning that it was likely supposed to appear as merchandise of the character (most likely alongside Itchy and Scratchy's balloons in Level 2), rather than appearing in an Itchy & Scratchy cartoon cutscene. No models for Sideshow Bob are known to exist.
In the ending cutscene of New Super Mario Bros. 2, the Koopalings carry Bowser by the tail after his defeat while Mario and Peach run home. Due to the strain that rendering a large character like Bowser alongside the models of 9 other characters and a vehicle could cause on the 3DS hardware, Bowser does not use his regular model used in the rest of the game, but rather a set of flat pre-rendered graphics tilted to appear 3D.
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl's files have a set of unused placeholder models, all in a significantly more realistic style than the game and not based on any Nickelodeon IPs, comprised of a female pirate model from Adobe's Mixamo service; pirate, military, and ninja-themed props and weapons with unknown sources; and a "dangerous pumpkin" taken from a Unity asset store pack, which also has a leftover UI graphic alongside multiple other asset store props.
Jellyfish Fields, Harmonic Convergence, and Duck, Duck, Pie! all have unused early level geometry. These are all loaded in when the final stages are played and are simply hidden from view. Harmonic Convergence is very close to its final form; Jellyfish Fields lacks textures, but it can be seen that it has the sign on the base platform instead of the background; Duck, Duck, Pie! was originally a completely different style of pie that has its filling visible, which was likely changed to prevent depth perception issues.
In a rough time span from 1987 to 1988, a commercial for the Nintendo Entertainment System - often colloquially referred to as either "Scary Nintendo Commercial" or "We Are Nintendo, You Cannot Beat Us" - was aired on Australian television by Mattel, the region's Nintendo distributor at the time. The commercial featured primitive CGI renditions of antagonists from different NES games (Smick from Gyromite, Bowser and Lakitu from Super Mario Bros., and the laughing scent hound from Duck Hunt, lead by an original character resembling Max Headroom, a dystopian TV character who was being used to market Coca-Cola at the time) mocking the viewer with the phrase "you cannot beat us", set to the ominous castle music from Super Mario Bros.
This commercial has sustained a decent viral popularity, often being featured on listicles and review videos related to bizarre 1980s or Nintendo commercials, but it is not as well known that the advert was part of a larger Nintendo campaign, and that "you cannot beat us" is a variation on another, more frequently-used Nintendo slogan from the country - "it can't be beaten!" This phrase was used in a series of significantly less frightening live-action commercials showing children playing the games while doing imitations of the voice from the CGI commercial, winning, shouting "Beat 'cha!", and then having a hazard from the game enter their room (a tennis ball while playing Tennis, a martial artist while playing Kung Fu, and a generic effect where their chair blasts into the sky for Super Mario Bros.) while a filtered voice announces "We are Nintendo, we do not like losing!"
There is an unused model of the Statue of David by Michelangelo in Squidward's prop set. This was likely intended for his air down strong, where he slams down with a block of marble, referencing the SpongeBob episode "Artist Unknown", where SpongeBob makes the same statue by accident. The model has a clam on its groin as censorship, just like in the original episode, but does not have the nose Squidward places on it.
The texture for Goro Majima’s jacket in Yakuza 3 is of noticeably poorer quality from his appearence in other games. This has even lead to a mod being made which replaces his jacket in Yakuza 3 Remastered for PC with a model more close to his jacket in Yakuza 4 Remastered.
The first-ever footage of Luigi as a playable character in Super Mario 64 was discovered through an old VHS tape in 2023. The footage was captured by a Japanese broadcaster recording footage of Nintendo's 1995 Space World trade show in Japan for a TV program covering the event. Despite this, the footage of Luigi is not actually the primary focus of the clip and as such can barely be seen at all. The video shows Luigi falling back down after performing a spin-jump in what appears to be a red and white test area.
The now defunct Jurassic Park Institute website featured what appeared to be an unused 3D model of a Chasmosaurus for Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis. This would line up with the developer's comments about wanting to include more dinosaur species outside of the 25 present in the final game, although curiously, this species is not mentioned within the game's "Constant.ini" file, which mentions dozens of other unused dinosaur species.
An unused enemy named "iwadama" was found in the game files. The creature shares many characteristics with the Beady Long Legs from Pikmin and Pikmin 2. However, instead of the spherical head the boss normally has, it is replaced with a large foot of the boss, possibly implying it would stomp it's head into the ground as well, and may have been a reimagining of the boss. It's unknown why it was cut, but it's possible it was replaced with the Shaggy and Baldy Long Legs in the final game.
Both Mach Rider's identity and gender are ambiguous. They are portrayed with a muscular build, and the NES and Famicom versions' manuals never use any gendered pronouns to refer to them. The arcade port Vs. Mach Rider's stage clear screens slowly introduce piece-by-piece an image of a skimpily-dressed woman (bearing similarities to Jane Fonda's appearance in the 1968 film Barbarella) holding a dagger, but it is never specified if this character is Mach Rider, or one of the other wasteland survivors. However, Mach Rider's trophy description in Super Smash Bros. Melee years later lists them as a male character with he/him pronouns. Even later on, Captain Rainbow, a game centered around obscure and neglected Nintendo heroes, has an unused model for Mach Rider that, while not having visible breasts due to wearing armor, portrays them with a feminine skinny waist.
In the Wii and PS2 versions of SpongeBob's Atlantis SquarePantis, SpongeBob's model has two brains hidden in his body, one behind each eye.
In Final Egg, two large stasis tubes can be found. One holds Metal Sonic, while the other holds an unknown Sonic-based robot, later referred to as Mecha Sonic Mark III by Ian Flynn. This robot has no importance in the story, however, it seems to be based heavily on the design of Mechagodzilla from the "Godzilla" franchise's Shōwa era, due to many similar parts and possible textures from the robot. This also seems to be a reference to Mecha Sonic Mark I, also known as Silver Sonic from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, whose concept art also shows similarities to Mechagodzilla.
The character Veigar seems to be based on the Black Mages from the Final Fantasy series. This connection is further backed by one of Veigar's skins, called White Mage Veigar, which has the white and red coloring of the White Mages from the Final Fantasy series.
The skin Dark Star Cho'Gath was made in collaboration with a critically ill League of Legends player named Bryan, who met Riot Games through a partnership with the non-profit charity the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Bryan wished to "meet the creators of Riot Games, and make a skin with them." Dark Star Cho'Gath was chosen between three skin designs and inspired by Bryan's love of outer space. The skin's theme music is based on a clarinet performance from Bryan. All profits collected from the skin until July 20, 2018 were donated to various non-profit organizations around the world.
According to leaked development files from The Simpsons: Hit & Run, Sideshow Bob and Poochie were originally planned to appear in the game. There is an unused low-polygon model for Poochie that is pre-posed, meaning that it was likely supposed to appear as merchandise of the character (most likely alongside Itchy and Scratchy's balloons in Level 2), rather than appearing in an Itchy & Scratchy cartoon cutscene. No models for Sideshow Bob are known to exist.
In the ending cutscene of New Super Mario Bros. 2, the Koopalings carry Bowser by the tail after his defeat while Mario and Peach run home. Due to the strain that rendering a large character like Bowser alongside the models of 9 other characters and a vehicle could cause on the 3DS hardware, Bowser does not use his regular model used in the rest of the game, but rather a set of flat pre-rendered graphics tilted to appear 3D.
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl's files have a set of unused placeholder models, all in a significantly more realistic style than the game and not based on any Nickelodeon IPs, comprised of a female pirate model from Adobe's Mixamo service; pirate, military, and ninja-themed props and weapons with unknown sources; and a "dangerous pumpkin" taken from a Unity asset store pack, which also has a leftover UI graphic alongside multiple other asset store props.
Jellyfish Fields, Harmonic Convergence, and Duck, Duck, Pie! all have unused early level geometry. These are all loaded in when the final stages are played and are simply hidden from view. Harmonic Convergence is very close to its final form; Jellyfish Fields lacks textures, but it can be seen that it has the sign on the base platform instead of the background; Duck, Duck, Pie! was originally a completely different style of pie that has its filling visible, which was likely changed to prevent depth perception issues.
In a rough time span from 1987 to 1988, a commercial for the Nintendo Entertainment System - often colloquially referred to as either "Scary Nintendo Commercial" or "We Are Nintendo, You Cannot Beat Us" - was aired on Australian television by Mattel, the region's Nintendo distributor at the time. The commercial featured primitive CGI renditions of antagonists from different NES games (Smick from Gyromite, Bowser and Lakitu from Super Mario Bros., and the laughing scent hound from Duck Hunt, lead by an original character resembling Max Headroom, a dystopian TV character who was being used to market Coca-Cola at the time) mocking the viewer with the phrase "you cannot beat us", set to the ominous castle music from Super Mario Bros. 
There is an unused model of the Statue of David by Michelangelo in Squidward's prop set. This was likely intended for his air down strong, where he slams down with a block of marble, referencing the SpongeBob episode "Artist Unknown", where SpongeBob makes the same statue by accident. The model has a clam on its groin as censorship, just like in the original episode, but does not have the nose Squidward places on it.
The texture for Goro Majima’s jacket in Yakuza 3 is of noticeably poorer quality from his appearence in other games. This has even lead to a mod being made which replaces his jacket in Yakuza 3 Remastered for PC with a model more close to his jacket in Yakuza 4 Remastered.
