Okay, first, I’ll say this: Whoa. You will understand, as I explain what this is.

This is a Hello Kitty Maneki Neko. If you aren’t familiar with the term, maybe this image will help:

Aha. Well, here’s the description of the Maneki Neko from Wiki:

The Maneki Neko (招き猫, literally “Beckoning Cat”; also known as Welcoming Cat, Lucky Cat, Money cat, Fortune Cat) is a common Japanese porcelain or ceramic, which is believed to bring good luck to the owner. The sculpture depicts a cat beckoning with an upright paw, and is usually displayed in stores, restaurants, pachinko parlors, and other businesses. A raised right paw supposedly attracts money, while a raised left paw attracts customers.

I see this a lot here, especially in ChiTown, and honestly I didn’t know it was a Japanese thing till reading that article on Wiki >_< I’d always thought it to be Chinese hmm… Anyways moving on

That huge Hello Kitty figure up there is part of the “Hello Kitty Selection” event at Mitsukoshi Department Store in Tokyo. It’s a Hello Kitty doll, the centerpiece of the event, and it has 62,000 Swarovski Crystals. Yes, 62,000. And it costs a whopping 8M Yen or over 66,000 USD. Ouch. I’m not sure how big she is, but judging from the kid in the picture, I’d say she’s pretty big.

The event features 800 unique Hello Kitty products. I’ll most probably be featuring some of the others here, stay tuned~

Technorati tags: hello kitty, maneki neko, fortune cat, lucky, beckoning, japan, swarovski, mitsukoshi, tokyo

OF ULTIMATE CUTENESS! Oh my goodness!! Okay I need to breathe. Breathe in. Breathe out… WAH. What are these they’re so cute hahaha~ Nyaaaa~!

Okay erhm. Plush Capsules T_T In a previous post, I wrote and featured about gashapon, and now consider this part 2 of that. These are indeed gashapon toys, BUT they’re at least a million times more fun, coz they’re tiny plush toys! Hahaha. Those things must be no bigger than 2.5 inches in diameter, awww. Poke the round plushies heeheehee. I’m sorry but they’re just so silly-looking, in a fun way, and I want them so badly.

It’s actually from McDonalds, as you’ll see in the above pic, but only in Hong Kong, as far as I know. I’m not sure how this was distributed in McDonalds, probably one of those minimum-purchase-required thingies, but this is so cool coz it really is a gashapon machine. You turn the yellow knob and then a random capsule toy will fall out. Waaah.

While there’s some of this up on eBay, it’s a little too pricey for me T_T It’s one of those “mind is willing but wallet is weak” kinda things haha. Bidding starts at US$30, and shipping is US$20. Ouch. But for 14 super squishy, super pokeable plush toys (12 KT and Friends + 2 Special Edition), I highly recommend this moohaha~ Somebody please buy this and take a picture of one being poked. LOL.

Technorati tags: gashapon, plush, mcdonalds, mckitty, hello kitty, capsule, toy

We’re under attack by 8-bit invaders! Aaah! But wait! Who’s this? Riding on a red spaceship? Could she be the one? Earth’s final defense?

(image from StrapYa)

Haha pardon the cheesy intro If the little white thingy beside our funny-looking Hello Kitty seems familiar, then I salute you! Space Invaders is one of the real classics in arcade and video games, created by the game developer Taito way back in 1978. If it still isn’t familiar, maybe this will help:

And now you see the little white critter among fellow aliens, on the second and third rows from the top. Haha~ Oh man, this brings so many childhood memories LOL. This has got to be one of the most influential games of all time.

Anyways this is yet another cellphone charm, costs US$ I seriously didn’t expect this crossover from Sanrio haha, but it’s cute. Hello Kitty has never looked so…pixelated. Moohaha~

Oh oh, also, Belated Happy Birthday to one of my readers (whose blog I also love visiting) … angelchao! Hurray! Hope you had a great one!

Technorati tags: space invaders, taito, atari, arcade, hello kitty

This is apparently a very rare design, and it’s a fresh new look for Hello Kitty. Just like my old post where KT was not the normal white kitty, this time she’s turned into a calico cat~

As the title says, this is supposedly a robot, a wind-up robot to be exact. Hmm I’m not sure how it works, but she has a big key behind her. I don’t know if she’s battery-powered or literally a wind-up toy. As for height, she’s 18 cm tall.

(pic from eBay)

This model was available exclusively in the Japan Amusement Game Center as a prize item, but it’s apparently authentic. It’s so cute, I think this look suits Kitty. But of course I still like the original haha. It’s being sold for USD 18.99, so if any of you are interested, you can check it out~

Technorati tags: calico, cat, wind-up, robot, hello kitty, plush, plushie

This is gold right here:

ROFL!!! I like the manly man doll in the pic, I can almost imagine him saying “What? My wife likes them, okay?” Hahaha. I know of a certain anti-hello kitty blog that should get a kick out of this (evil laugh). Credit where credit is very much due, the image is from koalajoe (apparently a very dedicated doll collector/maker).

Those cute miniatures are from the Hello Kitty Gashapon set heehee. For those who are unfamiliar with gashapon, it comes from the words “gacha” (Japanese sound effect for those machines you crank) and “pon” (sound effect for when the toy comes out. They’re also called capsule toys, coz basically they’re toys in little capsules that you get out of machines. Sort of like those candy machines, but these are definitely more expensive than what you get out of those. Aww I wish I could find a Hello Kitty or Sanrio gashapon machine here…

Technorati tags: hello kitty, gashapon, mastercard, toy, doll, koalajoe

I found this on the Sanriotown main blog, and you probably have already seen this, but I just wanna share it anyways~

Hahaha fun! Hello Kitty as the Hong Kong MTR personnel. Let’s see… there’s the train operator, assistant fire & security supervisor, infrastructure maintenance officer, rolling stock maintenance officer, station assistant, and the group station manager. I’m not sure about the order, if that’s the order in the picture, I’ve never been on the Hong Kong MTR so I wouldn’t know what their uniforms are like.

There’s also a video on Dream Studio about some program when they launched this promo. If I’m not mistaken, this is something to get people familiar with the MTR personnel, I think it’s brilliant, especially for younger people I think this is the first time I’ve seen Hello Kitty in a uniform like that, complete with cap! And they look pretty well-made too~

You can read the full article on the Sanriotown Blog.

Also, just sharing… I got featured on the main Sanrio Town blog, Blog of the Week! YAAAAY~~!!

Hurray hurray! Thanks so much Sanriotown, I feel so honored haha~ A lot of people seem to like this mushroom Silly thing. <3

This is an old promo ad from 7-Eleven (which coincidentally was yesterday’s date harhar~) in Taiwan. I’m not really sure where else this is available, but I found a Japanese online site that sells it.

The words on the label (bottle to the left) read BEAUJOLAIS VILLAGES NOUVEAUS - Appellation Beaujolais Contrôlée. I read the pronunciation but I’m sure I’ll mess it up if I try, but I can at least give you what it means. From the ever-faithful Wikipedia:

Beaujolais nouveau is a wine of the Gamay variety produced in the Beaujolais (AOC) region of France that is authorized for immediate sale after fermentation. It is the most popular vin de primeur, a wine harvested in fall and sold before spring (much sooner than it could be produced through normal fermentation).

And the second term is the Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (or AOC, also found in the Wiki excerpt), which is basically a quality-control thing that they give before approving labels. They also say that “Beaujolais nouveaus are light, fruity red wines which are very easy to drink.”

Whew! That was a lot of research. Well, not really, but it got kinda confusing. I wonder how this would taste.. I’m pretty sure it’s good though. Hello Kitty wine glasses please~

Technorati tags: hello kitty, wine, beaujolais, france, 7-eleven

I stumbled upon a blog called Hotzone, and lookie what I found! A tiny grand piano released by Sega Toys~ I absolutely love the design on this! I imagine a beautiful girl sitting and playing beautiful music on it. Except that…it’s not possible. The piano is only 18 cm high and 25 cm wide, and although the tiny ivory keys (0.4 cm each) can really be played, you’d have to have freakishly small hands to do that. Haha. Well if you don’t wanna start poking the keys with a pen or something, you can also have it play any of 100 built-in jazz and classical tones.

Anyways, this’ll be out on October I believe, selling for ¥68,250 (about $554). I wanna at least hear how this sounds~

Technorati tags: hello kitty, piano, music, sega toys

I have the key to my work cabinet strapped to my celphone, but since finding this, I feel so…incomplete…

They’re Hello Kitty key caps, where you can put your keys for safe keeping. A very stylish way to keep your keys safe and to make sure you don’t leave them at home. I like how well-made they are, but then again I should expect no less from StrapYa. It comes in other designs too, lookie~

Prices range from US$4 to just under US$8, depending on the design. As you’ll see in the pictures, they actually have lights when you squeeze them. See, the genius of this is that they don’t just look like keys, they really look good. I want so badly. I especially like that they used pink and black, I really love that combination.

You can check out more about these key caps through the StrapYa site. This one I honestly think is practical. In a stylish way. Wait, did I contradict myself? I mean, if you’re gonna get a key cap, make it a Hello Kitty one. LOL

Technorati tags: StrapYa, strap, key, keychain, key cap, hello kitty