Now, we know that not all technology may be good, and there are plenty of stories out there, be they movies or novels, of technology run amok. But you have to admit there are times when you just have to love technology, like when it comes in a cute, pop form that allows you to carry around large amounts of data in style. Yes, readers,we present to you these adorable Mimobot and Sanrio collaborative flash drives from Mimoco — they’re currently generating a bit of a buzz on online here in Japan, and we dare anyone out there to say that the results of the collaboration aren’t über cute!
Mimoco, an American design house based in Boston that has been producing attractive gadgets that combine pop art with technology for nearly 10 years now, created this particular line of Mimobot flash drives as a joint project to commemorate Sanrio’s 50th anniversary back in 2010.
▼This is the Hello Kitty Classic Mimobot flash drive. The long design of her usually round face gives Hello Kitty a n amusing yet endearing look, doesn’t it?
Well, it turns out there’s a reason why this Hello Kitty Classic version of the flash drive in particular, has recently been attracting the interest of Japanese net users. It has come to the attention of Japanese netizens that this version of Hello Kitty, because of her elongated face, looks like the main character from a popular Japanese manga, Cooking Papa.
▼Here’s a cover illustration of Cooking Papa. What do you think? See the resemblance?
Yes, that’s apparently the reason why there have been a lot of tweets lately in Japan featuring this Mimobot Kitty flash drive. Despite the fact that the product has been around for some time now, it seems that the Japanese public has only recently become widely aware of the uniquely designed Hello Kitty gadget and its resemblance to a familiar manga figure.
▼Of course, Hello Kitty’s sweet friends were also turned into cute little flash drives for Sanrio’s 50th anniversary, and they too have been admired online along with the Hello Kitty Classic version! Here’s My Melody, the hooded girl rabbit.
▼We also have Hangyodon, a half-fish and half-human creature.
▼Here’s Tuxedo Sam, the bow tie-sporting penguin.
▼This is Chococat as a flash drive, but we already knew cats are cute whatever they form they come in, didn’t we?
▼And last but not least, there’s also Badtz-Maru, the penguin with an attitude.
Now, these Hello Kitty Mimobots below are technically not a part of the anniversary collaboration between Sanrio and Mimoco, but they looked so cool, we’re sharing them with you anyway!
▼This is the Hello Kitty Nerd Kitty Mimobot. So this is what the most popular cat in the world looks like dressed up as a nerd!
▼And there’s also a series of Mimobots of Hello Kitty “cosplaying” as nine different animals. Now, if that isn’t cute, we don’t know what is. Wouldn’t you just hate to have to choose just one of them?
The Mimobots are priced between US$19.99 and $69.99, depending on the flash drive’s memory capacity. Unfortunately, because these have been on sale for a few years now, some of them are now sold out on the Mimoco website, including the Hello Kitty Classic, My Melody and Hangyodon Mimobots, as well as two of the animal Hello Kitty Mimobots, but there are still plenty of adorable Sanrio flash drives you can get your hands on, so be sure to check out their site if like us, you find these tiny gadgets utterly irresistible!
Source: Mimoco website, Spo New Soku blog (Japanese), IT Media (Japanese)
Top image: Mimobot Facebook page
Inset image of Cooking Papa book: Amazon JP
All other images: Mimoco webiste