The universe’s cutest Star Warrior, and star of Nintendo games, Kirby uses his Copy Ability to become huggable…that or it’s an adorably soft toy.

Think of the great heroes, the characters who can save the world or universe from the clutches of evil. Blessed with great intelligence, skill and usually a side-helping of muscle upon muscle. Only very rarely is a hero near spherically rotund, huggably soft, and a pastel shade of pink. A niche that Kirby, the eponymous non-human hero of the anime Kirby: Right Back at Ya! and Nintendo games, fills out quite well.

Now you too can own your own Kirby, with a massively impractical 60-centimeter (24-inch) diameter soft toy (three times his real-life size according to Super Smash Bros.) to fill out your room and keep you safe from Night Mare Enterprises. In fact, it is single-handedly the most Kirby we’ve seen in one room since… errr… last year at the Kirby merchandise launch party in Harajuku.

▼ While the Star Warrior may be no Flash Gordon, he’ll save every one of us (in a comically non-threatening manner).

Sitting alongside an admittedly fairly diminutive model, we can see how big Kirby is in soft toy form, as the two join each other for a cake break. Presumably the poor model needed a sit-down and to stock up on some calories after carrying him around, as the toy (from merchandiser Bandai) weighs a hefty 5.5 kilograms (12.1 pounds).

If the prospect of a giant marshmallow-like cuddly toy isn’t quite tempting enough, Bandai have thrown in something else to sweeten the deal, literally, with a set of six scrumptious-looking manju cakes. With the sweet bean-paste filling and two different decorative designs, snaffling them down would soon have us resembling the hero himself.

The new Kirby soft toy and manju cake set went on sale here on the Premium Bandai website (which, bizarrely, suggests that owners be aged 15 or older – is there something the photos aren’t telling us?) on February 8, and has a price tag as big as its waistline; it costs 15,400 yen (US$142).

Whether or not this soft toy ends up taking space in the office alongside our giant panda (the real star of our invisible box challenge video) there’s something else to remember about him. Kirby isn’t just a saviour, he’s a welcome reminder that even puffy-faced, non-threatening pink blobs with an over-fondness for manju and strawberry shortcakes can be heroes, too. That makes me feel better anyway.

Source: Premium Bandai via @Press
Top image: @Press
Insert images: Premium Bandai
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