A Look at #HelloKittyCon / Me & Hello Kitty - Celebrating #HelloKitty40

Truthfully, I cannot remember my first ever Hello Kitty purchase. What I do remember, and always will is; doing the television commercial for the very first run of Hello Kitty plushes from McDonald's in Singapore (2000's "Wedding" Series, yes the first time Singaporeans "riot" over Hello Kitty plushes lol).

I do not necessarily remember any purchases of the mouthless kitty icon before, but once the studio production of the TVC ended, I distinctly remembered I had wanted to collect the plushes for myself! Pretty surprising, I thought, as I did not have what you would call a "spectacular" memory of the production itself LOL

Nevertheless, I completed the series, and had irregularly purchased Help Kitty toy and collectibles through the years, not as "hardcore" as some folks I know and know off, but perhaps enough to raise an eyebrow or two amongst the uninitiated LOL


(A portion of my collection, including the Tokidoki promotion figures with 7-11 Hong Kong)
I grapple for a reason as to "WHY" I collect HK. Besides the minimalist nature of the clean cut designs, there is also the comfort of the non-aggressive nature of the character. A "safe" purchase. A "safe" character than will not challenge you, nor does it need to taunt you to buy more of it's brethren (if that makes sense to any collectors out there hahaha).

And at the same time, because of it's deceptively simple design, it can also be adapted into numerous incarnations, without the fear of loosing it's iconic stature, topped with a ribbon bow on the head! Like the glories of the recent exhibition @ JANM, and numerous other shows before that, like Three Apples - celebrating 35 years of Hello Kitty! Ah but for the glories of mass appeal! Shown below are images of the first ever Hello Kitty Con held in the U.S. in LA over the weekend!

And will we in Singapore ever see an event as such? (Apologies if I had missed any tho :p). Do not underestimate the passion of Singaporeans have for Hello Kitty, people! LOL



(#HelloKittyCon Opening Images from @shakybacon & @simonelegno)

WHO-IS: "Hello Kitty (ハローキティ Harōkiti) full name Kitty White (キティ・ホワイト Kiti howaito) is a fictional character produced by the Japanese company Sanrio, created by Yuko Shimizu and currently designed by Yuko Yamaguchi. She is depicted as an anthropomorphic white Japanese bobtail cat with a red bow.

The character's first appearance on an item, a vinyl coin purse, was introduced in Japan in 1974 and brought to the United States in 1976. The character is a staple of the kawaii segment of Japanese popular culture. By 2010, Sanrio had groomed Hello Kitty into a global marketing phenomenon worth $5 billion a year. By 2014, when Hello Kitty was 40 years old, it was worth $7 billion a year, all without any advertising." (Wikipedia)

(#HelloKittyCon images from Martin Hsu)
A character that has been created and spawned a legion of products, from stationary, to apparel, to lifestyle and household products, and of course "toys", of which I have casually hoarded through the years, from keychain figures, to plush, from flea market finds, to overseas purchases .. all the while missing out on the art toy genre purchases I so dearly desire / had desired - from Medicom Toys x Dr Romanelli editions, to Balzac Kitties and Secret Base x Balzac Kitties, to even Kidrobot releases - perhaps it has to do with monetary reasons, as most times I am a casual hobbyist rather than a passionate collector of the genre, who admittedly do not necessarily accept the elevated prices of what I consider to be part of the mass market appeal of the character, which seems ironic enough that I run a toy-blog hyping the culture of art toys. But then again, I certainly do understand the necessity of the prevailing "toy-game", and I would gladly partake of Dehara's or if Joseph Senior's designs ever get made LOL


(#HelloKittyCon images from Martin Hsu)

Anyone in this pop culture-saturated commercialized modern world cannot deny that the Hello Kitty character that has since transcended geographical and cultural barriers, and has cut across the parameters of pop culture and language, and constantly taunts and tickles the fickle popularity and recognizability from the general public - fans and naysayers alike.

And mind you, Hello Kitty is also a product that transcends gender, and is no longer what folks might think of as a "girls' toy" only.


Casually googling the words "hello kitty toysrevil" brought me to PINK Colorway Hello Kitty Kaiju by Max Toy Co at #HelloKittyCon (I#iWANT) tokidoki x Hello Kitty Boxer, Singapore McDonald's Bubbly World plush and the most recent collectibles from Mighty Eight … can we / can I myself get enough of Hello Kitty mania? Spotting this image of new tokidoki x Hello Kitty FRENZIES keychain charm to come, certainly had my attention! No, there never will be enough of the Kitty, would it? :)


I started this article trying to remember "my first purchase", as the instinctive notion is a "commercial" one, but in reality, it is the emotional connection which ultimately stayed in my mind (ala my experience making the TVC), and that perhaps is the reason for the allure of the Kitty character, that remained with me through my adult life, rather than growing up with it from childhood.

Cheers
Andy TOYSREVIL

P/S: CLICK HERE to view all coverage of Hello Kitty on TOYSRVIL, and as well my first ever tagged/labeled post was tokidoki x hello kitty in 2008!