Matching Designer Collectibles with LOONA: CHUU

THE PLAN: I have been thinking of doing this for some time now. Initially I had wanted go start a "sketch challenge", using "March of Robots" as a starting point, but "lack of doodling skills" elude me, so ... Instead what I now hope to do, as had been my initial intention - is to match and recommend a collectible toy to members of South Korean girl group "LOONA" - using their dedicated animal(s) as a guide.

I had planned to start with HeeJin (in tandem with my feature on Tunes Talk), but have decided to start with Chuu, in honour of her appearance and reveal as "Spring Girl" in South Korea's reality singing program "Masked Singer" over the weekend!

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🍓 여러분 #츄 예용💕 깜짝 놀랐죠?! 따뜻해진 날씨와 활짝 핀 꽃들처럼 벌써 봄이 왔네요! 오빛분들께 노래를 들려드리고 싶어서 '봄소녀'로 인사드리게 됐어요! 무엇보다 많은 분들께 저의 노래를 들려드릴 수 있어서 너무 좋았답니다☺ 아쉬움도 있는 무대였지만 정말 의미있는 경험이었고, 스스로 성장할 수 있는 한 걸음을 내딛게 된 것 같아서 너무 행복합니다! 앞으로 좋은 노래 들려드릴 수 있는 기회가 더 많았으면 좋겠고 꾸준히 연습하고 노력하는 봄소녀 '츄'가 될게요👍🏻🌱 오빛들 사랑해요🌻🌈 마스크 꼭 쓰구 다니구 건강 조심하세요💕 ⠀ Hey everyone it’s #Chuu 💕 Did I surprise ya’ll?! It’s spring time already with warm weather! I became ‘Spring Girl’ because I wanted to Orbits to listen to my song! It was my pleasure to sing in front of a lot of people☺ I felt I could have done better but it was meaningful experience, and felt happy because I could feel developing! I hope that I will get to sing more and more to people and I will practice hard to be spring girl ‘Chuu’👍🏻🌱 Orbits, I love you guys🌻🌈 Don’t forget to wear masks and be careful💕 ⠀ #이달의소녀 #LOONA

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WHO-ARE: For the uninitiated (and who have chosen to continue reading this - thank you): "Loona (stylized as LOOΠΔ) is a South Korean girl group formed by Blockberry Creative. Its twelve members were revealed in a periodic fashion, corresponding to their Korean name Idarui Sonyeo (이달의 소녀), which translates to "Girl of the Month"." (Wiki).


INTRODUCING: Chuu is the tenth member of LOONA to be revealed, and debuted on December 14, 2017, and subsequently released her solo single album "Chuu" on December 28, 2017. She is also a member of its third sub-unit, "yyxy".

I had constantly read about her as a "Instagram celebrity", but her IG-account has since been deleted, prior to her reveal as a member of LOONA. I have seen a few images online tho, and music programs have been showcasing archived snaps too!


Chuu is the creator of the "Chuu Heart", also known as "Apple heart" and "Bite heart" that tons of celebs and idols have adopted doing. Chuu is also known to have done Taekwondo for 7 to 8 years and has a 3rd degree black belt. She would be "Kung Fu Penguin", if I had a proper skill with drawing ~ LOL

These are some basic stats (via loonatheworld.fandom.com) which I will eventually replicate in Tunes-Talk, taking note of her ANIMAL and FRUIT - both of whom have been given to her/them by BBC, based on their impressions of the artist(s), and are not necessarily of their own choices or preferences.

Stage Name: Chuu (Hangul: 츄)
Japanese: チュウ (Chuu)
Birth Name: Kim Ji Woo (김지우; 金智雨)
Birth date: October 20, 1999.
Color: Peach (피치색)
Animal: Penguin (펭귄)
Fruit: Strawberry (딸기)

This is how she looks like, with the below-left from her debut circa, 2017, while below-right is from March 2020.


CHOOSING THE TOY: There is not a whole lot of "penguin"-themed collectibles out now - that is not based off a licensed media property, nor a Batman "villain" ... and immediate notion would be a "plush" - so I am giving myself a caveat to NOT recommend a plush lol ... which also meant Friends With You's MALFI is "out" (Pix via depop.com) :p



MY SHORTLISTED COLLECTIBLES:


There are a few Penguin-affiliated iconology, from Pucky's WINTER BABIES, and Dimoo World's DIMOO XMAS ... and while in my toy-loving heart I would nominate THIS figure from South Korean brand Circus Boy Band IF it was painted in a black-n-white Penguin-palette (maybe for Yves' "Swan"? hhmmm :p), I know I would ultimately choose THIS Pucky Xmas figure, because it is my personal favourite - with ironically both the figures shown here belonging to my mum and brother - when I gifted them for Christmas in 2018!


She has mentioned before that contrary to popular perception of her adorable+cutesy persona, her favourite colours are not "pink" nor cutesy tones, but veer toward more vibrant "shocking" colors (in a TMI-seque interview alongside Yves in Behind The Show) ... so my final recommendation might be a tad tricky...


FINAL RECOMMENDATION: My final designer collectible recommendation would be the dedicated Penguin-themed creations of BJD&Toy artist / producer HocA (Insta @panguinlove / Twitter @dollygodnew) - with a PANGORA The Panguin Kaiju! I'd previously featured this North Korea-based designer's CORGI PANGUIN & AURORA WANGGUIN in 2018...!


Reminiscent of a "monster" in the performer known as Chuu (in the BEST way possible), waiting to burst forth with more talents that she has shown us thus far, and devouring all hearts who behold her! Rampaging down a meadow in spring, in search of pizza and tteokbokki ...! Sorry about the pink tho ... at least there's red in the kaiju-horn...? Hoping this'll work for her ... :p

Head to thehnest.com to score yourselves some Penguin-themed cuteness! Now if there was a "strawberry" on the baby 'guin's head, that would be perfect!



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