Vancouver Olympics Shopping Report: Store #1

Hong Kong Disneyland Frame
Originally uploaded by tikistitch

So, Mr. Tikistitch (our ace Stitch spotter) and myself were basically bobbling along the main drag of Vancouver's awesomtacular Chinatown district. A lot of the shops there (as, basically it seemed, EVERYWHERE in the city) had been turned over to the purveyance of Olympic memorabilia, but that did not dissuade. Finally, we wandered by a shop that seemed to contain the requisite threshold of kawaii, so, we ventured in.

This Stitch bobblehead frame was one of the first items we spotted. I was double chuffed to see the Hong Kong Disneyland logo - though I long ago gave up any hope of being a Stitch completist, I do like to pick up Disney park toys of any stripe, and Hong Kong Disney items are often the most elusive. Best of all, if you'll notice the multiple price stickers, nearly everything in this shop had been discounted a number of times.




This dealer had a couple of other interesting items, all on sale. The pencil box set is something I've seen many iterations of. The little Stitch riding the surfboard is a jewelry holder. Not sure why the Japanese think a genetic mutation who likes to eat left shoes would be a fine guardian of family heirlooms, but there ya go.



Here's my favorite piece: it appears to be a ceramic knick knack box, but the markings are from Tokyo Disney Resort. Not sure how a retailer in downtown Vancouver is reselling Disney park exclusives but these were pretty keen finds, and at fairly decent prices, even considering how weak the dollar has been against the Canadian dollar. (Yeah, they use a different currency up in Canada. It's like a whole different country!!!)

To be continued....

Going for the Gold

Vancouver Olympic Mascots
Originally uploaded by tikistitch

So, you may be asking, Why the picture of the ultra-cute Vancouver Olympic mascots, Tiiiiikiiiiiiiiiii???? You said this blog was gonna be ALL STITCH ALL THE TIME, with none of those needless digressions about Jedi underpants and stuff like that there....

Well, listen closely, my young padawan learner, of the tale I shall tell. First off, these Olympic mascots have names, respectively, they are Muk Muk, Quatchi (who does not like to be confused with a Yeti) and Miga. AND Muk Muk, as it turns out, is not an Olympic mascot at all, but rather an OLYMPIC MASCOT SIDEKICK. Because, celebrity being what it is nowadays, evidently even Olympic mascots don't go anywhere without their posse.

We picked up these impossibly cute little spuds this weekend, in Vancouver, where we were, in fact, attending a number of Olympic events. AND HERE THE TALE TAKES A TURN! For the first event was a hockey match, where, in a vivid recall of the events of 1968, some Czech players were enjoying a peaceful early springtime until being overpowered by a bunch of Russians. But! Whilst on our somewhat circuitous route to the entrance of aforesaid Canada Hockey Place (yes, that's really what they called it. like "Canada Airport," only no joke), we wandered through a neighborhood where we noticed the signage sported quite a lot of kanji. Now, class, what does it mean when you are in The Land of Canada and you see signs translated NOT into Quebecois French but Chinese? EITHER ONE OF TWO THINGS: you have entered a casino parking lot, OR you are approaching CHINATOWN.

As it happened, it was the latter. And Chinatown means KEWL STUFF DUDE. So, we immediately proposed to Mr. Tikistitch a quick canvass of the surrounding neighborhood, once we'd finished witnessing a few peace-loving Eastern Europeans being battered into submission by a gang of former Soviets wielding hockey sticks.

To be continued....

Stitch Static Electricity Remover

Stitch Static Electricity Remover
Originally uploaded by tikistitch

You've had this happen: walk across the carpet on a dry winter morning, grab a doorknob and ZAP!

But it doesn't have to happen!

Not if you live in Japan.

And you buy THIS!

Better than expected

Mickey & Stitch Subaru Promotional Dish Set
Originally uploaded by tikistitch

Posted this to Flickr a couple days back and then kinda got busy and forgot to make note of it. What it is, it's basically some kind of promotional dish set from the Japanese car maker, Subaru, that features Mickey Mouse and Stitch, who's (for some reason) dressed up in a cow outfit.

One of the exciting things for a foreigner with little grasp of English bidding on Yahoo Japan auctions is that you never quite know what to expect. To be clear, I've only very rarely been disappointed (with far less frequency than when buying thing on, say, eBay), but between the sometimes minimally useful translation programs and the tendency of Yahoo J sellers to keep descriptions to a Zen-like minimum ("Kindly do not ask for a return, as it will disappoint our ancestors"), YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU GONNA GET.

In this case, I can recall no mention that this set was actually nice, heavy ceramic dishes (I had expected some kind of crappy plastic, which is what you'd probably get if this was an American car company). It's got big and small plates of Stitch and Mickey, plus some tea cups.



I'm not quite sure what this promotion is about, or how long it's lasted, but I'll try and root around for some more Stitch subaru items I've picked up - there's been a lot of stuff.

UPDATE: Found a couple more things: a Subaru Stitch mousepad, and a kite with cow Stitch. The kite is from last year, and it's fairly awesome. If I were a kid, I would totally make my parents buy and Impreza to get a kite like that!

MindStyle Stitch Mini Figures

MindStyle Stitch Mini Figures announcement
Originally uploaded by tikistitch

All I know about it is the announcement here on the MindStyle blog. They're gonna be blind boxed (oh, joy).

Stitch! character model sheet portfolio

Stitch! character design portfolio
Originally uploaded by tikistitch

This is probably one of my favorite new acquisitions: it's a portfolio of character model sheets for the new Stitch! anime. Basically, as animation is the work of many, many hands, they pass these out to all the animators so the characters will have a consistent look from scene to scene. If you like to do Stitch fan art, these would probably be useful to take a gander at. Me, I just like looking at all the Stitch faces.

Oh, one funny thing: the tops of the sheets list whether it's from Disney or Madhouse (the Japanese studio which produces the cartoons). But, some of the Disney ones say "Desney" on the top. I think I have a photo of it - weird that nobody caught that!

Holographic Emperor Stitch

Holographic Emperor Stitch
Originally uploaded by tikistitch

Via Endor Express, guess I should post this so people will stop feeling obligated to mail me the link.

To be releasedin May, during Star Wars weekends, looks like it's gonna be severely limited, scalpers-only kinda figure, yay. (I don't really specialize in figures, so I find all the rigamarole involved in collecting something like this to be an unnecessary annoyance.)