2010: The Year of the (Hello) Tiger

As you may or may not already know, 2010 is the year of the tiger, and of course production of goods related to the new year's signature animal is in full swing. So naturally, with Sanrio's propensity toward merchandising everything under the Rising Sun - especially when combining Kitty with culturally relevant items/places that fall under said Rising Sun - there exist Hello Kitty zodiac items.


I went to Strapya World to procure mine for this year, though I already had one from 2003 that I had forgotten about, that I'd purchased from the Sanrio Store in New York City. 2003 was apparently the year of the cow. Seeing Kitty as an anthropomorphic cow is kind of strange the first time around.


The two I'd picked up this time from Strapya were a standard 20cm (around 8 inches) mascot Kitty "dressed" as a tiger, and a chirimen (the same fabric used to make kimonos) charm. The charms were released in all 12 signs at once, however the 8 inch plush Kitty seems only to be the tiger sign all by its lonesome.

These are the usual quality you'd expect from Sanrio: well-crafted, almost no visible seams, top-notch buttons and stitching/embroidering.