Ever since I was the tiny age of 8, I remember hysterically crying over this huge stuffed animal in the Sanrio store..begging and pleading with my mom to buy me one Hello Kitty stuffed toy. (price $50.00..wtf?)...then over the years followed the gum dispenser, bath towels, mirror cases, and everything DAMN ELSE! This weird obsession with a cat, a frog (keroppi), and dog and twin stars?? I remember trading my Sanrio nik-nacks with my neighborhood buddies and fighting over coloring books!Now, 11 years older and somewhat wiser I currently have a Hello Kitty Toaster in my apartment and absolutely love my Jr. High boy short underwear with the HK icon on the back. Something about this girly, childish cartoon endeared it and made us love it and want everything and anything that had to do with her. Maybe I was brainwashed by my adolescent friends or cousins, but I probably will love HK until I'm an old wrinkled-up lady...here for your obsessive pleasure are a few small facts about the Hello Kitty phenomenon that's had us hooked for 30 years!
Hellooooooo kitty.
Hello Kitty is now a beloved icon in more than 30 countries, and this is the 30th anniversary year of the birth of Kitty.
Copy Cat
Musti
Kitty's design was just a crib from this!!!
This is "Musti" created by the Belgian animator/director Ray Goossens (1924-1998). Musti was started as an animation series on TV in 1968, and its picture books were also published. I read some of that books and loved it in my childhood.
Although it is evident to everybody that Kitty was an imitation of Musti, Sanrio, the publisher of Hello Kitty have not touched on it.
It is said that the total copyright fee for Hello Kitty reaches around 15 billion yen (13.7 million USD) per year, and Sanrio got 23.7 billion yen (21.6 million USD) gross sales in second quarter of 2004. I wonder why they don't feel shady about hiding this fact?
Love Laura
Musti
