KK Reviews: Mimobots

 

Mimobots, the flagship goods made by Mimoco, are a perfect blend of designer toys and consumer electronics. I've been a big fan of these super fun removable USB flash drives for years, and I'm thrilled to have a chance to review several of the latest bots here.

For this shoot, I wanted to do something special. One of the common features of Japanese life is the presence of stone statues. You can find stone cats, squirrels, frogs, and other animals in front of houses and stores - on walls, pedestals, landings, and windowsills. Though inanimate, these still objects represent the animus (spirit) present in all things.

Japanese folklore is full of tales of yokai - spirit animals like kappa and tanuki usually out of sight, but still coexisting with the rest of us. Mimobots themselves are often based on characters from cartoons or comics, or based on designs from artists, or even miniature representations of well-known people. As such, the object is representative of something beyond its immediate form. And, based on the data you add to the drive, it can possess an infinite variety of content - your songs, your photos, your files.

So I thought it would be fitting to shoot the Mimobots with some everyday, and some very famous, streetside statues. Along the way, I'll talk about different aspects of the drives.

Let's start with a Bruce Lee Mimobot:

Bruce Lee is part of the Legends series, which also includes Albert Einstein Mimobots. On the well-designed packaging, you can see a sticker indicating this is an 8GB flash drive. You can buy Mimobots in a range of sizes, as small as 4GB and as large as 64GB.

Here's Bruce in front of a stone creature perched innocuously in front of a house. Like other Mimobots, Bruce stands at 2 3/8" (60 mm) tall. The size is perfect for tossing in your bag or carrying in your pocket.

 More after the jump:

Mimobot POP display at Loft Shibuya

I've been a big Mimobot fan for years. The company makes USB flash drives designed as different characters from both indie + uber famous toy lines, movies, comics, etc ranging from Tokidoki to Star Wars to Bruce Lee. The drives also contain multimedia files based on the properties, such as sound files, wallpaper, etc.

In my experience, they're not only fun to use for removable storage, but I've also found them to be long-lasting and reliable, as the flash memory chips are encased in rock solid Mimobot bodies.

I've got to tip my hat to the Boston-based company for pushing forward over the years, working with tons of different companies to license their characters, and getting their products into large and small shows and shops in different countries. They've got a brilliant marketing team. For example...

At the 2010 Taipei Toy Festival:

 At the 2012 SDCC:

At Tokyo's Tokyo:

 

Back to the future - the other day, I spotted a glorious Mimobot POP display at the Loft department store in Shibuya. Here are some pics followed by a couple of videos:

 More after the jump:

2010 TTF Mimobot preview

I'm always excited to see what the good folks at Mimobot will bring to the Taipei Toy Festival. These guys make THE BEST USB flash drives I've ever used.

Not only are they flat out awesome drives (super sturdy and reliable + fast transfer rate) but they make data transfer fun (how often can you say that LOL) and are awesome conversation starters. Plus they come bundled with cool multimedia content.

Over the last couple of years, the Mimobot masters have put out some of the best Star Wars related merchandise since Amanaman reared his bespeckled yellow head in 1985 (geek out!). Here's what they're bringing to this year's TTF:



Han and Luke Stormie reveal!!