Tag Archives: rilakkuma

Rilakkuma Lifestyle Tervis tumblers!

Knowing how much I love Rilakkuma, my parents got my sister and I these Rilakkuma Lifestyle themed tumblers from Tervis for Christmas!

Tervises are really durable tumblers that maintain temperature really well – and they don’t leave rings for a happy, coaster-free living. Also, they’re pretty much indestructible.

My mom used Tervis’ customize option where you can send them a picture, and they’ll stick it in a Tervis for a cute, personalized gift hahaha. And sadly, as much as I rave about Tervis in person and online, I’m not actually affiliated with them… but I wish.

I use my new Rilakkuma Lifestyle Tervis for hot tea almost every day now – though how fitting would it be if it were specifically Enherb Rilakkuma tea?

Sapporo 1st Anniversary Rilakkuma!

I guess the holiday season means getting through my wishlist!

Simon bought me a new addition to my poncho-riffic Rilakkuma collection: Sapporo 1st Anniversary Rilakkuma!

This plushie was released as a Sapporo Rilakkuma store exclusive to celebrate the branch’s 1 year anniversary – congrats to them!

Sapporo 1st Anniversary Rilakkuma - full body shot

Welcome to the family!

Sapporo 1st Anniversary Rilakkuma - back view

Happy birthday celebration message on the back!

Sapporo 1st Anniversary Rilakkuma - front hood detail

Love the mint leaf detail and fuzzy trim!

Ever since his release in September, I’ve always had my eye on him: he was actually the first plushie on my wishlist! I hope they make more ice cream Rilakkumas in the years to come.

On an unrelated note: I’ve created a twitter account that will post updates on this WP blog and the tumblr, in addition to random Rilakkuma links and updates. Follow me @KumaLifestyle! Apparently @RilakkumaLifestyle is 2 too many characters lol.

Anyway, now that family is coming in for the holidays, I’ll probably take a bit of a hiatus to spend time with them. Happy holidays!

Rilakkuma on Facebook!

As of yesterday, 12/12/12, Rilakkuma officially has his own Facebook page!

To commemorate this occasion, they’re giving away 100 souvenir towels in the new year with a special Rilakkuma 10th anniversary design that won’t be sold anywhere else! Only for Japanese addresses though :( but still adorable!

Facebook - Rilakkuma Towel GIveaway

Not sure what the special design specifically will entail, but here’s the promo pic! Rilakkuma got stuck!

Keeping track of where Rilakkuma will appear in the San-X internet universe is quite the adventure:

  • This new Rilakkuma Facebook page has up-to-date Rilakkuma news, but it’s all in Japanese. It’s a little hard to tell at this point since the Facebook page is only a day old, but it looks like it follows the San-X Rilakkuma blog pretty closely, and in a timely manner.
  • The San-X Facebook page posts general news about San-X characters, and it’s all in English. Historically, it’s had a ton of Rilakkuma content; not sure how much that’ll change with the new Japanese Rilakkuma-only page. Also, news is generally delayed a few days and vaguely distilled from the general San-X blog on their website. The English is a ton of help though.
  • The San-X Net Shop Facebook page updates slightly more often than the Net Shop blog – also in Japanese. Their Facebook page came out recently, too (October 18).

They all hold different giveaways, and there’s really not as much overlap in news as you would expect.

What this means is Rilakkuma content on a different platform! What this means for me specifically is more hours looking at Rilakkuma content, for better or for worse (leaning towards the former haha).

Mushroom Rilakkuma & Squirrel Korilakkuma!

New arrivals: Mushroom Rilakkuma and Squirrel Korilakkuma! This set was a San-X Net Shop exclusive from October-November 2010, as a special release from the Forest Series.

Mushroom Rilakkuma - front view

Hello Mushroom Rilakkuma!

Mushroom Rilakkuma - side view

I think Simon’s planning on planting him a flowerpot haha.

One of my favorite aspects of this release is that the San-X Net Shop manager came out with a series of really silly blog posts/photos featuring the Mushroom Rilakkuma: waiting for the elevator, appearing from behind a table, chilling on a staircase, and being used as an arm rest. I guess the San-X employees love him a lot too!

Squirrel Korilakkuma - front view

Hello Squirrel Korilakkuma!

Squirrel Korilakkuma - side view

These photos doesn’t do her justice – her squirrel suit is so soft!

They are both pretty huge: Mushroom Rilakkuma (Shroom Koom? Mushkuma?) is only 24 cm tall, but with a 27 cm diameter, he’s much rounder/wider than everyone else. Squirrel Korilakkuma towers over everyone else at half a meter!

They will be going to Simon – we actually really lucked out on this purchase because we weren’t even looking for this set when the opportunity presented itself! We were just looking into the Misdo plushie, and it turned out that the seller was just liquidating their Rilakkuma stock in general. Wow!

Misdo Rilakkuma!

Hooray! My Misdo Rilakkuma plushie came in yesterday!

He had been on my wishlist since last week (short hunt haha), so I was really excited to finally see him today!

Misdo Rilakkuma - full body shot

Welcome to the family!

Misdo Rilakkuma - logo closeup

Yum!

Misdo Rilakkuma - tag closeup

Tag close-up

Yay! He’s so cute! He stands out a little right now because he’s smaller/sitting down – he’s so special! Love him already :) Thanks, Simon!

Fansclub UFO Catchers!

Ah, the wonderful world of UFO catchers!

A UFO catcher is a kind of claw machine game popular in Japan. Compared to their Western counterparts, UFO catchers generally have 2 prongs instead of 3 or 4. From my experience, in the US, claw machines just have a random assortment of things, but Fansclub took it to another level and stocked their machines with Rilakkuma. Jealous!

These plushies are genuine San-X licensed – they’re just not sold in stores! You have to earn them by mastering the art of UFO catching. They come in different sizes, materials, and designs from the store releases.

However, sometimes, Fansclub and San-X come out with very similar Rilakkuma designs. Take the Marine Series, for example:

Marine Series - Rilakkuma and Korilakkuma

Store release (~22 cm)

Fansclub Marine Series - UFO catcher plushies

Fansclub release (~17-20 cm)

Fansclub Marine Series - UFO catcher plushies XL

Fansclub XL release (~50 cm)

Wow, super similar! But all legitimate :)

One great thing: Fansclub does a hell of a job cataloging their UFO catcher plushies and other prizes. If you have a lot of time on your hands, you can stroll through their entire catalog of prizes, by series name and release date. San-X has been partnered with Fansclub for a long time, so there are hundreds of Rilakkuma UFO catcher plushies out there!

I generally gravitate towards the standard 22 cm plushies, but I love that these Rilakkuma plushies come in so many different designs!

Rilakkuma & Pizza Hut!

This past summer, Rilakkuma went and paired up with Pizza Hut, my favorite pizza chain, for one of the tastiest collaborations of all time.

From July 2012, if you bought a kid’s size crispy pizza, you could get a cute dessert bowl that came in two different designs (Rilakkuma and Korilakkuma). Also, if you were one of the lucky first 200 at each participating restaurant to order, your pizza would come in a special Rilakkuma pizza box!

Pizza Hut - campaign ad

Cute and simple box design!

Pizza Hut - dessert bowl designs

2 dessert bowl designs – Rilakkuma and Korilakkuma!

Sadly, the official images are super tiny, but thankfully, others have posted larger pictures of their prizes here, here, and here.

Also, I was peeking at the Pizza Hut – Japan’s side menu online, and it looks like the dessert bowl campaign might still be on but now, you can also get a Rilakkuma soup bowl with your purchase of soup!

Pizza Hut - soup

Sweet Corn or Minestrone Soup!

I’ll order it all!

Sometimes I think I have the least healthy eating habits ever, but Rilakkuma makes me feel better because it looks like his diet is pretty similar (pizza, donuts, and macarons?).

Maybe I should stop writing posts while I’m hungry; this is starting to turn into a Rilakkuma + food crossover blog hahaha.

Wishlist – Sandwich Rilakkuma! (ACQUIRED!)

I really enjoy browsing old San-X archives, but I always end up wanting more Rilakkuma…

This time, it’s Sandwich Rilakkuma! Sold only at the Tokyo Station (during its 1 year anniversary) and Umeda stores in February 2010, this set was a special edition release as part of the Bon Voyage/Bonjour series – an entire series seemingly dedicated to Rilakkuma’s love of baguettes.

Bon Voyage Series - Sandwich

Rilakkuma and friends go to Paris!

What a big sandwich! Maybe Rilakkuma looks like he’s already eaten too much.

Speaking of sandwiches, apparently the term “sandwich” was coined by John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, who is said to have invented the combination of meat and bread so that he wouldn’t get his hands greasy while playing cribbage! I wonder how he would feel if he saw Rilakkuma feasting on his invention today?

Since this is a limited store-only release from a few years back, I’ll have my work cut out for me when I get around to hunting this one down. I’ve also been eying this Caravan edition from the same series. Maybe I can ask for one of these for my birthday next year?

ETA (9/18/13): Acquired!