There is a lot going on, including a KISS-Hello Kitty cross branding, which shows the kitties where our KISS makeup and just launched across 90 countries.
She came up with a black-and-white Hello Kitty, which was plastered on bags and other teen stuff.
Things got worse by the Toys "R" Us store, where there was competition from a Mickey and Minnie, two Super Marios, a SpongeBob, another Elmo and a sad-looking Hello Kitty.
He should have enough money to play with - provided the Hello Kitty craze does not fade.
As for Hello Kitty, the 25-year-old character may become as durable as Mickey Mouse.
That is why you now see Hello Kitty with a rough crayon-like face line.
In August the Hong Kong-based company launched "Hello Kitty Online, " a mass multiplayer online game focused on creating community within a safe and entertaining environment.
People line up for two hours in Hong Kong to order Kitty-imprinted sandwiches and fish balls at, where else, the Hello Kitty Cafe.
He, and his own son after him, may yet find Hello Kitty an enduring icon to cutedom - and riches.
Disney ( DIS - news - people ) and Sanrio's Hello Kitty.
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"Hello Kitty is a perennial, " says Bangkok-based Dave McCaughan, director of McCann-Erickson Asia-Pacific Consumer Insights.
Wayne Kong Yuk-shan, a branch officer at an Aeon office in the Central business district, says some 100 people, a number of them male, queued every day to apply for the pastel-pink card - and choose their free gift from a selection of Hello Kitty appliances. (These days, the giveaways are Kitty cup noodles and a cushion.) "Hong Kong people are very influenced by Japanese culture, so they like Kitty, " says Kong.
Mr. Horvath: We realized that fans around the world weren't seeing us as a plush-toy company but as a brand like Paul Frank or Hello Kitty.
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In early editions of the March 7 Journal, an op-ed on guns that look like toys mistakenly referred to the Hello Kitty character in that context.
It now enjoys the dubious honor of being the third most knocked-off brand in China, trailing only Disney and Sanrio's Hello Kitty.
Just as players in "World of Warcraft" get together to go on quests and socialize, players in "Hello Kitty Online" can come together on their own missions, play mini-games, or just chat.
These mini-retail sites are crammed with the toys kids love: Lego, Angry Birds, Hello Kitty, and more.
While the last crop of robot dogs looked like squared-off, stylized versions of toy terriers, this new bunch resembles such Sanrio characters as Hello Kitty and Chococat, with big, circular heads reminiscent of cartoon characters.
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