Kirby 25th Anniversary Sanei Plush REVIEW!

if you guys haven't heard yet its Kirby's 25th anniversary that's right Kirby's been around for 25 years and over those many years he's made many appearances and his design truly has evolved over time so when news broke that Sanae a company known for making high-quality kirby plushies would be producing plushies for not only the 25th anniversary but plushies that paid tribute to Kirby's previous designs many fans myself included became incredibly excited these plushies were touted to be large high-quality plushies styled after previous designs of Kirby we have a Kirby stout after his appearance in Kirby's Dreamland and one based off of Kirby and Kirby super star the plushies went up for pre-order and I immediately ordered them and shortly after Kirby's actual anniversary date the plushies arrived the two plushies appear to retail for different prices according to sanae's website the dreamland kirby retails for 3600 yen while the superstar kirby retails for three thousand and two hundred yen i got my set off of play Asia who had them for $31.99 and $28.99 respectively that may seem like a lot but trust me it's well worth it let's take a look at them and see just how well they pay tribute to Kirby's 25-year run before we get into the plushies themselves let's talk about what these guys come in if you buy these guys new they'll come in these I know bags so what every plush comes in bags but this time it's important I suppose today knew just how special these plushies were so they went the extra mile and designed special 25th anniversary bags for them to come in actually there's probably a reason for this see these plushies don't come with paper tags as your average plush tends to instead the plushies have pouches attached to them more on those later then being included here most likely made including a tag on them difficult so instead in stores they come in these bags the bags are simple as the block bag however they do have large text reading kirby 25th anniversary along with copyright information for nintendo and how laboratory the bags also have stickers at the top right corner the front sticker has a green striped background with the kirby 26 anniversary logo on top of it along with the same curvy 25th anniversary text used on the bags themselves the sticker on the back of the bags are much less appealing but this is where what would have been on a tag is located just some legal information and there's and a logo basic stuff the stickers and the entire bag are the same for both plushies except for one small detail the copyright date for the two plushies are represented by the two years the games they originate from came out in 1992 for Kirby's Dreamland and 1995 for Kirby super star I know this is legal stuff and I'm pretty sure they had to include this but I still think it's really cool anyway there's only so much you can say about a bag even one is cost this so let's get it opened well there is one thing preventing us from just ripping the bags open and that's this plastic barbed hook right here it's looped around the handle of the bag preventing the bag from opening without you cutting it off makes sense given how in stores these are for sale in the bags so they needed something there to protect them from you know people opening the bags and stealing them but as someone who tries to keep their plushies in as best condition as possible I suppose a part of me wants to keep that attached to keep it super mint ah Who am I kidding let's open it you just cut the hook and then you have access to the plushies inside alright enough about the backstory to these plushies let's actually take a look at them starting with mr. po po po himself dreamland Kirby now out of the two plushies this is the one that got me and a majority of people the most excited because well the superstar Kirby is still very cool this kirby looks much different than the one we know today this kirby is styled after his appearance in the first game of the series kirby's dream land or kirby of the stars SS known in japan you may be thinking hey wait shouldn't kirby be white here well that was only a thing on the International box art for the game as well as this advertisement yeah that one but those of you wanting a kirby plush more faithful to the American design and yes I'm included in that are in luck this in a set isn't the only Kirby plush said coming out for his 25th anniversary so far three sets have been confirmed we have this Sanae set a set made by Banpresto and a set made by SK Japan and yes in the SK Japan set there is a well black and white Kirby but it is said to be based off of Dream Land and while that's probably more based off of the color of the sprite I suppose it works anyway we're getting off track the first thing I noticed about this plush besides how different it looks compared to normal Kirby plushies was that it is incredibly fuzzy the whole plush is really soft to the touch it's really nice but doesn't that seem like an odd design choice Kirby didn't show signs of being fuzzy back then nor did he have beady eyes for that matter well here's where you realize that this set isn't just calling back to previous Kirby designs but it's also quite possible that these plushies are direct callbacks to previously released Kirby plushies take this Kirby's Adventure era keychain of Kirby I have released by Bandai in 1993 it's fuzzy and it has the beady eyes I feel that there's a good chance that's in a new of these older Kirby plushies and styled the plush after them as someone who's a huge fan of the history of series merchandise that makes this plush even cooler to me the real draw to this plush and what defines that dreamland kirby is its face due to Kirby's simplistic design Kirby's face is really where a majority of his design changes over time occurred Kirby's face is very very small and compact here which is especially noticeable if you compare to this current design Kirby plush than a previously released Kirby has small eyes small black dashes to represent blush marks and a relatively large mouth with very noticeable dimples I'd say this face is very art accurate and you can instantly tell it's classic Kirby Kirby's eyes are made out of plastic which do like shine detail however if you shine light on them correctly you can achieve the look they have in the artwork Kirby also lacks the blue highlights in his eyes he has now with these being fully black as he didn't get his blue eyes until later on the rest of his facial features have some very nice embroidery to them besides his face his body arms and feet are basically the same as what they are today one of his arms is lifted upwards which gives the Parsa more expression Kirby's feet are decently stuffed and just like the other sanae kirby plushies these two can stand on their own that's always a great feature with plushies as I briefly mentioned before when you buy these plushies you don't just get the plush but a pouch as well a different ouch sound after the Japanese box art of each plushies respective game it's not only showcasing that game's design of Kirby which the plush is based off of but it's also just a really cool extra given now this is the artwork from the game's box art it's very colorful and in terms of the yard work at least nothing was lost in the translation of it onto this couch it's a pretty small pouch so you can't fit much into it but it's still a neat addition even if just for the fact that it showcases classic artwork it's attached to Kirby's arm you could rip it off but I'm going to keep it on in both the pouch and the plush itself have a pink touch tag attached to them with a pretty high quality overlay of the Kirby 25th anniversary logo on the front and a lot of legal information on the back this plush as well as the superstar Kirby stand out around H 9 inches tall the same size as the medium also our collection Kirby that Sanae has also released so yes you can have these three generations of Kirby on scale with each other which is really cool and for good measure here they are compared to the small size Kirby there are really no problems I can find with this plush it's a perfect representation of Kirby's design back then I really like how he looks and Sanae did a great job not only capturing Kirby's order design but also making it stand out compared to the other Kirby plushies they've made so let's now move on to the more relatively recent Kirby in the set the Kirby from Kirby super star here's the second kirby in this set the kirby based off of his design in kirby super star or kirby of the stars super deluxe as it's known in japan by the time of super stars released Kirby had already started to look much closer to the design he has now with that said though this design was a really good choice to make us not only as Kirby super star a really popular Kirby game but this specific Kirby design is almost like a midpoint of Kirby's design evolution as for Kirby's face his eyes are closer to the modern design with the blue highlights however they're much smaller than they are today his mouth is a nice open mouth with some really great embroidery there is blush marks though are the main difference between this and modern Kirby with them here being three red dashes the use of embroidery here is really well done and his face looks incredibly clean the embroidery on justice mouth alone looks so nice his face might be the best part about this plush the rest of the plush is much more standard if the plush doesn't have the fuzzy material that dreamland Kirby use however it's also not the super soft material used on the standard sanae kirby plushies so while the plush looks more normal and dreamland kirby in terms of texture at least it's still pretty different than the standard kirby this kirby seems to be much more oval-shaped and not as circular shaped compared to the other Kirby's judging off the released images of this plush it seems like my plush just got less stuffing than it should oh but that's barely an issue and I don't really mind it Kirby's feet are very large and well patterned though they are also pretty under stuffed but once again he can still stand on his own this plush isn't posed like dreamland Kirby instead having Kirby in a more natural pose as seen in the artwork used on the box as can be seen on the pouch that comes with it to more accurately mimic the Super Famicom this couch is pretty large much larger than what came with dreamland Kirby which was more accurate to the size of a Japanese gameboy box the size of the pouch is kind of like a trade off to the ways that the superstar Kirby lacks compared to dreamland Kirby that Kirby was fuzzy and had plastic eyes and while superstar Kirby lacks those he does come with a really nice and roomy pouch the pouch looks really nice given the wood finish effect the box art had though it isn't a one-to-one recreation of the box as the art and logo were moved around and are now the only things on it and unlike the dreamland pouch in the back lacks any extra artwork but I feel the wood finish does make up for that given the size this would actually work pretty well as a pouch though again I'm keeping mine attached to Kirby here's the touch tag on the superstar Kirby the only difference between it and the one on Dream Land Kirby is that this one says the correct year of 1995 with dreamland Kirby I noticed how it was similar to plushies released around the time the design was used but what's the same thing done with superstar Kirby well here's a kirby that was released in 1995 by Takara for kirby superstar and yep it once again shares similarities to the 25th anniversary plush the first time they're more minor both have similar facial expressions with their mouths open bill that may be because that's just what most Kirby art from the time feature but it is still cool to find parallels between these this is another great plush though it doesn't feel quite as specialized dreamland Kirby given how this design of kirby is more standard it's still a really nice plush I'd say dreamland Kirby is my favorite of the two but superstar Kirby still holds his own and is not only a unique plush but is another great rendition of the character and is an excellent time capsule over previous Kirby design if you were to get either of these I'd recommend getting dreamland Kirby as it's the most unique but I'd say if you can getting both of them would be for the best as they're both excellent plushies and are really cool renditions of Kirby that we don't see merchandise of often [Music] Kirby is a character with such an incredible history the series simply deserved something like this I really hope more companies see this line and realize how great of an idea this is looking back at a character's evolution their legacy how they changed over time is one of the most fascinating things you can do with character merchandise I could totally see a set like this as well as the other Kirby 25th sets coming out being made for other characters with rich histories if any company wants any example of how to handle anniversary merchandise what Kirby's doing is basically exactly how you should do it I'd say these plushies are more than well worth it they're a fantastic celebration of a timeless character and personally I haven't gotten this excited about a set of merchandise in a long time not only are they exceptional plushies but they're direct references to older design designs most companies would see as outdated and wouldn't even dare touching but this is how you do anniversary merchandise I'd be totally open to the idea of Sanae making more plushies or more designs of curvy and hey they just released the marks and mag allure plushies what better time than now to really start making merchandise of those more obscure fan favorite characters as a longtime Kirby fan this set just makes me so happy Kirby is one of my favorite characters and franchises of all time and to see a plush set be made with such care and respect for the property is just incredible you can tell here that the designers of these plushies really care about the license they're dealing with and honestly this set is one of the coolest plush sets I've seen be released in a long time though this won't be the last time we'll be taking a look at kirby 25th anniversary merchandise as soon as I can get the other sets I'll be reviewing those too but as of right now happy 25th anniversary Kirby thanks for all of the memories and as new games come out and his design evolves even more I know I'll be there supporting him all of the way [Music]

Channel: PatMac

Views: 186,312

Rating: 4.9534173 out of 5

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Id: 4NX4kwqPenc

Length: 12min 37sec (757 seconds)

Published: Tue May 09 2017