Mimoco, the Boston-based design house that makes the character-based Mimobot and Mimomicro lines of designer USB flash drives and card readers, has linked again with Hasbro, this time with the release of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Mimobot series of flash drives.
The collection showcases the key pony characters Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, and Rainbow Dash, all in stylistically illustrated Mimobot flash drive form. Each My Little Pony Mimobot also comes with Mimoco’s preloaded Mimory content, here including the MimoDesk “personalization suite” of cute wallpapers, icons, and avatars; exclusive MimoByte sound software; and an entire digital issue of the My Little Pony comic-book and videos, along with a preview of the forthcoming watercolor Pony adventure book My Little Pony: Under The Sparkling Sea by award-winning illustrator Mary Jane Begin.
“It has a huge following,” said Mimobot interactive designer Lisa Kurth, speaking of the My Little Pony franchise at last month’s Toy Fair. Noting that while it had been launched as a toy in 1981 by Hasbro, My Little Pony, which was then aimed primarily at girls and eventually inspired animated TV specials, an animated feature film and four animated TV series, has broadened its base since its current incarnation as My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic commenced on The Hub network in 2010.
“There are tons of guys—older men, called ‘bronies’—who are fans,” added Kurth, distinguishing the bronies from the shows’ female “pegasisters” fans. “It’s an interesting challenge: Guys are supposed to be masculine, but some are comfortable as bronies and wonder, Why is it so bad to like something so cute and fun and happy?”
Mimoco’s My Little Pony product marks the firm’s third collaboration with Hasbro, following its Transformers and G.I. Joe Mimobots. Like its name, the Rarity Mimobot, said Kurth, is limited to only 500 pieces, making it that much more collectible.
Because of their collectibility, Mimobot flash drives are popular in both the pop-culture driven art toy underground and the high-tech electronic world. The line includes original characters and licenses from Star Wars, Hello Kitty, Transformers, Cartoon Network's Adventure Time and DC Comics, as well as pop-artists like tokidoki, David Horvath, and FriendsWithYou.
At Toy Fair, Kurth also had on display Mimoco’s recently introduced Legends of Mimobot series featuring Elvis Presley, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Albert Einstein and Bruce Lee. She noted that the Presley flash drives came in Aloha and limited edition Army versions; the Washington Mimobot is also a limited edition issue.
As for the Einstein Mimobot, she demonstrated that when the protective head cap is removed from the stick, it exposes the iconic picture of Einstein with his tongue sticking out.
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