who says octopi can't be cute? Ｃ:。ミ

Whenever we think of octopus, we always think of the slimy, slightly unattractive 8-armed cephalopod.

Ew

But after this post, you will forever think of octopus as totally kawaii.

Since I work downtown, I always wander around during my lunch break (because if I take my lunch in my office, it's not a break. People are always calling or my boss stops by). There are pros and cons to this. Obviously, it makes the day seem shorter since I'm out of the building and there's new scenery. But the down side? I'm technically shopping every lunch break which means there's temptations EVERY LUNCH BREAK!

Although I've gotten better at curbing my impulsive buys, it does fail every once in a while. It happened on Thursday (it's actually a huge improvement from my first week at my new job. I bought something every day).

I wandered into a small store and the reason I went in is because it was a licensed sanrio seller (one of the few) and she had LOADS of Sanrio stuff! She even had a Tuxedo Sam plush (which I didn't buy (￣▼￣)). But I saw she had an adorable pink octopus plush in TWO sizes! After some debate (about whether I should buy it at all and the size), I bought the smaller one.

Ollie the Octopus

Complete with 8 tentacles!

She's soo cute! She's made by ty from the beanie boos' collection. I guess she's new because I never saw this plush before but after I bought her, I saw her everywhere. Almost every store that carried plushes had her. She even has all 8 tentacles (which probably sounds odd because octopus are supposed to have 8 but I've seen some plush that don't have all 8).

That got me thinking that octopus aren't really popular when it comes to being kawaii. Not as far as I know anyway. It's always the usual bears (includes panda), household pets and lately, alpacas.

Anyone familiar with these? (These were my birthday presents last year  ＼(*T▽T*)／)

Surprisingly, I actually have a few items of kawaii octopus so I'm going to share my collection with you to show you that even ugly things can be kawaii (no offense but I find alpacas kind of ugly in real life).

Amigurumi Octopus/squid

I had bought this years and years ago, I think it was back in 2005 or something and it was one of my first online purchases (what a milestone! I've come a long way <(￣︶￣)>)

As you can see, some of the colour has faded and this is because I used to put this cutie on my windowsill. When I realized the colour was slowly disappearing, I removed and it now sits on my bookshelf, guarding my books. 

5 tentacles?!

 This is what I meant when I got excited that Ollie had 8. Because this was my first octopus plush, I was surprised that it didn't have 8 (maybe the seller got a little lazy?) so I've come to not expect 8 tentacles.

Handmade Chef Octopus

I had bought this one at my local anime convention (it's not impressive). I thought it was super adorable and it was ridiculously expensive, $20 if I remember correctly but since I was spending so much money at the convention already, I bought it.

I remember the lady at the stall was really nice too and she gave me such a pretty bag (even though this thing didn't even fill up 5% of the gift bag).

It came with an adorable little pin which I still haven't decided what to attach it to yet. 

Octopus Plush Collection

So that concludes my kawaii octopus collection. Still not convined? Read on.

Angry Squid

Oh, before I forget, I've also included this adorably pissed off squid. He's not exactly an octopus but they're from the same family. I got this short-tempered guy in Hong Kong at Ocean Park last summer. He was a "prize" from those amusement park games. Not really a prize, but you get him if you buy $50 HKD of tries (which is about 6 or 7). Alex kept winning at everything anyway so we ended up with a ton of plush prizes.

Suckers Included

Not only does he have 8 tentacles but he has suckers as well!

If you're still not convinced then this next thing definitely will.

TAKOCHUS!!!!

Everyone is in love with these. They're called takochus and they're basically stackable octopus. I believe the point of them (asides from being super cute and making all your friends jealous) is you try to stack as many as possible on top of one another before they collapse. 

I just use them for pictures and stuff. They're pretty hard to find and they're freggin' expensive. From what I know, they can only be "purchased" by playing this really annoying game where you have to push them over the ledge and whatever fall overs the ledge is yours to keep. It's basically a retarded UFO catcher. I played some while I was in Tokyo (not to win takochus) and I hated it, it was difficult to win and you usually have to spend at least 500-1000 yen (around $5.50 to $11 CAD) before you get anything. Alex dumped so much money, time and effort into one machine and he even got a nosebleed in the middle of it (it was that intense).

Clears

Anyway, so here is my clear collection. I think I have all of them, I even have a double of the pale pink one (how did that happen?) Oh no, I don't have all of them, I'm missing the clear red one. The one I have there is actually glittery and it's one of my favourites.

Solides and Ice Cream

These ones are much lighter than the clear ones and they're easier to stack on each other. The green and brown are supposed to be ice cream ones or something, with sprinkles. The strawberry is also from that collection. I wish I could say that I have them all but I don't. There's some that are really rare and their owners are reluctant to let go of them and even if they did, it's be about a bagillion dollars or something.

Takoyaki Takochu

I took an individual picture of this one since I have an odd number of takochus so this one couldn't be paired with the other ones :( It's supposed to be takoyaki although that wouldn't be my first guess.

Winking?

Here's one of the double of the pink one and it has a smudged off eye. I don't know how it happened but it somehow did. It looks likes it's winking ^_- which makes it special and unique.

My favourites

Supah Cute's Art Party!

Last but not least is Supah Cute's art party! It'll be hosted at Leanna Lin's Wonderland in LA on May 11th to June 14th, 2013. So if you're in the area go check it out and show me lots of pictures (because I won't be there (´；д；`)). Hana, the owner of Supah Cute, kindly sent me all these amazing goodies! And look, her mascot is an adorable octopus!

If you're not convinced by now that octopi can be cute, then there's no hope for you. I'm sorry but you'll see ugly things for the rest of your life.