Studio Ghibli now sells Totoro bubble blowers at its anime merchandise store in Japan
My Bubble Totoro, complete with an instructional video on how to use them.
The star of Studio Ghibli's 1988 anime feature My Neighbour Totoro is a gentle grey giant that goes by the name 'Totoro', but he's not the only Totoro to appear in the film. There's a small, white, mouthless-and-armless variety, known as '小トトロ' ('Shou Totoro' or 'Small Totoro'), a blue medium-sized one called '中トトロ' ('Chuu Totoro' or 'Medium Totoro'), and, of course, the star character, the only one to have whiskers, which is called '大トトロ' ('Oo Totoro' or 'Big Totoro').
Those characteristics help us to correctly identify Totoros in the wild, and they come in handy when looking at the 'しゃぼん玉セット' ('Shabondama Set'), currently being sold at Ghibli merchandise chain Donguri Kyowakoku.
▼ 'Shabondama' is the Japanese word for 'soap bubbles'.
The set comes with two Totoros — one of which is obviously the Small Totoro — but the dark grey colour of the accompanying character in the promotional photos might be mistaken for the large Totoro at first glance. Look closer, though, and you'll notice the absence of whiskers, confirming that this really is the '中トトロ', as printed below the character.
In the sunlight of the great outdoors, however, we can see that the Medium Totoro does have its distinctive blue shade, and when lined up against the Totoro bubble blower, the difference is clearly visible.
The Medium and Small Totoro Soap Bubble Set comes with a tray, two bottles of soap bubble liquid, and two bubble blowers, with the smaller Totoro measuring 4 x 7 x 6.5 centimetres (1.57 x 2.76 x 2.56 inches) and the medium measuring 5 x 7.5 x 8 centimetres.
The soap blowers provide endless hours of entertainment for people of all ages, and they're easy enough for children to use, as shown in the accompanying video below.
While the large Totoro bubble blower set isn't currently available, the Medium-and-Small set can be purchased at Donguri Kyowakoku stores and online, thanks to a recent restock, priced at 1,980 yen (US$13.87).
Source: Donguri Kyowakoku
Featured image: YouTube/どんぐり共和国そらのうえ店
Insert images: Donguri Kyowakoku
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