|
|
|
|
Last week on the Tofu Cute Blog, I wrote about the majesty of Sea Slugs. This week, continuing the 'sea creature' theme and because we’ve recently brought back the highly popular Kune Kune Utsubo Moray Eels, I thought I’d revisit our previous comparative study and one of our popular Tofu Cute TV videos by having another look at the differences between FOUR more cute AMUSE plushies and their real life counterparts - with a sea creature theme!
As always, this is a highly scientific study, so we’ve composed a set of comparisons using only the most logical, fact-based arguments....
|
 |
I probably don’t need to tell you this, but I will anyway. Real piranhas are incredibly scary. There’s a reason why they’re used as an abstract hazard in various movies that feature swamps or oceans as settings. Real piranhas can and will eat you. Yeah. They have one of the strongest bites of all fishes and could easily bite one of your fingers clean off!
These puchimaru piranhas on the other hand? Not very likely to eat you. I’d say it’s impossible, actually. Although most variants of a real piranha are likely to try and take a chomp out of you with their sharp teeth when you get near it, that’s not the case with a nice puchimaru charm.
Real piranhas are kind of cool in the same way, I guess - if you could befriend one, perhaps it might not bite you and use its immense jaw strength to protect you from danger. The puchimaru piranhas are probably not going to offer much protection from threats.
Another key point in favour of plush piranhas is that they’re a lot easier to acquire than real piranhas. I know we make this point a lot when we compare plush with real animals, but it’s true. Getting a puchimaru piranha is going to cost you a lot less, with a lot less ‘set-up’ involved.
All things considered, there’s a lot in favour of the puchimaru charm versus the real piranha, so we’re going to give them the win in this round.
|
 |
When you compare this puchimaru red umbrella octopus directly with the creature it's based on, you could easily argue that the two look pretty similar. The designers at AMUSE did a great job at capturing the essence of the creature, although the final shape leaves the AMUSE octopus with a head and face that blends in seamlessly with the rest of their body. On the real creature, we can see that their shape is a lot more clearly separated into ‘head’ and ‘body’. I’m not sure whether this is a pro or a con for either side, because in dismissing accuracy in this area, the AMUSE charm ends up looking a bit more friendly. Both get a point.
In favour of the puchimaru, the red umbrella octopus plush charm is soft and fluffy, and lacks the somewhat slimy texture that octopuses usually have. I’m going to count that as a pro for the puchimaru version. As cute as umbrella octopuses are, they’d probably be better if they were fluffy, right?
The final comparison that I think is important to note is that the AMUSE umbrella octopus has a smiley face at all times! Real umbrella octopuses don’t usually make this kind of face. They probably can’t. That doesn’t mean that real umbrella octopuses are not happy, but the AMUSE version wins another point for being cute and expressing their happiness well, bringing them 3 for 3 and winning this round
|
 |
This crab from the earlier Puchimaru Yurufuwa Sea World Charm series is pretty neat, and I think they compare quite favourably with actual crabs. Real crabs aren’t really this colour of pink, nor are they this level of softness, which is already pretty impressive for a start. Real crabs of course have hard shells which range in colours, and although some of them can be pink, they’re rarely this shade of pink.
Real crabs have two large and sharp claws which they’ll happily redirect your way to attack if they perceive you as a threat. These claws also help them to pick up and break apart their food!
Obviously, these charms don’t have sharp claws: they’re rather soft instead!
One major difference between the plush and their real life equivalent is their eyes. This may seem like a weird thing to mention, but much like the expression on the umbrella octopus, it’s a noticeable distinction. Real crabs usually have eyes on stalks, whilst this puchimaru one has beady eyes that are not very stalk-like. Crab eyes are designed to give them the ability to detect bioluminescence and patterns on the shells of other crustaceans, being particularly sensitive to UV light. The puchimaru doesn’t have that ability, but their eyes are a bit cuter for it. Once again, the plush wins.
|
 |
This is the title match. The main card event. I’m sure you’ve always wanted to know - what’s better, a real eel (a ‘reel’?) or a plush eel?
Well, the honest truth is that whilst real eels are pretty cool, you’re going to have great difficulty keeping one as a pet. Whilst freshwater eels could be kept in a large-scale home aquarium, it’d need to be a very big and expensive one, with lots of space and stimulating obstacles for the Eels to navigate. Although it is possible, it isn’t recommended.
Keeping a Ustubo Moray Eel plush in your house? Highly recommended. If you get a giant sized one, you can use it as a kind of long cushion on your sofa. They don’t require any kind of ‘home aquarium’ or nonsense like that. They can just chill wherever they want.
Additionally, real eels don’t have the wonderfully goofy expressions that our Kune Kune Eels have. I think this is the best feature of the plush and probably the most important factor in creating their fun vibe. The Kune Kune Eel plush face is so funny that there’s a custom emoji of it in our work’s slack channel.
The final reason I think the Eel plush is better than the real thing is for the sheer uniqueness of owning an eel plush. Think about how many interesting conversations that will start! I know that I’d be interested in talking about it if I saw one of these in someone’s house because of how cool they are.
Obviously, the eel plush wins.
|
 |
| That’s all for today’s 'Deep Sea edition' of the Plush Vs. Real Life series (yeah, it's a series now. We're doing more of them in the future). I hope you learned something that helped you make an informed decision on your upcoming plush purchases. All of the listed plushies are available from our online shop, so don’t hesitate - we’ll get the superior plush version of any cute animal shipped right to your door! |
|
|
Last week on the Tofu Cute Blog, I wrote about the majesty of Sea Slugs. This week, continuing the 'sea creature' theme and because we’ve recently brought back the highly popular Kune Kune Utsubo Moray Eels, I thought I’d revisit our previous comparative study and one of our popular Tofu Cute TV videos by having another look at the differences between FOUR more cute AMUSE plushies and their real life counterparts - with a sea creature theme!
As always, this is a highly scientific study, so we’ve composed a set of comparisons using only the most logical, fact-based arguments....
|
|
|
I probably don’t need to tell you this, but I will anyway. Real piranhas are incredibly scary. There’s a reason why they’re used as an abstract hazard in various movies that feature swamps or oceans as settings. Real piranhas can and will eat you. Yeah. They have one of the strongest bites of all fishes and could easily bite one of your fingers clean off!
These puchimaru piranhas on the other hand? Not very likely to eat you. I’d say it’s impossible, actually. Although most variants of a real piranha are likely to try and take a chomp out of you with their sharp teeth when you get near it, that’s not the case with a nice puchimaru charm.
Real piranhas are kind of cool in the same way, I guess - if you could befriend one, perhaps it might not bite you and use its immense jaw strength to protect you from danger. The puchimaru piranhas are probably not going to offer much protection from threats.
Another key point in favour of plush piranhas is that they’re a lot easier to acquire than real piranhas. I know we make this point a lot when we compare plush with real animals, but it’s true. Getting a puchimaru piranha is going to cost you a lot less, with a lot less ‘set-up’ involved.
All things considered, there’s a lot in favour of the puchimaru charm versus the real piranha, so we’re going to give them the win in this round.
|
When you compare this puchimaru red umbrella octopus directly with the creature it's based on, you could easily argue that the two look pretty similar. The designers at AMUSE did a great job at capturing the essence of the creature, although the final shape leaves the AMUSE octopus with a head and face that blends in seamlessly with the rest of their body. On the real creature, we can see that their shape is a lot more clearly separated into ‘head’ and ‘body’. I’m not sure whether this is a pro or a con for either side, because in dismissing accuracy in this area, the AMUSE charm ends up looking a bit more friendly. Both get a point.
In favour of the puchimaru, the red umbrella octopus plush charm is soft and fluffy, and lacks the somewhat slimy texture that octopuses usually have. I’m going to count that as a pro for the puchimaru version. As cute as umbrella octopuses are, they’d probably be better if they were fluffy, right?
The final comparison that I think is important to note is that the AMUSE umbrella octopus has a smiley face at all times! Real umbrella octopuses don’t usually make this kind of face. They probably can’t. That doesn’t mean that real umbrella octopuses are not happy, but the AMUSE version wins another point for being cute and expressing their happiness well, bringing them 3 for 3 and winning this round
|
|
|
This crab from the earlier Puchimaru Yurufuwa Sea World Charm series is pretty neat, and I think they compare quite favourably with actual crabs. Real crabs aren’t really this colour of pink, nor are they this level of softness, which is already pretty impressive for a start. Real crabs of course have hard shells which range in colours, and although some of them can be pink, they’re rarely this shade of pink.
Real crabs have two large and sharp claws which they’ll happily redirect your way to attack if they perceive you as a threat. These claws also help them to pick up and break apart their food!
Obviously, these charms don’t have sharp claws: they’re rather soft instead!
One major difference between the plush and their real life equivalent is their eyes. This may seem like a weird thing to mention, but much like the expression on the umbrella octopus, it’s a noticeable distinction. Real crabs usually have eyes on stalks, whilst this puchimaru one has beady eyes that are not very stalk-like. Crab eyes are designed to give them the ability to detect bioluminescence and patterns on the shells of other crustaceans, being particularly sensitive to UV light. The puchimaru doesn’t have that ability, but their eyes are a bit cuter for it. Once again, the plush wins.
|
This is the title match. The main card event. I’m sure you’ve always wanted to know - what’s better, a real eel (a ‘reel’?) or a plush eel?
Well, the honest truth is that whilst real eels are pretty cool, you’re going to have great difficulty keeping one as a pet. Whilst freshwater eels could be kept in a large-scale home aquarium, it’d need to be a very big and expensive one, with lots of space and stimulating obstacles for the Eels to navigate. Although it is possible, it isn’t recommended.
Keeping a Ustubo Moray Eel plush in your house? Highly recommended. If you get a giant sized one, you can use it as a kind of long cushion on your sofa. They don’t require any kind of ‘home aquarium’ or nonsense like that. They can just chill wherever they want.
Additionally, real eels don’t have the wonderfully goofy expressions that our Kune Kune Eels have. I think this is the best feature of the plush and probably the most important factor in creating their fun vibe. The Kune Kune Eel plush face is so funny that there’s a custom emoji of it in our work’s slack channel.
The final reason I think the Eel plush is better than the real thing is for the sheer uniqueness of owning an eel plush. Think about how many interesting conversations that will start! I know that I’d be interested in talking about it if I saw one of these in someone’s house because of how cool they are.
Obviously, the eel plush wins.
|
|
| That’s all for today’s 'Deep Sea edition' of the Plush Vs. Real Life series (yeah, it's a series now. We're doing more of them in the future). I hope you learned something that helped you make an informed decision on your upcoming plush purchases. All of the listed plushies are available from our online shop, so don’t hesitate - we’ll get the superior plush version of any cute animal shipped right to your door! |
|
|
|
|
