Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Well, more retail fakery in good old Kunming. You may recall our recent reports on the fake Apple stores in this fair south China city. Still no word on how Steve Jobs is reacting to those fake bits of entrepreneurship, even though the Chinese government shut a couple of them down. Now it looks like Apple isn’t the only company to have its carefully considered and, oh yeah, trademarked retail appearance high-jacked by Chinese counterfeiters. Swedish home-furnishing and lifestyle giant Ikea is the latest to have its retail environment illegally copied, right down to the chair designs and the famous yellow and blue signage colors. In fact, pretty much everything but the meatballs. This is apparently a growing trend in China, where slick businesspersons are no longer content to merely create and sell fakes of famous-maker handbags and shoes. The Kunming store which copied Ikea’s retail look and feel is called 11 Furniture. But unlike the fake Apple stores which sell authentic merchandise, 11 Furniture does not make or sell authentic Ikea products. Customers who buy at 11 Furniture get furniture which is made to order and is not presented as real Ikea product. In our previous report about fake Apple stores, we briefly discussed the legal concept of trade dress, a form of intellectual property which describes the design of a product or the proprietary design of the building or retail environment in which the product is sold. At the link, you’ll get more details on how pervasive the problem of trade-dress ripoffs is getting in China. And even though 11 Furniture didn’t copy the meatballs, we’re kind of curious how lingonberry jam would taste on the minced braised pork the store does sell. (Reuters – Fake Kunming Ikea Store)
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Heisuke Kitazawa or PCP opening took place on Saturday July 30th, and an array of fans and friends came through Giant Robot 2 to see his latest works. We overheard many say, “the more you look at it, the more you find” about his pieces, which is a great “problem” to have. Take a look at the set at the very bottom of the post.
Photo set below!
Ahhhh, Chicago in 100 degree heat. . . What better place to escape into the air conditioning than the Shedd Aquarium? And right now they have a great jellyfish exhibit that will be up until Spring 2012. Yes, I admit that the entry fee is pretty steep at about 30$ a head. But don’t let that you detour you! Once we were pass the admission booth I quickly realized that all of the money goes back to the facility. It ain’t cheap feeding all those fishies! Oh! And don’t miss the resident beluga whales, either. Those little friendly guys will make your day with their cuteness! Word of advice: Purchase your ticket in advance on-line at the Shedd Aquarium website. There is a separate entry line for on-line tickets that was virtually empty.
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Here at the Giant Robot San Francisco bureau, McDonald’s was banned last November from selling Happy Meals with toys unless the meal itself contains less than 600 calories. And offers less than 640 grams of sodium and 0.5 grams of transfat. Well as far as we know, there are no such restrictions in Japan, and so the happy movie toy promotions continue unfettered. The latest one is for “Transformers: Dark of the Moon”, the third Michael Bay entry into the big-screen Transformers mythos. At the link, you will get a detailed look at the sweet, sweet Happy Meal toys McDonald’s Japan is shelling out with their kiddy meal offerings. Our personal favorites are the three transformers disguised as McDonald’s menu items, a burger, a shake, and a regular fries. And if you were lucky enough to have been at a McDonald’s in Japan on July 30th and 31st, you could have picked up a special promotional DVD with your Happy Setto meal and toy. We will be looking for the DVD on eBay soon. (Crunchy Roll – Happy Setto Transformers)
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First, there was Super Cool Biz. Then, there was the USB-charged tie fan, and the puffy jacket with the built-in fans. And for our next story on staying cool during Japan’s setsuden summer, we bring you the super water-cooling backside pad! Yes, according to the short report at the link, this pad and water-circulation combination works pretty much like the water-cooling system in a personal computer. Code-named the Ass Water Cooler, this device has apparently been designed to keep irate drivers cool in major Japanese urban areas like Tokyo and Osaka where summer traffic jams can reach legendary proportions. You can pretty much dope out how the system works by looking at the promotional image we obtained. Pretty “cool” idea, and probably a lot more comfortable that those love beads you see taxi drivers sitting on while they plaster you to the back seat as they drive you to the airport at warp speed. (Akihabara News – Japanese Ass Water Cooler)
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