Hello Kitty Cafe Food Truck Haul (SDCC 2018)

Greetings, my fellow Hello Kitty lovers! I know I've been away for a while, but I'm back! Trust me, I have been buying Hello Kitty merch! I just haven't been doing a great job of sharing it all, but I'm going to try harder!

This post is about my recent Food Truck haul! I first encountered the Hello Kitty Cafe Food Truck at the 40th Convention back in 2014, which was held in Los Angeles, California. 

[Myself at the Hello Kitty Con in 2014.]

Since then, I have been at a couple of events where the truck was at, but never made it over to it. So, when I heard the truck was going to be at San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) this year -I had to go!

FYI: Since moving out to California, I have been to SDCC every year, except 2017. Follow my blog: The Glittery Toy Box, for all my con and collecting adventures!

The truck was located in the parking lot of PetCo Park (home of the pro baseball team: the Padres). The stadium is right by the convention center, where SDCC is held. It's about a 7 minute walk.

Before even going to the convention, I made sure to look at all they had available. There were not con exclusives, but there were exclusives to the truck, or things you could not get at the sit-down cafe. There was a 4-piece mini cake set that debuted at SDCC, but a lot of people seemed to get it confused with an exclusive. It wasn't. You can find the mini cake set at the truck now. I had the original one at the Hello Kitty Con four years ago and it was great! I just wanted to try something new this time........ Anyway! For sure, the one thing I really wanted was the Bow Mug.

[Photo ©Hello Kitty Cafe Truck]

The photo above is the bow handle mug and by the time I reached the truck there was a "sold out" sign on it. Major bummer!

[My Hello Kitty Cafe Food Truck Haul]

I did snag some really great stuff though! From left to right: 

• I bought the 5 macaroon set! (I told you I wanted to try something new!) 
• I bought the Hello Kitty Plushie! They didn't have her when they opened the food truck.
• The reusable tote bag was free with any purchase over $50.
• And I got the the original mug. Something is better than nothing.

[Hello Kitty Cafe Macaroon Set]

The macaroon set came with 5 macaroons. Only 1 of them had a cute Hello Kitty face. The rest just had bows and I was a bit disappointed that the bow on the blue one was off when I opened my box. They tasted good, but were not actually my favorite macaroons. The filling in some of them were just jelly, which was a bit weird. They weren't horrible, but the mini cakes were better. I also think it would have been nice if they had put other characters on the cookies and you know they have several choices!

[Hello Kitty Cafe Plush]

Here's a close-up of the plushie! She comes wearing a barista jacket and a Hello Kitty coffee drink in hand! So cute! Like I said before, they did not have these when the truck first debuted and so this was my first encounter with it. I had to have it! It is fairly new to the line of merchandise.

The detail is very nice on this plush! The back of the barista jacket even sports the "Hello Kitty Cafe" logo! She's definitely a must need for fans and collectors!

[Hello Kitty Cafe Mug]

So, I couldn't get the bow mug, but since I didn't have the original mug, I decided to get that one. It is cute all on its own. It features Hello Kitty in black, sitting on a bunch of sweet treats!

The back of the mug sports the Hello Kitty Cafe Logo and the sweets print wraps around the whole mug.

[Agent Afronaut at SDCC]

That wraps up my Hello Kitty Food Truck haul from SDCC 2018! Read more about my SDCC trip on my toy blog!

Kikkoman Hello Kitty Bottle

I know I have been a bit absent on this blog. I promise I have tons of awesome Hello Kitty stuff to share, I've just been busy with life and then was ill for a bit. I also have some great collectibles to share and some awesome blog posts about my collecting adventure on my toy blog, Glittery Toy Box, which you can check out sometime and it's a little bit more updated since it's not just about one subject.

The other night I had to drop someone off and it was already pretty late. On those kind of nights it's time to cut my losses and realize I'm not going to get to cook or eat healthy. So, eating out was the fastest option. I had to fill my gas tank and so I was pretty close to Panda Express at that point. I couldn't help but go indulge! - I had been to Panda Express a couple of months ago and they had a limited edition Kikkoman soy sauce bottle with Hello Kitty on it! It was so adorable. I wanted it so bad! However, I wasn't paying for the meal at that time so I didn't have the option of buying it. Apparently, you have to make a minimum purchase of $10 and then you get the bottle for $4. There was no option to buy it if you're not making making a purchase. The next time I went in there they didn't have the bottles. Well, this time I was paying and my purchase just happened to come to slightly over $10 and they just happened to have the Hello Kitty bottles back in stock!

Like I said before, they are $4 a bottle and I was told you had to spend a minimum of $10 beforehand in order to purchase it. The Panda Express I purchased mine from has the bottles outside of their box and displayed for everyone to see. I felt that was a good move to sell bottles, because you can see the adorable bottle! However, for a customer it's a bit annoying. The cashier didn't offer me any help with taking my purchase or food with me and so I was left with trying to handle my change, takeout order, and my Hello Kitty bottle. Panda Express is always busy too, so they didn't pause to keep taking orders, so it was kind of a complicated situation.

Here's the back of the bottle and I apologize for using flash, but it was at night and it was the only way to get a good view of it. My pictures are not the best here, but I was hungry and I took the pictures fast so I could eat!

I think the bottle is adorable. It's cute and re-usable. However, the image is printed on and there's no barrier, so washing the bottle several times will most likely rub the printing off. For best preservation, I'd recommend not using it and placing it on display.

Update: You can buy the bottle for $3.75 + tax & shipping at Sanrio's website.

I Love Hello Kitty

[Myself with a Hello Kitty made from Mega Bloks @ 2014 Hello Kitty Convention]

Welcome to my new Hello Kitty blog! This is a sub-blog of my main collector/toy blog. If you already read "The Glittery Toy Box" then you will know what this blog is about. If not here's the deets: I'm making a separate blog for my Hello Kitty collection and will soon be making a separate blog for my My Little Pony collection. -Why? Because I mainly collect Hello Kitty and My Little pony, and as to not overshadow my other collections; my convention-goings; and miscellanous collecting, I decided it was best to separate the two subjects that would greatly overwhelm my main collector blog.

I've loved Hello Kitty since I can remember and I've been collecting her since I was a teenager. As a child I was not much of a collector; actually buying toys and merchandise to display was something that came to me when I was older. - I mainly collect Hello Kitty figures and Hello Kitty plushies/mascots. Although, any Hello Kitty merchandise I find that I like, I will buy. I also love to buy Hello Kitty clothing. As you can see in the picture above, I'm wearing a Hello Kitty dress!

I'll be sharing other Sanrio characters as well. I absolutely love My Melody! I have a huge collection already, so I'll slowly be sharing what I already own and of course I'll be blogging about what I purchase in the future!

If you have a Hello Kitty blog yourself, please share it with me! I'd love to connect with other Hello Kitty lovers!