Monkey Business

When I was a little boy visiting my grandparents in Guam, I saw this cute little animal puppet thingie on the store shelf and I made a huge deal about it. It was brown and fuzzy and it came with its own shoes and a hat and I was so amazed by it that I begged my grandfather to buy it for me. I treasured this puppet thingie for years, until my stupid younger brothers came along and destroyed it. This puppet thingie was called a Monchhichi.

I was poking around on the web yesterday and I did some homework on my little Monchhichi friend. Apparently, they're fuckin HUGE in Japan. It's not hard to see why! They are adorable fuzzy little monkey things with an innocent expression painted on each of their faces. A good vintage Monchhichi goes for about 50 bucks, and a first edition Monchhichi comes with a price tag of 100 to 200 dollars if he's got his shoes and outfit. Isn't that wild? The Monchhichi's had their own cartoon back in the early 90s, but it didn't last long. I guess they went to join Strawberry Shortcake and She-Ra.