When Animal Crossing came out back in mid-2002, Nintendo reps wandered from store to store distributing little stuffed AC characters to use as promotional decorations. I've only ever seen three of them, and only have access to one: K.K. Slider. The other two that I saw were the Boy and Girl player characters from the game, and as an added nice touch one of them (it's been almost two years, I really don't remember which) had a fishing pole. Speaking as someone who's played Animal Crossing off and on for almost a year and a half now, I'd kill for either of them.

K.K. Slider (or his real name, Totakeke) is the wandering musician of the game. Every Saturday night he hangs out in front of the train station, playing his tunes and hopefully adding a new one that the player can take home and pop in his stereo. Little stuffed K.K. sits about 7.5" tall, and though he doesn't have any musical capabilities, he does have style. His guitar is well detailed, his arms are on the right places on the guitar, and even his legs are individually modeled and crossed.

As evidenced by the ear tag, I'm guessing these guys were either retail items or UFO Catcher prizes in Japan, and Nintendo farmed out a few spare ones to the USA to promote the game. Whatever the origin, I know that if they'd been released retail over here I'd most likely own the whole set. Sad but true.

· · · James Cunningham