Death of the Hello Kitty Vibrator

I first saw the Hello Kitty vibrator in a shop in Ueno, Tokyo. It was a big, wall-less area with several stalls, selling everything from samurai swords to wristwatches to porn; my then-girlfriend (also from Canada) and I spent some time exploring the shop one afternoon, showing each other porno boxes and giggling, until the going got strange, for instance when we discovered several tapes of bestiality porn, with only partial censorship, wherever penetration or exposed genitalia occured -- the idea of only partially censoring bestiality porn being pretty odd to both of us. The Hello Kitty vibrators (along with My Melody vibrators and a couple of other cartoon characters I didn't recognize -- though there were no Doraemon ones, to my disappointment) were lined up in a display case and cost only 1000 Yen -- about $12 Canadian. They became my omiyage of choice for any of my female friends -- I believe I bought at least five of them for people. Sadly, I didn't stock up, because I discovered today, reading this article, that the Hello Kitty vibrator is no more. As their value to collectors mounts, I'm sure my female friends will be sad that they didn't keep them in the package...! (I gather that the ears are too pointy for comfort, anyhow).