Mimoco
(pronounced MEE-mo-co) is a Boston-based design house which fuses the art of contemporary
characters with the functionality of personal data storage devices. Mimobot
offers designer USB Flash Drives which are both beautiful and functional
offering unique character and presentation. There are many different series
including more commercial products such as Star Wars, Domo, Halo and Happy Tree
Friends. Others include the artist and community designed character series and
the ones I like best, the original characters which have been developed
including Psy, Ptry, rayD80, Pupstar and others.
Each
series includes such personalization as mimoByte sound software which randomly plays character specific sounds and
voices every time your Mimobot is inserted or ejected from your computer. While
the MimoDesk personalization suite which is also included with each character
offers icons, avatars, wallpapers, screensavers, and other surprises related to
each character and series to enrich your digital desktop experience. This
personalization of USB drives is quite unique and creates a strange cross over
between collectible “toy” and computer accessory. It is a fun and bizarre experience to have a
USB drive which makes sounds when you use it and comes with its own world of
images, icons and screensavers. It is as though each character invites you into
their world. There is also a MimoZine digital magazine on each drive.
I
personally really like the original characters. For example, rayD80. RayD80 is
the upgraded future version of rayD8 and has been blasted into the here-and-now
by a lightning bolt charged with time particles. Now, he follows around his
younger, more naive self, protecting him from flash events and broken bones. To
understand who rayD80 is we need a bit of history.
Planet
Blooh has seen some weird natural occurrences, what with being at the center of
the universe and made of silicon and all. But none are quite as unusual as what
happened earlier this week! Eyewitness reports claim that rayD8, the skeletal
guard of the Underworld, was hit by lightning while underground! What's more, the
lightning bolt seems to have been charged with highly volatile and
unpredictable time particles, so when rayD8 was hit, the power of the blast
combined with the electrified time particles to rip his future upgraded self,
rayD80, into the current time continuum.
RayD80
was, naturally, shocked at realizing he had been pulled into the present (or as
he refers to it, "the past"), and immediately set about trying to
gather enough memergy to take him back to the future in which he lived (or as
he refers to it, "the present... and stop asking me to refer to
things"). While in this time, rayD80 has taken it upon himself to guard
his naive past/present self from dangers that would lead to more debilitating
flash events.
Friends
of rayD8 claim that rayD80 has already prevented six such incidents, and has
locked himself in his room with a cup of tea and his exhaustion.
RayD80
is a yellow and blue color variant of Mimoco’s popular Core Series rayD8
two-faced skeleton character and comes in various configurations from one to
eight megabyte.
Another
cutie is Ptry. Ptry is a member of the Mimbot Core Series 2 designer USB flash
drives, designed by Dino Alberto in a limited edition of 2,000 units. It also
includes Core Series 2 animations, games and you'll get access to the premiere
issue of mimoco's mimoZine Digital Magazine, featuring music by Art Brut,
comedy by Poykpac, and a rare interview with toy bootlegger Sucklord.
I
was impressed how fast these drives installed and worked. On Vista they were
quickly picked up, did not require any special drivers and offered very fast
access time. The software installed easily and included all sorts of nice
extras from wallpapers to sounds, screensavers to icons. They are cute, collectible and very
functional – what a lovely combination.
Other
extras include T-Shirts, vinyl toys, dolls and keychains.
This review will appear in Volume 2 No.3
(2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.
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