I've always had friends that were obsessed with Stitch. I saw Lilo and Stitch growing up, though I wouldn't say I was a superfan. Skip to June of this year for the movie's 20th anniversary. This little blue guy is everywhere at the mall. There's an entire kiosk themed around experiment 626, a Build-a-Bear Stitch sitting outside the store, and an entire wall of merchandise at a place called Box Lunch.
It's insane to me how much stuff came out of it. Plushies were a no-brainer, apparel is another easy sell, but things like mini backpacks with ears were new to me. It's the kind of thing I wished for growing up as a kid: normal stuff but made around stuff I like. Early 2000's Pokemania somewhat accomplished this, but in comparison to the amount of pop-culture themed items I see today at normal stores like Target blows my mind.
One of my happiest childhood memories was waking up in the hospital after a scary surgery to see two pokemon plushies on the bed with me. The hospital I had the surgery in was near a bunch of stores and a mall. My dad picked me up a Jigglypuff and a Pikachu while waiting and kept calling them "pokeymans". I didn't even know they made plushies of these guys and was so excited to see something from a cartoon I liked in front of me.
I always think back to that now, how happy younger me would be to see the world today, and how much money they'd spend collecting 'em all.
