Build-a-Bear: Giant Kuromi

Greetings all!

Today's post is about...you guessed it. Build a Bear review time!!

Normally I don't shop much at Build a Bear; if anything it's to grab something cute for the little ones, but never anything for myself. Last item I bought from BAB was probably at least a decade ago when I saw Chococat in regular size and bought one for myself. 

Before the surgery, I started this obsession with one of Sanrio's characters: Kuromi. The mischievous white rabbit with a jester hat, the opposite of My Melody character. Basically she's the badass of Sanrio! Her character portrays one who is a tomboy, part of a biker gang yet just wants to be loved. I collected one surprise box series which I miraculously got Kuromi too! And ended up buying another small sized plushie to try and finish my collection.

Upon checking BAB's website for something random, I stumbled upon the ultimate plush: the giant Kuromi. It was released by BAB sometime in early 2024 where it sold out fast. It wasn't available until sometime this year, where it was then removed from the website before December (for reasons unknown). In Canada, the giant plushies are not found in stores, but rather online. There are 2 options: you either order it stuffed or unstuffed. If stuffed, it will arrive in a giant cardboard box that looks quite beat up. I didn't want to go that route so I ordered the unstuffed version. The giant Kuromi would be 91cm tall once stuffed. Crazy! That's as big as my giant Pikachu.

The cost in Canadian dollars for it was $190 before taxes. Shipping is free as long as it's over $100. There's also the option of ordering a giant Kuromi tie for another $11 but I opted out of that as I didn't really see the purpose of it. 

Unfortunately with giant plushies from BAB, they do not have clothes available. If you want clothes for them, you'd have to go to a children's store to see what could fit. I thought about doing this, but I'd have to alter the clothes with a zipper or velcro because there's no way the gigantic head would fit through the shirt collar.

It took about 1.5 weeks for the order to arrive. Hubby and I went to the store to stuff in person. The first thing the associate said to us? "Yeah, wow this is the giant Kuromi! It's going to take at least 15 minutes to stuff!" and yeahhhh she was not kidding. Normally it would take a minute or two to stuff a regular size BAB. It felt a lot longer as I saw some kids coming in and I didn't want them to wait or lose out on the BAB stuffing ritual. So when a kid came in to buy a doll, I made sure to step aside with mine and let them have their glory. 

Once the stuffing was done, now it was time to get a certificate for it, and then walk out of the mall with the giant Kuromi! Due to my back at that time, I was not able to carry her through the mall so hubby had to carry Kuromi. And yeah, it's giant.

Kuromi ended up being my 'little' pre surgery gift, although she was suppose to be my post surgery gift to cheer me up. Either way, I will always associate the giant Kuromi as a surgery gift.

I'm not sure if BAB will be bringing back the giant Kuromi (their most recent release is the giant Chococat but it is sold out on the website!), but if they do, and you're a huge Kuromi fan, it's a must buy!

These are just the pros and cons from my own personal experience:

Pros:

-it's giant

-it's so soft

-you can use it for body pillow during repositioning

-a great passenger princess

Cons:

-small threadings that come undone from the plush (I guess that's why you can use the brush at BAB stores to get rid of them, which I didn't get to do)

-it's heavy

-sometimes I feel when I grab the doll, it feels like her limbs or head is about to rip off. There's a channel on Youtube about a guy who rips up BAB as a hobby and you can tell the Kuromi is easy to rip versus much older BAB dolls (yeah warning, it's going to hurt watching these dolls get ripped apart)

-easy to get dirty (Kuromi is mostly white so needs lot of caution on not to get her dirty)

-her face always looks wrinkled - maybe I didn't stuff her face enough

Now, although I may have more cons than pros, it doesn't mean I don't love the product. These are just things I noticed while in my possession. 

Here are a couple of pictures I took to compare size:

This was the day Kuromi got stuffed at the mall. She is heavy!

Giant Kuromi vs. small Kuromi vs. Toybox Kuromi vs. keychain Kuromi

My collection is quite small but I believe I am done because, well, I am running out of room HA! As for the next BAB, I'm not sure what to get. For now I think one is good enough. 

I also notice that the giant plushies did go on sale during Black Friday (it was either 30 or 40% off which is INSANE for giant plushies). Pretty much all the giant plushies were on sale except for Stitch. By that time, Kuromi was no longer on the website. 

Hope you enjoyed this little review!