A Japanese artist who transforms popular pet and animal memes into astonishingly accurate resin figurines just released her latest triumph: the mask-wearing "Coronavirus Cat".
The story goes that the artist, who goes by the name “Meetissai”, was searching online for a real world representation of a meme that had amused her while net-surfing.
Unable to find what she was looking for – and having a knack for 3D-sculpting using modeling resin – she figured she'd craft her own figurine as a so-called “garage kit”.
One thing led to another and here we are: Meetissai's meme menagerie has grown exponentially to cover everything from old 'net favorites like the “hovercat” to newer and newsworthy contenders such as the well-behaved, mask-wearing, coronavirus-avoiding kitty snapped while walking on a leash somewhere in China.
Images of the latter figurine quickly went viral (no pun intended) online, no doubt due to the uniquely cute & bizarre nature of the subject.
Chinese garage kit artist Animal Kingdom noticed Meetissai's creation and were able to contact the artist with a proposition: team-up to mass produce Coronavirus Cat figurines and offer them for sale, with all proceeds going to charitable organizations in Wuhan.
Animal Kingdom's marketing clout is being exercised through an online store at the Alibaba shopping site on Taobao, where pre-orders are now being accepted while production is ramping up.
“This outbreak is really serious and we hope that this product can be a memento for everyone,” stated an Animal Kingdom spokesperson to a reporter (Abacus) from the South China Morning Post.
“We hope that when people see it, they'll remember not to kill wild animals anymore.” Er, also to wear a mask while walking your cat.
