In late June, technology firm Buffalo released a new series of USB flash memory drives called "Swattears," consisting of a 2GB capacity drive built into a 7cm cubric figure resembling Ayanami Rei, the famous character from the Evangelion series. The memory resides in the legs of the figure and becomes accessible through a port that folds down from the back when the figure is in a seated position. Each Swattears comes with a "sofa," or external USB docking port upon which the character can rest when not sitting on your computer. As a bonus to Windows OS users, the drive will be represented by a corresponding character icon on the desktop while mounted. The total package, which includes a USB extension cable, is priced at 2,980 yen. 

So far, both Ultraman and Puchi Eva Ayamami Rei versions have been created. However, as both were priced reasonably and limited to only 3,000 pieces they sold out quickly. According to the maker Buffalo there are no plans for any character re-releases and that they are still considering which characters to employ for future releases. Some crafty individuals are already reselling theirs at Amazon.jp for over four times the price. However, this may be what it takes to have these all-time-favorite characters "always at your side," as Buffalo's inspiration for the Swattears series suggests.

ULTLAMAN Flash Drive ( pic )

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