This mug featuring Hello Kitty is sold exclusively at the Hello Kitty Grand Cafe in Irvine, CA to guests of the Afternoon Tea or weekend Cocktail Service in the Bow Room.

Hello Kitty (Japanese: ハロー・キティ, Hepburn: Harō Kiti), also known by her full name Kitty White (キティ・ホワイト, Kiti Howaito), is a fictional character created by Yuko Shimizu, currently designed by Yuko Yamaguchi, and owned by the Japanese company Sanrio. Sanrio depicts Hello Kitty as a young female gijinka (anthropomorphization) of a Japanese Bobtail cat with a red bow and no mouth. According to her backstory, she is a perpetual third-grade student who lives outside of London.

Since the character's creation in 1974, the Hello Kitty media franchise has grown to include clothing, accessories, toys, games, books, manga, anime series, and music albums, along with other various product lines and media productions. By 2010, Sanrio had turned Hello Kitty into a global marketing phenomenon, worth $6 billion a year. By 2014, when Hello Kitty was 40 years old, she was worth about $8 billion a year. Hello Kitty has become one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.

Hello Kitty is a staple of the kawaii segment of Japanese popular culture. First marketed toward pre-teenage girls, Hello Kitty's image found commercial success among not only her original target audience but adolescent and adult consumers as well.

Some speculation, though not confirmed, that Hello Kitty was inspired by the Maneki Neko (Beckoning Cat).

This is a lidded pineapple mug covered with tiny skulls. It somewhat resembles the entrance to the bar, whose wall of skulls is illuminated in blue light as you walk down the stairs. White exterior with gold leaves at top. There is also a brown version with green leaves, a white version with gold leaves, and a yellow version with green leaves.

This is a lidded pineapple mug covered with tiny skulls. It somewhat resembles the entrance to the bar, whose wall of skulls is illuminated in blue light as you walk down the stairs. White exterior with gold leaves at top. There is also a brown version, a pink version with blue leaves, and a yellow version.

This is an edition of 100 in this color-way. Banana yellow with a light purple/lavender wipe away and interior. Available at the Shag Store.

From Max's South Seas website:

"This mug was designed by California artist Shag. It’s based on an Andres Bumatay carving that can be found inside Max’s South Seas. The carving’s original home was the Village Apartments, Playa del Rey, CA, a Polynesian-themed apartment complex. Luckily, it was salvaged by collector Jordan Reichek when the apartment complex was torn down.

This carving is now mounted on the A-frame back bar inside Max’s (see photo.)

In our Grand Rapids ceramic studio, Max’s has produced 200 mugs in this Avocado glaze color. Each mug is numbered on the bottom and includes a numbered certificate of authenticity.

More info about the Village Apartments:

Located in a surprisingly welcomed proximity just over 3200 feet from the North tarmac of the Los Angeles Airport, The Polynesian Village Apartment complex was the epitome of primitive, space-age bachelor pad living for 1962. Designed again by prolific mid-century architects, Armet & Davis, the immersive environment featured a stylishly themed atmosphere, complete with 24/7 flaming gas Tiki torches and cascading lava rock waterfalls. Made in a series of three sister developments across Los Angeles county, the dingbat cubist apartment structures were adorned with redwood carvings by the renowned sculptor team of Andres Bumatay and Richard Ellis. Astonishingly, no two figures are alike and the contemporary free form nature of these rescued artifacts endure as the quintessential definition of 'Tiki-Modern'."

NOTE: This Pau Meli design was originally produced in three different glazes and quantities of each for Max's South Seas: Avocado & Orange (200), a Leopard glaze (100), and a Rainbow glaze (25). There were also Artist Proofs.

This mug is a very squared off Marquesan style standing tiki. It was produced in a number of different glaze colors.

This is an ashtray shaped like half of a clam shell. The underside is glazed in matte Treasure Craft brown and the front is glaze in glossy green, except for the handle which has an oval emblem marked "Polynesian Village".

This is a standard restaurant-ware teapot made of white-glazed ceramic and imprinted with a palms and outrigger logo with a flower lei. Marked for "Mark Thomas Outrigger".

This is a mug shaped like a baboon's skull. It is marked for "Wusong Road" on reverse and bears the Oakwash logo on bottom. This version is red with some black wipe-away to make the sculpted details pop.

These crude-looking primitive tiki shakers are each made of heavy ceramic and glazed in beige with "S" and "P" spelled out in holes on top accordingly. "Trader Vic's" labeled on back in raised lettering.

This is the logo mug for Tiki Cat. It features a cat-like tiki head with snarling open mouth and two huge fangs top and bottom. The top rim of the head is encircled by flames. The reverse depicts a smaller house cat wearing a fez and lei and drinking from a tiki mug.

Glazed in a dark brown.

This mug depicts a masked native in loincloth holding a tiki mask up in front of their face, and the mask is modeled after the tiki painted by BigToe (Tom Laura) in his work entitled "Howie's Tiki Lanai".

BigToe describes this painting as: "A gorgeous black-haired tattooed woman poses with a Hawaiian-style Tiki in front of a window revealing a heavenly Polynesian view. The dramatic sunset sky emphasizes the passion. The more you look at the dark and mysterious tiki bar interior, the more you will find."

This version has a green mask. There was an edition of 25 by Rob with a red mask and good straight teeth. Big Toe also had a red masked Super Limited edition with bad busted up/cracked teeth which was limited to 5 pieces. Both the red-masked versions were released at the 2022 Arizona Tiki Oasis

This green version was limited to 10 pieces and was released at Tiki Oasis, August 4th-8th, 2022 in San Diego.

From Smuggler's Cove:

"The Ward Warehouse held a special place in Gecko’s heart, a place where he and his family shared countless days and evenings of leisure, and where his son Kainoa performed hula with his halau.

Today he transforms that rare wood into fantastic works of art -- one of which is now proudly displayed at Smuggler’s Cove. As part of this commission, he also produced a matching highly detailed sculpt and master mold for our first collaborative special edition mug. The mold was shipped from Hawaii to Max’s ceramics studio in Grand Rapids, and was painstakingly brought to life by their exceptional team of ceramicists. Handmade in the USA, we are pleased to offer a matte brown limited edition of 100 mugs and a Super Deluxe Edition of 50 featuring red and yellow paint and bright red interior glaze.

The matte brown edition will be released at Smuggler’s Cove on Sunday, July 17th at 5pm for $200 each. Strictly one per household, and numbers will be randomized. Any unsold mugs will be sold online at smugglerscovesf.com starting at 10am PDT on Tuesday, July 19th. US Shipping addresses only, limit one per household.

The Super Deluxe Edition will be sold by raffle ticket. Raffle tickets will go on sale Tuesday July 19th as well. Winners will be offered the opportunity to purchase the mug for $275 and the drawing will take place on Friday, July 29th. US Shipping addresses only, limit one per household."