The PuPu UFO card from the recent Final Fantasy Magic The Gathering set inspired a new wave of fervent PuPu adoration within the editors of this blog. It’s so good. And this got us thinking: Is there any other PuPu merchandise out there?
There is. There sure is! The merchandisers at Square loved PuPu.
First off, we have the Coca-Cola PuPu figurine. Around the turn of the millennium, Square did a tie-in with Coca-Cola in Japan where they released little figurines of characters from Final Fantasies VIII, IX, and X. There’s a lot of obvious highlights, like a chibi figurine of Yunalesca holding a Coke bottle cap. But in the FF8 set, the winner is PuPu. It’s PuPu! Why! Most of the figurines in this set are core characters, except for Moogle (yep), Chocobo (checks out), Cactuar (of course), and… PuPu. PuPu!
The above PuPu is owned by this blog’s co-editor AL. Tiny PuPu is strong and beautiful.
Like many of the Coke figurines, PuPu also had a variant made of transparent red plastic. It’s kinda goofy, but I’ll happily take more PuPu. This is also the first of several pieces of stylized PuPu merch out there. We’ll see more in just a minute.
This one is of obvious interest to me: A PuPu teacup!
Now, a little bit of explanation needed for this and future items. PuPu first appeared in Final Fantasy VIII, but he has popped up in a few other games later on, specifically cameos or guest appearances in X, XIII-2, and a notable extended sidequest in XIV. So a lot of this merchandise isn’t specifically associated with Final Fantasy VIII. There’s nothing on the teacup that ties this iteration of PuPu to VIII, but I think we should count it anyway.
Much like the plushie above, there’s this recent piece of PuPu merch that you can currently get from Square! It’s part of a line of metal figurines of Final Fantasy characters. Like the tea cup, this statue isn’t associated with a specific game. Within the Bright Arts line, that puts him in the company of Cactuar and Chocobo, earning him the status of a true cultural icon.
And here’s the big one, friends. A chrome figurine of PuPu, with Final Fantasy VIII branding. Can you bring yourself to buy the PuPu statue? Can you imagine the power it will give you? Imagine having a chrome PuPu. Imagine knowing what transcendence is like. Do it. Do it. You have no control over your life. All that is left is PuPu.