Japanese online retailer Felissimo has often teamed up with zoos and aquariums to reproduce plushies of the respective facility's famous animals, including a kiwi pretending to be a kiwi fruit and remarkable transforming Japanese Spider Crab.

Felissimo is back at it again, this time teaming up with the Oji Zoo in Kobe to turn their famous Giant Panda Tan Tan into a plushie...only it's not just the panda herself, it's the panda as a rice ball!

Now you might be wondering, other than color scheme, why fuse onigiri (rice balls) and a giant panda together as a plushie. The reason for this is that Tan Tan is often compared to a rice ball by zoo visitors, especially when viewed from behind!

Staff at Oji Zoo oversaw production to make sure all of Tan Tan's features were captured in the new super squeezable plushies, which come in four rice ball varieties: salt, salmon roe, umeboshi (pickled plum), and tempura.

The miniature panda squeezy plushies are, well, squeezy! So feel free to release your stress or give a hand hug to the panda rice ball hybrid.

They can also be attached to your bag as an accessory.

The panda rice ball squeezie plushies are available from Felissimo's online shop. You can view international shipping here (they don't seem to be in stock there at the time of writing, so keep an eye out!)


By - grape Japan editorial staff.