This is easily the best bathtub toy I have ever seen.  I want these just to throw in the pool but I am sure my daughter will enjoy them in the tub.  Furocchi are made by Sega Toys and are a battery powered aquatic toy that swims via a small motor.  From what I can tell they can dive, surface and turn, but that seems to be random as they just swim wherever they want.  So the toy itself is pretty cool, what kills me is the website and the advertising for the toy.  Once again this is a site that I can not read, but was at least able to navigate to the Furrochi home page.  On the note of spelling and Japanese and all that, I have seen this toy spelled a few different ways including Furocchi, and Furocci.  I have no idea which is correct, but on eBay it is listed as Furocci.

How do you advertise a bathtub toy, without making the advertisement seem, pedophilic?  You want to be able to show kids having fun in the bathtub with the toy, but that requires putting kids in a bathtub, and having them play with the toys.  Yes, the children have swimsuits on I am sure, but I am also sure these commercials would violate several laws in the United States.  Aside from the commercials, the graphics that they use on the website are just stunning!  Take these for example:

Apparently if you play with these toys in the tub you will have good dreams about playing with toys in the tub.  The next picture is a bit disturbing as it appears the child is unsupervised in the tub and apparently drowning.  Ok, he probably isn’t drowning, and the parent is just slightly out of the frame, and it is showing that the toy could encourage the child to put his or her face in the water.  I guess this makes Furocchi a useful toy if you have a kid that might be afraid of submerging their face.

I am sure the direction of the site is that while these toys are cool and swim around randomly, they also promote mental stimulation and make bath time fun and relaxing for children.

I want to buy like 10 of these and throw them in a fishtank.  It will be just like having fish without all the hassle, you know, like having to feed them.  I guess every once in a while I will have to change their batteries, but that should be cheaper and easier than feeding them, cleaning the tank, making sure the chemicals in the water are balanced etc. etc.  I bet cats would find them just as amusing as real fish, just maybe not quite as tasty.  I suppose I might get annoyed after a while because they would run into the glass, and even goldfish avoid that.

So maybe Furocchi don’t fall under the term useless but amusing, rather an amusing toy that I could live without but will probably buy because I am a sucker for cool little toys.  Besides me being a sucker when I played the video for my daughter (1 year old) her eyes lit up and she was trying to grab them off the laptop screen.  (Yes, I am wrapped around her little fingers already….).

If you can read Japanese and feel like translating the site for me, find out how long the batteries last!!