tussauds

Has Madame Tussauds gone mad with a hyper-real version of an unreal cat?

Madame Tussauds Hong Kong said hello to a new Hello Kitty wax figurine yesterday as the museum's newest A-list "celebrity". The world’s most famous kitten, with her trademark frothy pink style, took four months to 'waxify' at a cost of US$232,250 (HK$1.8 million). The Madame Tussauds team worked with Sanrio Wave Hong Kong to ensure "total accuracy" of the icon. The attraction is known for sculpting realistic versions of real people, so this new addition boggles our minds a bit (sociologist Umberto Eco's term “the authentic fake” comes to mind). Yet we cannot dispute the hold the innocuous feline has over the psyches of many children, not to mention child-like adults (kidults), so we won't bet against it drawing crowds.