Celebrate Summer With This Hello Kitty Tomatoes-Themed Film Camera

Jun 14, 2024

A Hello Kitty-themed camera is placed on a pile of fresh red tomatoes. The camera has a white and red checkered design with multiple Hello Kitty faces and a red wrist strap. A tomato-themed charm is attached to the strap.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based product design studio Retrospekt has partnered with Sanrio to release a limited-edition Hello Kitty Tomatoes-themed FC-11 35mm film camera.

Retrospekt made a name for itself by refurbishing antique Polaroids but in recent years has expanded to its own line of compact film cameras that it often pairs with pop culture artwork. It’s featured Howard Schultz’s Peanuts, the work of Even Weslmann, the look of Santa Cruz’s Killer Acid, and even Sanrio in the past. This time, the partnership is not just limited in availability though, but also in scope. While previous partnerships have featured multiple cameras and accessories, this time it’s a single camera offering.

A white and pink camera adorned with Hello Kitty designs featuring small Hello Kitty and strawberry images. It has "Hello Kitty" written in red on the front and a matching red wrist strap with a strawberry charm.

The camera’s design features a red and white gingham pattern that is meant to look like a classic picnic tablecloth that is then covered in Hello Kitty Tomato artwork. It’s one of four new Sanrio items that are tomato-themed, including two t-shirts and a glass tumbler.

“Inescapably fun, the new illustrations—produced specifically for this camera as part of a joint effort by the teams at Sanrio and Retrospekt—show Hello Kitty wearing a jaunty tomato costume, surrounded by juicy tomatoes,” Retrospekt explains. “The camera’s packaging maintains this theme, integrating the same gingham pattern and tomato-themed Hello Kitty artwork.”

A black and white point-and-shoot camera with a red wrist strap attached. The strap features a small charm shaped like a strawberry. The camera's minimalistic design includes a viewfinder, flash, and a simple control wheel on the top.

“They said ‘how about something with tomatoes’ and then let us put Hello Kitty in a tomato hat,” Retrospekt Creative Director Michael Kempen explains. “Sanrio has this crazy deep fan base that really understands the potential for quirkiness in that world. What could seem odd for a different character or brand seemed incredibly natural here. Like, of course Hello Kitty has a tomato costume in her closet! All we had to do was decide what it looked like.”

A red lanyard with a cute pendant featuring Hello Kitty's face inside a tomato design. The tomato has a green stem and a red bow on Hello Kitty's head. The pendant is attached to the red cord with a small metal ring.

The camera behind the berry-themed artwork is no different from other FC-11 cameras Retrospect has released in the past. It features a fixed 31mm f/9 fixed-focus lens at a fixed 1/120 of a second exposure. It’s a pretty standard 35mm point-and-shoot film camera that takes either ISO 200 or 400 film.

A Hello Kitty-themed camera is placed on a red and white checkered fabric surrounded by six large red tomatoes. The camera has a white body with a red and white checkered pattern and features Hello Kitty illustrations. The scene is set on green grass.