Swarovski-encrusted music player

Thirty-five years ago, Hello Kitty dropped an atomic cute bomb on the world and the universe was forever changed.

Over the past three and half decades, Kitty's face has graced tens of thousands of products, from underwear, stationary, and airplanes to cell phones, digital cameras, and Netbooks.

Fortunately (or tragically, depending on your perspective), the global fat cat shows no sign of loosening her claw-like grip on the consumer electronics industry, so to fete the feline on her special occasion, we breathed a sigh of resignation and gathered some of the most frightening cutest Hello Kitty gadgets from the past year.

This 35th anniversary limited-edition iRiver Hello Kitty music player is studded with more than 300 Swarovski crystals in white, black, red, and yellow. You can hang it from your neck with the included Audio-Technica earphones or let it dangle from your purse or other fashion accessory. It also doubles as a lighthouse in heavy fog. The 2GB player can hold about 480 tunes and sells for about $155 at iRiver's Japan online store.

Read more in our related article: "Hello Kitty turns 35, claws at our collective soul"

November 20, 2009 4:00 AM PST

Photo by: iRiver

| Caption by: Tim Hornyak