So, as some of you may remember, a long time ago my friend Amy and I decided to have a Katamari Craft-Off as pretty much a total goof and a way to put our love of Katamari Damacy to good use. She set the bar high by sending me this, a cross-stitched portrait of Kuro:

This has subsequently been framed, and random people who have been to parties at our apartment have had their picture taken with it (no joke).

It took me awhile to come up with a proper response, but I sent her this, a multimedia piece depicting Opeo rolling a huge katamari across a meadow (or is it a field?):

I was really proud of this, and Amy credits it with helping her land her current beau (apparently she asked him over to see her “awesome Katamari Damacy painting”).

Months passed without much thought of Katamari Crafts, until I received a small box in the mail last month. Inside was an invitation to Round Two in the form of a sculpted katamari…but that’s not all. There were also a number of meticulously sculpted and detailed objects, and a number of small magnets - all of the objects have a metal core, and can be connected to the katamari by way of magnets. What’s more, there was even a little Prince of the Cosmos to push the katamari around!

Words cannot describe this beauty. You can see larger photos of this on my Flickr, but here are some of the best ones in blog-sized form.

The beauty is in the details - the battery says “BATAMARI” on it, the fire extinguisher says “Katamari Fire Dept,” and other such goodness.

Anyway, the gauntlet has been thrown down once more, and I am still trying to figure out the best way to respond - I have a couple of ideas, but I really need to come correct with this. I’ll post some pictures once I can get a proper comeback put together!

Related posts:

1. the Katamari Craft-Off!
2. still no word from Los Angeles
3. I’m counting down the hours until the Project Runway finale
4. the SEIBEI SLOGANOFF contest continues!
5. it’s the evolutionary imperative!