Star Wars Addicts Beware

By Manny Jaime, Gaming and Technology Correspondent

April 11, 2008 - Flash drive, jump drive, thumb drive, or pocket ram, whatever you call them, portable USB flash memory drives are ubiquitous these days. Though they began circulating in sizes so small that their utility was questionable, falling prices on flash memory have now allowed useful sizes like 2-to-8-GBs to decline to highly affordable price brackets. Now much smaller and rugged than portable hard drives, and more widely compatible, USB flash memory drives can be extremely handy for transporting critical files between computers, or simply as repositories for music or videos that you want to share with friends or show off at work.

On the other hand, flash drives won't do you much good if you don't remember to bring them along on trips, but sadly, the majority are so generic looking they're easy to lose, forget, or simply ignore. Mimoco, however, essentially created the market for designer jump drives, and for the past couple of years has offered limited edition flash drives cool enough to be collectables and stylish enough to never be forgotten at home or lost in the office.

In addition to a variety of fanciful Japanese-inspired monster looking things, Mimoco also scored the Star Wars license from Lucas Arts. The company is currently on its second round of Star Wars mimobots designs, each of which is limited in production to between 2,500 to 5,000 units.

The Series 2 Star Wars line features Leia, Luke, Han, and Boba Fett in flash drive form, with 1-GB ($49.95), 2-GB ($69.95), and 4-GB ($109.95) options available in each design. Though mildly marked up compared to generic ram drives, the unique designs and shiny, colorful paint jobs of the mimobots certainly offer a high degree of perceived value, as well as utility derived from their memorable nature. To sweeten the deal, each Star Wars mimobot leaves Mimoco with a 90-MB zip file filled with Star Wars themed icons, IM avatars, sound clips, wallpapers, and screen savers for both Macs and PCs.

Some of the extras are a bit questionable, like the wallpapers that generally only feature mimobot art superimposed on scenes from the films, but other bits, like the alternative icons, are nicely designed and pretty cool. Each mimobot also comes packages with a form fitting carrying pouch with a clip for keychains or whatnot. In the end, the real value of the Star Wars mimobots is their nostalgic reference to a galaxy far, far away and their consequential ability to impress onlookers and remain an item owners remember to pocket before leaving the house. We dig them.