Crab penholder

Crab penholder
[PVC, 50mm x 40mm x 35mm, assorted colours]
These adorable “weightlifting crabs” are taking our desktops to the next level! With claws aloft, they hold our pens up for our easy access and unique display. For the five-year-old at heart (like us), they’re great fun to play with when you’re supposed to be taking notes.

After we discovered that most of the weightlifting crabs available on the market are actually counterfeit items, we resolved not to stock them until we were able to secure a supply through legitimate channels. It is important to us that we respect the artists that give us joy with their creations– the sculptor of these charming crustaceans is 田中稔 (Tanaka Minoru) of ahnitol.com, and we are delighted to reassure our customers that the crabs we stock are genuine. We know this, because we are buying directly from the artist himself! Shipping from Japan has finally resumed after the initial post stoppage due to COVID-19, and better still, we were able to get in a huge array of colours– even some that until now had only been available at in-person events in Japan.

We’ve given the crabs Japanese names to differentiate between the different colours (you don’t realize how few colour words English has until you want to distinguish between different shades of the same hue!) and to make sure that you don’t accidentally double up if you’ve purchased from us before, please note the following:

Aka is the new name for the crab we previously sold as red.
Ruri is the new name for the crab we previously sold as blue.
Moegi is the new name for the crab we previously sold as green.
Ebizome is the new name for the crab we previously sold as purple.

New in the standard colours are:
Yuki (snow) — a white crab and
Chikyū (earth) — a rich brown crabbo.

Gold and silver crabs are not part of Ahnitol’s current production range.

Haiume (naked), Namagani (raw), Nichibotsu (sunset), and Kaiyo (ocean) crabs are special edition colours at a higher price point. Joining these special guys are Watāme (fairyfloss) and Hinode (sunrise).

There’s also a new critter! Check out Ebi, the shrimp!