Mobile phone provider Willcom recently demonstrated their “Kuma Phone” (Bear Phone), at the 2008 Good Design Expo in Tokyo. Now what I find amusing about that last sentence is the fact that a fuzzy stuffed animal that you hold up to your ear to make phone calls would in any stretch of the imagination be referred to as “good design”. Did I happen to mention this ridiculous thing costs about $500 bucks?

Now this isn’t just an ordinary cell phone stuffed into a toy bear. The user interface is bear-specific too. For instance, to make a call, squeeze one of its four paws for one of your speed dial numbers.

And to answer or hang up the call, you press on the bear’s tail. Of course, you never know how pissed off a bear might get if you squeeze its paws or press on its tail.

The trick to using one of these phones is to know whether it’s a black bear or a brown bear cub that’s gnawing on your ear wax. If it’s a black bear, stay completely still and it won’t claw your eyeballs out. If it’s a brown bear, run like hell… or is that the other way around?

[via CScout Japan and Impress Watch]