See-Thru Pikachu!

It's a simple fact of marketing that you can sell anything to a child if you slap one of their beloved characters on it, be it Spongebob, Dora the Explorer, or George Plimpton. Not to slight the video games, but this philosophy of aggressive licensing has largely been the driving force behind the unstoppable Pokémon franchise which, if you can believe this, has been going nonstop for 13 straight years now. No longer satisfied with TV shows, movies, collectible card games, plush dolls, bed sheets, school supplies, instant ramen, perfumes, and toothbrushes, Pokémon have finally cracked the wildly competitive and lucrative... mobile x-ray machine market? As if your kids weren't already pestering you enough about getting that mobile x-ray machine!

OK, so maybe the Pokémon x-ray machine isn't as insane as it might sound. The idea is that patients are easier to treat when they're relaxed, and kids will chill out when they see Chimchar and Piplup and Pikachu and all the other recognizable Pokémon on the machine that will bombard their tiny bodies with invisible radiation. Check out manufacturer Shimadzu's website for more details, provided you can read Japanese.