Kawaii smartphone charger cable covers: Cable Bite, Cord Keeper, and Hug Cot
Hands up if you own a smartphone! Okay, that was a stupid question. And if you’re reading this on your phone, maybe you haven’t got a hand free to put up… But how about this question: do you own anything to protect your smartphone’s charger cable when it’s plugged in?
Open up whatever internet browser app you use, and search for ‘cable accessories from Japan’. ‘Cause we’ve got more than enough.
(And remember, none of these come with a charger cable! You’ll need to buy one of those separately.)
Cable Bite
The series that started it all. Original Cable Bites really do ‘bite’ down on your charger cable, with their wide open mouths. Can’t see any teeth, but never mind that.
Dreams Inc. is the company behind the Cable Bite phenomenon – we’ve written about their weird and wonderful products before. And when we say ‘phenomenon’, we mean it. There’s a notice on the official website saying Dreams Inc. took legal action (and won) against 6 Chinese factories making fake Cable Bites.
Cable Bite sets started off with loads of different kinds of animals, then moved into anime, sports and character collabs:
- Sanrio Characters
- Crayon Shin-chan
- Minions
- Urusei Yatsura
- Dragonball
- Pokemon
- Kirby
- Gundam
- One Piece
- Kamen Rider
Some Cable Bites don’t bite, and have their mouths shut. With characters like Miffy and Hello Kitty, that makes sense – no mouth to use. And for Minions, we guess if it’s not a banana there’s no way they’d eat it…
You can also pick out a Cable Bite Glow, for spotting your phone and cable in the dark. Or a Cable Bite Big for connecting to a plug socket (including the Pokemon Cable Bite Big set)… do we need to explain those?
Cord Keeper
Once it was clear smartphone addicts were going crazy for Cable Bites, other versions started popping up. Like the Cord Keeper! series. With the exclamation mark.
This rival range is produced by Re-ment, the gacha kings. That’s how we got official character Cord Keeper sets straight out the gate:
You won’t see that many open mouths – some, but they’re rare. Most Cord Keepers sit on the cable to keep it steady, or there’s some object under the character that’s doing the holding instead.
As gacha blind boxes, they often come packed with a piece of gum. And they’re priced similarly to other capsule toy collections.
Hug Cot
Okay, so the first 2 names make sense, but what’s up with this? Hug Cot sounds like something babies sleep in. We’re talking about a Bandai series here, though, so maybe there’s logic behind the weirdness.
Look closer and you’ll see the reason in the shape. Each character’s holding their arms out, like they’re hugging the cable. Or using their ears to wrap around, if their name’s Cinamoroll (that’s Sanrio in for the 3rd time…). No biting or sitting involved.
And the ‘Cot’ bit? It’s short for ‘mascot’.
Hug Cot sets are kinda different from the other 2, and not just in design. The item descriptions say you can clip them to your headphones as well.
On top of that, it’s the cheapest option on the list – and the first to come out with a Disney character set and a Detective Conan set.
Bites, (finders) keepers, or hugs? Hey, whatever works for you
Accessorise your phone with kawaii stuff from Japan! There’s a mountain of cable accessories out there, including all these smartphone charger protectors we listed.
