We’re talking 12 years of Habbo as this page gets public, but the idea to do a section on ‘real’ Habbo stuff was posed by Star-Fighter many years ago. It never got on top of agenda, but we collected a lot of (pictures, but also items itself) in those years. So I (Luucaz) think it’s safe to say this is gonna be an as close to complete you can get overview of real life items related to Habbo Hotel.

Most relevant part is a list of publications throughout the years, but there’s something exclusive in the finale, beautifully photographed by Emmerrrrrrr (who does that way better than I do, sorry for quality of some pictures). And in general, you might find it fun to browse through loads of merchandise and related.

With a little help from zAccordion, jScrollPane and ProLoser/AnythingSlider. Bobba shirt/.com bag picture by 7piep.

Throughout the years, a lot of printed material has been published around Habbo Hotel and its users. Below is an overview of those. To start with, there’s a 2006 Finnish little book, which is a “Ystäväkirja”/friendbook. Create your own profile on the blue page, let your friends fill in their profile on the yellow pages, and put a matching sticker (included) on their profile.

Another published item is actually a cookbook (‘Herkut’), in Finland (2007), edited by Cerri and Tuu, design by Rikke (Haro). Fun to see, really nicely designed (some new original pixel graphics there, and stickers) - not so sure on our Star-Fighters’ fruit baguette though :p.

An English publication (2005) is “Just another day; the story of Habbo Hotel”. It’s a bit of a weird publication, in our eyes. There’s not that much added content when you compare to promotion booklets (below). Apart from being an introduction, it features a couple of pages explaining there was ‘Mobiles Disco’ and Kyrpov and Apparatus wanting to build something bigger (and doing it in 7 days, day 8 & 9 they rested), plus a printed version of catalogue items at the time. That said, printed on glossy paper, hardcover with imprinted front and extra paper sleeve, looks great.

Less shiny (though hardcover) is our favorite publication, the “Habbo Käsikirja” (handbook), Finnish, 2006. This one is full of - meaningful - content. Besides lots of interviews (you can find here), lots of historical pictures and facts, same printed catalogue, user testimonials, info on kidspeak, Finnish staff, what to do and lots more. Not knowing Finnish (but having Star-Fighter to translate as needed (and being featured in the book)) it’s a necessity to really check all the graphic details to find all sorts of historic stuff.

Most recent is the “Global Habbo Youth Survey 2008”, least interesting from a fan perspective (no new pixel graphics, lots of vector graphics). It’s mostly numbers, interesting for businesses selling to kids, and the numbers are about you (and us). What do we buy, why, what kind of people kids are, getting divided into 5 categories (creatives, achievers, rebels, loners and traditionals). Purchase late and get a brand update 2009 (A4) shipped too.

School years 2006-07 and 2007-08 Sulake published agenda’s, at least in Finland and Holland/Belgium, but probably more countries. Some fun original graphics at times, stickers included, but not continued. Pictures are Dutch version, covers differed by country. That o(c)(k)tober/halloween page is funny, btw, features stones with names/nicks of some designers (vaihe, muikku, tarkas, someguy, rikke, kuraattori), but also ‘lol’, ‘asl’, ‘brb’, ‘idle’, ‘1337’ and - know your history - Mikkotheboy (plus Hunter S. Thompson ?!). Also, it seems in Finland there were earlier planners released ?

Last, Mark Bamford/Dionysus showed a Norwegian promotional booklet (in BTP (#VIII)), being an introduction to Habbo plus code for some free credits, probably included with some magazine. More countries had this, this is Dutch version, included with teen music magazine ‘Hitkrant’.

For the die-hards, eBay, Amazon, Google (and Google translate to browse some Finnish online bookstores), lots of patience, and payment options (paypal, occasionally a/your dads creditcard) still show you can get your hands on these items, or at least some of them.

In 2006 two local CD’s were produced, one for Finland, one for Germany. The one in Finland, ‘Dj FUSE Vol. 1’ contains mostly Finnish popular music (Lordi anyone? ;) and also has a bonus DVD, with some clips of songs, a Habbo introduction and some TV spots by Habbo. Coöperation with Sony/BMG.

The German CD, ‘Best of Black Music & Hip Hop’, was a coöperation with EMI and is basically a sampler of the labels black music and hip hop (obviously) at the time.

Habbo user ‘berrie’ send us these pictures of Mobiles’ CD ‘Disko tänä yönä’, a gift from a Finnish friend. Notice the references to playmobil (clip in our attic, also linked by berrie), and the ‘Mobiles Disco’ site. Berrie: “I joined Mobiles Disco sometime in late 1999 or early 2000 (…). The aforementioned Finnish friend invited me to join Habbo UK (or habbo international as everyone called it back then), as there were rumours floating around that Mobiles Disco was going to close, which it eventually did by 2002. By that point, I’d started playing Habbo more often than Mobiles Disco due to the dwindling user-numbers though. The album holds immense sentimental value to me due to the fact that if it weren’t for an obscure Finnish rap group, I’d never have met all of the awesome people I met thanks to Mobiles Disco, and thanks to Habbo Hotel all those years ago. It just feels good to own it if that makes any sense.” Makes every sense.

A little obscurity/trivia. If you ever encounter a vinyl EP called “The Habbo way”, by Jay Tripwire/Domnahl featuring Leanne with tracks “bobba this”, “bobba it deeper” and “bobba beats”, don’t be fooled. The reference is clear, but no relation to Habbo apart from that.

We’re no experts, but you’ll be getting some house beats, nothing Habbo-ish.

From early days on, Habbo sold extra’s and/or gave them away in competitions. Phone decorations, postcards, keychords, pins, wallets (an Ice Café and Habburgers version) and more. All through their own site.

In 2006, a new section on the Habbo website appeared, ‘Habbo Shop’, where you could purchase stuff/games for phones, and later on a collaboration with spreadshirt appeared. One could choose from a collection of habbo graphics, customize colors, size of graphics and their placement, then have it printed on a variety of shirts and bags.

While the shop disappeared, Habbo just linked to partners that would create merchandise for them. Early 2007 Sulake partnered with Moo to produce mini-cards and stickers. For the cards, customize background, get your own Habbo avator on and customize text. Not available anymore. The stickers, only which are included and jacket customizable. These are still available, here.

Seen available (not anymore) on buy.com, messenger bags, boy and girl version.

Somewhere in 2006, a series of images popped up, showing some habbo product designs.

We’re not sure if all of it got into production, but a couple of them were made for sure, as they popped up on a website called withcharacter(kids).com (dysfunctional), for sale. These were the doormats (at least one bobba mat in Helsinki HQ), the ‘Habbo’ pillow (9), the skull pillow and the purple pod chair.

What’s more, the pod chair that got into production even contained a set of build in speakers, pretty cool.

Habbo graphics have appeared on numerous products around the world, promoting the product by giving out credits, codes for special items and related. Like the ‘Leaf’ eggs, (Finland, Easter 2011).

The eggs contained codes for furniture (teleports), special effects and badges. Sort-alike campaigns were build around many other brands, like Capri-sun, Calippo, Clearasil etc.

Local offices over the years also had locally produced items the promote hotel itself, or to show off a collaboration. Think keychords, mouse mats, door hangers, bags, shirts, posters, pens and any promotional items imaginable… (thank you to AndyATW for pointing out some wristbands that were recently given away by habbo.es at their booth at the Spanish Gamergy convention!)

Quite a few unique items featured in Behind the pixels VIII. Other unique items include some customized skateboards, in competitions around 2008. The people from Habbies won 2 even (click to see finished version).

Need to mention, every hotel/country had its scratch/payment cards, promoted as ‘collectors items’, hence featuring numerous Habbo designs. This is an Australian set done by kotone.

And there’s this. Rumor says it was an christmas gift given to Sulake employees once. You can tell what it is by just watching, right ? Box on the left is its packaging.

And lately notMiceElf/Jeff Stehney twittered these, cards (as pixels) being a US staff gift, the - awesome - posters meant for a competition that didn’t came to be (their pixeled glory is here).