Jaywalking across a busy Tokyo street turns out to be the easiest part of finding out who makes this stroller/car seat. We were out for a Sunday stroll (in like 110 degree, 100% humidity blazing sunlight, thanks) when I spotted a couple pushing this rig. They said it's from the French brand Nanii, and they love it. It's light, rides well, fits through all the subway turnstiles (unlike the Bugaboo), the tiny mom said it's no problem to lift up stairs or detaching the thing. And of course, it's greatlooking and French.
Well, Toys R Us Japan says the Nanii Baby Go! was named after Mary Poppins (always with the celebrities!), and can be used as a stroller, a car seat, an infant carrier, and a rocking chair. The nicely curved legs are of the same injection-molded plastic as the car seat body. It's good for kids up to 13kg or 18 months [what the Eurocrats call Group O/1, I think.] Suggested retail is 31,500 yen, but TRU's selling it for 24,000.
Tracking down the actual manufacturer, though, took some doing. Turns out it's called Nania, and it's made by the fine French folks at Team-Tex. Judging from the corporate sites, Japan got the only good fabric: red. And Team-Tex's site has a product called the Nania Limited Racing Topper which supposedly goes up to group 3 (36kg), but it still looks like an infant car seat.
Also, this rig is "new in Japan," but there are parts of the Nania site which haven't been updated since 2000 (What happened, did the nephew who knew the web go back to grad school or something?). Their main retailers appear to be the hypermarche's like Auchan and Carrefour, so I'm sure they're too busy coordinating bulk shipments to care much about the site.
Anyway, just throwing it out there. A little international stroller/car seat of mystery for you.
The Nanii Baby Go! Car Seat/Stroller is 23,999 at Toys R Us Japan
[toysrus.co.jp]
See the manufacturer's nifty retro, 2000-style websites at Team-Tex.com and Nania.com
update: DT reader Becsy found it for sale in It'ly for EUR170. Normal colors and the same handle as JP, but it's called the Nania Movy. Or the Nido Moove. Think global, name local, fellas. [welcomemrbaby.com]
I saw these a while ago on " rel="nofollow">welcomemrbaby.com (based in Italy), pretty cool looking, shame that that's it after the first 15 months or so...or much less time considering that most babies probably wouldn't fit in a first stage carseat past the age of 1, and some well before that...
Erm, I'm going to be a smartarse now and point out that it's EUR169.99.....the 117 is in our good (or not!) old British pounds...
I had found the Nania site back in March and wondered where I could get their concept stroller. My boy was born in May so there may be hope yet. By the way. I preferred the cool green pattern they featured on the Nania website, not the red.
Thanks for the comments - my Wife spotted this on the Toys-R-Us web site and liked it. I am generall skeptical of all things in Japan - usually they are Japanized in some way. I'll comment after we receive it. By the way this is a web site only offering by Toys-R-Us Japan.