Thumb drives have dressed in the guise rubber duckies, plates of spaghetti, tiki idols and sushi, as well as pulling double duty as executive pens, laser pointers, wrist watches and spy cameras.

Apparently, USB flash drives as comic relief aren't a passing fad, either. As Douglas Krone, CEO of thumb drive reseller Dynamism Inc., put it "once something becomes an everyday item, that's when we want something to be unique about it."

Krone's company sells USB thumb drives that come as actual rubber thumbs, stuffed animals, and mini-SUVs, but his company's hottest selling item is the sushi drive -- flash memory in the raw.

The idea for the sushi drive was born when Kunihiro Kawahara, CEO of Tokyo-based USB manufacturer Solid Alliance Inc., decided he wanted to send a gift to business partners and friends. One day while walking through Tokyo's restaurant district, he took in the ubiquitous wax sushi replicas adorning restaurant windows and decided it was a match. "(Solid Alliance) happened upon this incredible phenomenon," Krone said. The company isn't alone. Dolling up USB drives has become something like a cottage industry, with new designs appearing regularly.

Charles King, an analyst at Pund-IT Research in Hayward, Calif., says like the cell phone and MP3 player, the thumb drive's miniature size has collided with the infinite uses for resin material.