Re-ment: cuteness in the palm of your hand
Blind boxes are a type of kawaii lucky dip. You know what the full set looks like, but not what’s gonna be in the box you pick out. Surprise! And for many people, that’s half the fun.
2018’s the 20th anniversary of mini collectible toy and snack maker Re-ment. They’ve lasted 20 years ’cause they create cute, well-made minis. Importantly, they create the kind of stuff people enjoy collecting.
Re-ment makes kawaii character collections, fake food toys, squishies, and colourful poop pencil topper erasers. Plus a lot more.
The ‘Puchi Sample’ series – a Re-ment original line – has over 100 mini lifestyle-themed sets to date. And they make ‘Cord Keeper’ phone cable covers, the nicely-named rival to Cable Bites. Oh yeah, and all this stuff too.
Pose Skeleton
A flexible skelly, in varied body sizes (‘person’, ‘child’, ‘kawaii woman’, ‘bigger person’ and a bunch of others) and cat and dog versions.
In maybe the biggest bait-and-switch ever, many ‘Pose Skeleton’ kits are just accessories. Included a vacuum cleaner, an electric guitar, and… a Japanese-style gravestone. We guess that last one makes the most sense.
Rilakkuma
For almost every collection, Rilakkuma’s joined by Korilakkuma and/or Kiiroitori. All with that same look on their face. It’s a winner – why else would this series be so big?
A clear theme of Re-ment Rilakkuma sets is food. Every Cord Keeper features sweets and fruits. And whoever turned Kiiroitori into an omelette for the Bistro set is a genius.
Pokemon
There are enough different Pokemon for Re-ment to make nothing but Pokemon sets, if they wanted. But they focus on the faves: Pikachu, Snorlax, Ditto, Eevee, Bulbasaur, Jigglypuff, and Slowpoke.
Re-ment’s made see-through ‘terrarium’ sets for a bunch of characters, and they’re pretty popular. The round terrariums look a bit like Pokeballs. So you can guess what they did next…
Sanrio Characters
Not every winner of the Sanrio Character Ranking contest‘s got a collection. The top 3 Re-ment Sanrio toy sets are Hello Kitty, My Melody and Gudetama. We feel kinda bad for Pompompurin and Cinnamoroll.
Each set looks like tons of effort went into the designs. You just know Sanrio’s never gonna let Re-ment skimp on item quality. Same goes for the previous Disney collabs they’ve done.
Sumikkogurashi
The Sumikko characters are a little happy family, so their sets have ‘home’/’together’ themes. An oversized kitchen spice rack here, 4 tapoica bubbles huddled together over there.
As well as being super cute, the designs are nice and simple. There’s hardly any detail (or eyebrows) on Sumikkogurashis, which must mean they’re easier for Re-ment to make.
Kirby
Re-ment loves putting clever Easter eggs in the designs of Kirby minis. Wait, did we say eggs? We meant ‘Maxim tomatoes’.
Even Nintendo’s finest pink eating machine isn’t going it alone. Kirby sets helped us finally learn the names of supporting characters. We promise to remember you, Waddle Dee!
Snoopy (Peanuts)
Because if you talk about ‘Peanuts’ in Japan, people think you only mean Snoopy. Maybe Woodstock, at a push. Poor Charlie Brown doesn’t get a look-in. Woe.
Spot a strong American theme across Re-ment’s Snoopy sets. Not just the ones with the word ‘America’ in the name, either. We’re half expecting a mini stars-and-stripes typewriter in the next collection.
Moomins
Japan loves Moomins. To death. We can’t explain it. There are Moomin cafes here, and Moomin drinks stands. So it makes sense for several Moomin Re-ment collections to exist.
Moomin sets tend to be… artsy. Their terrarium sets use weirder, quirky containers, like lightbulbs and jam jars. Is that what Japan thinks Finland’s like?
For kawaii items from Japan, think outside the box
DEJAPAN’s the place to look for authentic full Re-ment sets and individual figures.
Check Amazon Japan, Yahoo! Shopping and Rakuten for the latest collections, and hunt down older, discontinued Re-ment mini figures on Yahoo! Auctions Japan.
