Re-Ment is the name of a Japanese company
which produces detailed accessories for play and collecting. The name Re-Ment
comes from the slogan “Reform the Entertainment”, which I believe came from the
desire to create more variety in toys at a time when miniatures were largely
action figures geared towards boys. Re-ments are hyper realistic items in 1:6
scale, which is also known as playscale.
Every two inches in doll world represents one foot in the real world. To
put this explanation in simpler terms, a 12 inch Ken doll represents a six-foot
tall person in real life. To sum it up, re-ments are accessories in a size
suitable for Barbie-size dolls.
Re-ments can be purchased online: http://www.modes4u.com/en/cute/c197_Re-Ment-Miniature.html/page/all
Most re-ments are detailed food and kitchen
items. Many of these are either shaped as or decorated with features of certain
cartoon characters or made to accompany these characters. From my time on
YouTube, the most popular characters for re-ments are Rilakkuma and Hello Kitty.
I have also seen Mickey Mouse re-ments but the Japanese characters seem to be more
common.
What makes these miniatures different than
the miniature food collection I described in a previous post http://ireneyeema.blogspot.ca/2014/09/i-have-collection-of-miniature-food.html , is that along
with realistic details such as food textures, these food items are usually in
colors and shapes of the Japanese characters. They will also incorporate
features of the characters, for example the hair bow of Hello Kitty or the ears
and nose of Rilakkuma. The cartoon colors and features add to the kawaii
quality while somewhat diminishing the realistic appearance of the items.
Re-ments are usually sold as themed sets.
One example is the breakfast set pictured below.
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| Picture courtesy of baanbetalet.com |
This Rilakkuma breakfast set includes
breakfast food items, plates, utensils, and cooking implements such as the
frying pan and skillet. Each item is very detailed. Most are either decorated
with a Rilakkuma logo or picture, or are actually shaped as this bear
character. You can see that the realistically textured omelet, set on a red and
white gingham patterned plate, has a red Rilakkuma drawing on it. The fried egg
in the red frying pan is in the shape of Rilakkuma’s head with its bear ears.
The slices of bread topped with egg are also realistically textured and are in
the shape of Rilakkuma. They are accompanied by some lettuce and cherry
tomatoes. The plate holding these slices of bread is also in a bear head shape.
There is a very detailed realistic looking spatula and even a bottle of ketchup
complete with Rilakkuma label.
The following is an example of a Hello
Kitty re-ment set.
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| Picture courtesy of ilovemyshopping.com |
This set includes kitchen items such as a rice
cooker, food thermos, coffee thermos, loaf of bread, basket of buns,
sugar container, and rolling pin. As you can see, the rice cooker is very
detailed and has a lid that actually opens. It is decorated with Hello Kitty
pictures and logo. There is even a rice scoop. Both the food and coffee thermos
are decorated with pictures of Hello Kitty. The bread basket contains Hello
Kitty and mouse-shaped buns. The Hello Kitty logo is printed along the rolling
pin. Miniature baking tins, one of which is embossed with the bobtail cat’s
head, are very kawaii finishing touches to this set.
The following are pictures of more re-ment
sets:
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| Picture courtesy of amazon.com |
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| Picture courtesy of the hollycopter.com |
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| Picture courtesy of thehollycopter.com |
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| Picture courtesy of thehollycopter.com |
These re-ments can be used to create
diaromas or scenes. The following are miniature diaromas from
TheHollycopter.com:
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| Picture courtesy of thehollycopter.com |
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| Picture courtesy of thehollycopter.com |
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| Picture courtesy of thehollycopter.com |
Two YouTube channels that feature video re-ment
unboxings are:
TheHollycopter https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6C91F0D4EE843D1D
I became familiar with re-ments and
Rilakkuma while watching videos on these YouTube channels. In fact, most of the
re-ments reviewed feature the “relaxed bear” character. I suppose it is the
relaxed nature of this bear which lends itself perfectly to being a mascot for
miniature food.
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