Candy Toys and Miniatures: Re-Ment: Uki-Uki! Sumikko My Room

In which I gripe some here and there, but ultimately love this collection.

It feels like a while since I’ve written about Sumikko Gurashi! Two of my favorite things in the world are, of course, Sumikko, and Re-Ment miniatures. So it’s always an especial pleasure to open up a new Re-Ment set with a Sumikko theme. Today we have うきうき！すみっコマイル-ム, Uki-Uki! Sumikko My Room, something like Yay! My Sumikko Room.

First we’ve got Set One: Relaxing Time on the Sofa. I like most of this set. I’ve got no complaints about the Penguin(?) chair and the Tonkatsu rug and the Suzume cup with milk, but as you can (sort of) see from the picture below, the Furoshiki pillow is pretty much ruined by a big paint rub (or other smear) that looks worse than in the pic and kind of ruins that piece. No biggie, just a bit disappointing.

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The second set, luckily, had some surprises in the opposite direction. I was pretty pleased with the items in Set Two: What Shall I Draw Today? from the start. The Shirokuma bookshelf is cute, the crayons are extra darling, and while I had to put stickers on the smaller objects, even I managed to do so without too much difficulty.

The only thing I was disappointed with at first was that the sketchbook didn’t open — until I realized it was just a bit stubborn and reluctant to move at first. The pictures inside are so scribbly and cute! And there are even some more drawings included on the card.

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Up next we have Set Three: I’d Love This Dresser….hm. This one is rather a mixed bag. First we have the dresser itself and its mirror surface sticker I couldn’t prevent from being weird and bubbly, plus the fact that the drawer doesn’t open, even though I really thought it would. But on the other hand, the Tokage humidifier is really dear and unique and the bottles are pretty cute, so I’ll come out slightly positive here.

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Fourth is Set Four: Sometimes I Must Study and it’s pretty pleasing throughout. I mean, I don’t like that the Tapioca desk doesn’t have a drawer than opens, but you can’t beat it for cuteness, and I’m really looking forward to using the Penguin? chair and especially the Obake trash can in display stuff. I’m honestly rather surprised that the trash for the trash can wasn’t given a Sumikko face. Especially with our cat, wadded-up paper is one of the most common things in our house’s corners! That notwithstanding, it’s still a very nice set.

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Next we have Set Five: Exciting Snacks. This one truthfully annoys me quite a bit. First of all, I remember when you didn’t have to do quite so much cutting with these miniatures, and while I don’t mind cutting out optional items like the napkin, I kind of hate doing major pieces like the green liner for the inside of the table. I don’t see these as having much of a craft element to them, I am not good at most crafts, and, uh, a third thing that makes me sound yet older and grumpier. 🙂

But I do dislike how, at least with my skills, I couldn’t get the table to look remotely like the picture — without the tapioca clustering together. Honestly, flat bottoms for them would have made a lot more sense. Nonetheless, there’s no miniatures or figures quick fix problem that I don’t like Glue Dots for, and they came to the rescue again.

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I must also grudgingly admit that, even with all this effort, the effort-to-cuteness ratio still leans way toward cute. The Fukurou cup is just a nice design, as with the doughnuts of Penguin? and Penguin (Honmono) and–argh, the table too.

I literally first wrote that I hoped the next set wouldn’t have much cutting involved, and then I saw this:

This is not to mention that the very word the Japanese use for poker is already kind of violating my personal rules for a stress-free toy zone after work, so let’s just move onto the rest of Set Six: My Most Important Toys, shall we?

Luckily, it’s one of the very best in the collection. I’m predictably delighted by the Tonkatsu and Ebi Furai no Shippo blocks; I really like the detailed mallets for the xylophone and the xylophone in general; and, while the pink box is a little lopsided, that’s really common with this type of box in full size reality. I also think the Nisetsumuri pull toy is just awesome. And of course I’m impressed that I didn’t really have to do any cutting or constructing for this part!

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This next one, Set Seven: My Favorite Chest of Drawers didn’t stand out to me much in the promotional materials, but it ended up being another favorite. The Tonkatsu backpack is great with its Ebi Furai no Shippo charm, I love that the chest drawers open, and the tako weiner coat rack with a freaking cherry tomato on top is to die for. The Ebi Furai no Shippo hat(?) is fine, but the little Hokori is really just the most likely thing to roll into a crack in the floorboard and makes me nervous. The only crafting here is optional: “handkerchiefs” that really act as drawer liners.

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Finally, we arrive at Set Eight: Let’s Have Another Good Day Tomorrow — this one just feels packed full and extra deluxe from the start! The Tokage bed is amazing if a bit brittle-plasticy feeling, and the designs of the Tokage (Honmono) clock and Shirokuma slippers are just fine. The fish cushion is weirdly larger than I thought it would be…

Nonetheless, I really like this overall collection a lot. It’s cute displayed by itself, it goes nicely with small figures like Petite Nendoroids (this is where I should insert a picture to prove that, but those are in a box I haven’t quite yet located), and there are a lot of collection-specific pieces that really match the whole, er, Sumikko mood. I got this, as I do almost all such goods, from the kind people at amiami — in all my years of collecting they’ve consistently exceeded my expectations, so if you’d like to buy this (and I do recommend this set) they’re always my first recommendation.