In which the Sumikko and their friends make an awfully cute kindergarten class.
Today I’ve got for you another exceptionally nice Re-ment set — this is Atsumare! Sumikko Youchien, which I am going to translate as Line up! Sumikko Kindergarten (even though atsumaru is translated more as to gather or assemble, I figure lining up is the closest thing that doesn’t sound weird…or like they’re superheroes).
When you put together the display features on the outer box, you have a cheerful little kindergarten room:
Set One is called Good Morning Teacher! and I have to say from the start Shirokuma just seems like the teacherly type. Right? Besides their friendly face, overall I have to say this one really gives you a lot of pieces with great display/play value.
The variety and details — you can put things in the bag, and the name tags are really cute once you’re done struggling to apply microscopic stickers with your inconveniently large hands and general clumsiness. (Well, that might mostly be me.) This makes up for the paint smudge on Shirokuma’s nose, which isn’t nearly as obvious in person but might be easier to see in the picture below.
Set Two is called Recital Time. (That’s the best translation I can think of for oyuugi here — I tend to think of it as like a musical performance.) No matter what you call it, this is a top favorite set for me. I love pianos, especially cute and toy pianos, and this combines one with castanets, a triangle and rod, and everyone’s favorite totally-not-a-kappa-just-a-regular-penguin Penguin?. I love every single one of those things!
Set Three, Fun Crafts Time, features my little friend Neko here along with a table, chair, scissors, and two cute little origami projects of Zassou and Ebi Furai no Shippo.
I do wonder why I had to add the tape to Nisetsumuri. They couldn’t have done this with clear plastic? Notice the picture below is extra cruddily taken due to my state of anxiety as I realized I needed to apply tiny, clear stickers to an already pretty small plastic toy.
Luckily everything turned out basically okay, and this set is another real delight in all of its details.
My reaction to Set Four, Can’t Wait for my Bentou, was, unfortunately, a little bit of disappointment. Tonkatsu is always amazing, and everything looks nice and well made and whatnot, but I’d much prefer that Tonkatsu wasn’t designed to hold the fork. This causes two things I don’t really like when you don’t want to display him with it…
You end up with a weird-looking hole in the figure, but worse is that I can’t close the lid for the silverware case well if you want to put the fork in it. I almost have to be misunderstanding, right? Why isn’t it designed to go in the opposite way, since you apply a sticker to give the case a Sumikko group design?
There are also other quality issues, bigger and smaller. The worst is the really sloppy job on Tonkatsu’s nose (though Tonkatsu himself might like the increase in his meat-to-fat ratio). But there are also little things that are probably mostly just me being a picky toy nerd, but, enh, I am what I am. The components of the bentou like the Shirokuma rice balls and the little tako wieners are cute, but they would be much nicer with each piece separate instead of a couple stuck together. Things like that.
Set Five, A Great Story is Starting, brings things back around to being great. Although I somehow never thought to put the Neko-themed television on top of the bookshelf until I was writing this, I think that’s the idea. Nonetheless everything included is so nice I’m left with a goofy smile like Tokage (Honmono) in the below picture.
The picture on the television requires cutting the images from the card, which normally I’d complain about, but it’s the story of Ebi Furai no Shippo going to the store, meeting Aji Furai no Shippo, and finally bringing home a lemon for her depressed dad figure Tonkatsu. It’s certainly worth some cutting.
The Penguin? ends on the bookshelf and the little books (the top book is about Neko meeting up with their siblings — I like when these toys bring in elements of past lineups) just make things even cuter.
The next, Set Six, Let’s Play with our Favorite Toys, is even better, I think. The slide designed as Tokage’s mother is perfect, and I get the feeling it’s going to get a lot of use in display, but the rest of the set really delivers as well.
Tokage seems so happy to be reminded of his mom during playtime!
The name for Set Seven is Let’s Wash our Hands After Playing, which could only be more relevant to current events if it also added And Just Wear a Mask Seriously How Dumb Are You to the end. Slightly more seriously, this is a tip top favorite in a collection with lots of competition. I love everything about it, including Penguin (Honmono), who was just made to wear his little yellow hat.
And things finish extremely strongly with Set Eight, Full of Energy Even Though We’re Little. You can probably guess just from the presence of Ebi Furai no Shippo and Aji Furai no Shippo I am just crazy for this one, huh…?
You can probably see above that the paint on the blocks is a little rough, but again that shows more in photos than in my display case. No real complaints here at all.
I can wholeheartedly recommend this set for the full price of about $41.50. This was another great purchase from amiami — I had planned to link the item/comment on its stock status, but I forgot about their maintenance this weekend. No matter where you get it, though, I can’t imagine any Sumikko fan not liking this an awful lot!
hello somebunny 