In which redecorating means pulling out sets from the last couple of years, including this mostly great collection.
I don’t own a huge amount of Re-ment related to Rilakkuma, but what I do buy tends to have a particularly distinct look. That’s most certainly the case with this collection called Re-ment: Rilakkuma Yumemiru Hoshi no Sutariamu, which I’ll translate as Re-ment: Rilakkuma Dreamy Planet Starrium (I don’t know if Starrium is even a word, but I stole it right from the box; I’m going to assume it basically means planetarium unless someone’s kind enough to tell me otherwise). I was moving things around in The Mooon the other day and decided to put these more on display in one of my cases in the living room, so to celebrate let’s go through each set.
Set One is called なかよく星の砂あつめ Nakayoku Hoshi no Suna Atsume, Gathering Stardust with a Friend, and depicts Rilakkuma and Korilakkuma in front of happy, yummy constellations. Rilakkuma’s sitting in the stardust receptacle, while Korilakkuma is propped up on a star. This is one of my favorites of the set, definitely in the top half. These have some overall good paint jobs and nice details, like the little dangly jewel you can see to the right.
Set Two (水星で波乗り気分 Suisei de Naminori Kibun, Feels like Surfing on Mercury) is the one set of the six that I don’t really like and thought about not displaying with the others (though in the end I changed my mind — it looks pretty cool from a distance). I love the concept of this one, but the execution just has too many flaws. Kiiroitori’s paint job is a little weaker here than the standard for the collection (mostly just things like not painting all the way to the guide lines), and even though everything has guides for positioning, there’s no way that I could find to stand Korilakkuma up in any way that looks natural. That, plus the fact that no amount of fiddling seems to make the water sit in the container correctly, is a real negative point to this set. But the concept is just so cute, and details like the little dangly jewel and the cushion prop just barely put this one over the edge for me, and so I’ve come around on it.
(The planet Mercury in Japanese is written as 水星 Suisei, written with the characters 水 (water) and 星 (star), hence the water theme.)
Set Three is called 月の上でおやすみ Tsuki no Ue de Oyasumi, Sleeping on Top of the Moon. It depicts exactly that, with a sleeping Rilakkuma on a translucent crescent moon. As I’m looking at this figure, I’m again reminded at how glad I am that this isn’t a collection that only looks good as a complete set. Each figure here really feels like a complete figure — if you got a single set as a gift, I think you’d be pretty pleased. The design of this one is absolutely darling, but the construction is a little weaker than some of the others; especially where Rilakkuma’s butt fastens to the base, I found it hard to attach the components in a way that looked natural and didn’t show the connecting parts too much.
The next set (Set Four) is called 土星で見つけた流れ星 Dosei de Mitsuketa Nagareboshi, The Shooting Star We Found on Saturn. If I have to pick a single favorite out of all of these, this is it! It measures a nice five inches high, give or take, and really isn’t done justice at all by my picture. (I just realized I haven’t been giving sizes for these, and due to the varied designs there’s some significant variation, but I’d say they range between 4 and 5.5 inches.) Given their size, overall quality, and cute spacey designs, I think each of these is really worth the approximately-eight-dollar price point.
Set Five, called 木星の星のなる木 Mokusei no Hoshi no Naru Ki, The Jupiter Star Tree, is probably my second-least favorite set in this collection, if only because quality issues really mar the experience. See especially the color on Korilakkuma’s inner ears and the yellow stars painted on the tree below. (I still have a fondness for it, though, because like Set Two it looks pretty good with some distance, and also because the whole thing has this very Le Petit Prince vibe I quite like.)
(The planet Jupiter in Japanese is written as 木星 Mokusei, written with the characters 木 (wood/tree) and 星 (star), hence the tree.)
Finally, we come to Set Six: 金星のひみつの鍵穴 Kinsei no Himitsu no Kagiana, Venus’s Secret Keyhole, which sounds like a movie on late night cable TV but instead features Rilakkuma and Korilakkuma on a fancy globe, ready to put a pink key into a pink lock. I’m pretty enh on this one — just because there are several much cuter designs in this very collection.
(The planet Venus in Japanese is written as 金星 Kinsei, written with the characters 金 (gold) and 星 (star), hence all the gold.)
I bought this set a couple of years ago from amiami, but it’s long sold out; nonetheless, it was first issued in 2018 and then reissued in 2019, so deadstock shouldn’t be too hard to find (the individual sets, as always, are available at various locations, but the prices are pretty steep!). If you happen to run across it, though, I’d recommend it. Even for a more casual Rilakkuma fan like me, the space theme and the good work done on design and color really make these special.
hello somebunny 