Re-Ment Love Affair

I discovered Re-Ment miniature toy collectibles during my last trip to Japan because in between shopping and eating, we would google 'top kawaii (Japanese for cute or adorable) stores and things to buy in Osaka' and Re-Ment would come up very often.

They're made by a company that derived it's name from "reform the environment" through toy innovation. The different posts I saw online were intriguing enough for me to research where to buy them nearby, and that's really how I structured our shopping itinerary for the second half of the trip. Hahaha... This is how the mind of an OC Shopaholic works!

The first store we had to go to was Tokyu Hands because we were intrigued by everything we read about it (it's the Creative Life Store) and they were said to have a lot of Re-Ments too.

This was the first thing that I noticed on the Re-ment shelf
My though bubble was "I want!!!"
Then I realized that it was only the stand.
Uh oh.. This was going to get expensive.

This is how a Re-Ment shelf looks like.
The small boxes are just 1 of 6 or 8 that you need to complete a set.
A small box is around JPY400 (Php200) in Tokyu Hands.

If you're lucky, you find a box that's sealed
to confirm that it has a complete set inside.
This tempted me for a moment, but I saw that the seal was broken.

We found 2 bigger boxes that sold for JPY880 (around Php440)
that seemed to have a complete set inside.

I was still in denial then that I wouldn't get roped into buying them like crazy, so I asked Sofia to choose 1 and I would buy it for her. She chose Pooh's Candy Shop. Since I thought Mickey's Bagel Shop looked more interesting, I told her I would buy both so we could have one each. Hahaha, my true intentions were already starting to show.

I told Sofia we would open hers in Manila (because we didn't want to lose any small pieces), but she could play with mine. I had really low EQ on this toy, but that's because I wanted to see if we needed to hunt for more Re-Ment stores.

For perspective, this is the size of the bigger boxes.

Inside the box, the small pieces are packaged really well.
They also come with stickers and one piece of bubble gum.

The whole shop comes out to this size.

We weren't able to put in the flooring and the wall panels
because cutting was required and it didn't come with adhesive.

With the signage.

I loved putting it together.
This is how the addiction starts. Hahaha.

I love, love, love all the tiny details.

Even without the flooring and the wall panels it already looks complete.
Airou x Hello Kitty was the first customer.

Mickey was behind the counter.

Someone ordered a Bagel sandwich and Chips.
Can you find the hidden Mickey on the table?

I was so into Re-Ments that I was searching for more stores that sold it so I could buy more of the bigger boxes, where it was already a complete set, so I wouldn't have to spend a lot to collect the whole lot. Our next stop was Bic Camera, the camera and electronic store (at 2-10-1 Sennichimae, Chuo-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka) along the covered shopping walkway near Namba Station. They had double the display of Tokyu Hands and the Re-ments were also priced at around 20% less.

This was the sample of the Mickey and Minnie sets.

This was the Rilakkuma diner and bakeshop sets.
They had complete sets of this but I wasn't really sold on it.

This was the Hello Kitty Bakeshop and Fast Food Sets.

I was so torn because I couldn't leave without buying anything but they didn't have any of the bigger boxes, so I decided to give in and buy the "Japanese" edition ones. I bought the last box that they had of the Hello Kitty Sushi and the last 3 boxes they had for Hello Kitty Japanese Sweets. 

Because the assortment was really so overwhelming with Kawaii-ness, my process of elimination in deciding what to buy was based on the number of sets in the whole collection I didn't like. Since I didn't know what was inside the box, I only bought from the sets where I liked almost everything, and where I wouldn't mind the possibility of getting doubles because they would be easy to give away.

This was my ever growing Re-Ment haul.
I have given up pretending it's Sofia's.
The Hello Kitty sushi collection was in the brown bag.

The Hello Kitty Sushi ended up in a paper bag because as soon as we sat down to lunch, I wanted to see what I got while waiting for our lunch to be served.

Hello Kitty Sushi Re-Ment.

This is what I got.
I felt a little bad that I got a third of the conveyor belt and I bought the last box :(
Thought bubble: We needed to find more re-ment stores!
Second Thought bubble: This was going to be expensive!!!

The set I got was Hello Kitty Pudding, Miso Soup and Salmon and Tuna Sushi.

Posh looking Sushi on Hello Kitty plates.

This is the pudding.

Airou x Hello Kitty having Sushi for lunch.

Out of pure coincidence and sheer Re-Ment luck, we stumbled on a toy re-seller store at the Nishiki Market in Kyoto.

They were selling Re-Ments as opened sets,
so you could choose the ones you needed to complete your collection.
It's reasonably priced at around JPY100 (Php50) more than a sealed box.

I was so happy to find the other sets I needed
to complete the Hello Kitty Sushi conveyor belt.

They also had sealed boxes so Ady and I were looking through everything
to see if anything else would tempt me, but we didn't find any.

When we got home, Sofia and I started assembling our loot.

One set came with a menu board, Hello Kitty tuna sushi and some soup.

The other set was squid sushi with a Hello Kitty Maki
and a pail of pickled radish.

Hooray for completing the Hello Kitty conveyor belt sushi.
This is only 3 out of the 6 Sushi sets but I was happy enough to complete it.

From another angle with Airou x Hello Kitty.

If you're looking for Re-ment open box sellers there is one in Nishiki Market (Kyoto) and one in Namba City (Osaka). They are normally toy second hand hobby and toy stores and they also stock the more realistic looking Re-Ment miniatures that antique doll house collectors look for (like food, furniture etc).

If I remember correctly, the Re-Ment seller in Nishiki market
is on the same walkway as Mr. Young Men and a tonkatsu restaurant
that leads to the main shopping street.

This is what a toy re-seller looks like.
This is the store at Namba City hobby (second floor) which we found towards the end of our stay.

Since it's really hard to find Re-Ment sellers (open box or otherwise), we had to go in to look.

I finally found a sealed box of the Hello Kitty Bake Shop.
After visiting so many stores, it just wasn't right not to buy it. Hahaha.
So we did a Tokyu Hands run to get the display case.

It feels like we've come full circle. I finally bought the one that started it all, the one I really wanted. Hahaha. That was a great love affair. I hope this addiction ends there, at least until our next trip. Hahaha. just saying.

My googling has told me that there is a Re-Ment distributor in the Philippines. 

You can visit their facebook page here. 

Based on what I've gathered from the comments, it seems like the small boxes are priced a little less than Php400, around double than what it would cost you if you find it in Japan.