Department 56

In my first blog post, I mentioned a line of ceramic buildings from Department 56 . These buildings were what started it all for me. It was the beginning of my fascination with dolls and all things miniature. As a student (meaning no money), I admired them and gazed upon all the intricate details of the village settings in store displays. I took delight in all the little scenes that were created in the groupings of little people among the snowy landscape. I coveted them like I had never coveted anything before.

Today I will go into more detail about my Department 56 collection. Not only do I own various building that light up from within, but I also have many accessories from the Department 56 line that help create a miniature city decorated for the Christmas holiday season. These accessories include people such as city sidewalk shoppers, a vehicle wrapped up in a ribbon bow, street lamps that actually light up, many types of trees and other landscape greenery, and powdery snow.

Department 56 features several series of villages. Alpine Village Series, Dickens’ Village Series, New England Village Series, and North Pole Series are the names of a few of the collections. The series that I love and collect is called Christmas in the City. I have also added a few things from some of the other series but Christmas in the City has been my main focus. Do I need to explain why I chose this particular collection? I think the name says it all. Christmas is that magical time when we dress up buildings and trees in lights and colorful ornaments. It contains those moments when the fresh white powdery snow blankets everything in the city. It also encompasses the excitement of kids looking forward to the magical day.

Speaking of magic, I would like to share some of my favorite pieces from my collection and describe some of the details that make them so enjoyable.

Here is an overview picture of my village display:

This is my own personal photograph of my collection.

In the front row, from left to right, there is a corner bookstore, old-fashioned style house, and frozen pond complete with skaters. There is a car wrapped in gold ribbon that is tied up in a bow directly in front of the house. It looks like someone will be receiving an extravagant present for Christmas. In the back row of buildings, from left to right, there is a school, coffee shop, and toy store. All of these buildings are set on brick patterned streets with various types of city people interspersed among them. The people include shoppers carrying bags, a businessman carrying a briefcase and newspaper, a man walking his similarly dressed dog, and a family watching the skaters go through their paces. There is also an assortment of busy city workers such as a policeman, a group of tree trimmers, and street food vendors.

My favorite building is Jenny’s Corner Book Shop.  Here is a close-up picture:

My own personal photograph.

There is an amazing amount of detail. A building solely devoted to books is wonderful in itself, but the various features of this particular one are really fun to look at. As a whole, the shop is very colorful and is decorated with Christmas greenery. Set within the main front door, a smaller children’s door is halfway open. On the sidewalk out in front, there are shelves holding a colorful assortment of tiny books. Hanging from the building are a store sign in the shape of a book and a birdcage. All of the windows have partial openings in them to allow the light produced from a single internal light bulb to be visible. However, to me, the piece de resistance is what lies at the back corner of this shop: there is a wrought spiral iron staircase.

Another building with great features is Scottie’s Toy Shop. Here are two pictures:

My own personal photograph.

My own personal photograph.

 

 

 

Once again, this building is very colorful. The brick and window awnings are in rich tones of burgundy and blue. The shop is festively decorated with Christmas wreathes and other trimming. All of the windows have partial openings to permit light from within to be visible. There are two very cool features that come with this toy shop. The first feature is that the wrought iron bay window front is opened and contains sculpted miniature toys. There is a toy soldier, beach ball, teddy bear, and rocking horse. These miniature details are amazing. The second feature that I want to point out can be seen standing in front of the shop. It is a horse ride for children. It is beautifully painted with red, yellow, and green harness and saddle. The horse stand contains a spring coil so that the horse can bounce up and down just like a real children’s ride.

I could go on and on about the details of numerous other pieces in this collection. I have only mainly described the buildings but the people and other accessories have their own charming characteristics. I hope this close-up look has shown some of the reasons why I chose to collect from the ceramic village pieces of the Department 56 line of products.

  

Funko Pop vinyl figures

Today I will talk about a line of popular collectibles that I have been seeing on YouTube. These collectibles are the Funko Pop http://funko.com/ vinyl figures. These vinyl figures represent characters in pop culture, whether it be movies, cartoon, toys, or dolls. They come in varying sizes but are uniform in certain characteristics.

I am going to be upfront about this. I am not a big fan. But I wish I was because these figures are everywhere and seem to immortalize everything that is popular. There are so many groups and series of Funko Pops. The most popular series by far, at least among the YouTube channels I subscribe to, seem to be My Little Pony. I have seen many video reviews of these. The My Little Pony figures seem to come in many variants. Here are a few pictures:

Picture courtesy of www.thinkgeek.com
 



Picture courtesy of www.funkopoppriceguide.com
 

Picture courtesy of www.toywiz.com
 

Picture courtesy of www.toyreviewdaily.com

Why am I not a fan of Funko Pop? It stems from what I like about miniatures. The main things about miniatures that appeal to me is this: viewing details on an unusually small scale. For me, the most realistic the detail, the better. The Funko Pop vinyl figures are known for their big square-shaped heads that outsize their bodies. This uniform shape of head limits the amount of detail and realism that is captured in the character of popular culture that is being portrayed.

My Little Pony is perhaps not the best example to use because these are cartoon characters so realism is not really something that comes into consideration for this series. Ghostbusters is another series of Funko Pop collectibles. This is a well-known movie with characters portrayed by actors that are human beings. Let’s take a look at these figures:

Ghostbusters car
Picture courtesy of firewireblog.com
 



Ghostbusters group
 Picture courtesy of www.gbfans.com

 

Other than the ghost and monster aspects of the movie and the way the ghostbusters are dressed, the figures are not that realistic looking to me.

In addition to the uniformly square shaped heads, there is a lack of articulation with the limbs and waistline of the bodies. The heads can move from side-to-side and there are also figures who are bobble-heads. But other than that, versatility for displaying and posing is non-existent. I suspect that this may be why these figures are so popular. It is due to their uniformity and oversized heads. Uniformity is one element that may make something a collectible. The item will be compatible and fit in with other items in a collection due to similarity in appearance such as size and shape. I also think that the oversized head adds an amusing comical effect for the collector. The appearance represents a memory of something the collector enjoys but presents it in a new funny way.

Funko Pop figures are more recently established collectibles, with the Funko company being founded as a Bobblehead company in 1998 http://funko.com/pages/about-us . So I was surprised to view a video in which Funko Pop figures from the 1980s movie “Sixteen Candles” were displayed in a store. I supposed it shouldn’t be that surprising to me since there is a series from the movie Ghostbuster although I consider Ghostbuster more of an iconic movie than Sixteen Candles. Those of you who are under a certain age have probably never heard of Sixteen Candles but are familiar with the Ghostbusters franchise.

Cast from Sixteen Candles
Picture courtesy of fuckyeahfunko.tumbler.com
 

Jake Ryan from Sixteen Candles
Picture courtesy of popvinyls.com
 



Samantha Baker from Sixteen Candles
 Picture courtesy of popvinyls.com

 

Many YouTube channels post video reviews of these types of figures, with some actually being primarily devoted to Funko Pops. The following are a few channels featuring Funko Pops:

Robin Cabana https://www.youtube.com/playlist? list=PLRZF5tubA5lWBneS-_DKec57EWYvszL7O

Mommy Geeks Out https://www.youtube.com/user/MommyGeeksOut/videos

Check Out My Pops https://www.youtube.com/user/CheckOutMyPops/videos

Despite my lack of enthusiasm, I still like to watch these video reviews and I do like to check out the store in my neighborhood mall that has an entire wall display of Funko Pop vinyl figures. I am hoping that perhaps just the right movie will be featured with just the right amount of detail. Then I may become part of the Funko Pop craze.

Re-ments

In my previous post, I talked about Hello Kitty and Rilakkuma, two kawaii characters. Today I will talk about something that is strongly associated with them.

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.

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.

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:

Picture courtesy of amazon.com

Picture courtesy of the hollycopter.com



Picture courtesy of thehollycopter.com

Picture courtesy of thehollycopter.com

These re-ments can be used to create diaromas or scenes. The following are miniature diaromas from TheHollycopter.com:

Picture courtesy of thehollycopter.com

Picture courtesy of thehollycopter.com

Picture courtesy of thehollycopter.com

Two YouTube channels that feature video re-ment unboxings are:

LorienSpree https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW03b3iJ8I-fQRgAKYn8nrxDTGEgli2TZ

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.