Yesterday I got a package in the mail. I was so excited, I had to bring it with me to show my boyfriend my new find, and all he could do was laugh at me.
Every since I was young, I have been fascinated by the world of miniatures. While I had a vast collection of Barbie dolls, the dolls themselves were what I was least interested in. I liked their earrings, or shoes, or the cool little accessories better. I still remember carefully wrapping prized translucent glittery Barbie shoes in a piece of kleenex so I wouldn't lose them, only to have my mother mistake it for garbage and throwing it away. Oh,...the agony.
By the way, I've only recently discovered that Towne Shoes has a Barbie shoe collection. Hmm...I don't remember my Barbie shoes looking quite like these...
The problem with tiny things and tiny toddlers is the inevitable fact that tiny tots will lose said tiny things, and before long, you'll have a tiny fork poking out from the bottom of your foot having carelessly trod through the tiny tyke's space. My mother did that enough times that she would snap and start vacuuming everything in sight.
I couldn't tell you the innumerable amounts of cutlery, jewelery and other bits that got sucked up in the bottomless void. Funny enough, my mom lamented the lost toys decades later when she started collecting vintage Barbies...and she had no one to blame but herself for their loss.
Anyway, I digress. As I was saying, I had a thing for miniatures, but I didn't allow myself to collect them, knowing that it would spiral out of control and I would eventually need the equivalent of a nicotine patch to ween myself off the addiction. Once in a while, I would get one or two things, like a set of teenie Japanese cat figurines (no bigger than 1 cm high), or finely glass blown miniature vases from Italy.
A few years ago, I came across a Japanese toy collection from a company called Re-ment. Re-ment specializes in highly detailed plastic miniatures of everyday items and objects. It was like hitting a jackpot...or like an alcoholic finding a bottle of whiskey after going dry for a year.
Re-ment puts out collections that will include anywhere from 5 - 12 separate sets. They're sold in a manner similar to trading cards; enclosed in a box with no way of know what set is in the box unless you open it. My very first purchase of Re-ment was a complete collection called Stationery Favorites, which contained incredibly wee replicas of pens, pencils, notebooks, and other supplies I remember from my childhood.
The detail is astounding and the movable parts are endlessly fascinating. I don't know if you can sympathize or not. I'm actually shocked that this didn't create a snowball effect of Re-ment compulsive shopping. Somehow it didn't, and I was able to forget about the miniature world for a short while.
Needless to say, I've recently gotten hooked on it again. I blame it on nostalgia, remembering the fabulous toys I once had. I am most definitely still a child at heart. My recent purchase is what is called a "secret set"...self-explanatory really. Most collections will have 1 or 2 secret sets, either completely new items, or colour variations of existing sets in the collection.
So the secret set I got is the #11 set of the Elegant Sweets collection. It's a double layer box that measures 3 x 4.5 cm, 2 cm high, filled with bitty chocolates and a Valentine's Day card, rendered in perfect, microscopic detail, each piece of chocolate separate and unique.
So yes, like the little dweeb that I am, I squealed a little when I opened my package. I poked and prodded the little chocolates, removed them, put them back in the box multiple times. It now quietly resides in a little wooden box where I store my other Re-ment collectibles.
I've bought a few more items too, before I must put my foot down and shut the door on this particular bout of splurging. But it's okay...thankfully this little addiction doesn't take up a lot of space...and the silly little things make me happy, so what the hell, eh?
