Interplay Japanese Best Friend Dolls Kit review

Sophie loves Kimmidolls so when the opportunity arose to review a Japanese Best Friend Dolls kit, I knew she'd be in her element. Sure enough, when it arrived in the post, she grabbed it and begged to be Chief Reviewer of the Day ! As the product, created by Interplay, is aimed at girls aged 8+, it was her lucky day ! The kit allows girls to make and decorate their own Japanese ‘Kokeshi’ Doll. Kokeshi is an enchanting Japanese tradition whereby you hand paint dolls to give to friends and you can even hide secret messages in the base of the doll.

As soon as I said yes, Sophie opened the box, laid out the little paints and set to work, before I'd even had a chance to take a photo of the contents of the box, let alone read the instructions ! I never did read the instructions actually and I don't think Sophie did either but it's simple enough that she managed with no problems at all.

The box contains three wooden doll-shaped pieces of wood, little woollen pompoms (for the hair), 5 little pots of paint, a paint brush, stickers for the faces and dresses, double-sided sticky tape, greetings labels and secret message slips. All of which had Sophie's eyes lighting up !

The paints dried really quickly and left a really smooth finish. Using stickers for the faces gives a really professional look that you would never manage to recreate by hand. The only problem we had was with the pompoms. Sophie came rushing out to the kitchen saying she needed PVA glue, which I gave to her. She then - unsuccessfully - tried to stick the pompoms on to look like buns (of the hair variety, not sticky ones !). She gave up and left them off, deciding, quite rightly, that they look fabulous even without them. However, from checking the contents of the box, I've just noticed that there is double sided sticky tape, which is obviously what you're supposed to use. (See? Always read the instructions !) I'll tell Sophie and she can add the pompoms on tonight.

Sophie loved the kit and the concept and gaily made one for her sister, one for her teacher and one for her best friend. I had to point out that it might be a good idea to keep one for herself so she decided to give one to me instead of her friend, so that she could still keep it at home but nevertheless have the fun of leaving me a secret message!

It's a lovely kit, which is great fun but also creates something that looks good enough to give as a special gift with a lovely personal message. I can totally understand why it was voted British Toy and Hobby Association's Best New Toy 2012 in the Creative category. It gets top marks from us.

star rating : 5/5

RRP : £9.99

for more information :  http://www.interplayuk.com/products/japanese_best_friend_dolls.html

 Disclosure : We received a Japanese Best Friends Kit in order to write an honest review. 

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