Pose Skeleton by Re-Ment

A few months ago I got an anonymous comment suggesting that Pose Skeleton, Re-Ment's tiny posable skeletons, would make a fun Halloween review.  I could not have agreed more!  I immediately went to Amazon and ordered several of these highly affordable little figures from Japan.

Then, a few days before Halloween, Maine got hit by a post-tropical depression (a huge storm) and we lost power for most of the week.  That happens quite a lot around here.  Anyway, living without power wasn't too bad for us--no trees came through the roof this time, anyway.  We played a lot of games and read a lot of books, but nothing got done on the blog for a whole week.  I've been playing catch-up ever since.

Now it's closer to Thanksgiving than it is to Halloween, but I'll still share what was supposed to have been my cover shot for October 31st:

Pose Skeleton #3 by Re-Ment, $8.49.

Oh--and in other news, my Create Your Own American Girl doll, Eliza, shipped!  She's exactly on schedule.  She should be here early next week, so I'll try and arrange a photo shoot to celebrate her arrival.

But back to the skeletons.

From what I learned searching Amazon, the Pose Skeleton collection includes four human figures (each about three inches tall), some non-human (dinosaur and mammal) figures, and an assortment of accessories ranging from small items like baseball equipment to large room dioramas.

I bought all four of the human skeletons I could find:

Pose Skeleton figures 1-4, from left to right.

I got each figure their own accessory, too, which I'll show you as we go along.

Here's figure #1, who is sometimes called "man" but is meant to be unisex.  I think I'll pretend she's female:

Pose Skeleton #1, $8.50.

These figures come secured in molded plastic cartons sealed inside colorful plastic pouches.  The whole pouch is just slightly larger than a deck of cards.

Most of the package text is in Japanese, so I can't tell you much about it.  I do love the little running skeleton icon in the upper corner, though:

Here's the back of the package:

A small graphic on the back of the package advertises the tiny skeleton's 15 points of articulation!

Wow.

That's pretty amazing for a skeleton who's barely over three inches tall.

The top of the pouch ripped off easily to reveal the plastic carton and a small pamphlet:

The pamphlet has a detailed description of the figure's articulation on one side...

...and some photographs of other items in the Pose Skeleton collection on the opposite side:

There are four copies of skeleton #1 in the middle:

And some pictures of other accessory sets around the edges.  There's a coffin and tombstone:

I'd love to know what that sign says!

A construction site:

I think maybe the sign goes with this set.

A bathroom:

Irresponsible skeleton.

I'm not exactly sure how a skeleton would throw up, but let's just roll with it.

There's also a dog!

Cute!

I love the little icons that represent each set:

Man, dog, toilet.  Totally logical grouping.

Here's the skeleton still inside its plastic carton:

Each figure comes with an extra set of hands, which is also pretty impressive for such a small item.  All of the pieces fell right out of the carton once the top was un-taped and removed.

Here's everything that was in the package:

This skeleton--let's call her Catrina--comes wearing hands that have open, relaxed fingers.  The extra hands have a bit more of a gripping position:

Catrina's extra hands.

There's shading between each and every tiny finger!

I keep talking about how small these skeletons are, but it's probably hard to visualize.  Before I go any further, let me show you a few comparisons.

First, here's Catrina with my Spirit Riding Free Pru doll (who's about five inches tall):

Spirit Riding Free Pru and Pose Skeleton #1.

Pru makes the skeleton look small, but some of my other miniatures make her look big:

From left: L.O.L. Li'l Sister, Sonny Angel, Pose Skeleton, and Twozies figure.

I tried to find a doll that would actually have a skeleton the size of Catrina.  Polly Pocket and Littlest Pet Shop Blythe (if you ignore her head size...) came the closest:

Polly Pocket, Pose Skeleton, and Littlest Pet Shop Blythe.

Here's Catrina with a few of the newer Polly Pocket dolls:

Now that you have a slightly better idea about how small Catrina is, let's take a closer look at her!

Her balance is astonishingly good.  She stands on her own with very little manipulation required.

The anatomical detail is also pretty good. I'm not sure if the rib or vertebra counts are accurate (humans should have 12 ribs on each side and 33 vertebrae) but it looks convincing.  Here's a closer look at the chest area:

And here's a drawing of an actual human skeleton for comparison:

I love the pose!

Here's Catrina from the back:

And a closer look at the back of the ribcage:

Her scapulae (shoulder bones) look a little funny because they don't connect to the upper arms, but everything else looks great.  There's careful shading in between every single tiny rib!

Here's another skeleton drawing for comparison:

Another excellent pose.

Catrina's head has a lot of painted shading to accentuate the deep eye sockets and the contours of the teeth:

There's a bit of warping in the vinyl of her jaw, so she has a crooked bite that I find oddly endearing.

One of Catrina's 15 points of articulation is supposed to be her jaw, but this area does not move very much.  This is as far as I could get her mouth to open:

The camera focused on her teeth a little better when she was lying on the ground, like this:

All of the teeth are molded in the front and shaded at the edges.  They're all roughly the same shape and size, which isn't very realistic, but the overall effect is convincing.

There's even some suture detail on the back of Catrina's skull!

As cool as the details on Catrina's bones are, I was very anxious to start looking at her articulation.  It's amazing to me that a figure this small has fifteen joints.  I've never seen anything like it.

First of all, Catrina has a rotating hinge neck joint.  It allows her head to look way up...

...and way down:

Her head can also spin around...all of the way around!

Catrina's shoulders look like ball joints from the front:

But--as you can see from the back--they're circular hinges with rotating peg insertion into the arm:

One of the joint pieces fell out later on in the review, so I got a picture of it for you to see:

How all of the magic happens.

I think this technically means that the shoulders are not ball joints, but they behave similarly.  The problem with Catrina's shoulders is that the top of her upper arm bone severely restricts the movement of that joint.  

This is as far as Catrina's arms will hinge away from her body:

This limited arm movement makes certain poses--like reclining on the ground--pretty awkward.

A pillow would be nice, Emily.

Her arms can rotate around to lift straight up, though, so she's a superstar at waving:

Catrina has simple hinged elbows, which--compared to the quality of the other joints--feel limiting. 

The upper and lower arm slot together with a peg-in-hole attachment:

The arm bones are pale on the underside...

...with some darker shading on top:

Catrina's hands can rotate around in their peg joint, but the left hand (in particular) falls out all of the time.

Despite the limitations in her arm articulation, Catrina can still bite her thumb!

Catrina's open hands can easily be swapped out for her gripping hands (a little too easily, considering how often the hands simply fall out...):

Gripping hand and regular hand.

The hands have almost completely straight insertion pegs (especially the hand on the left, above), so I guess it's clear why they can fall out so easily.

I wish I had a little drink small enough for Catrina to hold!

Catrina has another rotating circular hinge joint just below her rib cage.  In fact, all of her lower body joints (waist, hips, knees, ankles) look like this:

The joint is camouflaged nicely within the line of her spinal column.

This joint allows her to turn at the waist:

And it also allows her to keep her back straight when she's sitting on the ground:

She can even lean forward enough to just barely touch her toes!

Catrina has the same rotating hinges in her hips, and these allow for partial side-to-side splits:

The movement here is limited by the thick head of the femur.

She's able to do wonderful front-to-back splits, though:

I'm a star!

Catrina's knees can rotate and bend just past 90 degrees:

And this allows her to kneel on one or both knees:

The hinged rotation in Catrina's ankles allows her to turn her feet in and out...

And to point or flex them beautifully!

Catrina's size and articulation make her incredibly fun to play with.  She weighs practically nothing and fits almost anywhere.  She can strike a ton of lively poses--and she can balance on her own in most of them.  My criticisms of her all center around the arm articulation.  Her shoulders are limited by the shape of the upper arm bone (the humerus), her elbows are the only joints on her body that lack rotation, and her hands fall out too easily.

Other than that, she has outstanding movement.

Whether she's relaxing...

...or on the move!

There's very little she can't do.

The accessory that I chose for Catrina is the toilet.  Of course.  

The box arrived from Japan a little worse for wear:

Pose Skeleton toilet set, $5.80.

I won't do a detailed review of this set, but I will quickly show you all of the pieces:

There's a toilet, a plunger, a tiled floor, a spray bottle, and a dust cloth.  

The lids on the toilet don't lay flat all of the time (see the picture, above) but they can be made to lay flat with a little manipulation:

Each lid opens separately--just like a real toilet!

The spray bottle has a nicely-painted blue top and some lettering on one side:

I didn't know what the dust cloth was at first but fortunately this set's box is labeled in English, too.

I was hoping that Catrina's gripping hands would allow her to hold the accessories.  However, the grip in her left hand is too wide for the plunger.  The handle slides right through her fingers.  

So, she can only hold the plunger upside-down, but the spray bottle fits nicely in the other gripping hand:

There's something truly bizarre about a skeleton using a toilet, granted, but this is still a cute, well-detailed set.

Now, let's look at skeleton #2!  This is the child figure, and it comes in a bright yellow package that my camera hates:

Pose Skeleton #2, $8.50.

According to the package, this little guy only has eleven points of articulation--four fewer than the other Pose Skeletons.

Here's the back of the package:

This skeleton is packaged the same way as Catrina, but it comes with a different leaflet:

In the middle of this leaflet, there's a photo of three different skeletons--Catrina is in the middle, flanked by the child and #3:

#3 looks kinda confrontational...

There are several accessory sets advertised in the smaller photos.  The phone and the tie are from the office set:

There's also a kitchen set (I love this, but couldn't find it for sale!) and a bicycle:

The child, who I will name Jack, comes in a plastic carton just like Catrina.  Unlike Catrina, he has several extra body parts in addition to his spare hands:

Here's everything removed from the carton:

The extra body parts that come with Jack are bent arms and legs.  He needs these because he is lacking elbow and knee joints.

Jack is just over two inches tall--the same length as my pinky finger.  Here he is next to Catrina:

Hi, shorty.

Jack has rotating hinge joints at his neck, shoulders, waist, hips, and ankles.  His jaw is also articulated--technically--but hardly moves at all.

The joint pieces are the exact same size as the ones on Catrina, so they're not quite as well camouflaged on Jack's smaller frame.

The neck joint is visible under Jack's tiny jaw, too, which is something I was unable to photograph with Catrina:

In part because of the larger relative size of the joint pieces, and in part because of the blunted shape of Jack's humerus bone, he is able to hinge his arms up all of the way to his head:

In addition, Jack's femur shape allows him to do full side-to-side splits:

All of Jack's other joints function exactly the same way as Catrina's.

When I want Jack to be in a bent-armed position, I have to swap out the arm pieces.  This is a bit of a pain, mostly because Jack is so little.  The arms pull off easily...

That's disarming.

...but it can be a struggle to get the new bone pushed securely onto the arm peg.  Certain limbs are easier to swap out than others, probably because of small variations in the shape of the pegs and holes.

Here's Jack with one bent arm in place:

Jack's bent arms have tiny molded ulna bones that angle across the top of the larger radius bone:

Looking at the position of this little bone is the best way I could find to ensure I was getting the right arms on the right sides.

Jack came with two extra hands than can be swapped onto either set of arms.  His secondary hands have a very loose gripping pose:

The painted details in the photograph, above, might look a little sloppy, but keep in mind how impossibly tiny Jack's hands are.  

I asked Wonder Woman to join me for a few pictures to help demonstrate relative size.  Here she is holding one of Jack's detached hands:

And here she is kneeling next to a fully-assembled Jack:

Barbie Wonder Woman with Pose Skeleton #2.

I have to say, as someone who struggles to replace the hands on a doll Wonder Woman's size, I had less trouble with Jack's hands than I thought I would.  The design is quite good.  I managed to successfully swap out those tiny hands several times, and the hands have never once fallen off on their own.

Jack's legs can be replaced in the same way as his arms:

Once the bent legs are attached, the feet and their joint pieces can be added:

Ta-da!

The bent legs allow Jack to sit nicely in a chair or on the ground:

He can also sit on Catrina's toilet...although he's pretty scared about falling in!

Help!  Don't flush!

Fortunately, the bent legs allow him to run for his mother...

...and get a nice comforting cuddle:

I found that most of the time when I was posing Jack, I preferred to use his straight limbs and one of his bent arms.

There was one instance where I accidentally swapped one of Jack's legs onto his arm peg...and it took me longer than you'd think to figure out my mistake!

This doesn't feel right...

I prefer the ease of Catrina's articulated elbows and knees, but Jack's adorable size helps make up for his missing articulation.

I decided to get Jack the school room accessory set:

This set comes with a desk, a chair, a molded book, a loaf of bread, a plate, and a drink:

My desk came with a broken leg in the front, but it should be pretty easy to glue back together.

Using his bent legs, Jack can sit at the desk really well...although his little feet don't even come close to touching the ground!

He can just barely see over the top of the desk, too, so I'm wondering if this desk was meant for one of the larger skeletons?

Jack certainly looks adorable, though.

The drink bottle has some printed characters that I wish I could read:

As does the blue book:

The book is made entirely out of plastic and is molded into an open position:

Sadly, the two visible pages do not have any text on them.

Here's the little loaf of bread that comes with the set:

It looks quite toasty and realistic.  Of course miniature food is one of the things Re-Ment does best.

Jack lets Catrina share his school room accessories... 

...as long as she returns the favor.

The third skeleton in this series is also called "man," and I will actually make this one male--the father in my growing skeleton family.  

He comes in a blue package:

Pose Skeleton #3, $6.86.

The back of the package has a small photograph of Catrina, Jack, skeleton #3 and a dog:

The pamphlet that comes with this skeleton is the same as the one that came with Jack:

Like Catrina and Jack, this skeleton comes with extra hands:

Here's everything that was in the carton:

This guy, who I will name Yorick, is the tallest of the figures.  He's about 3.5 inches tall.

A real giant.

All of the skeletons are easy to balance, but Yorick is the sturdiest.

Here are Yorick and Catrina side-by-side:

Pose Skeletons #3 (left) and #1 (right).

Yorick's skull features are more prominent than Catrina's.  He has wide cheekbones and a square jaw and chin:

Here's Catrina's head again for comparison:

In profile, Yorick has a striking overbite:

I think the differences between Yorick and Catrina are easiest to appreciate with the skulls in half-profile.  Here's Yorick:

And here's Catrina:

Overall, I think Yorick's more prominent bony features make him look more realistic.  In contrast, Catrina's face looks blunted and cartoon-like.

Yorick also has larger hands and feet than Catrina:

Pose Skeletons #3 (left) and #1 (right).

The bones in his hands and feet have more molded details, too.

The shape of Yorick's humerus bone allows him to lift his arms up away from his body more than Catrina can.  In the next picture, both skeletons have their arms hinged away from their bodies as far as they'll go:

This superior arm movement allows Yorick to recline on the ground a bit more gracefully than Catrina can:

Alas, poor Hamlet.  I knew him...

Yorick can also do side-to-side splits better than Catrina, thanks to a shorter head on his femur bones:

Yorick's extra hands have a firmer grip than Catrina's extra hands--especially the right hand:

Catrina's extra right hand (left) and Yorick's extra right hand (right).

The right hand allows Yorick to grip the thin handle of the toilet plunger with no trouble:

Great.  Now I'm stuck with this job.

All of Yorick's other points of articulation are just like Catrina's.  He has a jaw that opens a tiny little bit and hinged elbows that limit the movement of his arms.  Yorick's superior shoulder and hip movement make quite a big difference, though.  In addition, his larger feet allow him to balance more easily in a wide range os poses.

I think Yorick is a better figure overall, but he and Catrina are very cute together.

He asked her to dance, and she claimed that she didn't know how...

...but once he coaxed her onto the dance floor...

...her inner diva came out!

Since Yorick seems to enjoy music, I decided to buy him the grand piano accessory:

Pose Skeleton grand piano, $11.00.

The piano comes with a pamphlet that advertises several of the other Pose Skeleton accessories:

I like the bathtub and the piano the best.

I'm not really sure what this set is supposed to be, though--some kind of gymnastics equipment?

Like a vault?

The piano is made out of hard plastic and has some moving parts:

The front lifts up to reveal a keyboard:

The keyboard does not have all eight octaves--only about five.

In addition, the black keys are not painted along the sides very well, so from some angles half of the keys look really thin:

The top of the piano opens to reveal a golden sound board:

The top can be propped open with a collapsible support:

The bench does not have any moving parts, but it looks very realistic.  My son's piano has a bench just like this:

The piano is about the right scale to be a baby grand for Yorick:

He can sit on the bench and reach both the pedals and the keys:

Catrina loves to listen to Yorick play!

She's also pretty fond of gazing at her reflection in the super-shiny surface of the piano:

The last Pose Skeleton that I'm going to show you is #4, also called "cute person."  She comes in a pink package:

Pose Skeleton #4, $8.10.

Cute Person comes with a different pamphlet that only has pictures on one half:

It advertises a little table and chair set:

Only one rocking chair actually comes with this set.

And the bathtub that I like so much:

It's interesting to me that the shampoo bottle in the bathtub set has English text ("Skull-poh") while all of the accessories I bought have Japanese lettering.  Here's a closer look:

The cute skeleton comes in a carton with an extra pair of hand and a red headband:

I guess the bright headband and the pink color of her bones are what make this particular skeleton cute?

I'm going to name her Lucy.

Lucy's headband is removable...which is good because I think it looks silly.

Lucy is slightly shorter than Catrina.  Here are the two together:

Pose Skeletons #4 (left) and #1 (right).

Lucy's body characteristics are more like Catrina's than they are like Yorick's, though.

She has rounded, blunted facial bones and a narrow jaw:

Her fingers are long and slender, and don't have the same level of detail as Yorick's appendages.

Lucy's extra hands are both in a gripping position:

Lucy is different from Catrina in that she can lift her arms up to the side quite a lot:

And she can do complete side-to-side splits.

The rest of Lucy's articulation is the same as the other large skeletons.

And--like all of the other skeletons--Lucy has excellent balance.

I decided to get Lucy the dog skeleton as an accessory:

Pose Skeleton dog, $7.64.

The box makes it look like the dog is huge!

The dog comes with the same pamphlet that was with Catrina:

Unfortunately, the pamphlet doesn't advertise any of the other non-human Pose Skeleton characters, like the cat, the demon, or any of the dinosaurs or mammals.  Here's a promotional picture of the cat set, because I think it looks great:

The dog came with a rawhide, a bowl, and a leash:

The rawhide and bowl look great:

But the leash is made out of stiff vinyl and I could not get the tiny little peg clasp to close around the dog's neck:

I tried for a really long time.  It felt like an impossible task.

Here's the dog himself--he's awesome:

I had a hard time deciding whether to name this dog Scraps or Stalfos.  Stalfos is a cooler name, but the dog really looks like Scraps to me.

Here's the original Scraps for comparison:

Because the Stalfos in Zelda are humanoid, not canine, I decided to go with Scraps for this little guy.

Scraps has a detailed, shaded face that even has a realistic tooth pattern for a dog:

He has eight points of articulation, four of which (neck, torso, hips) are the same circular rotating hinges that the human skeletons have.

The neck joint allows Scraps to look up...

...down...

...and from side to side.  Also notice how his jaw can open and close:

Scraps has simple rotating joints in his front legs.  This allows him to move those legs forward...

...and backward a little bit:

In contrast, the hips are rotating hinges:

So those legs can move forward...

...backward...

..and also from side-to-side:

This, of course, allows for some quintessential dog poses.

I love the little foot bones in Scraps' hind limbs.  They are so delicate and accurate!

Scraps also has a rotating hinge joint just behind his ribcage:

This allows him to arch his back:

And tuck his hind limbs under his body:

Scraps has simple hinge motion in his tail, so he cannot wag his tail back and forth.

There's something about the bones of this dog's face that make him look super-sweet.

Lucy was eager to play with Scraps!

He loves that rawhide.  It's so much better than chewing on one of his own limbs!

Good boy!

I like how his jaw can open wide enough to hold the rawhide securely:

Scraps is able to balance in many different active positions...

Including standing up on his hind legs!

Scraps is, by far, my favorite of the Pose Skeleton "accessories" that I bought.  He's an amazing little figure that matches the detail and articulation ability of the human skeletons.

I'd love to see how the cat figure compares--especially in terms of relative size.

Scraps and Lucy are good friends, but I actually like how Scraps looks with Yorick even more.  First of all, the two are the same color, which I appreciate.

But also, I think Yorick's size is better suited to Scraps.

I might steal Scraps from Lucy and give him to Yorick!

Skeleton's best friend.

Both Yorick and Scraps seemed happy with this decision...

If I only had a tongue!

...although Yorick might want to keep in mind where Scraps' mouth was just moments ago:

Yorick was eager to share his piano music with his new canine friend:

And--much like in my house--Scraps took an immediate (and loud) liking to the music:

Sing it, Scraps!

Yorick and Scraps are my favorite pair in this whole collection.  I love that it's possible to purchase both of them for under $20...including the shipping from Japan.

Here's the full lineup of Pose Skeleton humans:

From left: Pose Skeleton #2, #4, #1 and #3.

I don't really like Lucy's pink bones as much as I like the others' more realistic coloring, so these are my four favorites:

They make a wonderful little family.

Jack and Scraps took a few minutes to warm up to one another...

...but it didn't take long for them to start careening around the place, inventing wild and crazy games together.

Crazy games that Yorick was more than happy to join!

And the end of an exhausting afternoon, Jack was eager for some quiet time with Catrina:

Who is always ready for a hug.

Jack and Catrina settled down to read a book...and of course Scraps didn't want to be left out.

Bottom line?  I am so thankful for the tip about Pose Skeleton.  I've had so much fun playing with these highly-articulated little spooks.

The figures aren't all equivalent, though.  There are a few little differences in size and articulation that might be worth noting.  I'll summarize these differences quickly for you in a list:

Skeleton #1 (Catrina): Catrina is the second tallest skeleton and the second least flexible.  Her shoulder and hip joints have limited movement because of the bulky shape of the bones in those areas.

Skeleton #2 (Jack): Jack is the smallest and the least flexible character.  He is missing elbow and knee articulation, but has extra bent limb attachments to help make up for this defecit.  His arms and legs are a little tricky to swap out.

Skeleton #3 (Yorick): Yorick is the tallest and the third most flexible character.  He is only marginally less flexible than Lucy, though, so I don't give much weight to this difference.  Yorick is able to do side-to-side split to some degree and he can lift his arms away from his body.  I think Yorick is also the most realistic figure.  His features are more detailed and less blunted than the others.

Skeleton #4 (Lucy): Lucy is the second shortest and the most flexible skeleton.  She can do full side-to-side splits and can lift her arms away from her body.  Lucy's bones are pink, though, which I think looks funny.  Lucy's pink color and simplified features make her the least realistic of the skeletons.

Scraps the dog is in his own category, but he's every bit as wonderful as the best human skeleton.  His articulation is perfect for enabling a wide variety of realistic canine poses, and the detail in his bones is fantastic.

I can't say that I regret purchasing any of these characters--especially for around $8 each--but if I had it to do over again, I would skip Lucy and buy the cat instead.  I'm so enamored with Scraps, I'd love to see what some of the other mammals look like.

The figures are not without flaws.  Catrina has a hand that falls off way too easily (it's only a matter of time before it gets lost) and Jack's arms and legs are hard to put back on.  I also had a few instances where I couldn't move a joint the way I wanted, and had to gently manipulate the area until the joint was aligned correctly.  The fun I had dwarfed these mild annoyances, though.

The Re-Ment accessory sets that I bought for my figures are great, but they're hardly necessary.  It was definitely fun to set up little scenes with the tiny furniture, but I had just as much fun toting the skeletons around and posing them throughout the house with my life-sized furniture.  I love that the whole collection is so affordable that it's possible to mix and match several figures and accessories without worrying too much about final cost.  I think I spent about $50 for everything in this review and I would have been just as happy with less than half of it.

I was uncomfortable working on this review once Halloween had passed.  I didn't think a skeleton review would be very appealing or interesting without the backdrop of that singularly spooky day.  But now that I've spent some time with the Pose Skeletons, I couldn't care less what day it is.  The notion of skeleton dolls is a little odd, to be sure, but it's amazing how quickly I saw past the bare bones and just enjoyed the personalities and the possibilities that these figures offer.  They are easily the most detailed and well-articulated miniatures I have ever owned, and I highly recommend them for a fix of creepy-cute fun...at any time of the year.