Holiday Recommendation: Harumika by Bandai

Last month I wrote about the Time to Play Holiday Showcase I attended in New York City and promised to share the great toys that I had a chance to see and test. One of my favorites is Harumika by Bandai.

My daughter has always loved dress-up, creating new outfits for her dolls with blankets, playing with scraps of fabric. When I returned from my trip to New York, I knew that Harumika was the perfect gift to buy my way back into the house. 😉

Harumika is a simple concept that has led to hours of fun. You begin with a plastic form and scraps of fabric. Children can wrap the fabric around the form, tucking it in to the back of the form using a small tool. One of the best aspects of this product is how intuitive it is for children to use. My daughter needed almost no instruction, and immediately created this outfit:

Emma had only been playing with her Harumika set for a short while when she ran to her desk and came back with a pad of paper, markers, and a scissors. Her imagination was jump started by this new toy and she began to “design” new outfits.

I was shocked by what her little five year old hands could create. This “evening gown” is my personal favorite.

Although my daughter and I have not yet begun to use this feature of Harumika, there is also an online component to the product. Owners can take pictures of their creations and open online “stores.” I am sure that we will eventually tap into this extra feature, but right now my daughter is completely content with the toy before her. Her stock pile of fabric has grown immensely, thanks to my mother’s sewing cabinet, and other Harumika sets are near the top of her Christmas wish list.

Harumika starter sets retail for $10.99 and are recommended for kids 6 years and up. By the way….they’re fun for mom, too. 😉

This product is for you if…your child is creative and loves to craft, manipulate fabrics and textures, think outside of the box.

This product is not for you if…your child is not yet ready to sit and concentrate on a task, use their fine motor skills, work on their own.