Chairoikoguma’s 5th Anniversary

Can you believe it’s 5 years since Chairoikoguma (Kogumachan to his friends) became part of the Rilakkuma gang? Here’s a look at the latest collection and some more cute things to buy.

Kogumachan has started to get his own collections over the last couple of years and the 5th anniversary theme introduces some new forest friends! There’s a fox, squirrel, bird and bee, all with the same fluffy chest.

The products are all very cute too! As well as the usual little plushies and stationery, there’s a big plush shoulder bag, laptop case, phone stand and a keyring that seems to have furry details. They’ll be available to order at San-X (Japan – requires forwarding service) in early March and should be available for pre-order at AmiAmi (Japan) soon. You can always download the free wallpapers while you wait.

If you don’t know Chairoikoguma’s story, Korilakkuma met him in the honey forest. While Rilakkuma & Korilakkuma are more like sentient teddy bears, Kogumachan is a real bear cub with sharp teeth, who smells like honey and often walks on all fours. ShopKawaii (USA) still has some of this first collection in stock.

Kogumachan is usually paired with Korilakkuma since they’re the babies of the group and like to play together. The ice cream theme is one of my favourites and you can find lots of cute stationery at Kawaii Panda (EU).

There’s a sad lack of DIYs out there but Chairoikoguma does appear in both official colouring books, which you can pick up from Amazon Japan, and there’s a new comic book to pre-order.

Instagram followers will be familiar with our Rilakkuma & Kogumachan dress-up plush who now have a bigger wardrobe of cute clothes than I do. The full range of plushies, outfits and accessories is only really available at San-X but VeryGoods (Japan) and Cuteness (EU) have enough to get you started.

Are you a fan of Chairoikoguma? I really hope he’ll turn up in the next Netflix series.