Seeing things differently: Japanese sampuru

On Saturday, the four of us, plus my mother, went to a Japanese supermarket / food court. What interested me even more than the food is the display of sampuru or plastic food replicas. If you know more than what Wikipedia can tell us, please be in touch...

The real food is presented to replicate the look of the replicas displayed here.

Hmm, is is that the replicas resemble the food - or that the food resembles the replicas? Do the replicas serve as a template for presenting the food?

Evidence of the invisible hand, here spooning jelly?

I especially admired the replica ice!

Update: I found a YouTube channel called Fake Food Japan, which includes videos that I not yet viewed, about the process of making sampuru.