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| Kaiyodo's founder, Miyawaki Osamu |
In order to understand how Azuma's theory applies (or fails to apply) to Kaiyodo, it is important to review the company's history, which can be roughly grouped into three phases.
The first phase, lasting from
1964 to 1980, was characterized by the sale of plastic model kits known as puramokei and slot racing cars. The
second phase, lasting from 1980 to 2006, was characterized by the manufacture
and sale of garage kit models and small toys packaged with food items. The
third phase, beginning in 2006 and continuing to the present, saw the release
of the Revoltech toy line, designed by Kaiyodo and manufactured in China.
In his memoir, Tsukurumono wayozora ni kirameku hoshi no sū hodo mugen ni aru (Things to Make Are as
Infinite as the Stars in the Night Sky) company founder Miyawaki Osamu
describes initially feeling a great antipathy to the "long-haired and
noisy" otaku garage kit
enthusiasts who frequented Kaiyodo. However, once we take into account the
broader social changes described by Azuma, the lives of Miyawaki Osamu and
Shūichi, and technological changes in the hobby industry, Azuma's periodization
takes on a more relevant shape
In April of 1964, Miyawaki Osamu
opened a small hobby shop named "Kaiyodo" in Moriguchi, Osaka. According
to Miyawaki Osamu's memoir, he knew he wanted to start a business, but was
conflicted between opening a hobby shop and an udon restaurant. Unable to decide, he balanced a wooden sword on
its point and decided that if it fell to the right, he would open an udon restaurant and if it fell to the
left, he would open a hobby shop. As you might guess, the wooden sword fell to
the left and Kaiyodo was born.
Kaiyodo was a small shop,
starting out at approximately six yards square. But business was brisk, and the
sudden popularity of American slot cars in the winter of 1964 allowed Kaiyodo
to expand to thirty-two square yards within their first year of operation. This
expansion allowed Kaiyodo to construct a slot-car racing course in the store.
Although the slot car boom subsided soon after the expansion, Kaiyodo was already
well on its way to success.
Aside from slot cars, Kaiyodo
mainly sold plastic model kits. These kits were mostly of famous ships,
airplanes, and so on, and were a hit with both children and adult enthusiasts.
But Miyawaki Osamu was not content to simply sell toys. From the very
beginning, he had a passion for social issues and was determined that his voice
be heard. In 1965, he self-published the first of many Kaiyodo magazines, Umi no awa, attempting to explain his
vision of plastic models as a tool for social change
Miyawaki Osamu saw plastic
models as a means of developing children's imaginations and personalities. In
contrast to the "education mamas" who saw grueling study as the means
of securing happiness, Miyawaki Osamu saw play as contributing to a child's
mental, physical, and social well-being. These would be common themes in
Miyawaki Osamu's future publications, such as 1966's Kaiyo or 1985's ARTPLA.
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| Artpla magazine on display |
Miyawaki Osamu did not contain
his social visions to essays and magazines. After the end of the slot racing
boom, Miyawaki Osamu dismantled the slot-car racing course and once again
expanded the store to allow construction of a "model pool." This
model pool was branded as a place for city children to escape from the summer
heat. Miyawaki Osamu brought in live eels so that children could experience
nature and learn how to catch them. Of course, it also encouraged children to
buy model ships and submarines since they now had a place to play with them. By
concerning himself with the well-being of his customers, Miyawaki Osamu was
able to build a business strategy which adapted to his customers' needs.
Once summer ended, the area was
converted to a play area for model tanks. Kaiyodo opened a "Plastic Model
Classroom" which taught children how to construct and display models (such
as model tanks) of their own. Miyawaki Osamu then rented out the local
Community Center and hosted what he described as "Japan's First Model Kit
Show." Students of the Plastic Model Classroom and other model enthusiasts
put up their constructions for display and judging as works of art.
Convinced of the artistic value
of model kits, Miyawaki Osamu began selling pre-constructed and pre-decorated
model kits to Osaka-area businesses. This "Art Plastic" became a pet
project of Miyawaki Osamu's, as he felt that these miniature versions of
historical vehicles helped transmit cultural information to people who might
never be able to see the real thing. In 1972, Kaiyodo collaborated with model
company Imai Kagaku in designing a Roman Trireme model kit.
Despite this foray into
production, Kaiyodo would not be directly responsible for an original toy again
until the 1980 garage kit boom. Technical limitations and the high cost of
production presented two great barriers. Even in the production of Art Plastic
pieces, Miyawaki Osamu had to create new tools such as the "Spray
Ace" and "Plier Ace" to get the effects he desired (88). Plastic
Models required the creation of metal forms, which cost several million yen to
produce. Such an upfront investment was simply beyond the means of a small
hobby shop such as Kaiyodo.
All of this changed with the
introduction of Vacuum Form and Resin Kit models, the two technical innovations
which led to the 1980 garage kit boom. While the technical details of the
Vacuum Form and Resin Mold processes are not relevant to the current
discussion, their low cost and high level of detail were nothing short of
revolutionary for hobby enthusiasts of the era. Hijiri Saki of the magazine Uchusen claimed that the term
"garage kit" had been coined in imitation of American "garage
bands," who created music suited to their own tastes in the comfort of
their own homes. Similarly, hobby enthusiasts were now able to create models of
their own choosing.
Miyawaki Shūichi, son of
Miyawaki Osamu, took the garage kit boom to heart. He specifically complained
about the inadequate level of detail in officially licensed merchandise for
Ultraman and Godzilla, noting that despite the fact that the Ultraman TV show
used miniatures, the toys lacked all but the vaguest similarity to the
miniatures. They were models of Ultraman "in shape only." With the
Vacuum Form and Resin Mold processes, however, Miyawaki Shūichi and his fellow
enthusiasts were able to spend all of their spare time creating models which
lived up to their exacting technical standards.
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| Kaiyodo garage kit of Tenchi Muyo's Ryoko from 1993 (from a private collector) |
Although garage kit models were
a boon to Kaiyodo, by 1997 the cost of producing metal molds had fallen enough
that Kaiyodo was able to start producing toys using this process. Inspired by
the success of Todd McFarlane's bloody and highly detailed Spawn toys, Kaiyodo
produced a series of Fist of the North Star figures that were well received
(133).
Around this same time, Kaiyodo
was approached by candy maker Furuta to produce a series of toys to be included
with chocolate eggs, for which they also used the metal mold process (149).
Although Kaiyodo's chocolate egg toys were models of real animals, they outsold
similar products with licensed characters (chocolate eggs with Hello Kitty and
Pokémon prizes). While technological innovations reduced the cost of producing
toys, Kaiyodo's technical proficiency and exacting attention to detail proved
to be a formidable factor in driving sales.
While market research showed that children far preferred licensed
characters to Kaiyodo's non-licensed animal figures, Kaiyodo's chocolate egg
prizes continued to out-sell those produced by larger companies such as Bandai
and Kinder Surprise well into the early 2000s (150-152). Kaiyodo and Furuta
parted ways in 2002, but producing the chocolate egg prizes gave Kaiyodo
invaluable experience in working with Chinese manufacturers to create metal
form figures (183). Kaiyodo was now able to pursue a variety of other products,
from figures based on classic anime such as Laputa
to mini-figures of Sony's robot dog Aibo.
This experience proved
invaluable in 2006, when Kaiyodo released its first Revoltech figure, No.001 Shin Getter 1, from the New Getter Robo anime series. This was quickly followed by other
giant robot figures from anime series such as Patlabor and Neon Genesis
Evangelion. As the number and variety of Revoltech figures increased, it
was broken down into sub-categories such as Fraulein Revoltech (young female
characters), Sci-Fi Revoltech, Yamaguchi Revoltech (sculpted by famed modeler
Yamaguchi Katsuhisa), and the Pixar Figure Collection.
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| The original Revoltech figure |
With the release of the
Revoltech line, Kaiyodo has reached its hereto highest levels of popularity and
commercial success. The line has drawn imitators such as Good Smile Company's
figma and Nendoroid series, but Revoltech figures remain ahead of the curve in
terms of detail and quality. By combining customizability with detailed
craftsmanship, Revoltech figures combine older otaku's desire for accurate reproduction with younger otaku's desire for "polymorphous
perversity." I will discuss the Revoltech line in more detail in Part
Three, but first let's look at how Kaiyodo stacks up against Azuma's theories.
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