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Good Smile Company, Inc. (President Gentaro Iwasa) held the “Good Smile Fest” at Bellesalle Akihabara in Chiyoda, Tokyo, on June 6 and 7. This is an event where Good Smile Company, its group companies, and partner companies introduce new products to general consumers. From this time, they changed the name (previously Smile Fest). A characteristic throughout the whole is the setting of products for beginners and enthusiasts. It was prepared for both figures and plastic model kits.
The beginner-friendly figure was the approximately 2.5-heads-tall ‘Nendoroid’. The appearance is similar to the stuffed toys whose global demand increased last year, and the price is in the range of a few thousand yen, making it accessible for beginners. Its lineup configuration is also extensive. As new products, they’re getting ready to release mainly Hatsune Miku, along with The Apothecary Diaries, Jujutsu Kaisen, Blue Archive, Chiikawa, Kirby, and more. At the venue, they set up explanatory boards on features that allow you to change facial parts or move arms and legs to alter expressions, as well as hands-on experience corners, so that visitors could easily visualize how to play. Through these, they have demonstrated that they are figures that are enjoyable to look at, touch, and arrange.
Figures aimed at enthusiasts are characterized by intricate designs and highly distinctive painting. The new product will actively feature ‘Blue Archive‘. Blue Archive is a recent hit product. Additionally, they will select and deploy beautiful girls from Final Fantasy X, Uma Musume, Hololive Production, and other sources. Meanwhile, Max Factory, a group company, commercializes the beautiful girls appearing in Bunny Garden, The Goddess of Victory: NIKKE, Dolls’ Frontline 2: Exilium, and other titles under the figma brand. Furthermore, they are also working on creating figurines of the warrior characters featured in “Doom The Dark Ages,” which ranked among the top in last year’s Steam new PC game rankings. These central price ranges are approximately in the 20,000 yen range. High-priced figures focus their lineup on characters from games and internet-related, aiming to capture the otaku demographic on a global scale.
Plastic model kits are being commercialize mainly featuring robots that appeared in anime and beautiful girls. This time, the robot focused on commercializing the Combined robot. They’re picking characters that appear in Getter Robo G (aired in 1975), Space Runaway Ideon (aired in 1980), The Brave of Legend Da-Garn (aired in 1992), and Brave Police J-Decker (aired in 1994). Additionally,They are planning to releace beautiful girls like Rei Ayanami and Asuka Langley Shikinami from Evangelion, as well as Yuuki Yuna from the Yuusha series. With these, they aim to attract plastic model kits enthusiasts in their 30s to 50s, who are currently the main group of buyers.This time, they also prepared a new product for beginners of plastic model kits. This subject is the combined robot anime ‘Beast King God of War Dandevine,’ which is scheduled to start airing this October. Good Smile Company is also involved in the production of the anime, and partners include Takara Tomy, Aniplex, and Toei. They’ll release those character goods to coincide with the start of the TV broadcast. One example is the plastic model kits “Dandevine (Action Model)” from the MODEROID brand. The price has been kept low at 5,500 yen including tax in order to attract new buyers. Starting this year, Good Smile Company will allocate funds obtained from purchases by enthusiasts toward the development of new customer segments and will engage in activities to nurture the next generation.
