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Facsimile Editions Dominate Japanese Toy Industry Date: 9/23/2005 |
| The All Japan Plamodel Radiocon Show 2005 occuring at Tokyo BigSight this weekend rounds out the three largest venues of the year in which Japanese toy companies exhibit their latest creations. Lately there has been a trend of "facsimile edition" toys being introduced to the market. The term isn't synomynous with the flood of fake toys usually originating in Asia, but replicas based on originals produced by the same companies who also made the originals. These facsimiles just happen to be based on many extremely rare originals which were best sellers in the distant past. For example, Bandai has marketed it's "Superalloy clinkety-clank Doraemon" originally sold in 1979 and a Galaxy Express 999 train kit sold over 20 years ago. Takara has capitalized on the upcoming rerelease of the robot adventure anime, Wataru, by releasing a series of plastic models based on the 1988 original spec editions. Tamiya has marketed RC buggies based on 1984 era originals. A particular one that originally sold 30,000 Yen has been reprinted as a cheap edition now listing at 20,000 Yen. It's best selling 1986 "Mini 4WD" is being rereleased in a special "Mini 4WD memorial box". The target of these toys are those now in their 20's who happened to know of the originals as kids even if they weren't able to own them at that time. |
| Source: Anime News Service |
