Thanks for bringing this up, Dave, as it is something I have wondered about also. Similar to the Tomy/Marusan wind-up I just shared in the YJA thread, there seem to be some of these crossovers or collaborations between the companies. I would love to hear the story if ever one of the gurus (Kaminaga-san maybe?) could fill us in on these relationships. I wonder if it was for creative purposes (e.g. contracting out the sculpting some of the more specialised toys) or for manufacture (e.g. vinyl production facilities focused on some of the smaller or more specialised pieces, while the Bullmark facilities were so filled up with demand for the standard range), or even some combination of the two. I am guessing that it is something along the lines of what Mark has proposed, that Bullmark was granted the license to produce all the toys for these properties, but probably owing to the workload they had, they sought out some smaller groups [I am sure with permission from the license holder] to help support them design/create and fulfill the orders while the 'central' company focused on the main licenses.
Agreed, I think the logical explanation is some kind of over demand at Bullmark meaning the best way forward was to subcontract to Takatoku with Bullmark already holding the license to produce the toy line. Whatever happened it would be nice to find out the facts one day. On another slightly related note, these 'Mini Kaiju Series' bagged tower sets, does anyone know their history, were they made to be sold somewhere specifically? I ask mainly because I've seen a few different examples, Akumaizer, Rockbat, I think Denjin Zaborger but also an Ultraman Ace set. The Ace set had all the Mini Bullmarks in different colours to the normal issues, I was wondering if they were made for some special event or shop maybe? I will try find a picture of them, I think they were in the Yuji Nishimura book.
This is the set I was referring to, seems strange to change the colours of all four minis just for this set unless it was for a specific reason?
I doubt it was any sort or store or fest exclusive. They are way too common and inexpensive for that. My guess is it was just a way to bundle them and sell more toys.
