Just got back from my visit to Japan after spending some crazy memorable time with Yudetamago and the many tentacles of their Kinnikuman franchise. Had incredible visits with peeps and toy designers from Studio Egg, CCP, and BamBam88/Five Star Toys.

Check out my jaunt to the CCP toy factory in Gotanno over at my blog, Nama Niku:

http://nama-niku.blogspot.com/2011/11/i ... ctory.html

More to come ~ enjoy

Nice entrance, man. Thanks for the report.

Thanks for this.

Very cool.

Fantastic pics!

I love CCP so it's great to see where the magic happens.

Thanks guys!

Wish I had more pics to share, but thought it was best to not post pics of unannounced sculpts and nitty gritty production methods all over the web. Would love to get an invite back next time I'm in Tokyo.

Found out they do all their sculpting in house, and got to see their killer character creation reference library. Lots of rare artwork, books and photos sent by movie studios and comic publishers.

They also talked about the approval process for their designs, and the perks and difficulties of working with the various properties. Apparently is is a lot harder to get a designs approved by franchises where the creator is dead, as opposed to ones where the creators are still living. I always thought it would be the other way around.

They had some crazy cool vintage Ultraman and Hedora posters on the wall that I almost walked off with... j/k

The employes were really relaxed, but super focused. No assembly line mentality or uniforms. Most of the peeps working seem like honest fans of the franchises they were working on.

Endo-san is a former pro kickboxer and had training equipment set up in various areas of the factory. His son is almost ready to go pro, and everyone lets off steam in the factory now and then with punching bags...

CCP is also looking into ways to make their figures more readily available for overseas fans. The main issue with direct foreign sales they said is the complexity surrounding cross border character licensing. Hopefully we will see some direct sales with their Kinnikuman stuff on eBay sometime in the near future.

Such fantastic glimpse into yet another toy power house! Much thanks for doing it! Love that one-eyed red Hedora (I think) in one of the pics!

Wonder if youll get a chance to get more out of Endo-san about how he sees the cross cultural impact of Japanese artists. He looks like such a no nonsense kinda guy.

Also, I wonder which one of those drawing, sculpting and painting artists working the lines has their own toy design. Maybe one of them will bust out as the next Anraku or Nag..

hot damn.. I love my chunky black & white CCP Hedo monsters....!!! great coverage Nama Niku....!!!

welcome aboard...!!!

yeah definitely some cool stuff. pretty amazing the hand craftsmanship going into these guys.

Wow. Very cool inside look. Thanks for posting.

I asked Endo-san how CCP was started, and thought the answer was pretty cool. Apparently he was an avid collector back in the day and got tired of seeing expensive, low quality toys dominating the market for the stuff he was into. This inspired him to start his own company, and to start making the kind of figures he wanted to collect.

The rest is history.

Does this apply to all of their toys, or specifically their Kinnikuman offerings? I'm now curious about whether Mattel still controls the license and could theoretically block them from selling stuff here (even if it's not solicited as "M.U.S.C.L.E." product).

My understanding was that they were specifically talking about properties like Ultraman and Godzilla. Franchises that have active licensed merchandise in the US.

The Kinnikuman franchise does not have any active merchandising in the US since Ultimate Muscle officially ended in July. Not sure what the current licensing situation is with Ultimate Muscle/Kinnikuman or how it all actually works.

I do know however that the licensing, trademarks and copyrights that Mattel held with the M.U.S.C.L.E. are no longer active.

Thanks! Its always good to get an inside look at toy production.

Endo-san appeared on the Japanese podcast "Studio Koenji" last night to chat about CCP.

The CCP part starts 17:28 into the program ~ You can watch it here:

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/18985957

Covers recent Kinnikuman, Ultraman figures and upcoming Bruce Lee + more.


Warsman with LED light up eyes + magnetic switch-out faceplates, hands, and arms. Killer design!

P.S.

Really digging my complete CCP x Kinnikuman Dream Tag Arc set

Endo-san of CCP was on another episode of Studio Koenji last night showing off new Gamera, Ultraman and Kinnikuman figures. The audio for this portion was pretty bad, but the video is worth watching.

The CCP portion starts 35:30 mins in. You can watch it here:

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/19996363

CCP x Kinnikuman Kinsofu Set
Four Different Tee + Vinyl Figure comobs now up for pre-order
Details: http://nama-niku.blogspot.com/2012/06/c ... mania.html