Hobby Industry Inside vol.6: Sticking to the fun of plastic modeling as a commercial product!　What is the appeal of PLAMAX proposed by Max Factory?

Max Factory, known for its figma and other bishojo figures, has developed its own plastic model brand, "PLAMAX" series.

The lineup has expanded to include the 1/72 scale "Fang of the Sun Dougram," the "Destroyer x Ship Girl Shimakaze," which combines a ship from the "Ship This" series with a figure in one package, the "Military Qtys" series of beautiful women in military uniform drawn by Shunya Yamashita, and the "1/35 Russia Active Tank Crew Set," to name just a few. The underlying concept of the series is to create plastic models that are not only beautiful, but also have a strong sense of style and design.

What is the underlying reason for this commitment to plastic models?　We asked President Makoto Watanabe, Hiroki Takahisa of the President's Office, and Kei Shimizu of the Planning Department.

Technology that changes the size of parts by several percent

─ ─ In the 80s and 90s, Max Factory produced a number of soft vinyl kits (soft vinyl kits) such as "Galian the Armored World: The Iron Crest" and "Gaiver". Do you feel that that easy-to-assemble atmosphere has been carried over to PLAMAX?

Watanabe: Since the users have gone to the trouble of buying the kits, we want them to complete them. ...... First of all, we have that strong feeling. The second is that we want to supply kits with stable quality. Compared to the early 80's, resin cast kits have come a long way, but I feel that in the beginning, even if a kit had bubbles and bobbles, it was still considered beautiful under the term "garage kit spirit. Even though the nose was bubbled and chipped, they would push it through with amateurism, saying, "But if people like it, they will buy it even for 30,000 yen. That is not the attitude of a business person. I have always had a strong orientation toward manufacturers, and I have always valued a sense of value, saying, "For this size, the price should be about this much. If we work hard, a 30,000 yen kit can be reduced to 6,000 yen - the result of our efforts was the soft vinyl kit. If you have a mold, you can keep the quality constant and it doesn't cost that much. In other words, in the past, we couldn't produce plastic models, so we produced soft vinyl kits instead.

─ ─ Each of the PLAMAX models that are out now have a low threshold.

Watanabe: In any case, we want users to get hands-on experience. Our concept is to push the user's back by saying things like, "It's multicolor molded, so you don't have to paint it, it's color-coded," or "If it's hard to paint the eyes, there are decals included, so you don't have to worry about it.

─ ─ Why did you start with the 1/72 scale kit of "Fang of the Sun Douglas"?

Watanabe: About 30 years ago, when Takara was developing the "Dougram" series, I was working part-time at Takara. I worked there because I wanted to make samples of the "Dougram" plastic models. That's how strongly I felt about Douglas.

Shimizu: Takara's old kits sold very well, so the item has a strong original experience as a model. Despite its popularity, the "Dougram" has not been made into a kit since Takara's plastic models. This time, since the kit is a snap-on model that does not require any glue, and since we have even color-coded it, we want to make sure that even the frame of the canopy (windshield) is painted exactly the same as the original kit. Our expertise in the production of finished bishojo figures was a big help in this area.

─ Was the snap-on design a prerequisite?

Shimizu: Yes, we knew that we would be using Gundam plastic models (Bandai's "Gundam" series) for comparison. I took over the development of "Dougram" right after I joined Max Factory, and when I saw the test-molded parts, I thought, "The molds are not well sculpted, so the parts probably don't fit.

──If the molds were well made, it would seem that a solid product would be made, wouldn't it?

Shimizu: However, even if the mold is well made, the shape of the part will change depending on the molding conditions. Simply put, if you apply a lot of pressure, the part will bulge out a little. If the pressure is reduced, the part shrinks a little. At first, I didn't understand this, so I couldn't understand why the parts didn't fit this week when they fit perfectly last week. I was not convinced. Therefore, if we can make adjustments and say, "For this kit, we will mold under these conditions," we can stabilize the molding process. If we can't decide on those conditions, we end up with different quality products each time we mold.

Watanabe: Not only pressure, but also temperature and humidity can make a difference.

Takaku: There is a pipe that runs through the mold and hot water is passed through it to adjust the cooling time of the part. Then we can change the size of the part by a few percent.