Hobby Industry Inside Vol. 19: MAX Watanabe talks about "30 years of Max Factory" and "What I really wanted to create

Max Factory Co., Ltd. is a well-established hobby company that produces the "figma" series of complete painted figures with movable joints, as well as the "PLAMAX" series of plastic model kits of robots from "Pacific Rim" and 1/20 scale bishojo characters. series of plastic model kits of "Pacific Rim" robots and 1/20 scale beautiful girl characters.
This year, Max Factory celebrates its 30th anniversary. We asked Mr. MAX Watanabe, the president of Max Factory, to talk briefly about the company's founding 30 years ago and "what has been the ideal progress" over the past 30 years.

Become a hobby manufacturer!" ......What supported his decision

─ Didn't you make your debut as a model writer with "How to build GUNDAM 2" (1982), a separate volume of the monthly Hobby Japan magazine?

Watanabe: In the sense that my work was published in a commercial magazine, that is correct. It was a 1/60 Gouf, a modified 1/60 Zaku. Masahiro Oda (a former professional modeler at Streambase) saw this Gouf and asked me, "Watanabe-kun, why don't you give it a try? He asked me, "Watanabe-kun, would you like to do it? The first model I was commissioned to make was the "Zaku with 1/60 Mine Dispersal Pod.

─ ─ Nowadays, it is commonplace for Gunpla to have the skirt of Zaku's waist to be movable, but your Zaku with mine dispersal pod was the first one, wasn't it?

Watanabe: I must have been the first, although it was a childish idea: "If the skirt doesn't move, let's attach hinges to it and make it move. I heard that this movable system was later used for the Scopedog in "Armored Trooper Votoms" (......).
When I became a writer, Gundam was the flower of the industry, and I was in charge of a successful stream-based business. I was energetically working on something other than Gundam, "The Super Dimension Fortress Macross. After that was "VOTOMS. Anyway, I wanted to be in the book, and I was desperate for stories, so I was always in the editorial department. I was aware that I wanted to slowly rise in the ranks as a model writer.


───So, in the beginning, was your goal to be published in model magazines?

Watanabe: I was admiring Masahiro Oda, who was outstanding in both painting and craftsmanship. However, I knew that I would not be able to make a living even if I continued as a model writer. I wondered how I could make a living in the hobby industry while continuing as a writer, and then the option of becoming a model maker came up. It was right around the time when garage kits were becoming popular. I chose the path of making the prototypes myself, being the president of the company, and also being a writer.

─ ─ In April 1987, I established Max Factory Ltd. You incorporated the company five years after your debut as a model writer.

Watanabe: During those five years, I gathered a group of friends and called ourselves Max Factory, and we were still active, but after five years, a major publisher advised me to form a company because it would become more difficult to sell copyrights to individuals in the future, and that it would be easier to obtain copyrights if we became a corporation. I made up my mind to form a company.

─ ─ At that time, if you wanted to form a limited liability company, you needed about 3 million yen.

Watanabe That was a lot of work (laughs). (Laughs.) I had to pay a little myself, but I also had to borrow money from other people.


─ So you wanted to become a manufacturer even if you had to borrow money?

Watanabe Perhaps I was more interested in "staying in the hobby industry" than in "becoming a manufacturer.