Anon12/01/25, 15:32No.23648875
"This is an original design, so it's not a bootleg copy."
"It's better made than Bandai's."To those who praise Chinese kits with such claims and mock fans trying to protect intellectual property as "Bandai cultists."I feel a burning rage at that "self-serving line-drawing."
Have you ever faced the reality of how much the model industry is being eroded behind your glee over "best cost-performance ever"?What we're up against isn't just some "knockoff" level issue.Many emerging Chinese manufacturers hide their representatives' faces and names for a reason. It's because most of them are directly connected to criminal groups that once raked in huge profits from "complete bootlegs (dead copies)."
Their business model is utterly malicious.1. First, they illegally copy and sell popular Japanese kits.
2. They amass enormous "dirty profits" and "mold technology" from that.
3. With that money, they develop "original-style kits" that barely skirt imitating Gundam's designs.
4. They "clean up" and enter the legitimate market claiming, "This is original."In other words, that "insanely detailed original kit" you praise is nothing more than the product of "stolen goods laundering"—made with money and technology stolen from Japanese rights holders.Take a look at the products from Chinese manufacturers advertising "This is original~."
It might be legally safe. But whose time and effort went into creating that silhouette, that color scheme?
They're just freeloading off the cultural asset that Japanese companies built over decades: the idea that "giant robots = Gundam."
Without taking on the risks or costs of creating a new robot culture from scratch, they're just slurping up the sweetest part: "Make it Gundam-like and it'll sell." If this isn't "theft," then what is?