Max Factory Office Tour

Today we look at the Max Factory offices that I visited with Mikatan from Good Smile.

The Max offices were more dedicated to figure creation hence the lack of administrative staff. They work very closely with Good Smile and is a great example of how sharing and working together can bring about good things.

The Max offices had sculptors just about everywhere - loads of them.

Yes - cute sweet lady sculptors do exist too. Can you guess what shes working on?

Just thought I'd tease by showing bits of this gorgeous figure ^^;

Theres a strong smell of that yellow putty stuff that they use to sculpt the figures.

At the desk of a sculptor frantically working to finish something by the night.

My jaw dropped to hear that this was going to probably be binned. When sculptors work with the yellow putty stuff, they get bits left over which they usually wipe on the edge of the table or behind their ears. This sculptor has the habit of using the leftovers to sculpt cutie figures. Can anybody name this character?

An example of that putty.

A room at the back of the building holds more sculptors. More teasing as I Mirai mark the nekkid body in the middle of the table - me wants that nao!

Tools for drilling and cutting.

When the sculptors finish their work, the figure has to be duplicated a few times. One is the master copy and the other copies get sent to China.

The figure is cut up into pieces and then placed in these plastic containers. some molding liquid is poured into the container.

The containers are then placed into these machines which get rid of all the air bubbles in the liquid. The container is taken out of these machines and left to dry. The end result is a mold for that figure part.

The first thing I ask is "what happens when you put a cat in there?"
Answer is "A mess."

Hmmm, better cover that up or me gets in troubles - too early to show that one ^^;;;;

The painting room. The grooves in the wall have a constant flow of air sucking out the paint - I would just love a place like this to make Gundams.

And a ton of airbrushes. Wasn't surprised to see that the staff use the facilities to make their own Gunpla in their spare time.

"Kao wa Inochi" is a term to express how important the face of a figure is - sales of a figure shift tremendously based on how the face ends up looking. These are the guys who paint those faces. The room is completely silent apart from the hum of the air flowing through that grooved wall.

For me, its all about the face too and you may find it hard to believe but the eyes (the soft n bouncy variety) are not a deciding factor. Take a lookie at my Melissa for example - not much to hold on to but has an incredibly sweet face and gorgeous v-zone. If the figure has a face that I like, I usually get it - paid or as SAFS.

What do you consider to be the most important thing when deciding to buy a figure?

Figma Fate freshly painted. I cant remember if Im supposed to show this or not but hey ^^;

The Max bunch know how to have fun. If its not karting its having internal only competitions to see who can make the most interesting item.

Kyon gets it up the bottom.

A cute blob thing as part of the competition. Also not for sale.

Was greeted with a case of Max goodies on the way in.

More Max goodies.

And a lookie at Figma Rin.

I thought the Fraulein one looked good but this just blows Fraulein out of the water.

The pics you see is the master copy that was sculpted. This will be replicated and sent off to the respective departments for production.

And the Figma Haruhi which I got to play with a lot last weekend.

Too cute for words. I think I'm going to need a few - one for the car, one for the office and one to hang off my belt or left earlobe.

Kawaii ne.

Figma Lelouch out next.

Cant wait for the Geass girls to be Figmatized.