A Day in Tokyo 6
Currently working with Good Smile Company on several projects of which I can only talk about a few of them for now.
One of the projects is Figma Mirai and currently have tentatively scheduled a Spring 2010 release. We will display her at the AFA09 in Singapore later this month.
Mirai loves taking photos so we decided that it only makes sense to bundle her with a digital SLR and you will see what it and the other Mirai Figma face part looks like at the AFA.
Another project I can mention is the "Tokyo Figure Show" in Singapore. I read from many Singaporean readers that they would love to have something similar in their neck of the woods so I'm bringing GSC and TFS with me to SG - see it only at the AFA 09.
First photo is together with Ayako-san and Nia at the GSC main office. Nia belongs to Asanon but she was out for the day. Ayako-san used to work at Mamachapp Toy and was the designer of Moco-chan.
First time I handled Nia and am now looking for adoption papers to sign ^^;
Zooming back in time to the morning at 09:45. Meeting up with Chris at Matsudo station. Lovely sunny day.
At the main offices of GSC. Silver Figma Miku.
GSC has been doing rather well and they have increased headcount by quite a few for 2009. So much that they now have separate offices in Matsudo to accommodate.
Mmmmm. Tamaki Kousaka. Will nab that poster before I leave ^^;
Meetings throughout the day are with different departments and project managers.
Here we have Big Boss Aki discussing your figure requests ^^;
Sergent Akiyama is looking after the Tokyo Figure Show in Singapore and we also have the project manager for Black Rock Shooter and the web team.
Today we worked at GSC's other offices where Phat is also located.
I think I can also mention without being killed that we are working on Wonder Festival, mobile, iphone and Mirai Gaia related stuff.
Then its time to head out to lunch. Pass by an estate agent. The houses here are cheap! This 2 floor house costs 20,800,000 yen - a third of what our house cost. But then again the location is not exactly central.
The GSC offices are located in Matsudo which is in Chiba where Narita airport is.
We usually eat at the Max Factory run Indian restaurant Indotei but it was packed all day so we went for some other food instead.
This ramen place always has a queue outside.
We go for some traditional grub instead. I have Tamago Toji Soba which is kinda like lightly beaten egg which rests on top of some Soba.
The Soba portion was kinda small so we stop off at convenience store to fill up with some snacks.
Back at the offices looking at the figures while munching on some melon pan.
All the display cases were moved from headquarters to the new offices.
Billy the dolphin scratcher.
Love this pose of Reika. Will do the same for one of my daughters.
How many Drossel?
Chris at the controls. Chris joined us recently as a front end developer and turned out to know pretty much everything including hardcore backend stuff.
The GSC display cases are always so much fun to look at. We will have something similar when we move into bigger offices. These other GSC offices have florescent lighting and I cant figure out how to get decent colors with the Lumix LX3. There is no florescent light white balance setting unlike my other cameras.
Any Lumix LX3 users have a clue how to get decent shots in florescent light?
A look at the figure photography studio just after a photo session of......Muhehehe. Muhahaha.
White boards are used to adjust the lighting on the subject. The photographer spends a few hours shooting with somebody from GSC supervising.
Don't take photos of figures as much as before but end up spending a few hours when I do.
Lighting adapters, tripod, blowers and wot not. The photographer is a freelancer for GSC and just happens to live just around the corner from where I live.
I've been trying my best to convert folks at GSC to use Macs and so far Big Boss Aki, Sergeant Akiyama and a few others are now using Macs at work.
The photographer uses a MacBook Pro for his photo editing. He installed the software that came with his SLR and checks each shot on the MBP. I done this many moons ago but couldn't be bothered after a while ^^;
Huge lighting at the top. I should bring my daughters next time and use this space for a while ^^;
The studio has a load of paper rolls for the photo backdrops.
Meetings nearly done for the day. Back at the main offices to steal a bite of Indian food left by the boss of Indotei.
Office layout has shifted around quite a bit. The main office has been made into a store room and the old store room is now an open meeting space.
This is the current figure production area. You can see what it looked like over a year ago in the video below.
If any positions open at GSC for folks to look after the growing overseas market then you will see the job requirements at dannychoo.com first so keep em peeled if you are interested.
Got the go ahead to meet Nia while Asanon was out n about.
I heard from many of you who have been converted into a Dollfie owner through my photos but seeing one in person is a completely different experience.
When I first saw Nia in the official photos by Volks I thought "hmmmm."
Then I saw photos at Figure.fm and thought "HMMMMMM!!!"
Then after today I thought "Where are the adoption papers to sign?"
Nia is a real cutie.
Nia spends a lot of time at the GSC offices these days...
The sales and web team sit here.
Just before I leave I thought I'd go through some of the desks to see if I could find even more exclusive goodies. Today Chris and I got to see something pretty stunning indeed. It was unpainted and needed a huge table to assemble. Your wallet is going to sustain huge damages when it goes up for pre-order. But that wont be for another 8 months or so ^^;
Thought I'd slip some goodies under the jacket too.
Its about 18:30. Leaving the offices. the GSC folks love cycling and their entrance is filled with bicycles. I notice that this bike has the seat higher than the handle bars. Is that more comfortable?
Changing trains at Otemachi.
Back at my local shotengai. Going to grab some healthy din dins for a change.
Nothing more healthy than a Mc Dees. That reminds me of a conversation I had with Chris the other day about a film called Super Size Me where some bloke constantly ate Mc Dees.
As a result, the then-32-year-old Spurlock gained 24½ lbs. (1¾ stone, 11.1 kg), a 13% body mass increase, a cholesterol level of 230, and experienced mood swings, sexual dysfunction, and liver damage. It took Spurlock fourteen months to lose the weight gained from his experiment. (wikipedia)
I personally have not seen the movie so may be jumping the gun when I say this but too wont much of the same thing have an affect on the body? Just imagine eating only grapes for 30 days?
Its not as if Mc Dees force people to eat Big Macs. People eat what they want.
Back at the office with some stuff used to stick up huge posters...
And the Tamaki poster is soooo nice that its already up ^^; We dont get much light through the window on the first floor anyway so having the poster there doesnt really block out the light during the day.
More details on the figure in the Tamaki Kousaka post.
Truly gorgeous figure. Will try to bring with me to Singapore for the TFS in SG. If there are any other decoration masters that you would like to see in Singapore then let us know.
Poster space nearly all used up. Dont really want to stick any on the ceiling like I did many moons ago ^^;
World Is Mine Miku poster! I think we are printing some stuff to hand out at the AFA. Probably wont have a lot to give out so shall we make it exclusive for DC readers ? ^^;
Sticking some other related GSC stuff for you below.
http://www.dannychoo.com/post/en/1401/GSC+Office+Tour.html
http://www.dannychoo.com/post/en/1564/A+Day+at+Good+Smile.html
http://www.dannychoo.com/post/en/1510/Good+Smile+Warehouse.html
http://www.dannychoo.com/post/en/1565/Good+Smile+Company.html
http://www.dannychoo.com/post/en/1408/Japanese+Office+Tour+GSC.html
http://www.dannychoo.com/post/en/1404/Max+Factory+Office+Tour.html
http://www.dannychoo.com/post/en/1400/Karting+in+Tokyo.html
Also wondering if any of you spotted the hidden message in this article ^^;
